Federal Government negotiators sit down with the leadership of SSANU and NASU at 3pm
Tuesday in Abuja in what is shaping up to be the most consequential labour meeting of 2026
so far. If it ends the way Monday’s session did – in deadlock – Nigeria’s public universities will
go into a second week of total shutdown, and millions of students, parents and workers will be
staring down a familiar nightmare.
The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff
Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) walked out indefinitely on May 1 after
a one-month ultimatum to government expired without movement. The Joint Action Committee
gave members a single instruction: withdraw all services. Across the country, they have.
By Tuesday morning, every major federal university – Unilorin, ABU, UNIJOS, UI, UNILAG,
UNN – is reporting paralysed operations. Hostels are running on skeleton management.
University clinics are turning patients away. Examinations have been postponed at the
University of Maiduguri. Administrative blocks are locked. At UNIJOS, NASU members staged
an open protest on Monday, escalating an already noisy industrial action.
The fight is, on paper, about money. Government has offered a 30 per cent salary adjustment.
The unions are holding firm at a 40 per cent floor, citing the renegotiation of the 2009
agreement that has dragged on for nearly four years. But a deeper grievance is the so-called
Earned Allowances, which government has paid academic staff under ASUU agreements
while leaving senior non-teaching and technical staff out. SSANU and NASU describe this as
systemic discrimination against non-academic workers, and they are not in a mood to back
down.
Monday’s meeting, convened by Minister of Education Dr Tunji Alausa with the Minister of
Labour and senior negotiators from the Office of the Accountant General, broke up after
several hours without an agreement on the percentage. Both sides have agreed to reconvene
at 3pm Tuesday.
What changes if the deadlock holds? In the short term, exam timetables across the federation
will collapse. The SSANU and NASU rolls cover registry, bursary, ICT, security, healthcare,
hostel management and lab technical staff – the entire scaffolding that allows lecturers to
lecture and students to be examined. ASUU, the lecturers’ union, has not joined the strike, but
several branches have warned that prolonged paralysis of support services will eventually
force them out too.
In the medium term, this strike is happening against a deeply uncomfortable political backdrop.
The Tinubu administration is mid-cycle, fuel subsidy removal is still biting, and inflation has
eroded real wages across the public sector. A 30 per cent offer that would have looked
generous in 2022 is being read by union members in 2026 as below the inflation rate.
Government negotiators know this, which is precisely why the spread between 30 and 40 is so
politically charged.
For students, especially those from working-class families, the cost is immediate. Final-year
project defences, internship sign-offs, scholarship disbursements, hostel allocations and even
health-clinic prescriptions all run through SSANU and NASU desks. A six-day strike has
already disrupted these. A two-week strike will turn into months of cascading academic delays.
The unions have signalled they are open to meeting government in the middle if there is a
written commitment with a clear timetable. Government negotiators have hinted that a
conditional 35 per cent might be on the table, possibly tied to phased implementation. Both
sides know any deal must be enforceable across all federal universities, not just announced on
paper.
What to watch when the 3pm meeting begins: whether Minister Alausa attends in person or
sends a deputy (a deputising signals weakness), whether the Office of the Accountant General
can offer a costed counter-proposal, and whether the unions reduce the pressure or escalate
with a national rally before Friday. By Wednesday morning, Nigeria will know whether
universities reopen this month or not.
