The UNILAG chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities declared an indefinite strike effective today Wednesday March 11, 2026 after members received what the union described as “amputated” salaries for both January and February 2026, incomplete payments that excluded key allowances the lecturers are contractually entitled to.
The decision followed an emergency congress held on Tuesday where members deliberated extensively on the salary cuts before reaching a unanimous resolution. In a communiqué signed by branch chairperson Idou Kehinde and secretary Adesina Arikawe, the union stated that lecturers on the Akoka campus received no Earned Academic Allowance payment in January, while those at the Idi-Araba campus were denied both their EAA and Conference Attendance and Training Allowance payments. February salaries across both campuses were similarly cut.
The union described the university administration’s conduct in the strongest possible terms. “The University also unilaterally and wickedly paid amputated February 2026 salary to all our members,” the communiqué read, with ASUU describing the deductions as a violation of decency and accusing management of being “wicked, unfeeling and satanic.”
The timing makes the strike particularly painful for students. The withdrawal of services takes effect today Wednesday March 11, 2026 and will remain in force until the university pays in full all members’ January and February 2026 salaries with no timeline offered for when that might happen. Examinations, lectures and all academic activities are expected to grind to a halt across both campuses.
The crisis is especially frustrating given how recently it seemed resolved. In late 2025, the Federal Government and ASUU reached a landmark renegotiated agreement after years of disputes and recurring strikes. The deal, effective from January 1, 2026, included a 40 percent upward review of academic staff emoluments structured around a new salary scale and revised allowances, an agreement specifically designed to end prolonged industrial actions, improve welfare and stabilise public universities.
The ink on that agreement was barely dry before UNILAG management began cutting the very payments the deal guaranteed.
UNILAG management had not issued any public response at the time of this report.
For thousands of UNILAG students in the middle of an academic semester, the strike raises fresh questions about when they will sit their examinations and whether the academic calendar will once again be a casualty of a dispute their institution should have prevented.
