By Ovat Abeng
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Owerri zone, has decried lack of recruitment of academic staff at the Imo State University (IMSU), Owerri, since 2015.
The lamentation was contained in a Communique signed by the ASUU-Owerri zonal coordinator, Prof Dennis Aribodor during the Union’s interactive session with the press, held at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, on Tuesday.
Aribodor said IMSU is presently having serious shortage of Academic staff since 2015 despite the Union’s agitation across board including letters to the Imo State Government.
He noted that the employed academic staff that was 107 in number as of the year 2015 has reduce below 500, making the Varsity less functional.
READ ALSO: Soludo lauds Agbodike’s representation at National Assembly
“Dear Compatriots of the Press, on behalf of the ASUU Owerri Zone made up of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University (COOU), Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO), Imo State University (IMSU) Owerri, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike (MOUAU) and Nnamdi Azikiwe University (NAU) Awka, I welcome you to this very important press conference. ASUU Owerri Zone has maintained a studied silence since the signing of the December 2025 Agreement with the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) and its public presentation in January 2026. “
According to him, the media interactive session was also to present the outcome of our review of the implementation of the signed Agreement and other outstanding issues with the Federal Government of Nigeria.
“We are apprehensive that the momentum of trust and goodwill generated with the unveiling of the 2025 FGN-ASUU Agreement on 14th January, 2026 is fast waning and may soon be lost if government’s promise to fully implement the Agreement is not kept.
“Our apprehension is predicated on government’s failure to inaugurate the Implementation Monitoring Committee (IMC) expected to shield the Agreement from bureaucratic bottlenecks and guide its strategic actualization. So far, the Federal Government agents have implemented it in a distorted and an uncoordinated manner while very few state governments have embraced and implemented aspects of the Agreement. Administrators of Federal universities are picking and choosing what to pay among the Consolidated Academic Tool Allowances (CATA), Earned Academic Allowances (EAA) and Professorial Allowances (PA), whereas all of these should have been mainstreamed with the Consolidated Academic Staff Salary Scale (CONUASS) as monthly salary packages for the concerned academic staff.
“Not withstanding that representatives of Governing Councils of State universities actively participated in the negotiations and signing of the Agreement, some State governors, Visitors to State universities, have apparently turned their back on the Agreement.
“While commending some State universities in the Northern and Western parts of the country that blazed the trail in implementing the Agreement, it is sad to note that no state university in the South East has implemented the Agreement.
“ASUU Owerri Zone strongly condemns the partial or non-implementation of the salary component of the 2025 FGN-ASUU Agreement by Vice-Chancellors.
“We call on Federal and State governments to respect the letters and spirit of the Agreement for lasting industrial harmony on our campuses.
“ASUU Owerri Zone shall stop at nothing to ensure that all our members fully benefit from the modest gains of the eight-year long negotiation (2017-2025).
“The gap created by non-inauguration of the IMC is equally evident in the distorted implementation of another key component of the December 2025 Agreement.
“On the proposed National Research Council (NRC). on Wednesday, 7th April, 2026, the Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa, announced that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) had concluded plans to establish a National Research and Innovation Development Fund (NRIDF) to which ASUU had no input whatsoever! We are surprised that the Minister’s proposal talks of $500 million without reference to the FGN-ASUU Agreement which calls for “at least 1% equivalent of GDP as source of funding research, innovation, and development.” While the Union is not averse to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and other stakeholders making contributions to the development of the legal and policy frameworks of the Fund.
“ASUU Owerri Zone calls on the Federal Government to be properly guided by the well-thought-out frameworks and objectives set out for it in the new FGN-ASUU Agreement.
“We shall resist any attempt to hijack and derail the research and development agenda by external agents and their local collaborators.
“We are at a loss as to why the Minister preferred to denominate the funding in dollars! Are they going to get another debt to fund research, or is government beholden to promises by Bretton-woods institutions to fund research in Nigeria?
“The sources for funding the proposed National Research Council are clearly spelt out in Agreement.
