By Nahum Sule, Jalingo
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Taraba State University chapter, has warned Governor Agbu Kefas and the university management to immediately honour their agreements with the union or face imminent industrial action.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the branch chairperson, Dr. Joshua Garba Mbave, said the union has run out of patience after months of fruitless negotiations with the state government. He noted that ASUU is now left with no choice but to consider every lawful industrial action permitted under Nigeria’s labour laws if the issues are not addressed within days.
The union described the government’s continued silence and failure to act on signed agreements as a troubling “breach of trust” that threatens the university’s academic calendar.
According to the statement, ASUU-TSU, after its congress on November 19, 2025, is compelled to alert the public, media, civil society organisations, and stakeholders that the state government has consistently ignored binding agreements, disregarded the governor’s own directives, and neglected academic staff welfare—endangering the stability and quality of university education in Taraba State.
Despite several meetings and assurances, the union said government inaction has reached an “unacceptable level.”
ASUU recalled that during a meeting with Governor Kefas in August 2025, the government promised to settle all withheld salaries owed to lecturers on or before December 2025, yet no payment has been made. The union described this as “unjustifiable, inhumane, and a violation of good-faith agreements.”
The statement added that although government acknowledged owing ₦1.7 billion in Earned Academic Allowances (EAA), it only released one ₦50 million installment out of the monthly payment plan agreed to begin in February 2025.
Furthermore, ASUU noted that the governor ordered the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Tertiary Education to submit a clear plan to offset the EAA backlog, but no proposal was ever produced—an action the union considers “administrative sabotage.”
The governor also directed the Head of Service to prepare a memo for creating a functional pension scheme for TSU staff within one week, yet that directive too was ignored. As a result, thousands of staff have no pension security, and retiring academics face severe financial uncertainty.
ASUU described this level of neglect as unacceptable, saying the university cannot operate without essential welfare structures and social protection systems.
While emphasising that the union has consistently chosen dialogue over confrontation, ASUU said the absence of sincerity from government officials has exhausted all goodwill.
The union insisted that responsibility for any disruption of the academic calendar will rest solely on the government and its officials who repeatedly failed to implement clear directives.
ASUU stressed that the prolonged withholding of salaries, refusal to clear the ₦1.7 billion EAA backlog, and failure to establish a pension scheme amount to a deliberate abandonment of responsibility.
The statement concluded that no university can function under such conditions, and unless government acts immediately, ASUU-TSU will activate all legitimate industrial actions available under Nigerian law.
