ASUU Warns Of Collapse As 309 Professors Leave Nigerian Universities

The Academic Staff Union of Universities has raised alarm over what it called the steady decline of Nigeria’s public university system, revealing that at least 309 professors have left the country’s universities since the last strike.

The revelation came during a town hall meeting organised by the ASUU branch of Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, where lecturers, students, and civil society representatives gathered to discuss the worsening state of higher education.

ASUU leaders said the massive exit of professors was a direct result of poor welfare, unpaid allowances, and what they described as the government’s failure to honour long-standing agreements. Many of the departed academics, they noted, have taken up teaching and research positions in countries such as the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, and Cameroon, while others joined private universities in Nigeria.

Zonal Chairman of ASUU for Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara, and Katsina States, Professor Abubakar Sabo, said the exodus reflects a deep crisis in the education sector. He accused the government of frustrating attempts to fix the problems, saying it had failed to act on the report of the Yayale Ahmed Committee submitted since January 2025.

Sabo explained that despite ASUU’s two-week ultimatum earlier in the year, authorities responded with empty promises and attempts to delay action by involving other tertiary institutions in new rounds of negotiation.

He said the union’s demands remain unchanged — proper funding of universities, respect for autonomy, payment of earned academic allowances, and implementation of revised conditions of service. Without these, he warned, the country’s public universities would continue to lose their best brains to foreign institutions offering better opportunities.

At the meeting, the Chairperson of ASUU Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Professor Muhammad Nurudeen Almustapha, said the gathering was aimed at drawing public attention to the growing crisis in higher education. He noted that government neglect had turned ASUU’s struggles into a recurring cycle of strikes and unfulfilled promises.

According to Almustapha, years of poor policy implementation and weak commitment to agreements have left Nigeria’s universities underfunded and unattractive to scholars. He said unless urgent reforms are made, the country risks losing its academic competitiveness across Africa.

Participants at the town hall, including students and members of civil society, expressed concern that the academic brain drain could permanently weaken public universities. They called on the Federal Government to treat education as a national priority and engage the union in genuine dialogue.

ASUU, however, warned that it might be forced to take stronger actions if the situation persists. Professor Sabo said the union’s patience was wearing thin, insisting that lecturers could no longer remain silent while public universities fall apart.

He said the union’s struggle is not about personal gains but about saving a collapsing system that once produced some of Africa’s finest scholars. For now, the lecturers are waiting to see if the government will act — or push them back to the trenches once again.