LAGOS NIGERIA: Lecturers walked out of classrooms across three Lagos State-owned universities on Tuesday. No warning shot this time. Just the doors closing.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities, through its Joint Campus Group covering Lagos State University, Lagos State University of Education, and Lagos State University of Science and Technology, declared what it called a “total, comprehensive and indefinite” strike. Effective immediately.
This didn’t come out of nowhere. ASUU gave the Lagos State Government a 14-day ultimatum on August 31. That deadline expired on September 13. Silence followed. A final warning on September 10 spelled it out in plain terms: the union said inaction could no longer be sustained. The government let the clock run out anyway.
At the centre of the standoff sits the December 2025 ASUU-Federal Government agreement, a document Lagos State has yet to domesticate or implement, according to the union. Salaries. Retirement benefits owed to retired professors. Welfare demands that lecturers say have gathered dust for months while officials talked in circles.
Comrade Olusegun Babalola, Coordinator of the ASUU-LASU Steering Committee, put the frustration on record. The union, he said, had waited patiently and made repeated attempts to engage the government in good faith. Those attempts, in the union’s telling, only bought the government more time to stall.
Grace Olayemi, acting chair at ASUU-LASUED, and Murisiku Onigemo, chairman at ASUU-LASUSTECH, co-signed the declaration. A unified front across all three campuses. That matters. It tells the state government this isn’t one disgruntled branch letting off steam. It’s coordinated, and it’s staying coordinated until something gives.
For students at LASU, LASUED and LASUSTECH, the timing could hardly be worse. Semesters interrupted. Graduation timelines thrown into doubt. Parents who’ve already paid tuition now watching academic calendars collapse with no end date attached.
ASUU insists the door to talks remains open. The union says it will call off the action the moment government moves to sign, domesticate and fully implement the 2025 agreement. Until then, lecture halls stay empty.
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This isn’t an isolated flashpoint either. Strike actions tied to the same unresolved 2025 agreement have already hit other campuses this year, including a walkout at Adekunle Ajasin University in Ondo State back in August. A pattern is forming. Universities across Nigeria are running out of patience with promises that don’t turn into signatures.
The Lagos State Government has not issued an official response.
“Silence is no longer an option,” ASUU warned days before the walkout. Lagos just found out the union meant it.
