President Bola Tinubu has directed the Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, to do everything possible to ensure the country’s public universities remain open for students to continue academic activities.

This was disclosed by the Minister while speaking with newsmen after a meeting with the President at the Aso Rock Villa in Abuja.

According to Alausa, President Tinubu has instructed that the industrial dispute with the members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) should be resolved, as he does not want another strike to disrupt academic activities across public universities in the country.

The Minister also assured that the government had already met “literally all” of ASUU’s demands and is now working to get more backing from the President.

“The President has mandated us that he doesn’t want ASUU to go on strike, and we’re doing everything humanly possible to ensure that our students stay in school. The last strike they went on for about six days was not really needed.

“We’ve met literally all their requirements. Now we’ve gone back to the negotiation table. Part of my visit here today is to also explain where we are with the ASUU strike to Mr. President and to extract more concessions from him,” the minister said.

Speaking on the recent six-day warning strike embarked upon by ASUU, Alausa described it as “not really needed.”

He disclosed that the government and ASUU have gone back to the negotiating table with a view to resolving all outstanding issues.

“The last strike they went on for about six days was not really needed. We’re talking to them…Now we’ve gone back to the negotiation table. We’re talking as he spoke to the leadership this morning. We will resolve this.

“And part of my visit today here is to also explain where we are with the ASUU strike to Mr. President and to extract more concessions from Mr. President,” he stated.

Alausa also confirmed that the Tinubu administration has consolidated negotiations by creating a single committee, under the leadership of Yayale Ahmed, to deal with all tertiary-staff unions, including ASUU, the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, and the Colleges of Education Staff Union. This replaces the previous arrangement in which each union had its own committee.

“What we’ve done now is to expand one single committee. They’re dealing with both academic and non-academic unions…There is no ultimatum. Everything is calm, and they understand this is a listening government,” said Alausa.

No Ultimatum

Asked about the four-week ultimatum by the joint unions in tertiary institutions and the Nigeria Labour Congress, on October 20, 2025, for the government to resolve the tertiary education crisis, the Minister said there was no such ultimatum, adding that all is calm and issues would be resolved amicably.

He said, “And with all due respect, there is no ultimatum. I still spoke to the President of ASUP on Monday.

“I’m on first line call to them. Everything is calm, and they all understand this is a listening government.

“We would resolve all their problems, resolve a significant part of their problems.”