President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has weighed in on the lingering face-off between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), directing the Minister of Education, Dr. Olatunji Alausa, to ensure that all outstanding issues are resolved once and for all.
Meanwhile, Dr. Alausa has countered ASUU’s claims, stating that the Federal Government has never signed any binding agreement with the union. He clarified that what past administrations had with the staff unions were draft agreements, which were never formally signed by the parties.
Speaking to newsmen shortly after hosting Miss Nafisa Abdullah Aminu, a 17-year-old Yobe State student who recently won the world title in English Language Skills at the 2025 TeenEagle Global Finals in London, Alausa denied reports that he had a scheduled meeting with ASUU’s leadership on Thursday.
ASUU President, Prof. Chris Piwuna also confirmed to the Akelicious that no invitation for a meeting had been extended to the union.
“The union did not receive any formal invitation for a meeting,” he said.
Alausa, however, explained that contrary to the reports, the government’s focus was not on a direct meeting with ASUU but rather on an internal session to review the union’s proposals and prepare a sustainable counter-offer.
“Today, I don’t know where the story came from that we were meeting ASUU. We did not plan to meet ASUU. What we did was meet on the government’s side, at the highest level, to carefully review their proposals line by line,” he said.
He further stressed that President Tinubu had given his team a clear mandate to resolve the lingering issues from the 2009 FGN–ASUU agreement “once and for all.”
“When the President came in, he told Nigerians he would put this country on a path of sustainability—not just for today, but for 10 years, 30 years, even into the future. He has directed us to solve this ASUU problem permanently, not superficially,” the Minister declared.
Alausa also revealed that a seven-member technical team has been set up to fine-tune the government’s counter-proposal before it is presented to the government.
