The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has raised concerns over the Federal Government’s failure to release funds needed to sustain the 40 per cent salary increase approved for university lecturers, warning that the development could trigger another nationwide strike.
The warning was issued by the Chairperson of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) chapter of ASUU, Prof. Florence Onyebuchi Orabueze, who said the institution had been financing the salary adjustment from its internally generated revenue (IGR).
Orabueze explained that while the Federal Government had reimbursed the university for part of the expenditure, outstanding payments remained unpaid.
She said UNN management had covered the salary increase from January through June, but the government only refunded the institution for January to May, leaving the June and July obligations unsettled.
According to her, the delay was not limited to UNN, as federal universities across the country were facing similar funding challenges in implementing the 40 per cent increment contained in the 2025 Federal Government-ASUU renegotiated agreement.
“The Vice Chancellor is not owing us anything; it is just that the Federal Government is not giving them the money for the payment. The problem is that the government is not releasing the money,” Orabueze said.
She disclosed that the issue was among the major concerns discussed at the recent meeting of ASUU’s National Executive Council (NEC) in Abuja, which was attended by representatives from nearly 100 universities.
Orabueze said the meeting revealed that no federal university had been able to pay the July component of the salary increase, stressing that UNN’s ability to cover the earlier months was largely due to the commitment of its management.
“When he paid from January to June, then they reimbursed him from January to May. But that of June, the Federal Government hasn’t paid. They haven’t also paid for July,” she said.
She warned that ASUU could resort to industrial action between the end of August and early September if the government failed to resolve the funding crisis.
“Part of the decision was that because the Federal Government is not serious about implementing the whole thing, that by the end of this month… between the end of this month and September, early September, ASUU, at the national level, will go on strike,” she said.
The UNN ASUU leader said the union had accepted the 40 per cent increase despite reservations because of its desire to prevent prolonged disruptions to the academic calendar.
She, however, expressed frustration that the government was struggling to fund an increment that lecturers had already agreed to accept.
“The Federal Government is not serious with us. They gave judges 300 per cent, but the lecturers who are even training everybody, including judges, even to pay us 40 per cent is becoming very hard for them,” she said.
Orabueze also recalled that ASUU had previously suspended industrial action partly because of concerns over the hardship prolonged strikes could impose on students, particularly those from low-income families.
She said the union expected the government to honour its commitments and ensure lecturers received the approved adjustment without further delays.
“We called off the strike in October last year because they said that it’s only poor Nigerians that are studying here. So we called off the strike because of poor Nigerians like us,” she said.
She added: “Why is it impossible that they don’t want to even pay those of us who agreed to stay in Nigeria to teach our children? Why is it that they are finding it difficult to pay us 40 per cent?”
