Lecturers at the University of Lagos have suspended their strike action just hours after it commenced on Wednesday, citing the need to prevent disruption of ongoing student examinations and allow the University administration time to address salary related grievances.
The decision was reached following a meeting between the Academic Staff Union of Universities and the University administration led by the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Development Services), Prof. Foluso Lesi, on Wednesday morning, as well as a resolution at the union's congress held later in the afternoon.
The UNILAG branch of ASUU had on Tuesday directed its members to withdraw their services effective Wednesday in protest against what it described as amputated salaries for January and February 2026, accusing theUuniversity management of failing to pay the Earned Academic Allowance and Consolidated Academic Tools Allowance for Research across the Akoka and Idi Araba campuses in January, as well as the Consolidated Academic Teaching Allowance and professorial allowance for February.
The Chairman of ASUU, UNILAG chapter, Prof. Idowu Kehinde, said the union suspended the strike after the university administration promised to address the issues raised within 48 hours.
According to him, discussions with the management centred on harmonising positions on the Earned Academic Allowances and the professorial allowance for excess workload. Kehinde said the union had also been asked to provide documentary evidence from the salary structure contained in the Federal Government/ASUU 2025 agreement.
"We met with the administration, they made some promises and said they would act in the next 48 hours. ASUU is a union of intellectuals and principles. We are always procedural in whatever we want to do. We cannot throw away all their submissions. As far as they have invited us, we have to listen to them. We took what they offered in good faith, as opposed to what some of them had earlier bandied around, that we acted in bad faith," Kehinde stated.
He explained that the union's grievance centred on allowances. "The issue is our allowances. They only took one aspect out of three and disregarded two. Even the one they took, which is the Earned Allowance, was incomplete. They mutilated it, and we drew their attention to it. If you see our salary structure, you would know what a professor should get for excess workload. They challenged us to produce a paper on a signed agreement, which they also have. But we said we would provide a paper to show that the correct Earned Allowance for excess workload was not paid every month. We resolved that issue, and they promised to look into it within the next 48 hours."
He noted that the decision to suspend the strike was taken during a congress held around 2 pm on Wednesday in order not to disrupt ongoing examinations. "The action is suspended. We have vacated the resolution. The 48 hours have already started counting," he said.
Kehinde emphasised that the union would not allow students writing examinations to suffer because of the dispute. "We cannot have them as pawns on a chessboard because our children are also here. If anybody says anything contrary to what we have on the ground, it is a lie and a false representation of what is going on," he said.
Earlier, the University, through its Head of Communication Unit, Adejoke Alaga Ibraheem, faulted ASUU for declaring an industrial action without following due process. The management, however, said it would continue to engage the union to resolve the issues, particularly the unpaid Consolidated Academic Teaching Allowances, and assured that ongoing students' examinations would proceed as planned.
