The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has suspended its two-week warning strike, granting the Federal Government a one-month period to conclude the renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement and address other lingering issues affecting the university system.
ASUU President, Professor Chris Piwuna, made the announcement on Wednesday during a press briefing in Abuja. He said the suspension followed constructive discussions with the government and the intervention of the National Assembly.
He recalled that ASUU had embarked on the warning strike on October 13, 2025, after several unheeded appeals to the government to revisit the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement and other welfare-related concerns of university lecturers.
“When we gathered here about 10 days ago to painfully declare a warning strike, it was a decision that left us with no other choice,” Piwuna stated. “The government had ignored our repeated overtures to address issues critical to the survival of Nigeria’s public universities.”
Following the commencement of the strike, Piwuna explained that the Federal Government reopened talks with the union through a team led by Alhaji Yayale Ahmed, which met with ASUU representatives on October 16 and 18 to discuss the government’s response to the draft renegotiated agreement.
He said although the meetings did not fully resolve all matters, they reflected meaningful progress compared to the pre-strike situation. “We have not achieved all our objectives, but we are certainly not where we were before the strike began,” he noted. “This shows that had the government responded earlier, there would have been no need for the action.”
The ASUU president commended the intervention of the Senate Committees on Tertiary Education and TETFund, and Labour, as well as the Deputy Senate President, Senator Barau Jibrin, whose mediation he said renewed hopes for lasting resolution.
According to him, after an emergency meeting of the union’s National Executive Council (NEC) held from October 21 to 22, ASUU resolved that the warning strike had achieved part of its purpose, especially by compelling the government to return to the negotiation table.
“While noting that more work remains to be done, NEC resolved to suspend the warning strike to allow for a conducive atmosphere for further engagement,” he said.
Piwuna added that the decision was taken in consideration of students, parents, the media, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), and other well-meaning Nigerians who showed solidarity and intervened in the dispute.
However, ASUU warned that if the government fails to meet its commitments within the one-month window, the union will resume strike action without further notice.
“The struggle continues,” Piwuna declared, urging Nigerians to prevail on the government to honour its promises to ensure industrial harmony and restore stability to the academic calendar.
