The Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, yesterday, announced the constitution of an Expanded Negotiation Committee to fast-track agreements with all unions in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions, as part of efforts to avert a looming strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and keep students in school.
Alausa, highlighted the federal government’s N200 billion intervention effort, which includes N50 billion already released for earned academic allowances and N150 billion provided in the 2025 budget for university revitalisation projects, as clear evidence of President Bola Tinubu’s commitment to addressing the long-standing issues in the sector.
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The Minister, disclosed this while addressing journalists, after a meeting of the Technical Working Group in Abuja, where he reaffirmed Tinubu’s directive that Nigerian students must remain in school while all outstanding issues with university unions are resolved through dialogue.
“The directive President Bola Tinubu gave us is that our children must be in school. We should do everything humanly possible to avert a strike.
“At this point, we’ve addressed several of the issues raised by the unions. The earned academic allowance has been paid; the President released N50 billion months ago,” the Minister said.
Speaking further Alausa said: “Even the needs assessment that tertiary institutions have been fighting for almost 15 years, the President put N150 billion in this 2025 budget. He promised that it will be released in three tranches of N50 billion each, and the first tranche is already waiting.”
He added that the government’s actions demonstrate sincerity and readiness to meet its obligations, describing the intervention as part of a comprehensive effort to restore stability and mutual trust in the higher education system.
Alausa also revealed that the federal government has collapsed all separate negotiation platforms into a single expanded negotiation committee – the Mahmud Yayale Ahmed Federal Government Tertiary Institution Expanded Negotiation Committee – to engage all tertiary institutions and their unions under one coordinated structure.
“In the past, we had three different committees negotiating in silos, one for universities, one for polytechnics, and one for colleges of education. That was not efficient,” he explained.
“Now, we have one negotiation committee that will talk with all tertiary institutions and all unions, to have a full understanding of their needs,” Alausa said
According to him, the Technical Working Group has been meeting to finalise the government’s counter-offer to ASUU, which would be transmitted to the expanded committee “by the end of today or tomorrow.”
The minister appealed to ASUU and other tertiary education unions to remain patient and maintain dialogue as the government addresses their long-standing concerns.
“Don’t use strike as your first resort. We know you’ve been patient, but these are issues that built up over decades. This President believes fervently and benevolently in education and has given us all the political will to resolve this problem once and for all,” Alausa said.
He emphasised that the government’s focus was on a holistic and affordable solution that recognises the sacrifices of lecturers and non-academic staff while ensuring fiscal responsibility.
“We’re not going to give everything at once, but our actions show benevolence and commitment to the welfare of academic and non-academic staff,” he noted.
He listed several areas of progress, including the resolution of promotion arrears, implementation of the 25–25 wage award, and payment of teaching and responsibility allowances.
“By next year, 2026, all arrears will be paid,” Alausa assured, adding, “We have shown over the last 24 months since this administration took over that we are determined to resolve this crisis holistically.”
Present at the Abuja meeting were representatives from the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, the Budget Office, and the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, along with senior directors of the Ministry of Education.
“This technical working group is at the highest level of government. We are working continuously and expeditiously to finalise our responses, reach an agreement, and sign it with the unions,” Alausa said.
Reiterating the administration’s resolve, Alausa said the N200 billion intervention demonstrates clear political will to reform and sustain tertiary education in Nigeria.
“Please, bear with us and be patient. We have a President giving us all the political will we need. We will resolve it once and for all. Let’s keep our children in school. This is a promise the President made to Nigerians, and it is a promise we intend to keep,” he said.
With a series of interventions and a unified negotiation framework, the federal government said it was confident of bringing lasting peace to Nigeria’s universities, without another ASUU strike.
Meanwhile, ASUU has called for a legislation of five to 10 years of existence of institutions to qualify to access of funds from TETFUND.
The lecturers’ union said the primary aim of establishing the fund has been abused over the years and with new institutions which it refers to as community and constituency projects benefitting from it without proper planning and take off budgets.
It also faulted the support of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, NELFUND by TETFUND, saying deliberate efforts must be put in place to ensure that the intervention agency was not over stretched in its activities, and primarily in the motive for the establishment of the Fund.