By Elizabeth Godwin
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Tuesday embarked on a nationwide protest to press home its long-standing demands and register displeasure over what it described as the Federal Government’s continued neglect of public universities.
At the University of Jos, lecturers staged a demonstration before addressing journalists, where the branch chairperson, Dr. Joseph Molwus, rejected the newly introduced Tertiary Institution Staff Support Fund loan scheme.
Molwus described the initiative as a “poison chalice,” arguing that it would only worsen the financial hardship of university lecturers. According to him, what academics need is not loans, but the payment of their legitimate entitlements, including withheld salaries, earned allowances, and arrears.
“How can the government ask us to borrow money to pay for healthcare, school fees, and basic needs when it is still owing us?” he queried.
A similar scene played out at the University of Lagos, where lecturers carried placards demanding the Federal Government’s immediate payment of arrears, improved welfare, and the renegotiation of the 2009 FG-ASUU agreement.
At the University of Benin in Edo State and the Federal University Gusau in Zamfara State, ASUU members also joined the protest. In Gusau, the branch chairman, Abdulrahman Adamu, accused the government of abandoning Nigerian universities, saying that funding has been left almost entirely to the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) while lecturers continue to struggle under poor conditions.
Adamu warned that unless the Federal Government honours the 2009 agreement, the union may have no choice but to embark on another nationwide strike.
The latest protest underscores growing tensions between ASUU and the Federal Government, with lecturers insisting that unresolved issues threatening the future of Nigeria’s public universities must be addressed urgently.
