The Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa By Muhammad Farouk The Federal Government has reaffirmed its commitment to ending the cycle of indu...
The Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa
By Muhammad Farouk
The Federal Government has reaffirmed its commitment to ending the cycle of industrial strikes in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions, pledging improved dialogue and fulfilment of agreements with academic unions.
Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, gave the assurance during an interview on Channels Television on Tuesday. He said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had issued a firm directive to ensure uninterrupted academic activities across the nation’s universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education.
“The President has directed that not again—never again in this country—will ASUU or any of our tertiary institution unions go on strike,” Alausa stated emphatically.
He stressed that sustained engagement and trust-building between the government and various academic and non-academic unions—such as ASUU, NASU, SSANU, and COEASU—were essential to maintaining industrial harmony.
“There has to be a lot of relationship-building with ASUU, NASU, SANU, COEASU, everybody. And beyond that, the government demonstrating goodwill—meeting its obligations to these unions,” he added.
The Minister acknowledged that past administrations often reneged on agreements made with unions, which led to repeated strike actions. However, he assured that the current administration is taking a different approach by actively engaging union leaders and honouring commitments.
“They sit, they agree, then the unions ask when implementation will start. But over the years, government just reneges. That’s not what we’re doing now—we’re talking with them actively,” Alausa said.
Addressing concerns about recent salary delays raised by some academic staff, Alausa clarified that government salaries are still being paid regularly. He attributed the delays to a recent transition from the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) to the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS), which offers institutions greater control over their funds.
“We’re paying salaries. What happened is that after tertiary institutions went off IPPIS—which was very restrictive—the President graciously approved the switch to GIFMIS. The way salaries are processed, government starts paying from the 25th of each month, prioritizing those on IPPIS first. That’s why, in the past six months, some payments to tertiary institutions came around the 8th or 9th of the next month,” he explained.
With this renewed commitment, the government hopes to usher in a new era of stability in the education sector, restoring confidence among students, parents, and education stakeholders.
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