Lack of political will bane of Nigeria's education - ASUU

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By Madu Obi

The Owerri Zone of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has described lack of political will by the government as the bane of education in the country.

Addressing reporters in Awka, the coordinator of the zone, Professor Dennis Aribodor, observed that government has not made the funding of education a priority, despite appeals by the stakeholders.

Owerri Zone of ASUU is made up of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University (COOU), Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), Imo State University (IMSU) Owerri, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike (MOUAU) and Nnamdi Azikiwe University (NAU) Awka,

According to him, ASUU has been apprehensive that the momentum of trust and goodwill generated with the unveiling of the 2025 FGN-ASUU agreement on 14th January, 2026 is fast waning and may soon be lost if government’s promise to fully implement the agreement is not kept.

Aribodor said: "Our apprehension is predicated on government’s failure to inaugurate the Implementation Monitoring Committee (IMC) expected to shield the agreement from bureaucratic bottlenecks and guide its strategic actualization.

"So far, the Federal Government agents have implemented it in a distorted and an uncoordinated manner, while very few state governments have embraced and implemented aspects of the agreement.

Administrators of Federal universities are picking and choosing what to pay among the Consolidated Academic Tool Allowances (CATA), Earned Academic Allowances (EAA) and Professorial Allowances (PA), whereas all of these should have been mainstreamed with the Consolidated Academic Staff Salary Scale (CONUASS) as monthly salary packages for the concerned academic staff."

He lamented that not withstanding that representatives of Governing Councils of state universities actively participated in the negotiations and signing of the agreement, some state governors, who are Visitors to state universities, have turned their back on the agreement.

While commending some state universities in the Northern and Western parts of the country for blazing the trail in implementing the agreement, the Owerri Zone ASUU coordinator said it is sad that no state university in the South East has implemented the agreement.

"ASUU Owerri Zone strongly condemns the partial or non-implementation of the salary component of the 2025 FGN-ASUU Agreement by Vice-Chancellors.

We call on Federal and State governments to respect the letters and spirit of the agreement for lasting industrial harmony on our campuses. ASUU Owerri Zone shall stop at nothing to ensure that all our members fully benefit from the modest gains of the eight-year long negotiation (2017-2025).

The gap created by non-inauguration of the IMC is equally evident in the distorted implementation of another key component of the December 2025 Agreement - the proposed National Research Council (NRC).

We call on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as Visitor to Federal Universities, and the State Governors, as Visitors to State universities, to immediately address the vexatious delay in the salary and other staff welfare issues including the pension of our colleagues to douse tensions that threaten the fragile industrial peace on our campuses", Aribodor said.

He also regretted a situation whereby the Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa, announced that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) had concluded plans to establish a National Research and Innovation Development Fund (NRIDF) without an input from ASUU.

"We are surprised that the Minister’s proposal talks of $500 million without reference to the FGN-ASUU agreement, which calls for at least 1% equivalent of GDP as source of funding research, innovation, and development.

While the union is not averse to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and other stakeholders making contributions to the development of the legal and policy frameworks of the Fund, ASUU Owerri Zone calls on the Federal Government to be properly guided by the well-thought-out frameworks and objectives set out for it in the new FGN-ASUU Agreement.

"We shall resist any attempt to hijack and derail the research and development agenda by external agents and their local collaborators. We are at a loss as to why the Minister preferred to denominate the funding in dollars", he said.