𝐀𝐜𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐜 𝕾𝖙𝖆𝖋𝖋 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 - 𝔸𝕊𝕌𝕌

Motivation 101: A Lecturer’s Edition

Oh thank you, dear State, for the unpaid three months.

Hunger sharpens the mind for research, so they say.

We grade 300 scripts by candlelight: it builds character.

Our kids now know the taste of garri economics by heart.

Allowances? Who needs them when passion pays the rent?

We teach “Sustainable Development” on empty stomachs.

The classroom ceiling leaks, but our morale is waterproof.

Promised arrears will surely come, maybe before pension.

So forgive us if we swap chalk for placards next week.

Strike isn’t revolt. It’s just our last unpaid seminar.

----++++------++++-----
Al Chukwuma Okoli
FULafia
27/05/26

The issue is no longer whether agreements are signed. The real issue is whether the Federal Government is sincere enough to IMPLEMENT what it signs.

For years, ASUU has been accused of “always going on strike,” but Nigerians must begin to ask deeper questions: Who keeps violating agreements? Who keeps pushing universities to the edge? Who keeps politicizing education while lecturers and students bear the consequences?

Public universities cannot be run on propaganda. They cannot survive on promises without funding. Education requires honesty, commitment, and responsible governance.

If this trend continues, Nigerians should not blame ASUU for any looming industrial crisis. A strike does not emerge from nowhere; it is usually the final outcome of repeated neglect, broken promises, and systemic insincerity.
The future of Nigerian public universities is too important to be sacrificed on the altar of political convenience.

Enough of the deception. Enough of the denials. Fund education properly. Honor agreements fully. Save public universities now!

ASUU warns of fresh strike over 2025 agreement delay, others
May 11, 2026 1:16 pm

The Academic Staff Union of Universities has warned that the public university system could face another wave of industrial unrest if the Federal Government and state governments fail to fully implement the December 2025 agreement reached with the union.

Speaking at the end of its National Executive Council meeting held at Modibbo Adama University, Yola, on May 9 and 10, 2026, ASUU expressed dissatisfaction with what it described as the “distorted and uncoordinated” implementation of the agreement signed with the Federal Government.

According to a statement issued by ASUU President, Chris Piwuna, on Monday, the union said it had maintained “a studied silence” since the signing and public presentation of the agreement in January 2026.

“This interactive session was called to present the outcome of our review of the implementation of the signed agreement and other outstanding issues following the NEC meeting held at Modibbo Adama University, 9th–10th May, 2026,” the statement read.

The union said it decided to speak after reviewing the implementation process and other unresolved issues affecting university lecturers.

“The momentum 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,” it stated.

Recall that in March 2026, the Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa at a Lagos event declared the era of strikes in Nigerian tertiary institutions permanently over, assuring parents, students, and the general public that universities and polytechnics will remain open for all academic sessions.

Meanwhile, ASUU blamed the situation on the failure to inaugurate the Implementation Monitoring Committee, which it said was meant to ensure proper ex*****on of the agreement.

According to the union, federal and state authorities have implemented the agreement in a “distorted and uncoordinated manner”, while only a few state governments have complied.

The union also accused administrators of federal universities of selectively implementing components such as Consolidated Academic Allowances, Earned Academic Allowances, and Professorial Allowances, which it said should have been integrated into the Consolidated Academic Salary Structure.

ASUU further criticised some state governments for allegedly ignoring the agreement despite participating in the negotiation process.

It reaffirmed its commitment to ensuring members benefit from what it described as the gains of the eight-year negotiation (2017–2025).

ASUU also faulted the Federal Government’s proposed National Research Council and the Minister of Education’s announcement of a National Research and Innovation Development Fund.

It said the proposal did not align with the provisions of the 2025 agreement, which recommends “at least 1 per cent of GDP” as funding for research, innovation and development.

The union questioned the proposed $500 million funding structure and its source, expressing concern over possible external borrowing.

On welfare matters, ASUU said several issues remained unresolved, including salary arrears, promotion arrears, unremitted deductions, salary shortfalls under the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System, and withheld salaries from the 2022 strike.

It also criticised delays in pension payments for retired lecturers, particularly in state universities, and accused the National Pension Commission of delaying benefit harmonization.

ASUU UNIJOS

TOTAL WITHDRAWAL OF SERVICES DUE TO DELAY IN THE PAYMENT OF MARCH 2026 SALARY AND NON INCLUSION OF EAA IN OUR SALARY

Dear Comrades,

After following due process, we hereby request all members to abstain from lectures, conduct of exams and statutory meetings as our salary for the month of March 2026 is yet to be paid despite our patience.

This is in line with extant NEC resolution and our standing congress resolution.

The action takes immediate effect from Wednesday, 8th April 2026, until we are paid.

