By Ghazali Ibrahim
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has announced that it will hold nationwide mass rallies on Tuesday, August 26, 2025, to compel the Federal Government to address unresolved issues affecting the nation’s universities.
The Zonal Coordinator of ASUU, Akure Zone, Prof. Adeola Oyebisi Egbedokun, disclosed this at a press conference on Monday at the Federal University of Oye-Ekiti.
He said the rallies would be the union’s first major move after more than two years of restrained engagement with the government.
According to him, the demonstrations will hold simultaneously across all universities, with academic activities suspended for the day.
Egbedokun revealed that ASUU’s National Executive Council (NEC) has given the Federal Government until its meeting scheduled for August 28 to respond to the union’s demands, warning that failure to do so could trigger more disruptive actions.
“For over two years, we have kept faith with dialogue and refrained from strikes, but our patience has reached its limit. If the government continues to play games with the future of our universities, then it must bear the consequences of the storm that will follow,” he warned.
The union’s demands include the re-negotiation of the 2009 ASUU-FGN Agreement, opposition to the Tertiary Institutions Students Support Fund (TISSF) loan scheme, halting the proliferation of universities, and improving retirement benefits for professors and other academic staff.
Egbedokun accused the government of hypocrisy, neglect, and disregard for higher education, citing the abandonment of the Yayale Ahmed report, the “debt trap” nature of the TISSF scheme, unchecked establishment of new universities, and poor treatment of retired lecturers.
“This government has chosen to mock knowledge, insult scholars, and trample on the foundation of the nation’s future. Enough is enough,” he declared.
He also called on the Nigerian Inter-Religious Council (NIREC), National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), traditional rulers, and the National Assembly to intervene to avert a crisis.
“The ball is no longer in our court. It is squarely in theirs. Let them choose: justice or judgment, action or upheaval, peace or storm,” Egbedokun concluded.
