IN A POWERFUL declaration of solidarity, a left-oriented group, Socialist Labour, has unequivocally endorsed the ongoing warning strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), describing it as a critical battle for the soul of Nigeria’s public education system against a ruling class that has abandoned it to die.
The strike, which commenced on Monday, October 13, 2025, is not an isolated action but the latest in a series of a four-decade-long struggle waged by ASUU to save Nigeria’s public universities from total collapse.
Socialist Labour, in a fiery press statement, signed by Dr. James Uanhoro and Dr. Izielen Agbon, laid bare the stark class divide in Nigerian education noting that while the children of the rich attend expensive private institutions or foreign universities, the overwhelming majority – 94.5% of Nigeria’s 2.2 million university students – depend on a chronically underfunded public universities attended by the children of workers, farmers, and the poor.
“The Nigerian ruling class do not care for the education of Nigerian youths,” the statement declares, accusing successive military and civilian governments of systemic neglect and grand corruption that has left the education system “in shambles.”
The statement also highlights the damning fact that the Tinubu administration allocates a mere 5% of its budget to education, a far cry from the 26% recommended by the United Nations.
According to Socialist Labour, the core of the crisis is a staggering history of government duplicity and bad faith. It traces a “shameful” pattern of betrayal dating back to 1992, when ASUU first reached an agreement with the Federal Government to revitalise the education sector, an agreement it said was ignored.
Since then, the group stated, it has been a cruel cycle of renegotiation, committee formation, and abandonment symbolised by an outline of “dishonoured” agreements – the 1999 agreement; the 2001 agreement (following the Prof. Ayo Banjo committee), and the 2009 agreement (following the Deacon Gamaliel Onosode committee) deliberately sabotaged for sixteen years.
Socialist Labour accused the government of perfecting a tactics of delay with what it stated is a succession of committees convened with “little intention of seeing the agreement through.”
The statement read in part: “The FG has convened one committee after another with little intention of seeing the agreement through. In 2017, the Federal Government inaugurated the Wale Babalakin committee to review and renegotiate the 2009 agreement.
“In 2021, the FG discarded the report of the Babalakin committee and inaugurated a new committee headed by Munzali Jibrin. In 2022, the FG discarded the report of the Munzali Jibrin committee and inaugurated a new committee headed by Prof. Nimi Briggs.
“In October 2024, the FG, under President Tinubu, discarded the report of the Nimi Briggs committee and inaugurated a new committee headed by Prof. Yayale Ahmed. In December 2024, the Yayale Ahmed committee submitted a draft report to the FG.
“The FG refused to act on the Yayale Ahmed committee report. Rather, in August 2025, the Minister of Education inaugurated a new committee headed by the ministry’s Permanent Secretary to review it. In response, ASUU declared an industrial dispute in September, 2025, and gave a 14-Day Ultimatum to FG to be followed by a 2-week Warning Strike. In October 2025, the FG started the renegotiation process all over again by setting up Federal Government Tertiary Institutions Expanded Negotiation Committee (FGTIENC), to be headed by Yayale Ahmed.”
In a move described as the height of insincerity, the group said, the government received the Yayale Ahmed committee’s draft report in December 2024, refused to act on it, and in August 2025, the Minister of Education inaugurated yet another committee to review it. It was this final act of bad faith that forced ASUU to declare an industrial dispute and embark on the current warning strike.
Socialist Labour outlined six core demands of ASUU’s struggle, which it said serve as the minimum requirements for justice and the survival of public education. These include:
Conclusion of the Renegotiated 2009 Agreement: The government must immediately adopt the draft agreement based on the Nimi Briggs Committee’s 2021 report.
Funding for Revitalization: Immediate and substantial investment to rescue public universities from decay.
End Victimization: Stop the persecution of academics at Kogi State University (KSU) and Lagos State University (LASU).
Payment of Withheld Salaries: Release the three-and-a-half months’ salaries cruelly withheld from the 2022 strike and pay 12 months of arrears of the 25%-35% salary award.
Release Unpaid Salaries: Pay staff on sabbatical, part-time, and adjunct appointments whose payments have been disrupted by the flawed IPPIS system.
Release Third-Party Deductions: Urgently remit outstanding pension deductions, check-off dues, and cooperative contributions.
Arguing that ASUU’s fight transcends the university campus, Socialist Labour asserted that the “struggle of ASUU is the struggle of every worker, every parent, and every student.”
A victory for ASUU, it also asserted would mean: paving the path to end the scourge of millions of out-of-school children; reviving public education to a point of pride for parents and students; halting the ever-increasing school fees that lock out working-class youth; improving the lives of everyone on campus – students, academic and non-academic staff; and, equipping faculty with the resources to produce knowledge that benefits all of society.
Socialist Labour therefore called on all trade unions, student movements, and progressive forces to stand firmly with ASUU. “Education is a right, not a privilege!” the statement asserts.
