For years, industrial strikes in Nigerian tertiary institutions have done more harm than good to students, placing their academic welfare at detriment.

These strike actions, which often disrupt academic activities in the country’s institutions of higher learning, have had the antecedent of  undermining the sanctity of public education, one of the fundamental social services the government is constitutionally mandated to provide for its citizens.

The consequential effects of these strike actions  are, time and time again in past sessions, evident in the academic well-being of the students, yet little has been done to address the factors responsible for them.

Less than 24 hours, the recently declared strike action at the University of Ibadan exposed students to an unfavorable atmosphere.   The  University Health Service, best referred to as Jaja Clinic, was shut down.

With  the absence of hostel portals and the University’s Works and Maintenance, the students were left stranded on water supply and electricity. Although the strike was short-lived,  lasting less than 5 days, its  impact and ripple effects were felt across the campus.

Strikes within Nigeria’s university system are far from new. Over the decades, industrial actions by various staff unions have repeatedly interrupted academic calendars and destabilized university operations. While ASUU strikes are often the most visible because they directly halt lectures, strikes by non-academic unions expose another reality: universities cannot function without the workers who sustain their administrative and operational systems.

When these unions withdraw their services, essential campus operations collapse. Administrative services slow down, health centres become strained, water and electricity supply are affected, hostel management deteriorates, and documentation processes become difficult or impossible. Students are left stranded in an environment designed to support learning but rendered dysfunctional by recurring institutional crises.

The consequences are always severe as academic calendars become distorted. Students met to spend four years are expected to spend more years in school than originally planned. The outcome when the strike is over has always been rushed academic schedule by affected universities. The unpredictability of these disruptions has gradually normalized instability within Nigeria’s tertiary education system.

As part of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu education promises at the beginning of his administration, he promised an end to incessant strikes in the education sector. This has remained a major emphasis of the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa who has on several occassions emphasized this. However, despite these assurances, the underlying problems remain unresolved as the academic union has embarked on warning strike while threaten a firm action on the poor implementation of the renogotiated agreement.

Contrary to popular opinion, there are four major staff unions operating within Nigerian universities: ASUU, SSANU, NASU, and the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT). Each union exists primarily to protect the welfare of its members and demand better working conditions whenever agreements are neglected or violated.

SSANU represents the senior non-academic staff in Nigerian universities. Its members include personnel in registries, bursaries, works and maintenance departments, student affairs divisions, and other administrative units. Registrars, bursars, and other top administrative officials also fall within this category. In many ways, SSANU forms the administrative backbone of the university system.

NASU, on the other hand, represents the junior and intermediate non-academic workforce across universities and educational institutions. Its membership includes clerical staff, technicians, cleaners, security personnel, drivers, laboratory assistants, and other support workers responsible for the daily operational functioning of the institution.

While SSANU operates largely at the administrative and supervisory level, NASU handles much of the hands-on labour that keeps universities running. Together, both unions constitute a critical part of the university workforce beyond the classroom. Over the years these union has expressed their displeasure on the way their welfarism is handled. 

A total strike action from these unions has been seen to hold far more implications than what seems to be observed when the academic staff are on strike. Apparently, the Universities cannot function effectively when the workers responsible for power supply, water distribution, hostel maintenance, health support services, laboratory operations, and institutional records are absent. Despite this revelation, their affairs are still left unattended to.

On May 6, 2026, students protested the poor living conditions caused by the disruption of water and electricity supply on campus due to total industrial action declared by the joint action committee of NASU and SSANU. Before the protest, some lectures had already been moved outside lecture theatres, while others were conducted virtually in attempts to sustain academic activities despite the deteriorating environment. The reality remains that at the centre of all these crises are students; the grass that suffers when two elephants fight. 

Their struggles did not begin today. Historically, industrial actions by ASUU reflect the long-standing structural crisis within Nigeria’s public university system. Since the late 1980s, ASUU has repeatedly confronted successive governments over poor funding, infrastructural decay, earned allowances, university autonomy, academic freedom, and the failure of governments to implement signed agreements. During the Military regime, the struggle was not different and the narrative remained same. The Union embarks on strike, academic activities were distriputed and students were left to bear the outcome alongside the lecturers.

