The Academic Staff Union of Universities in the Benin zone has threatened industrial action if the federal and state governments do not fully implement the 2025 collective bargaining agreement signed in January 2026.
Prof Monday Lewis Igbafen, the zonal coordinator, issued the warning at a press conference in Benin City on Thursday. He said the agreement, which both parties formally unveiled on January 14, represented the end of years of struggle to renegotiate the 2009 agreement and secure lasting peace in public universities.
The universities in the zone span four states and include the University of Benin, Ambrose Alli University in Ekpoma, Adekunle Ajasin University in Akungba, Olusegun Agagu University of Science and Technology in Okitipupa, Delta State University in Abraka, Federal University of Petroleum Resources in Effurun, University of Delta in Agbor, Dennis Osadebay University in Asaba, and Southern Delta University in Ozoro.
Igbafen said the federal and state governments have breached the agreement in multiple ways. Federal university administrators are paying Consolidated Academic Allowances and professorial allowances selectively and partially instead of mainstreaming them into monthly salaries for professors as the agreement stipulates. State governors who serve as visitors to state universities have refused to comply nearly five months after the Federal Government issued directives for full implementation.
The coordinator specifically called out the governors of Edo, Delta, and Ondo States, which fall under the Benin zone. He said ASUU condemns the partial and non-implementation of the salary component of the 2025 agreement, describing it as a recipe for industrial crisis in universities. He urged the three governors to comply immediately or face industrial action on their campuses.
Beyond salary implementation, Igbafen said outstanding issues remain unresolved. These include unpaid arrears of the 25 to 35 percent salary award, promotion arrears, unremitted third-party deductions, salary shortfalls from IPPIS errors, and three-and-a-half months of withheld salaries from the 2022 strike.
The zone commended the management of the Federal University of Petroleum Resources in Effurun for fully implementing the agreement. However, Igbafen lamented that the University of Benin has not done so.
The Benin zone also opposed plans to discontinue certain academic programmes in Nigerian universities, saying the move is risky and capable of weakening the country's higher education system. Igbafen said attempts to scrap courses deemed irrelevant undermine university autonomy and academic freedom and would be rejected.
Other concerns include policy inconsistencies in education. The Minister of Education, Dr Maruf Tunji Alausa, announced plans to reverse the mother-tongue policy in early childhood education, which Igbafen said undermines pedagogical evidence and national policy coherence. The zone also condemned the federal government's plan to establish a campus of Coventry University in Nigeria under the transnational education framework, which the union said was made without proper consultation.
If the three state governors do not implement the agreement within the coming weeks, the Benin zone is expected to begin withdrawal of services on the affected campuses.
