Reports that lecturers of the Adekunle Ajasin University Akungba Akoko(AAUA) are being owed salaries and other entitlements for 14 months send a message that tells the value and quality of our education. The culprit is the government’s reluctance to adequately fund the institution despite cries from stakeholders. The victims are the students of the universities who are recipients of incomplete or haphazard impartations of knowledge that falls far behind the needed skills to transform the society. It is reflected in unemployment, criminality, cultism, banditry, kidnappings and political thuggery.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities(ASUU) has been in the forefront of the campaign for adequate funding of universities. Although there had been the grey areas of defining the struggle for better tertiary education and individual survival, ASUU has successfully, through its strikes and protests, kept the issues on the front burner of public discuss.
Deploying the instrumentality of strikes, the union over the years scored vital points in the struggle in getting the federal government to the negotiating table, securing critical wins and compromises that had birthed innovations and improvements on our nation’s campuses.
It is on record that between 1999 and 2020, ASUU held 15 key strike actions. In 2020, the union called a nine-month strike due to issues like non-payment of allowances and the failure to implement previous agreements. In 2022, the union called another strike which lasted eight months( from February to October). These are just two examples of the numerous strikes which kept the lecturers in the trenches in a bid to get the Federal government to effectively and adequately fund its universities.
It has been observed that the cumulative impact of these strike actions by ASUU between 1999 and 2022 have consumed over 4 years, 6 months, 3 weeks, and 3 days. This is a huge cost on fees paying parents, and the loss of valuable developmental input on the nation’s economy.
The issue recurs, it never goes away – Funding of Universities: this recurring demand for increased funding for tertiary institutions in Nigeria, which incorporated lecturers’ welfare and the provision of appropriate infrastructure for learning, have remained largely unaddressed by successive administrations.
Although the administrations complained of paucity of funds even after signing agreements, the lecturers saw through the veil of hypocrisy – a total disdain for the education sector in not giving it the desired priority. The folly of proliferating universities, while abandoning the existing ones affirms ASUU’s allegations that the governments are really not serious about running effectual universities.
As we speak, ASUU is still threatening to commence strike over decades of unheeded demands. President of the union, Chris Piwuna, after a meeting of the Union’s NEC last Sunday, lamented the “declining fortunes of university education” and the government’s “strong habit of paying little or no attention” to public universities.
The union noted that its latest threat comes after it had held rallies across both federal and state universities in August that yielded no results.
“It is over sixteen years now since ASUU has brought these issues to the media and the public domain,” the comminique issued after the meeting read in part.
“ASUU is confident that the Nigerian leadership has the capacity to fix Nigerian Universities once and for all.”
For those who understand the tactics of government, this may well offer another round of meetings, negotiations and signatures.
While ASUU is regurgitating more than a decade-old controversy at the centre, a new wailing has begun in Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko(AAUA), owned by the Ondo State Government. It is enough worries that the universities are poorly funded and there is a huge gap in raising the efficiency of universities to be able to meet the current societal needs. But to fail to pay salaries, which is expectedly a basic obligation for any institution, is unacceptable.
With accruals in billions of naira from the federation account and the surging internally generated revenue, one area that must catch the attention of the Ondo State Government is the funding of its tertiary institutions. The Lucky Aiyedatiwa administration should raise the bar and lead in the funding of state-owned universities and other tertiary institutions.
During the week, AAUA lecturers, who are currently on an indefinite strike since August, vowed to block the proposed resumption of academic activities at the institution following the failure of the state government to pay their entitlements. They also planned to stall the forthcoming convocation ceremony of the institution if their demands were not met.
Chairman of AAUA ASUU, Boluwaji Oshodi, lamented what he described as the insensitivity of the state government to the plight of the lecturers.
According to him, members of the union had been stretched to the limit. The limits of 14 months without salaries are no doubt excruciating.
“We have been patient and tolerant for too long, but this time, we won’t be again,” he declared.
As if that is not bad enough, the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), AAUA chapter, has also voiced out its frustrations over unpaid two months salaries. It has threatened to join ASUU’s ongoing strike.
Speaking on Thursday, Chairman of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) in AAUA, Comrade Olutayo Ogungbeni, accused the Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa-led administration of reneging on promises made in June 2025 to settle arrears and increase subvention to tertiary institutions.
Gladly, this recent allegation is coming amid the news that a government committee set up to look into the matter has submitted its recommendations and a directive from the Governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, has gone out to the effect that the lecturers should be paid.
We are also told that the state government has increased subvention for all the tertiary institutions in the state, in a bid to raise the liquidity of the institutions to be able to fund their expenditures. It is however not clear if this boost in subvention will get to the institutions this year, knowing that the funds would need to be appropriated by the legislature.
As I put this piece together, we are yet to learn of any payments to the lecturers. They are still venting fiery threats. The relevant authorities should, therefore, expedite the process and release the funds for the payment of their entitlements.
The Ondo State Government should take a bold step in establishing a mechanism that ensures adequate funding of the institutions instead of waiting for threat of strike before actions are taken.
If you must “not muzzle an ox treading out grain,” and, if “the workman is worthy of his wages,” as the holy book says, then no lecturer, neither any worker should be left unpaid at the end of the month. Enough is enough. Let the sun now begin to shine in the Sunshine State.