The 2009 ASUU Agreement and the FGN’s Endless Broken Promises
By Prof. Mainasara Yakubu Kurfi
Department of Mass Communication, Bayero University, Kano
When the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) voluntarily signed a historic agreement with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in 2009, there was genuine hope that public universities would finally be repositioned for global relevance and visibility. The pact promised revitalization funds, improved welfare package for lecturers, and a renewed commitment to making education the true foundation of national development.
Fifteen years down the line, those promises remain unfulfilled. The ink on the agreement may have long dried, but the government’s failure to honour it has left deep scars. Instead of blossoming, Nigerian universities continue to wither, and what should have been ivory towers of learning have decayed into ruins of neglect.
It is imperative to note that the 2009 agreement was not merely a policy paper. It was a solemn covenant. It offered lecturers better conditions of service, research allowances, and the kind of infrastructural development that could elevate Nigerian universities to compete across Africa and beyond. Yet, successive administrations have treated it casually like a ceremonial handshake that meant everything in the moment and nothing afterward.
Year after year, education has been pushed to the margins of the national budget, with allocations far below UNESCO’s recommended benchmark. The excuse has always been “scarce resources.” But, while the government pleads poverty in funding education, it never fails to allocate billions to political offices, motorcades, and other forms of recurrent wastages.
The real tragedy in governments inactions lies in the human cost. For instance, for every strike triggered by the government’s insincerity, students lose precious years. A four-year programme stretches into six. Parents bear heavier financial and emotional burdens. Many brilliant students and lecturers leave for foreign universities, enriching other nations while Nigeria loses its best brains.
The 2009 agreement has become symbolic of a wider Nigerian malaise, plenty of rhetoric, very little action.
ASUU has often been vilified for its strike actions, with critics accusing the union of punishing students. But, the fundamental question is: what options remain when a government consistently refuses to keep its promises? For ASUU, strikes are not a choice made lightly but a last resort, an alarm bell rung in desperation, in a country where silence is met with indifference.
Even so, the endless cycle has worn lecturers down. Morale is low, and many have traded their chalkboards for better opportunities abroad, leaving behind a system starved of its brightest intellectuals.
Beyond financial excuses, the refusal to honour the 2009 agreement exposes a deeper problem: Nigeria’s chronic undervaluing of education. A nation that fails to invest in its universities cannot hope to build a competitive economy or an innovative society. Instead, the country continues to recycle crises, bequeathing young people broken systems and limited opportunities.
In my view, it is no longer enough to renegotiate or sign fresh memoranda of understanding. What ASUU needs is sincerity and commitment. Government must begin to view education not as a drain on resources but as the most important investment in the nation’s future. The 2009 agreement should therefore not remain a relic of unfulfilled promises but must be implemented in full, with urgency and honesty.
Finally, it should be noted that the Federal Government’s failure to honour the 2009 ASUU agreement is not just an administrative oversight, it is a national betrayal. Unless the FGN begins to treat education with the seriousness it deserves, the cycle of strikes, broken promises, and wasted futures will continue.
The real victims are not politicians or policymakers, but the poor students whose only dream is to be educated.
Prof. Kurfi can be reached via: mykurfi@gmail.com
