Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Nasarawa State University, Keffi (NSUK) Branch, led by Branch Chairperson Zubairu Loko, on Monday, August 10, 2026, declared an indefinite strike at the university after members said repeated engagements with the authorities had failed to resolve the implementation of the 2025 Federal Government-ASUU agreement and other outstanding local issues.
The ASUU NSUK strike follows months of growing tension over staff welfare and the implementation of agreements affecting lecturers at the institution.
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The decision was reached at a branch congress on Monday, with the union saying all avenues of dialogue had been exhausted without satisfactory results.
“The decision was taken at the Branch Congress held today following the continued non-implementation of the 2025 FGN-ASUU Agreement and other unresolved local issues affecting academic staff of the University,” Loko said in the statement.
The union said it had also obtained approval from ASUU’s National Executive Council before proceeding with the industrial action.
ASUU maintained that agreements freely reached between the union and government must be respected, implemented and honoured, describing compliance as essential to maintaining stability within the university system.
The development comes less than three months after ASUU’s Abuja Zone warned that continued delays in implementing the 2025 agreement could trigger fresh industrial unrest across Nigerian universities.
At a press conference held at NSUK in May, Abuja Zonal Coordinator Adamu Al-Abdullahi accused the Federal Government of failing to fully implement the agreement, despite claims from the Education Ministry that the deal had been substantially executed.
ASUU cited unpaid entitlements, salary shortfalls, pension concerns and inconsistent welfare provisions among its complaints.
The December 23, 2025 agreement was reached after years of negotiations between the Federal Government and ASUU and took effect from January 2026.
The National Universities Commission said the agreement was intended to end a renegotiation process that had stretched for more than 16 years.
The agreement includes a 40 per cent salary increase for academic staff, improved research funding and enhanced pension and severance arrangements, according to the Federal Government.
The Federal Government has also taken steps to monitor implementation.
On June 8, 2026, Minister of State for Education Professor Suwaiba Ahmad inaugurated an Implementation Monitoring Committee involving government agencies and ASUU representatives.
The committee was tasked with monitoring compliance, addressing emerging issues and promoting industrial harmony within Nigeria’s university system.
Despite that intervention, ASUU’s NSUK branch says significant concerns remain unresolved.
The local dispute predates the latest nationwide disagreement over the 2025 agreement.
In April, the NSUK branch warned that industrial harmony could not be guaranteed unless the Nasarawa State Government addressed outstanding staff arrears and other demands.
Then-chairperson Abdulmumini Loko said at the time that repeated engagements had failed to produce satisfactory solutions.
“Unless immediate steps are taken by the Nasarawa State Government to defray all outstanding arrears and address our demands, industrial harmony cannot be guaranteed,” Loko said.
The latest action therefore reflects two overlapping pressures: the union’s concerns about the national agreement and unresolved matters specific to Nasarawa State University.
The strike also revives a familiar challenge for students and university management.
Previous industrial disputes at NSUK have disrupted academic calendars and placed additional pressure on students whose graduation timelines depend on uninterrupted teaching and examinations.
In 2016, for example, an indefinite ASUU strike at the university lasted more than two months before being suspended following the payment of part of lecturers’ outstanding Earned Academic Allowance.
The dispute reportedly affected academic and financial activities at the institution.
The current dispute arrives at a particularly sensitive moment for Nigeria’s public university system, with ASUU branches in several institutions previously raising concerns about delayed implementation of the 2025 agreement.
ASUU’s national leadership has warned that incomplete implementation could undermine the fragile industrial peace created by the December agreement.
For NSUK students, the immediate concern will be how the indefinite action affects lectures, examinations and the academic calendar.
For the union, however, the message is that further dialogue without concrete implementation is no longer sufficient.
The latest ASUU NSUK strike places renewed pressure on the Nasarawa State Government, university management and the Federal Government to resolve the outstanding issues before another prolonged disruption takes hold.
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With the union describing its decision as the outcome of exhausted dialogue, the next move now rests largely with the authorities to reopen negotiations and address the issues that brought lecturers to the point of an indefinite shutdown.
AbdulBasit Saba is a journalist and contributor to Freelanews.com, covering news, business, and public affairs.