From our consultation, the delay is occassioned by the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation as the bursary of the University has done its part in the process of salary payment. It seems our patience is being taken for granted by those who are determined to frustrate industrial harmony.

Please ensure full compliance as the strike monitoring team of the branch will be activated to monitor compliance.

Solidarity forever,

Jurbe Joseph Molwus,
Chairperson.
7th April, 2026

ᴀꜱᴜᴜ-ᴜɴɪʟᴀɢ ᴅᴇᴄʟᴀʀᴇꜱ ɪɴᴅᴇꜰɪɴɪᴛᴇ ꜱᴛʀɪᴋᴇ ᴏᴠᴇʀ ꜱᴀʟᴀʀʏ ꜱʜᴏʀᴛꜰᴀʟʟꜱ

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), University of Lagos chapter, has directed its members to commence an indefinite strike effective Wednesday, 11 March 2026.

The decision follows an emergency congress where members expressed concern over unexplained deductions in their January and February salaries, alongside unpaid allowances. The union stated that the strike will continue until the outstanding salary balances and withheld entitlements are fully settled.

ASUU-UNILAG also alleged non-payment of Earned Academic Allowance (EAA) for lecturers on the Akoka campus and both EAA and Consolidated Academic Tools Allowance (CATA) for academics at the Idi-Araba campus.
Reacting to the development, the management of the University of Lagos said an official statement would be issued after an ongoing meeting.

The action aligns with existing union resolutions on welfare protection and salary compliance across federal universities.

HOW TO DESTROY UNIVERSITY EDUCATION

By

Professor Emmanuel Onwioduokit

A deliberate blueprint for the collapse of academic excellence in Nigeria
If anyone ever set out to deliberately destroy university education in Nigeria, the fastest and most effective way would be this: disconnect academic recruitment from merit, sever departments from decision-making, and replace scholarly excellence with patronage, bureaucracy, and political loyalty. Sadly, that is no longer a hypothetical scenario. It is unfolding before our eyes.

What is happening today in the recruitment of academic staff in many Nigerian universities is not merely an administrative anomaly. It is not a “teething problem.” It is not reform gone wrong. It is an existential threat to the very idea of a university. If left unchecked, it will hollow out Nigeria’s higher education system from the inside, producing graduates without depth, lecturers without scholarship, and institutions without credibility.

This article is a warning, a lament, and a call to conscience.
1. What a University Is Supposed to Be
A university is not a ministry.
It is not a parastatal.
It is not a dumping ground for the unemployed.
It is not a reward system for political loyalty.
A university is a community of scholars.
Historically and globally, universities exist for three core purposes:
The creation of knowledge (research)
The transmission of knowledge (teaching)
The preservation of intellectual standards (academic culture)
These purposes demand excellence, rigour, and intellectual integrity. That is why, across the world, universities are fiercely protective of who becomes an academic.
You do not recruit lecturers the way you recruit clerks.

2. How It Used to Be: Merit as the Gatekeeper
For decades, imperfectly but recognisably, Nigeria understood this truth.
Academic staff were drawn from:
The top 5–10% of graduating students
Individuals with exceptional CGPAs
Students who had demonstrated intellectual curiosity, research ability, and discipline
Departments played a central role:
They identified promising students
They mentored them
They recommended them for postgraduate training
They groomed them into academics
Even when corruption crept in, academic competence still mattered. A weak student could not simply stroll into academia without being exposed by postgraduate rigour, seminars, peer review, and departmental scrutiny.
The system had flaws, but it had standards.

3. What Is Happening Now: Academia as Civil Service Posting
Today, in many Nigerian universities, a quiet but devastating shift has taken place.
Academic staff are now being:
Recruited centrally
Posted to universities like civil servants
Assigned to departments without departmental input
Handed appointment letters without academic vetting
This is not reform.
This is vandalism.
In some cases:
Departments only discover a new “lecturer” after the appointment letter has been issued
Heads of Department are informed, not consulted
Professors are expected to “manage” staff they never recommended and would never have selected
This process violates every known principle of university governance.
A university without departmental control over recruitment is no longer a university.
It is a bureaucracy with classrooms.

4. The CGPA Scandal: When the Unqualified Become Lecturers
Perhaps the most alarming dimension of this new order is this:
Individuals whose CGPAs would not qualify them for postgraduate admission elsewhere are being appointed as academic staff.
Let that sink in.
People who:
Could not gain admission for a master’s degree in a reputable university
Could not survive competitive postgraduate screening
Could not defend a rigorous research proposal
…are now expected to teach, supervise, and examine others.
Meanwhile:
First-class graduates
Brilliant scholars
Research-oriented minds
…are excluded—not because they lack ability, but because they lack external support, connections, or political backing.
This is not injustice alone.
It is academic su***de.