Following Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999 under President Olusegun Obasanjo, expectations were high that the education sector would improve. Instead, ASUU embarked on a nationwide strike only months into the new civilian administration. The strike, which lasted about five months, centered on disagreements over university funding, salaries, and the implementation of previous agreements. 

Yet again, another major strike followed in 2001, and this was fueled by demands for improved welfare packages, better funding, and the reinstatement of lecturers dismissed at the University of Ilorin. Despite this actions the narrative remains same. Headlines like “ASUU Embarks on Total and Indefinite Strike” are not far-fetched.

Between 2001 and 2008, Nigeria witnessed several industrial disputes within the university system, but perhaps the most defining moment came in 2009.

Under President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, ASUU embarked on a nationwide strike that lasted about four months. The strike eventually led to the signing of the famous 2009 FG-ASUU Agreement, which promised increased funding for universities, improved conditions of service, earned academic allowances, and greater university autonomy.

However, the government’s failure to fully implement the agreement would later become the foundation of future strikes.

While ASUU received the most public attention, SSANU and NASU also pressed for improved salary structures, welfare packages, and better funding for tertiary institutions. Over the years, the 2009 agreement evolved into a broader reference point for multiple unions within the university system.

Under President Goodluck Jonathan, industrial disputes continued over the non-implementation of agreements and poor welfare conditions. During the Buhari administration, the crisis deepened further.

The 2020 ASUU strike, which lasted about nine months during the COVID-19 pandemic, became one of the longest in Nigeria’s educational history. Apart from issues of funding and earned allowances, the dispute also revolved around the Federal Government’s Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), which ASUU argued undermined university autonomy.

In 2022, another prolonged ASUU strike lasted about eight months. The Federal Government invoked the “No Work, No Pay” policy, while students and parents expressed growing frustration over the repeated shutdown of public universities.

Similarly, NASU and SSANU also embarked on industrial actions over withheld salaries, poor infrastructure, unpaid allowances, and what they described as the neglect of non-academic staff. The unions argued that while lecturers often dominated public discourse, non-academic workers who sustained the university system were frequently overlooked.

Their concerns were not without merit. A university is more than lecture halls and professors. It is a complex system sustained by administrative officers, technologists, health workers, cleaners, technicians, and support staff whose contributions are often invisible until they withdraw their services.

Despite several negotiations over the decades, the same issues continue to reappear: poor funding, infrastructural decay, unpaid allowances, delayed salaries, weak governance structures, and the persistent failure of governments to honor agreements reached with unions.

Today, the 2009 agreement still remains a reference point in negotiations between the Federal Government and university unions. Although the Federal Government reportedly signed a renegotiated agreement with ASUU on January 14, 2026, implementation has remained slow and uncertain.

The renegotiated agreement reportedly includes a 40 percent salary increase for academic staff, improved pension benefits, increased funding for research and infrastructure, stronger university autonomy, and the establishment of a National Research Council to support research funding.

Yet, months after the signing, implementation remains sluggish. SSANU and NASU, meanwhile, continue to demand improved salary structures, welfare packages, payment of allowances, and fair treatment in negotiations involving university workers.

The ultimate question remains: can the Renewed Hope Agenda truly renew the hopes of Nigerian students while these structural crises persist?

The Federal Government cannot continue to approach university crises with temporary negotiations and delayed implementation strategies. Education cannot thrive where agreements are repeatedly ignored. Universities cannot function effectively under chronic underfunding. Staff welfare cannot be treated as an afterthought while institutions are expected to compete globally.

More importantly, students must no longer remain the collateral damage of recurring disputes between governments and unions. The government must move beyond rhetoric and commit to sustainable reforms in tertiary education funding, welfare structures, infrastructure development, and policy implementation. 

For decades, the elephants have continued to fight. And for just as long, the grass has continued to suffer. A nation that repeatedly shuts down its universities cannot convincingly claim to prioritize education. Until agreements are honored and reforms become consistent rather than reactionary, the cycle will continue and students will remain trapped beneath the weight of battles they did not create.