The Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities on Wednesday unveiled a renegotiated agreement aimed at resolving long-standing disputes in Nigeria’s tertiary education sector, resulting in incessant strikes and closure of universities.
The 2025 agreement is the conclusion of a renegotiation process that began in 2017 to review the 2009 FG–ASUU pact, which was due for revision in 2012.
Several committees set up under past administrations chaired by Wale Babalakin, Munzali Jibrin and Nimi Briggs failed to deliver a final agreement.
The breakthrough came under the current administration, which inaugurated the Yayale Ahmed-led renegotiation committee in October 2024.
An agreement was reached about 14 months later, focusing on improved conditions of service, funding, university autonomy, academic freedom and broader reforms to reverse sectoral decay, curb brain drain and reposition universities for national development.
A major provision of the agreement is the upward review of the remuneration of academic staff in federal universities by 40 per cent, with effect from January 1, 2026.
Under the new structure, salaries will comprise the Consolidated University Academic Staff Salary and a Consolidated Academic Tools Allowance, which accounts for the 40 per cent increment.
The tools allowance is designed to support core academic activities such as research, journal publications, conference participation, internet access, learned society membership and book procurement, with the broader objective of boosting productivity and curbing brain drain.
The agreement also restructures nine earned academic allowances to promote transparency and fairness by tying payments strictly to duties performed.
These include postgraduate supervision, fieldwork, clinical responsibilities, examination duties and leadership roles within the university system.
In addition, the Federal Government approved a new Professorial Cadre Allowance for senior academics for the first time.
Under this provision, full-time professors will receive N1.74m annually, while readers will earn N840,000 per annum, an intervention described by the government as a structural and transformative measure to recognise experience, enhance dignity and strengthen the academic profession.
Speaking at the unveiling of the agreement in Abuja, the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, said the deal marked a renewed commitment by the administration of President Bola Tinubu to uninterrupted academic calendars and improved welfare for university lecturers.
According to him, the agreement goes beyond a formal document and represents “renewed trust, restored confidence, and a decisive turning point in the history of Nigeria’s tertiary education system.”
Alausa credited President Tinubu with personally driving the process, noting that, “for the first time in the history of our country, a sitting President took full ownership of this long-standing challenge confronting our tertiary education system and accorded it the leadership attention it truly deserved.”
He said decades of unresolved remuneration issues and welfare gaps had led to recurring industrial actions that disrupted academic calendars and threatened students’ futures, but stressed that the current administration chose “dialogue over discord, reform over delay, and resolution over rhetoric.”
He described the Professional Cadre Allowance intervention as “not cosmetic” but “structural, practical, and transformative.”
“With the total support, direction, and guidance of Mr President, we confronted what many had described as an intractable problem—and we have resolved it decisively, now and into the future,” the minister added.
He added that the agreement ushered in “a new era of stability, dignity, and excellence” for Nigerian universities, restoring confidence to lecturers and predictability to academic calendars.
The minister reaffirmed the government’s commitment to faithful implementation of the agreement under the Renewed Hope Agenda and thanked members of both the government and ASUU renegotiating teams for resolving what he described as “a two-decade-old quagmire.”
“History will remember today not merely as an unveiling ceremony, but as the day Nigeria chose dialogue, transparency, fiscal realism, and strong presidential commitment as the pathway to resolving long-standing governance challenges and achieving sustained progress,” he said.
Meanwhile, ASUU cautioned that despite the signing of the renegotiated 2025 agreement, entrenched structural, governance, and socio-economic problems still pose a serious threat to the sustainability of the nation’s university system.
Speaking on the matter during the unveiling, ASUU President, Prof. Chris Piwuna, acknowledged the government’s efforts but expressed concern that the prolonged delay was due to what he described as a lack of genuine commitment by the authorities.
“The 2009 agreement was due for renegotiation after three years, but it dragged on for this long due to the poverty of sincerity in the government on the renegotiation,” he said.
Piwuna noted that the deal, though significant, does not resolve persistent problems such as government interference in university autonomy, weak accountability in university management, poor research funding implementation, declining academic standards, and the broader national economic crisis.
The union said government encroachment into university autonomy remains one of the most critical unresolved issues. While autonomy is recognised in principle and partially entrenched in law, ASUU noted that its implementation is weak.
“As we are here with joy for a successful collective bargaining between ASUU and the FG, we need to note that there are still pending issues, which are more of internal, that is dragging the progress and survival of the university system: government persistent encroachment into the autonomy of the universities.
“University autonomy is universally recognised as a cornerstone of a functional higher education system. In Nigeria, although university autonomy is recognised in principle and partially entrenched in law, its practical implementation remains weak,” the chairman said.
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