President Bola Tinubu has celebrated the absence of strikes by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) under his administration, calling it a direct answer to the nation’s collective prayers.
Speaking on Tuesday at the State House in Abuja during a meeting with the leadership of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), the President highlighted the stability now being enjoyed in the tertiary education sector as one of the measurable gains of his tenure.
“None of your children in university today—and I say they are all your children, because you are reverend fathers—can say a four-year course is not four years,” Tinubu said. “ASUU is not on strike. They are not bringing agony to your homes. Is that not an answer to our prayers? To me, that’s an answer.”
The President acknowledged the economic hardships faced by Nigerians, attributing them to challenges inherited from previous administrations. However, he insisted that the country was now experiencing a new phase of stability that was beginning to improve the quality of life for citizens.
“The security situation is what it is. We don’t have another country but this—this Nigeria. And we revert to our national anthem, in its complexity and diversity, we shall thrive, rejoice, and be good to all of us,” he added.
Tinubu’s remarks come against the backdrop of a turbulent history in Nigeria’s university system.
Between 1999 and 2022, ASUU embarked on multiple industrial actions that cumulatively resulted in over five years of lost academic time. The most devastating was the eight-month strike in 2022—the longest in the union’s history—which paralyzed public universities and left millions of students at home.
Since Tinubu took office, however, there has been a noticeable lull in prolonged union actions, bringing relief to students, parents, and stakeholders across the education sector.
