Members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities are set to hold congresses to decide their next line of action.
This follows the conclusion of its nationwide protests on Tuesday.
The Federal Government is billed to meet on Thursday 28 August 2025 to address long-standing agitations over the implementation of the renegotiated 2009 FGN-ASUU agreement, which triggered the Tuesday nationwide protests across universities.
Earlier this year, the President Bola Tinubu administration released N50bn to settle earned academic allowances owed to university lecturers and staff.
But ASUU has consistently demanded clear commitments on improved salaries, conditions of service, university funding, autonomy, and a review of laws governing the National Universities Commission and the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board.
The meeting, expected to be attended by the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa; the Minister of Labour and Employment, Muhammadu Maigari Dingyadi; and representatives of the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, is expected to produce a timetable for signing and the phased implementation of the renegotiated agreement, along with related reports.
Under the Consolidated University Academic Salary structure, Graduate Assistants earn between N125,000 and N138,020 monthly, while professors earn between N525,010 and N633,333.
Assistant Lecturers earn between N150,000 and N171,487; Lecturer II (N186,543–N209,693); Lecturer I (N239,292–N281,956); Senior Lecturer (N386,101–N480,780); and Readers (N436,392–N522,212).
A former Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, lamented the erosion of morale among lecturers.
Ogundipe said, “The lecturers are tired, the morale is low, and lecturers are poorly paid. Academic staff members are on the edge, itching to leave. The standard of teaching is going down. As Vice Chancellor, I earned N900,000 as salary. My present salary as a professor, still in the system, is N700,000. My son saw my pay slip and described it as a joke. Do you know that some lecturers sleep in the office?”
ASUU president Piwuna said many lecturers earned just over N400,000 and accused the government of neglecting academics while prioritising pay raises for politicians.
He described as unsurprising the FG neglects the lecturers while the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission was proposing an upward review of the salaries of public office holders.
He added that stagnant salaries had crippled universities’ ability to attract quality lecturers, worsened morale, and affected output.
Piwuna said, “Well, from experience, Nigerian elites or the political class always look after themselves. So, we’re not surprised that the arms of government that Nigerians are most dissatisfied with are the ones that are getting the pay rise, while those who work day and night to ensure that the country keeps moving, who are making tangible contributions to the growth of this country, are being neglected.
“Our salaries have remained stagnant, and that has affected the quality of lecturers that we can attract into the universities. That has also affected our morale, and because our morale is low, certainly the output would also be affected. And so our salaries have been a major area of concern for our members.
“Our salaries, our condition of service have always been a product of collective bargaining. And the last time this was done was in 2009. Talking about increases, for instance, this government has made an increase through the minimum wage, but all that was added to our salaries, and it’s for every public service, is N40,000.
So, professors that were earning a little over N400,000 have still not been able to get to the N500,000 mark that you’re talking about, except for professors that have had annual increases for maybe 10, 20 years.”
The Secretary of the Committee of Vice Chancellors, Prof. Andrew Haruna, faulted successive Nigerian governments for neglecting the education sector and reducing the value of academics to mere salary figures, stressing that what lecturers truly need is an enabling environment to teach, research, and contribute meaningfully to national development.
Haruna, who has taught in over 10 European universities, lamented that academics in Nigeria were undervalued compared to their peers abroad.
Haruna said, “I have taught in many countries in Europe. If you go through my CV, you will see that I taught in more than 10 different universities in Europe, and I was trained in Europe, and I came back to Nigeria to help. Now, if I were trained in Europe, I would know what I am worth.
“So, if you get just a meagre salary in Nigeria, just because I have decided to come and contribute, it simply shows the kind of leadership we have. Do they really respect the Nigerian citizens? If they respect the Nigerian citizens, do they really respect the Nigerian academia?”
He argued that the problem was not just low pay, but the lack of infrastructure and conducive conditions for intellectual work.
On the international value of academics, he stressed that professors remained globally mobile, unlike many other professions.
He added, “If I earn $4,000 a month and I decide to come to Nigeria and you pay me N400,000, you simply show the kind of value you put on me. Professors, academics are highly mobile. We are the only category of workers who have a professor in Nigeria, a professor in America, and a professor in Germany. Just like the degree we get in a Nigerian university, the Nigerian student will go to America and do a master’s degree, and go to Japan and do a PhD. So, this is the only job that is international.”
