The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) across Lagos, Kano and Sokoto zones, as well as Taraba State, have threatened an indefinite strike unless the respective state governments implement the 2025 Federal Government-ASUU negotiated agreement or risk an indefinite strike, among others.

The unions are spoiling for a showdown over their governments’ failure to implement the agreements on the Earned Academic Allowances (EAA), the Consolidated Academic Tools Allowance (CATA), and the Professorial Allowance, among others.

According to the unions, the 2025 agreement was intended to address longstanding challenges confronting public universities, including the welfare of academic staff, improved funding for universities, revitalisation of the university system, better conditions of service, and the strengthening of public tertiary education.

The Lagos Zone of ASUU warned that Lagos State-owned universities may be forced to embark on industrial action if the state government fails to implement the 2025 Federal Government-ASUU Agreement.

The warning was issued during a press conference yesterday at the Lagos State University of Science and Technology (LASUSTECH), where the union accused the state government of failing to honour an agreement that has already been implemented in several federal and state universities across the country.

Addressing newsmen, the ASUU Lagos Zone Coordinator, Adesola Nassir, said the union had spent the last six months engaging with representatives of the state government without any meaningful outcome.

According to him, the prolonged delay has left members in Lagos State University (LASU), Lagos State University of Education (LASUED), and Lagos State University of Science and Technology (LASUSTECH) feeling neglected, undervalued and uncertain about the government’s commitment to their welfare.

In Taraba State, the Taraba State University (TSU) chapter of ASUU, in a statement on Wednesday signed by the chapter chairman, Dr Joshua Mbaver, accused the state government of failing to honour their agreements, describing the development as a neglect of academic staff and a threat to the future of the institution.

Taking this as a final warning, the Taraba ASUU stressed that lecturers had exhausted their patience following what it described as repeated unfulfilled promises by the state government.

In the same vein, the Sokoto Zone of ASUU has threatened an indefinite strike across five state-owned universities in Kebbi, Katsina and Zamfara states if their governments fail to immediately domesticate and implement the 2025 Federal Government-ASUU Agreement and pay years of outstanding lecturers’ entitlements.

The Zonal Coordinator, Prof. Abubakar Sabo, announced the warning to newsmen at the Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto. Sabo maintained that the indefinite strike would proceed as planned if the union’s demands were not met.

According to him, Kebbi is the worst state in terms of EAA for the academic staff of Abdullahi Fodiyo University of Science and Technology, Aliero (AFUSTA), which remained unpaid from 2014 to date. He listed the other institutions as Umaru Musa Yar’Adua University, Katsina (UMYUK) and Zamfara State University, Talata Mafara (ZAMSUT).

The union lamented that despite the public presentation of the agreement in January 2026 and notification to the various state governments and university management, the matter did not yield any positive response.

Also in the Kano Zone, the Coordinator, Comrade Abdulrazaq Ibrahim, told a news conference at the Bayero University, Kano, on Wednesday that despite the federal government’s full implementation of the key agreements, state governments in the zone have failed to execute a similar mandate.

The zone challenged the governments of Kano, Kaduna and Jigawa states to immediately domesticate the agreement, settle outstanding entitlements and address pending issues affecting lecturers in their respective institutions.

It also renewed its demand for the payment of the withheld three-and-a-half months’ salaries of members, insisting that lecturers continued with research activities during the strike period and resumed academic duties immediately after the industrial action was suspended.

In addition, ASUU decried delays in the remittance of outstanding third-party deductions and pension contributions to the National Pension Commission (PenCom), urging relevant authorities to clear the backlog and ensure regular remittances to Pension Fund Administrators.