The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) Akure Zone announced on Monday, August 25, that it is mobilizing members across Nigeria for a nationwide rally set for Tuesday, August 26, 2025.
The union said the rallies aim to pressure the Federal Government to address its longstanding demands, citing frustration over continued government inaction.
ASUU’s Zonal Coordinator, Adeola Oyebisi Egbedokun, made the announcement during a press conference at the Federal University of Oye-Ekiti. He described the planned rallies as the union’s first firm response to the government’s failure to act and warned that the protests are a warning sign of what could follow if their concerns remain ignored.
The rallies will take place simultaneously across universities nationwide, with academic activities suspended during the demonstrations.
Egbedokun added that the National Executive Council (NEC) of ASUU has given the government until its scheduled meeting on August 28 to respond to the union’s demands. Beyond that date, ASUU will decide on the next course of action.
“For over two years, we have maintained dialogue and avoided strikes, but our patience has run out. If the government continues to toy with the future of our universities, it must face the consequences of the storm to come,” he warned.
Key demands include renegotiating the 2009 ASUU-FGN Agreement, opposing the Tertiary Institutions Social Support Fund (TISSF) loan scheme—which the union calls financial coercion—halting the unchecked proliferation of new universities, and improving retirement benefits for professors and staff.
Egbedokun also called on the public, including the Nigerian Inter-Religious Council (NIREC), National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), traditional rulers, and the National Assembly, to urge the government to prevent an avoidable confrontation.
He accused the government of hypocrisy and neglect, highlighting the abandonment of the Yayale Ahmed report, the “debt trap” of the TISSF loan scheme, the unchecked creation of new universities, and poor treatment of retired academics.
“This government has chosen to mock knowledge, insult scholars, and undermine the foundation of our nation’s future. Enough is enough,” he declared.
Stressing that the responsibility to prevent a crisis now rests solely with the government, Egbedokun concluded:
“The ball is no longer in our court; it is firmly in theirs. They must choose—justice or judgment, action or upheaval, peace or storm.”
