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ASUU orders nationwide 14-Day warning strike from Monday
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) leadership has instructed its chapters nationwide to initiate a 14-day warning strike starting tomorrow, Monday, October 13, 2025.
ASUU’s national president, Prof. Chris Piwuna, shared this update during a press conference currently underway at the union’s base in the University of Abuja.
He explained that launching the full-scale warning action was unavoidable due to the authorities’ inaction on the union’s requests.
“Compatriots of the press, it goes without saying that there is nothing sufficient on ground to stop the implementation of the ASUU-NEC’s resolution to embark on a two-week warning strike at the expiry of the 14-day notice given on the 28th September 2025.”
READ ALSO: ASUU issues 14-Day ultimatum, threatens Indefinite strike
“Consequently, all branches of ASUU are hereby directed to withdraw their services with effect from midnight on Monday, the 13th October, 2025.
“The warning strike shall be total and comprehensive as agreed at the last NEC meeting,” Piwuna said.
During his recent interview on Channels Television, Piwuna urged the national government to urgently tackle ongoing challenges facing academic staff in higher institutions.
He praised Education Minister Dr. Tunji Alausa for his role in securing the disbursement of ₦50 billion toward the Earned Academic Allowances (EAA) due to union members.
“I commend Dr. Alausa for fighting within government circles to ensure that the money comes out,” Piwuna said. “We’ve seen his personal effort to get that done.”
That said, he pointed out that the released funds cover just a fraction of what ASUU is entitled to.
“The full amount owed in earned academic allowances stands at about ₦103 billion. We had agreed with the government under Dr. Ngige to forfeit 50%, provided the remaining 50% would be paid and mainstreamed into our salaries. But even that payment was delayed until recently,” he explained.
Piwuna also revealed that officials withheld 20% of ASUU’s allocated ₦50 billion to cover obligations for other university employee groups, including the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU)—a move the union endorsed without protest.
“We did not argue over it. We’ve continued to make sacrifices,” he said. “Dr. Alausa himself has acknowledged and appreciated us for that sacrifice.”
While acknowledging the steps taken by the present leadership, ASUU’s head highlighted that the public should recognize the substantial compromises the union has offered for the greater good.
“When people say President Tinubu or Dr. Alausa has done something, yes, we’re not disputing that. But we too have made great sacrifices,” he added.
Piwuna noted that the union’s National Executive Council (NEC) convened urgently last week to review correspondence from Alhaji Yayale Ahmed, CFR, head of the government’s negotiation team on ASUU’s pending matters.
“The letter from Alhaji Yayale Ahmed was considered by our union as a delay tactic by the government,” Piwuna said. “They had asked for two weeks about two weeks ago, and in the new letter, they are asking for another three weeks to get back to us. NEC considered that as an attempt at delaying the resolution of this crisis.”
He added that the NEC session included delegates from every ASUU branch, with representatives from more than 70 established universities present.
“We all met and looked at the state of our struggle, where we are, and what next steps to take,” he stated.
Piwuna expressed frustration that, despite numerous discussions and assurances, core concerns remain unaddressed, such as outstanding wage backlogs, academic allowances, and salaries frozen from the 2022 dispute.
“We’re still being owed 12 months of the 25–35% salary increase awarded by this current government. We also have three and a half months of salary that was withheld from the 2022 action. We think that that action by government to withhold our salary is punitive,” he said.
Regarding the debated ‘no work, no pay’ principle, Piwuna indicated that the labor tribunal’s decision left the issue open-ended.
“The court said it was okay if government paid us our salaries, and it was also okay if they decided not to pay. Basically, it was left to the government’s discretion,” he explained.
ASUU’s leader cautioned that the union’s tolerance is nearing its limit, and without real advancements, it will move forward with the intended warning action.
A Rivers High Court sitting in Oyigbo Local Government Area has stepped into the escalating political crisis in the state, issuing an interim injunction that temporarily halts further action on the impeachment process against Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his deputy, Ngozi Nma-Odu.
In a ruling delivered in Port Harcourt, the court restrained the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Martin Amaewhule, alongside thirty-two other defendants — including the Clerk of the House and the Chief Judge of Rivers State—from taking steps aimed at advancing the impeachment process.
Specifically, the order barred the Chief Judge, Justice Simeon Chibuzor-Amadi, from receiving, forwarding, considering, or acting on any request, resolution, or impeachment-related document from the Assembly for the purpose of constituting an investigative panel, pending the determination of the matter. The injunction is to subsist for seven days.
In the two suits—marked OYHC/7/CS/2026 and OYHC/6/CS/2026—the court also granted the claimants leave to serve the interim order and other originating processes on the first to the thirty-first defendants by pasting them at the gate of the Rivers State Assembly quarters.
