The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) bemoaned Tuesday that qualified individuals were reluctant to accept positions in the university system because of the low welfare of public university professors.
The suggestion was made in a New Year’s letter to Ibadan journalists by Prof. Ayo Akinwole, the union’s chairman at the University of Ibadan (UI). “The teachers are not well-paid, which leads to the reluctance of qualified instructors to take up employment in public primary and secondary schools, opening the way for untrained and unqualified teachers to hold sway,” he added, adding that the scenario also affected elementary and secondary schools.

This has led to the growth of private schools, the majority of which are unaffordable for the impoverished because of their high tuition costs.
The don claims that the university system experienced stagnation in 2024 and that, except for the sacrifices made by the lecturers, the system would have been plunged into yet another industrial catastrophe because of the Federal Government’s claimed lack of concern for the suffering of educators.

Because it received a meager 7% (N3.52 trillion) of the 2025 budget of 47.9 trillion, “which falls far below the benchmark of 15-20% educational budget for underdeveloped countries like Nigeria, specified by both UNESCO and the United Nations,” Akinwole said, Nigeria’s education could probably stagnate.

Akinwole cautioned against the delaying strategies used by past governments, even as he praised the Federal Government for forming a committee to revise the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement.

“To be sure, the government has established a number of committees to renegotiate the deal with ASUU since 2017,” he continued. For example, the Joint Renegotiation Committee led by Babalakin was established, followed by committees led by Emeritus Professor Munzali Jubril and the late Prof. Nimi Briggs. In 2021, a draft agreement between the Committee and ASUU was produced.

Regretfully, the Buhari government declined to ratify the agreement that a committee it established had reached. Therefore, in our view, the Tinubu-led administration should initiate a process that will result in the review and signing of the Nimi Briggs-led renegotiated draft agreement as a sign of goodwill and assured hope for Nigeria’s public universities, rather than renegotiating the agreement from scratch.

The head of ASUU criticized President Bola Tinubu’s plan to abolish TETFUND as part of the tax administration bill, claiming that it will destroy the meager infrastructure funds that TETFUND has been providing since 2030.

“The Nigerian university system will suffer greatly as a result of this misguided strategy.

Without a doubt, this is an attempt to eliminate the main source of revenue for public higher schools that are already having financial difficulties. Additionally, he argued, it is an effort to commercialize higher education in Nigeria.

The President should focus on the “welfare of workers in the education sector and Nigerian workers, considering the status of the national economy and high cost of living, which has intensified the erosion of the conditions of service of our members,” Akinwole said in his agenda for the new year.