By: Babagana Bukar Wakil, Maiduguri
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), University of Maiduguri Chapter, has strongly condemned the Federal Government’s decision to rename the institution as Muhammadu Buhari University, describing the move as a violation of university autonomy and an affront to academic freedom.
Speaking at a press conference in Maiduguri on Tuesday, the ASUU UNIMAID Chapter Chairperson, Dr. Abubakar Mshelia Saidu, said the renaming was imposed without consultation with the university’s governing council, staff, students, alumni, or host community. According to him, the decision undermines the integrity of Nigeria’s higher education system and represents a dangerous precedent for the politicization of universities.
“This action is provocative, unacceptable, and deeply offensive to the values of academic freedom, institutional integrity, and democratic governance,” Dr. Saidu declared. “The name University of Maiduguri is not a political ornament. It is an identity rooted in decades of scholarship, sacrifice, and service to the North-East and Nigeria at large. To erase that legacy without engagement is to insult the very soul of this institution.”
The union warned that politicizing universities by rebranding them in the name of political leaders would erode their credibility and compromise academic independence. It therefore called on the Federal Government to immediately reverse the decision and respect the autonomy of higher institutions across the country.
Beyond the renaming controversy, ASUU used the briefing to raise wider concerns over what it described as the government’s persistent neglect of public university education. The union accused successive administrations of failing to honour the 2009 ASUU-FGN Agreement and subsequent reports such as the Nemi Briggs and Yayale Ahmed recommendations, which were designed to address chronic underfunding, poor infrastructure, and inadequate remuneration for lecturers. Dr. Saidu noted that sixteen years after the landmark agreement, most provisions remain unfulfilled, leaving universities in dire condition.
The union also rejected the Tertiary Institutions Staff Support Fund (TISSF), a loan scheme introduced by the government, describing it as demeaning and inadequate. According to ASUU, what lecturers need is improved remuneration and implementation of agreements, not loans disguised as support. It further condemned the government’s continued withholding of salaries and arrears, including the punitive stoppage of three and a half months’ pay during the 2022 strike, as well as unpaid promotion arrears and wage awards.
ASUU faulted the non-remittance of third-party deductions such as pension and cooperative contributions, saying it was a breach of trust that jeopardizes staff welfare and retirement security. The union also criticised the proliferation of universities while existing ones remain underfunded, pointing out that over 30 institutions recently admitted no new students due to inadequate facilities and poor funding. It further decried the plight of retiring professors, some of whom receive as little as ₦150,000 monthly under the contributory pension scheme despite decades of service.
Dr. Saidu stressed that ASUU had shown extraordinary restraint by pursuing dialogue, writing letters, and attending meetings, but the government has remained unresponsive. He warned that if the situation persists, industrial action would become inevitable, adding that the responsibility would rest squarely with the government.
“The legacy of UNIMAID, painstakingly built over five decades, will not be sacrificed on the altar of political expediency,” the ASUU chairperson declared. “We will not relent, we will not surrender, and we will not allow the autonomy of our universities to be trampled in silence.”
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