The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has directed its members across the country to embark on a nationwide strike following the delay in the payment of June 2025 salaries, activating its longstanding resolution to enforce a “No Pay, No Work” policy.
Branches of the union at the University of Jos and the University of Abuja have already withdrawn their services in compliance with the directive, with more institutions expected to follow suit.
Confirming the development in Abuja on Monday, ASUU President, Professor Chris Piwuna, told newsmen that the union is simply enforcing a decision reached by its National Executive Council (NEC), which stipulates that members should stop work if salaries are delayed beyond the third day of any new month.
“What they are doing is just enforcing a NEC resolution,” he said. “We have agreed at NEC that our members are going through a lot since our migration out of the Integrated Personnel Payroll and Information System.
Certainly, our salaries are delayed for a week and sometimes 10 days before our members receive the paltry amount we get to help us carry out our duties well.”
“Therefore, we agreed that if there is no pay, there will be no work,” Piwuna stated.
He decried the persistent hardship university lecturers have endured since their migration to the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) platform, saying that despite engagements with key officials — including the Minister of Education and the Accountant General of the Federation—there has been no resolution to the salary delay issue.
“We have spoken to the relevant authorities—the minister is aware, the Office of the Accountant General is aware.
All those concerned are aware that this thing has been happening. We’ve had meetings with them to express our dissatisfaction with the way our salaries are being paid, and they have not taken any action.
We want to work, but we cannot because they have not allowed us to work,” he said.
Piwuna also accused the Office of the Accountant General of deliberately delaying salary payments, despite no issues with the payment platform.
“So, the platform through which the payment is effected has not been the problem. It’s just a deliberate effort by the Office of the Accountant General to delay the release of the funds.
The platform is working well, but those who make it work are not willing to make it work. We think it’s a deliberate act; that is the point we are making,” he added.
The ASUU President also issued a warning over the N10 billion balance of Earned Academic Allowance (EAA) yet to be paid by the Federal Government. He stated that while N50 billion was expected, only N40 billion has been released.
“On the EAA you talked about, the total amount was N50 billion, and what they gave to us is N40 billion. N10 billion is still outstanding. We hope that this is paid quickly so that we do not have to fight over it,” Piwuna warned.
In a related development, Chairman of ASUU at the University of Jos, Jurbe Molwus, announced that members have fully complied with the withdrawal of services as directed by the NEC resolution. He confirmed that lecturers had abstained from lectures and statutory meetings due to the unpaid salaries.
“Any time salaries are not paid by the third day of the month, there would be a continuous withdrawal of services by the lecturers,” Molwus noted, adding that the branch’s strike monitoring team has been activated to ensure compliance.
Similarly, ASUU members at the University of Abuja also withdrew their services on Monday, citing the same grievance. The ASUU NEC insists that until the government addresses the persistent delays in salary payments and fulfills its financial commitments to academic staff, the strike will persist, affecting academic activities across the country’s federal universities.