5. When Patronage Replaces Scholarship
Universities thrive on intellectual hierarchy:
Juniors learn from seniors
Excellence commands respect
Knowledge earns authority
Patronage destroys this hierarchy.
When recruitment is based on:
Political influence
Ethnic balancing
Godfatherism
Quotas without competence
…the message is clear:
Scholarship no longer matters. Loyalty does.
Once that message settles in, the consequences are irreversible:
Students stop striving for excellence
Lecturers stop improving themselves
Research becomes ritualistic
Teaching becomes mechanical
The university becomes a certificate factory.

6. Departments Reduced to Spectators
In serious universities worldwide:
Departments are the custodians of standards
No one teaches a subject without departmental endorsement
Recruitment is peer-driven, not bureaucrat-driven
In Nigeria today, many departments have been reduced to:
Spectators
Damage controllers
Firefighters
They are told:
“This is who has been posted to you. Manage.”
But you cannot manage incompetence into excellence.
You cannot mentor someone who lacks the intellectual foundation for scholarship. You cannot force curiosity into a mind that never cultivated it. You cannot manufacture academic passion through memos.

7. The Collapse of Postgraduate Training
The effects are already visible at postgraduate level.
Poorly recruited academics:
Struggle to teach advanced courses
Supervise theses they barely understand
Recycle outdated lecture notes
Avoid research because they fear exposure
As a result:
Master’s theses become glorified undergraduate projects
PhD dissertations lack originality
External examiners lower standards out of pity or fatigue
Nigeria’s postgraduate degrees are quietly losing international credibility.
This is how academic reputations die—not with scandal, but with silence.

8. The Tragedy of the First-Class Graduate
Perhaps the cruelest casualty of this system is the first-class graduate without connections.
These are individuals who:
Did everything right
Studied hard
Excelled academically
Dreamed of scholarship
Yet they are told—implicitly or explicitly:
“You are brilliant, but you are not connected.”
What lesson does this teach? That excellence is irrelevant. That hard work is optional. That mediocrity is safer than brilliance.
A society that teaches this lesson is already in decline.

9. Teaching Without Mastery: A Dangerous Experiment
Teaching is not the recitation of slides. It is interpretation, contextualisation, critique, and inspiration.
When lecturers lack mastery:
They discourage questions
They punish curiosity
They fear intelligent students
They reduce learning to memorisation
This produces graduates who:
Cannot think independently
Cannot analyse problems
Cannot compete globally
Nigeria then complains about “unemployable graduates,” forgetting that lecturers produce graduates.

10. Research Without Researchers
Universities are judged globally by:
Research output
Citations
Innovation
Knowledge contribution
But research requires:
Intellectual depth
Methodological training
Discipline
Curiosity
When recruitment ignores these attributes:
Research becomes a box-ticking exercise
Journals become dumping grounds
Conferences become social gatherings
Nigeria cannot build a knowledge economy on weak scholarship.

11. International Isolation and Academic Irrelevance
Already:
Nigerian degrees face suspicion abroad
Foreign universities demand extra verification
International collaborations bypass local scholars
As recruitment standards fall:
Nigerian universities drop in rankings
Grants become harder to secure
Talented scholars emigrate
The brain drain accelerates, leaving behind mediocrity to train mediocrity.

12. Universities Are Not Job Creation Schemes
One of the most dangerous misconceptions driving this crisis is the idea that:
“Universities should absorb unemployed graduates.”
No.
Universities exist to produce knowledge, not to solve unemployment through patronage.
When job creation becomes the priority:
Standards are sacrificed
Excellence is negotiable
Scholarship is optional
If government wants job creation, let it build industries. Let it fund innovation hubs. Let it expand technical education.
But do not cannibalise universities.

13. The Long-Term National Cost
This destruction will not announce itself immediately. Its costs will appear gradually:
Weak professionals
Poor doctors
Incompetent engineers
Shallow economists
Uninspiring teachers
Eventually:
Policy fails
Institutions weaken
Governance collapses further
A nation cannot rise above the quality of its universities.

14. Who Benefits from This System?
Certainly not:
Students
Scholars
The nation
The beneficiaries are:
Political brokers
Administrative opportunists
Patronage networks
Mediocre minds seeking protection
This is not accidental. It is systemic.

15. What Must Be Done
If Nigeria is serious about saving its universities, the following are non-negotiable:
a. Restore Departmental Authority
No academic staff should be recruited without departmental recommendation.
b. Enforce Minimum Academic Standards
Clear CGPA thresholds must be mandatory and transparent.
c. Separate Academia from Civil Service
Lecturers are scholars, not bureaucrats.
d. Transparent, Competitive Recruitment
Vacancies must be advertised, screened, and defended academically.
e. Protect the Best Graduates
Create structured academic pipelines for top students.