“Before the conclusion of the December 2025 Agreement, members of the Government’s Renegotiating Team led by Mallam Yayale Ahmed made frantic efforts to sort out all outstanding entitlements of lecturers with their principals. This, they said, was meant to chart a new path to industrial harmony in Nigerian universities and make the new Agreement start off on a clean slate. Unfortunately, government failed to act. Many of the issues still remain unresolved to-date. Among these are arrears of the 25-35% salary award, arrears of promotions, remittances of third-party deductions (Union check-off dues, cooperative society deductions, pension contributions, national housing fund deductions, etc.), salary shortfalls arising from IPPIS mutilations, and the withheld three-and-half months’ salaries occasioned by the 2022 industrial action.
“No country can progress when the welfare issues of its academics are left unattended.
“Withholding lecturers’ salaries on account of “no work, no pay” is like reducing scholars to menial workers whose livelihood is calibrated in physical appearance at their worksite. As for the 2022 strike action, our members sacrificed their annual leaves and personal comfort to cover the outstanding work. And yet, they are still being punished.
“The affected students had since graduated and academic calendars have been regularized in all public universities for three consecutive years. Has government thought of lecturers abandoning accumulated work, which will hinder the students from graduating?
“Closely related to these issues is the abandonment of our retired colleagues. In many states (for those who retired from state universities), their pension is running into years in arrears, and for those registered with different Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) other than NUPEMCO, PENCOM has deliberately delayed the harmonization of their benefits, by withholding the share of contribution that should come from PENCOM. ASUU Owerri Zone seriously frowns at this inhuman treatment meted to our retired colleagues. ASUU Owerri Zone calls on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as Visitor to Federal Universities, and the State Governors, as Visitors to State universities, to immediately address the vexatious delay in the salary and other staff welfare issues including the pension of our colleagues to douse tensions that threaten the fragile industrial peace on our campuses.
“Over the years, ASUU has had to wage many battles back on the campuses because of some unhealthy practices by university administrators and governing councils. We fought against irregular appointments, misappropriation of funds, disrespect for extant laws, rules and many more in various universities. Vice-Chancellors in recent years have introduced extraneous positions like “Professor of Practice” and “Diaspora Professors”, which are unknown to their University Senates and Governing Councils, to reward their cronies and benefactors. In the process, people with doubtful academic credentials find their way into the university system and some even rise to become vice-chancellors. Our Union had equally challenged vice-chancellors for lack of transparency and accountability in handling university finances and took on pro-chancellors who overreached their mandates.
“The increasing incidence of maladministration of Nigerian universities must be arrested because of its debilitating effects on the academic environment respected for probity, transparency and accountability. Credibility is the currency for effective leadership and governance of a university. A discredited person occupying the office of Vice-Chancellor or Chairman of Council is a liability to the university. Appointing authorities must therefore ensure that questionable characters are not found in our universities, more so in the elevated offices of the universities.
“The state universities in ASUU Owerri Zone are Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University (COOU) owned by the Anambra State Government and Imo State University Owerri (IMSU) owned the Imo State Government. These universities have key issues demanding the urgent attention of their Visitors (the State Governors), the Governing Councils and the University Administrations.
“The issues demanding urgent attention in COOU include: “the withheld salaries of academic staff that participated in the 2020 and 2022 strike actions; the non-implementation of 25% and 35% wage awards and the current N70,000 minimum wage, the non-implementation of all the components of the 2025 ASUU-FGN agreement.
“At IMSU, the Union is deeply worried over the continued neglect of critical issues affecting the university and our members of particular concern is the non-implementation of the 2025 FGN-ASUU Agreement, the continued retention of university in the Treasury Single Account (TSA) of the state government which undermines institutional autonomy and hampers effective administration, the prolonged delay in staff promotion, the non-payment of promotion arrears dating back to 2016, the absence of staff recruitment since 2015 among others.
“We call on the visitors to COOU and IMSU to urgently address these important issues for the good of these universities.
“ASUU Owerri zone is therefore raising the alarm and calling on all critical stakeholders including traditional rulers, religious leaders, students, parents, the NLC, media and the civil society groups to urge governments (both states and federal) to ensure the faithful implementation of the 2025 FGN-ASUU Agreement and address the stated outstanding issues to avoid disruptions in our universities,” the communique concluded.
