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NANS gives FG, ASUU one-week ultimatum to resolve dispute
The National Association of Nigerian Students has delivered an ultimatum requiring the Federal Government and ASUU to settle their differences within one week to avert potential academic disruptions.
Through a Wednesday statement from President Olushola Oladoja, the student organization voiced alarm over escalating friction between both parties, emphasizing that any interference with the academic schedule would be deemed intolerable.
Oladoja highlighted that Nigerian tertiary institutions had experienced two consecutive years of uninterrupted academic activities under President Bola Tinubu’s administration—an unprecedented achievement since democracy’s restoration in 1999. Yet ASUU’s latest strike threats now endanger this accomplishment.
READ ALSO: No Work, No Pay: ASUU vows not to bow to FG’s pressure
“It is, therefore, in this spirit that NANS appeals to both ASUU and the Federal Government’s negotiation team to find a workable and lasting solution within the next seven (7) days. Nigerian students, many of whom are now studying through educational loans, cannot afford to have their academic calendar disrupted or their duration on campus extended again,” Oladoja warned.
The student leader acknowledged various educational initiatives implemented by President Tinubu, including the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, withdrawal of tertiary institution staff from IPPIS, cancellation of the 40% internally generated revenue remittance requirement, and dedicated TETFund programs as evidence of governmental dedication to educational advancement.
Nevertheless, Oladoja criticized inadequate dialogue and delayed fulfillment of ASUU agreements for generating avoidable conflict.
“However, the recent threat of industrial action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has become a source of concern to Nigerian students nationwide. It is regrettable that despite the huge progress recorded, this strike, a result of miscommunication and poor crisis management with timely implementation of the resolutions earlier reached with ASUU, is thereby creating avoidable tension that now threatens the peace and progress of the education sector,” he said.
According to NANS investigations, a previously scheduled government meeting addressing ASUU concerns failed when the union boycotted due to procedural disputes.
“We have secured assurances from both parties that they are ready to attend the meeting once it is properly reconvened. NANS, therefore, calls on the government to immediately reconvene the meeting to close this communication gap,” he stated.
Oladoja urged direct presidential involvement, cautioning that delayed action could damage the credibility and stability established within the education sector.
“We strongly emphasise the need for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, to personally intervene at this crucial time to prevent the gains achieved in the education sector under his Renewed Hope Administration from being eroded by another strike action.
“Nigerian students remain grateful and supportive of President Tinubu’s unwavering commitment to education and student welfare. However, if this impasse is not resolved and the strike persists beyond seven days, it risks undermining the progress and goodwill recorded under this administration.
“Now is the time for dialogue, understanding, and decisive action—the future of millions of Nigerian students depends on it,” Oladoja said.
ASUU commenced its warning strike on Monday following the lapse of a two-week notice period given to federal authorities regarding unresolved demands.
Academic staff are pressing for fulfillment of the revised 2009 ASUU-FGN Agreement, restoration of three-and-a-half months’ withheld wages, university infrastructure renewal, and reliable tertiary education financing.
Additional concerns include outstanding salary arrears of 25–35%, promotion backlogs exceeding four years, and unreleased cooperative fund deductions.
Negotiations over the 2009 agreement have remained deadlocked since 2017 despite multiple committee formations across different administrations.
The latest committee, led by Yayale Ahmed, delivered its findings in December 2024, though implementation remains pending.
Education Minister Tunji Alausa reportedly instructed university administrators to apply the “No Work, No Pay” principle against striking faculty members—a directive that has intensified tensions among academic personnel.
The industrial action has already interrupted ongoing examinations across numerous universities nationwide, creating considerable unease among students and their families.
Justice Muhammad Nuraddeen Bello of High Court sitting in Sokoto State has sentenced three men, including a foreign national, to death by hanging, after convicting them on charges bordering on terrorism and arms proliferation.
The convicts, Yusuf Muhammad (alias Sallau), a Nigerien; Jabbi Alhaji Yalle; and Kabiru Muhammad, were apprehended on 13th June, 2025, by the Department of State Services (DSS) Counter Terrorism Unit in connection with cross-border criminal activities bordering on arms trafficking and terrorism.
Bello, who found all three defendants guilty as charged and sentenced them to death by hanging, while also ordering the forfeiture of all monetary exhibits recovered from the convicts to the Federal Government, said: “The conviction is the latest in a series of successful prosecutions by the DSS in its sustained operations against terrorism and organised cross-border criminal networks across Nigeria.”
The sentencing is coming about two weeks after the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja sentenced each of the five suspects arrested on May 31, 2026, by the DSS for their involvement in the November 21, 2025, attack on St Mary’s Catholic School, Papiri, Niger State, to 25 years’ imprisonment.
