Implement FG deal in Ondo varsities, ASUU urges Aiyedatiwa

The Akure Zone of the Academic Staff Union of Universities has called on the Ondo State Government to implement the 2025 Federal Government-ASUU Agreement across all state-owned tertiary institutions.

The union expressed concern over what it described as the state government’s failure to implement the financial components of the agreement, six months after it came into effect.

Speaking with journalists at the University of Medical Sciences, Ondo, on Wednesday, the ASUU Akure Zonal Coordinator, Adeola Egbedokun, said the delay was affecting lecturers’ welfare and the quality of higher education in the state.

Egbedokun said although the state government was aware of the agreement, it had yet to adopt and implement its provisions, resulting in lecturers being denied benefits provided under the pact.

According to him, the 2025 Federal Government-ASUU Agreement, signed on December 23, 2025, was the first comprehensive agreement between the Federal Government and ASUU since the 2009 agreement and took effect on January 1, 2026.

He said the financial provisions of the agreement include the Consolidated Academic and Research Allowance, Earned Academic Allowance, and Professorial Allowance.

“The union agreed to forfeit over N100 billion in accumulated Earned Academic Allowance arrears owed by the Federal Government on the condition that the allowance would be mainstreamed into lecturers’ monthly salaries at 10 per cent of their basic pay.

“Regrettably, up till today, the Ondo State Government has failed to implement this agreement. These provisions were carefully negotiated to improve staff welfare, encourage academic productivity and excellence in research, and enhance the quality of university education across the country.

“There is no justification for the delay because state governments possess the authority, responsibility and financial capacity to implement the agreement,” he said.

Egbedokun argued that Ondo, as the leading oil-producing state in the South-West and a beneficiary of the 13 per cent derivation fund, should have been among the first states to implement the agreement.

He also criticised the state’s decision to set up a committee to review the agreement, saying such a move was unnecessary since representatives of state-owned universities participated in the negotiations that produced the pact.

“What is required is implementation, not prolonged committee engagements that merely postpone government action while lecturers continue to suffer. If the Federal Government has already signed and implemented the agreement and several states have commenced implementation, what exactly is Ondo State constituting another committee for?

“Failure to act with the urgency demanded by this situation will leave ASUU with no option but to activate all lawful and legitimate actions available within the framework of trade unionism to press home its demands,” he added.

Reacting, the Ondo State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Prof. Igbekele Ajibefun, said the government had already begun taking steps towards implementing the agreement.

He, however, noted that Ondo was not the only state yet to domesticate the agreement.

“I am sure that very soon, the Ondo State Government will take action on it. You should also know that the agreement was signed between the Federal Government and ASUU and is to be domesticated by state governments. Most state governments have not implemented it, so it is not only Ondo State.

“Within the ASUU zone to which Ondo State belongs, none of the states has implemented the agreement. However, Ondo State is already working on its implementation and has taken proactive steps in that direction,” the commissioner said.