KASU lecturers quit as ASUU threatens indefinite strike
Abimbola Joseph
More than 200 professors and other academic staff have reportedly left Kaduna State University over deteriorating working conditions, prompting the university’s chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities to threaten an indefinite strike.
ASUU-KASU has given the university authorities and other relevant stakeholders two weeks to begin implementing and domestically adopting the 2025 agreement between the Federal Government and the union.
The union said failure to make meaningful progress within the period would trigger a total and indefinite strike.
The ASUU-KASU chairman, Abubakar Abdullahi, announced the ultimatum on Monday at a press conference at the union’s secretariat in Kaduna.
He said the 2025 FGN-ASUU agreement, which took effect in January 2026, had yet to be implemented at KASU, despite repeated appeals to the university management, Governing Council, Visitor and the Kaduna State Government.
According to Abdullahi, the union had also approached other stakeholders in an effort to resolve the dispute and prevent further deterioration of industrial relations at the institution.
He said the prolonged delay had left KASU academic staff among the lowest-paid university workers in the country, contributing to the departure of experienced lecturers and professors.
The union warned that continued non-implementation would also result in mounting salary arrears from January 2026 and deepen the university’s staffing crisis.
Beyond the federal agreement, ASUU-KASU said several institution-specific matters remained unresolved, including university autonomy, excessive workloads, outstanding promotion arrears, death benefits, group life insurance, wage awards and pension remittances.
Abdullahi said the union’s congress, at its meeting on August 12, resolved to commence industrial action in line with the resolution of ASUU’s National Executive Council meeting held at the University of Abuja on August 8 and 9.
He said the two-week notice was intended to give the authorities a final opportunity to address the outstanding issues and prevent disruption to academic activities.
The union urged the university management and government authorities to act urgently, while appealing to parents and other stakeholders to intervene before the dispute escalates into an indefinite strike.
