ASUU UNILAG suspends strike

The University of Lagos (UNILAG) chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has suspended its strike, just hours after it began on Wednesday

The decision followed meetings between the lecturers and the university administration, led by Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Development Services) Prof. Foluso Lesi, earlier in the day, as well as a resolution reached at the union’s congress later in the afternoon.

The UNILAG branch of ASUU had initially directed lecturers to withdraw their services from Wednesday in protest over what it described as “amputated” salaries for January and February 2026. The industrial action was declared over the non-payment of the Earned Academic Allowance (EAA) and Consolidated Academic Tools Allowance (CATA) for Research across the Akoka and Idi-Araba campuses in January, as well as unpaid CATA and professorial allowances in February.

Speaking with reporters on Wednesday afternoon, ASUU UNILAG chairman Prof. Idou Keinde said the strike was suspended in deference to the administration, which promised to address the lecturers’ grievances within 48 hours.

Keinde explained that discussions focused on harmonising positions on Earned Academic Allowances and professorial allowances for excess workload. He noted that while the university requested a formal paper showing the union’s stance based on the Federal Government/ASUU 2025 agreement—a request he described as “baffling”—the union complied.

“We met with the administration, they made some promises and said they would act in the next 48 hours. ASUU is a union of intellectuals and principles. We are always procedural in whatever we want to do. We cannot throw away all their submissions,” he said.

Keinde added, “As far as they have invited us, we have to listen to them. We took what they offered in good faith, as opposed to what some of them had earlier bandied around that we acted in bad faith. The issue is our allowances. They only took one aspect out of three and disregarded two. Even the one they took, which is the Earned Allowance, was incomplete. They mutilated it, and we drew their attention to it.

“They challenged us to produce a paper on a signed agreement, which they also have. But we said we would provide a paper to show that the correct Earned Allowance for excess workload was not paid every month. We resolved that issue, and they promised to look into it within the next 48 hours.”

The suspension of the strike brings a temporary reprieve for students and staff, with the expectation that the administration will address the unresolved allowance issues promptly.

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