The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Taraba State University branch, has officially resumed its suspended indefinite strike action effective Wednesday, February 18, 2026. This escalation follows the Taraba State Government’s failure to implement the terms of a memorandum of agreement reached on January 17, 2025. In a formal communiqué issued in Jalingo and signed by the branch chairman, Dr Joshua Garba Mbave, the union expressed profound disappointment over the government's inability to take verifiable steps toward fulfilling its financial and administrative obligations. Although the industrial action had been previously suspended to allow for good-faith negotiations, the union’s congress concluded during its latest sitting that no meaningful progress had been made to address the systemic neglect of the institution.
The strike is declared as total, comprehensive, and indefinite, affecting all academic activities within the university until further notice. Central to the dispute is a series of unresolved grievances, most notably the absence of a functional pension scheme for university staff and the continued non payment of significant salary arrears. Furthermore, the union cited the government's refusal to settle accumulated Earned Academic Allowances (EAA) and the failure to implement the newly negotiated 2025 ASUU Federal Government agreement at the state level. Dr Mbave emphasised that the decision was a last resort, taken only after sustained dialogue failed to produce concrete results, leaving the university’s workforce with depleted morale and compromised welfare. The union maintains that the responsibility for the resulting academic disruption lies solely with the state administration’s lack of commitment to the prior agreement.