16. A Final Warning
History is unforgiving to nations that destroy their universities.
Once academic standards collapse:
Recovery takes generations
Reputation is hard to rebuild
Damage becomes irreversible
Nigeria is standing at that edge.
This recruitment model is not reform. It is not inclusion. It is not equity.
It is how to destroy university education: quietly, efficiently, and catastrophically.
If we love this country,
If we value knowledge,
If we care about the future,
This madness must stop.
Because when universities fall,
the nation follows.

If you must use the title “Dr.”, you must earn it.

The latest guidelines from the National Universities Commission (NUC) are clear: honorary doctorate degrees are honoris causa - marks of honour, not earned academic qualifications. They are not a license to adopt the title “Dr.”

In academia, titles are not ornaments; they represent years of rigorous research, sacrifice, and scholarly contribution.

Let us protect the dignity of scholarship.
Let us earn what we bear.

RE:Before the Next Lecture Becomes the Last: A Counselling Call to Academics.
------------------------

The recent reports presented at the NEC meeting of the Academic Staff Union of Universities in Abuja are not just statistics, they are warning bells. Nearly fifty colleagues lost within three months. Another troubling figure recorded earlier in the year. These are not mere numbers; they are lecturers who prepared notes, marked scripts, supervised theses, attended meetings — and then suddenly were no more.

We must pause and reflect.
Exhaustion is silent, but it is deadly. It does not always announce itself with dramatic symptoms. Sometimes it hides behind dedication. Sometimes it disguises itself as productivity. Sometimes it wears the badge of “commitment.” But when the human body is overstretched beyond its limits — physically, emotionally, and financially — it begins to break down.

Our profession is noble, but it is demanding. Heavy teaching loads. Endless marking. Publish-or-perish pressure. Research deadlines. Committee responsibilities. Accreditation exercises. Administrative meetings. External examinations. Community and religious engagements. At home, family needs, school fees, aging parents, strained marriages, and economic hardship. The salary structure does not match the rising cost of living, and yet expectations keep increasing.
The truth we rarely say aloud is this: many academics are operating on chronic stress.
Chronic stress weakens the immune system, strains the heart, disturbs sleep, elevates blood pressure, and increases the risk of sudden collapse. When rest is postponed repeatedly, the body eventually enforces it, sometimes permanently.

Comrades, this is counselling from the heart: your life is more valuable than any deadline. No publication is worth your heartbeat. No committee assignment should cost your health.

Learn to rest without guilt. Schedule medical checkups intentionally. Delegate where possible. Share burdens with trusted colleagues. Speak up when the workload becomes unreasonable. Exercise moderately. Sleep adequately. Reduce avoidable conflicts. Protect your mental space.
Most importantly, reconnect with the original joy of teaching — not as a compulsion, but as a calling.

Let us create a culture where wellbeing is not seen as weakness. Let us advocate collectively for humane policies and manageable workloads. Let us check on one another beyond academic performance.

Before the next lecture becomes the last, choose life.

Protect your heart. Guard your mind. Value your health.

Because the university needs living scholars — not memorial tributes.

✍🏽 Prof Gbenga Onabamiro is a Counselling Psychologist and a Public affairs Analyst.

40th Inaugural Lecture at Federal University Lafia: Prof. Charity Justin Takyun Charts a Practical Path to Tackling Mental Illness

Professor Charity Justin Takyun, a Professor of Medical and Health Psychology in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Federal University Lafia (FULafia), has identified mental illness as one of the most pressing and underestimated threats to personal wellbeing and social stability. In her view, mental health challenges do not only disrupt individual lives; they ripple outward—weakening families, reducing productivity, worsening conflict at home and in the workplace, and quietly eroding community resilience when left unaddressed.

Speaking during her 40th inaugural lecture, titled “Navigating Life’s Challenges: Understanding and Addressing Mental Illnesses,” Prof. Takyun offered a clear message: life’s pressures are universal, and it is normal to experience distress when confronted with losses, uncertainty, economic hardship, academic demands, or social expectations. However, she stressed that when stress becomes persistent and unmanaged, it can tilt from temporary discomfort into serious mental health conditions. She highlighted how stigma often worsens the situation in Nigeria—discouraging people from seeking help, pushing sufferers into silence, and allowing treatable problems to become chronic crises.

Importantly, her lecture moved beyond diagnosis to solutions. Prof. Takyun recommended practical, everyday strategies that individuals and communities can adopt: building supportive relationships, strengthening healthy routines, practicing mindfulness and emotional self-awareness, and seeking professional care when symptoms persist or interfere with daily functioning. She urged students and the wider public to take mental health guidance seriously, warning that neglecting psychological wellbeing carries a real cost to society—manifesting in broken homes, reduced human capital, and preventable suffering. The lecture, held at the university’s Multipurpose Hall, attracted academics, students, dignitaries, and members of the public, and ended with the presentation of an award plaque formally recognising her elevation to the rank of professor.