The court also directed that the Chief Judge, listed as the 32nd defendant, be served through any staff of the judiciary at his chambers within the court premises.
Justice Fiberesima thereafter adjourned the matter to January 23, 2026, for hearing of the motion on notice, as the legal battle over the impeachment move shifts from the political arena to the courtroom.
On Friday, the Rivers State House of Assembly had called on the Chief Judge of the state to set up a panel to investigate the allegations of gross misconduct against Governor Fubara and his deputy.
The assembly members, who made the call through a unanimous vote, vowed to continue with the impeachment process.
The lawmakers had earlier addressed a press conference in Port Harcourt, where they accused Fubara of allegedly using blackmail.
Addressing journalists, the deputy speaker, Dumle Maol, claimed Fubara lacked the trust needed to address the crisis rocking the oil-rich state.
They accused the governor of infringing on the 1999 Constitution, saying the parliament was left with no other choice but to apply their legislative power by impeaching him from office.
The lawmakers also claimed the governor and his deputy had resorted to intimidating the parliament.
They, however, thanked President Bola Tinubu for wading into the crisis.
The members also called on the Speaker, Martin Amaewhule, to reconvene the House.
Their position came weeks after they initiated an impeachment process against Fubara and Odu. The lawmakers are accusing them of gross negligence, a move that has heightened political tension in the coastal state.
No amount of intervention or pleading will mitigate the case of Siminalayi Fubara at this stage regarding the determination to impeach him, members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, vowed on Friday, as they opened a new chapter in the ongoing onslaught against the state governor.
Against the backdrop of what appeared like a lull when they failed to sit on Thursday for the same purpose, the members on their return, hinged the blame to go on with the action on the alleged intransigence of Fubara to retrace his step.
For this reason, the called on the state Chief Judge to set up the panel of investigation to look into the allegations of gross misconduct levied against Fubara and his deputy, Ngozi Odu.
Conveying their decision which came in form of a unanimous vote, the assembly members, who vowed to continue with the impeachment process, stressed that no amount of intimidation, blackmail or intervention would stop them this time – the third in the impeachment approach, which was first initiated in November 2023.
Dumle Maol, Deputy Speaker, had earlier told reporters that Fubara lacked the trust needed to address the crisis rocking the oil-rich state, accusing him of multiple infringement on the 1999 Constitution, which left the house with no other choice but to apply their legislative power.
Accusing the governor and his deputy of resorting to intimidation of the parliament, including the dropping of the name of President Bola Tinubu, they thanked the President for wading into the crisis in order to find a solution, but regrated that his efforts were stalled by the same Fubara.
If Peter Obi had mobilised Nigerians against those who rigged him out of the presidential election in 2023, his mandate given to him by the electorate would have been intact and he would have been President today.
This was the contention of Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, who ran with the former Governor of Anambra State, as vice-presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 elections, where Obi was the presidential candidate.
Datti-Ahmed, in an interview currently going viral on social media, told his hosts that anyone seeking to defeat President Bola Tinubu must not rely on the court process but resistance, using Nigerians as was done in the June 12, 1993 election saga against the military.
The outing on Nigeria Right Now, uploaded on YouTube on Thursday, quoted the politician, formerly Senator representing Kaduna Central at the National Assembly, as stating that he made this much clear to Obi, that the judiciary could not resolve the fundamental breaches of the constitution perpetrated by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the last elections.
Hear him: “I told Peter Obi – Supreme Court cannot give you governor and give you presidency. For God’s sake, stand up and do something. The Nigerian Constitution was clearly breached.
“The Nigerian constitution was clearly breached; section 134 2b. It couldn’t be any clearer. Now, if it was June 12 people, and you breached not just the constitution but just one punctuation in their interest, I swear to God, nobody will sleep. They will take it.
“As much as I dislike the fact that they are using the Nigerian constitution, you must give it to them; they fight for their interest. They can organise rallies and can keep it up for three decades. And you are saying, ‘Let’s go to court; let’s go to court.’
“Whoever is going to defeat Tinubu must be ready to, I will use the word, ‘red eye’. You must show your red eyes because on that day that they are declaring the results, the people declaring fake results are criminals, and those who are stopping the declaration of fake results are good citizens. Whoever is going to defeat Tinubu must show red eyes… there’s no going to court.”
In the 2003 Anambra governorship election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Chris Ngige of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) the winner, but Obi, candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), challenged the result and was later affirmed governor by the court of appeal in March 2006.
Similarly, in 2023, Obi challenged Tinubu’s victory, the APC presidential candidate, but his appeal was dismissed up to the supreme court level.
Court halts move to impeach Fubara *Orders CJ to tarry on panel
Impeachment: Do your job, Rivers assembly tells CJ *Insist Fubara must go
Rigging: I warned Obi that judicial option in 2023 won’t work – Datti
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