Justice Binta Nyako, had handed down the judgment after the men, including two Nigeriens, pleaded guilty to all four terrorism-related charges, bordering on support for the commission of an act of terrorism, breaching both Section 16 of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, and the Firearms Act, were pressed against them.
According to Count One, the men were accused of jointly conspiring to assist a terrorist by agreeing and intentionally playing various roles towards conveying 15 AK 103 rifles as well as about 1,434 rounds of 7.62mm live ammunition from the Diffa region, Republic of Niger, to one Malam Ahmad, a member of the Boko Haram terrorist group based in Borgu, Niger State, and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 26(1) of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.
Primate Elijah Ayodele, is on the verge of coughing out a whopping N10billion, if he fails to offer unrestrained apology to Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, former Governor of Kano State within the next 24 hours, and retract his claim that the former Minister of Defence is bidding his time to betray Peter Obi, to whom he is to contest the 2027 presidential election as a running mate.
Without doing so, the controversial cleric, should be ready for a major court battle with the vice-presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), the platform on which the pair is to contest the election.
In a letter indicating a legal action against Ayodele of the INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church over defamatory remarks, Kwankwaso, through Magaji Mato Ibrahim, SAN & Co., his lawyers demanded an immediate retraction and apology from the cleric over the allegations.
Details of the letter, dated June 11, and unveiled through the X platform of the legal team, was based on a viral video recorded during a live-streamed church service, where the preacher made allegations targeting Kwankwaso’s integrity as Peter Obi’s running mate under the NDC.
Quoting the cleric as stating: “KWANKWASO IS A FAKE TO OBI, KWANKWASO WILL BETRAY YOU. KWANKWASO HAS BEEN PAID TO BE VICE PRESIDENT TO OBI AMONG OTHER LIBELOUS COMMENTS WHILE PRETENDING TO BE A PREACHER,” the former governor said the comments were unprovoked, grossly unfounded, and carefully designed to create a rift within the ranks of the political party and its supporters.
Handing Ayodele a 24-hour ultimatum to publish a full and unequivocal retraction across all social media platforms and news outlets with the same prominence as the original video, they also demanded a written undertaking that he would cease and desist from making any further malicious statements against their client, warning that failure to comply, would lead to full legal actions.
The letter stated: “We shall claim substantial damages to the tune of Ten Billion Naira and cost of the action on a full indemnity basis amongst other reliefs.”
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Tuesday demanded the immediate end to the exportation of minerals from countries in Africa in their raw forms, which he said had led to massive exploitation of the continent.
The President, told member countries of the African Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG), a forum of Ministers in charge of Mining and Solid Minerals on the continent to speak with one voice to promote, collective interests, ensure value addition, and prevent the continent from becoming merely a source of raw materials for the rest of the world.
As the Grand Patron of the group, chaired by Dele Alake, Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, gave the charge while receiving a delegation of AMSG in the State House, Tinubu told the delegation that the group had a critical role to play in strengthening Africa’s bargaining power in the global mineral market and ensuring that the continent derives maximum value from its natural resources.
His words: “ What we should do is avoid bureaucracy and deceit; we must put an end to exploitation. The rest of the world won’t mind if your country is a cesspit of dams and rubbish and excavates your raw materials without giving value.
“It is our responsibility to collaborate and cooperate to ensure that these metals and minerals bring value to us, bring technology to us, and we can do it. It is how much each country will put into the research, development and refinery. I don’t see reasons we cannot demand centralisation of that conversation somewhere on the continent. So why not utilise that in our research and development and knowledge-based economy to enhance the quality of life and bring prosperity to our people.”
Emphasising that Africa possessed enormous mineral wealth that should be strategically harnessed to drive industrialisation, create jobs and accelerate economic transformation across the continent, the President, said the era of exporting raw minerals without local processing and beneficiation must give way to a new model that encourages investment in local industries, technology transfer and the development of value chains that retain wealth within Africa.
Alake, who had earlier expressed gratitude to the President for his exemplary leadership under the Renewed Hope Agenda, said the gesture had shown support for Nigeria’s mineral sector, especially in the local value-addition and economic diversification drive, where artisanal miners are empowered.
He told the President: “You encouraged us to look at the focal point of the establishment of this group, which is to ensure that the African natural resources, especially with regards to minerals, critical matters, are localised, the beneficiation coming directly to Africans generally.
“You charged us that we should set our sails very high and ensure that local value addition is a pivot around which all the objectives of this organisation should revolve.
“So, sir, we have gone implemented your charge and we are quitted that today local value addition is reverberating all over Africa.”
He added that some member countries have gone ahead to ban the export of raw minerals.
He explained members of the body were in Abuja for the Fifth edition of the African Natural Resources and Energy Investment Summit (AFNIS 2026), to push for a new continental approach to resource management and industrial development.
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