Watch me crash out
ASUU is tired of being taken for granted
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- Margaret
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Let’s get into the news you missed during the weekend:
ASUU is tired of being taken for granted
FG wants to sell Emefiele’s duplexes
The Big Deal
ASUU is tired of being taken for granted
We didn’t see many people celebrating President Tinubu’s second year in office anniversary, but judging by the latest (and valid) crash out by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), there isn’t much to celebrate.
ASUU is back in the news for the 1,999th time, and it's telling the Federal Government to either honour the 2009 agreement or prepare for another round of nationwide strike.
If you’re not a big current affairs nerd, you might not understand the 2009 agreement and why it is so important to ASUU. The union and the Nigerian government found a common ground in 2009. They signed a 51-page deal that was supposed to fix the long list of problems in public universities, from terrible funding to poor working conditions for lecturers. But like many government promises, it’s been more talk than action since then.
According to ASUU President, Chris Piwuna, there are still nine unresolved issues, and more recent problems that the government needs to address. He added that the government’s pledge to release ₦150 billion to public universities and fix irregular allowances by 2026 has been all talk and zero action.
ASUU also says its members in schools like Kogi State University and Lagos State University are being bullied with salary denials and job insecurity.
The union says it’s open to dialogue, but if nothing good comes out of it, Nigerian students will be at the losing end.
Why is this a big deal?
Nigeria has maintained a consistent streak of shame when it comes to its education sector, and ASUU somehow finds itself a victim of that streak.
According to the United Nations International Children's Education Fund (UNICEF), any country that's serious about raising future leaders should be putting at least 20% of its national budget into education. But the highest the education sector has received in the last ten years is 10.7%.
The two members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who have ruled the country since then have proven with their low allocations that they don’t give a damn. In the 2025 budget, for instance, education only got 7% of the budget, which ASUU has publicly condemned. These allocations are the reasons why Nigerian public universities can only admit 700,000 out of 2 million annual applicants and why ASUU is constantly making headlines.
The union has been complaining about the same problems since 2009, yet nothing has changed. Instead, the federal government would rather invest in temporary solutions than address the union’s problem.
As ASUU has stated, if nothing changes this time, Nigerian students will be forced to go on another academic strike. It’s almost pointless to hope, but we’re crossing our fingers in anticipation of a resolution which does not involve a strike.
FG wants to sell Emefiele’s duplexes
One thing about the Lord is that he’ll always work in mysterious ways. It is too soon to tell, but we think he just answered the prayer of the 24.4% of Nigerians without a roof over their heads.
How it started
In December 2024, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) made what is now being called the biggest single asset recovery since the commission’s establishment in 2003.
Yours truly, Godwin Emefiele, who also happens to be the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), was forced to give up a massive estate by the Federal Capital Territory High Court in Abuja. The property, sitting on over 150,000 square metres of land, includes 753 housing units made up of duplexes and other flats.
At first, Emefiele wasn’t having it. In April 2025, he tried to take the EFCC to court, claiming the agency had kept him in the dark about the forfeiture while actively engaging him on other matters. The court didn’t agree, and his application to reclaim the estate was thrown out.
How it’s going…
While Emefiele is probably somewhere counting his losses, the EFCC has officially handed the estate over to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development. According to the ministry’s spokesperson, Badamasi Haiba, the government plans to sell the recovered houses to ordinary Nigerians, particularly low and middle-income earners, in line with President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
But this isn’t one of those instant answered prayers because the estate is still under construction. The ministry will conduct structural and integrity checks before finalising how and when the houses will be sold. But the sale will be done transparently, and Nigerians can expect options like rent-to-own, mortgage, and flexible instalments.
While the estate might have started out as a questionable acquisition under Emefiele, it might now end up as a shot at homeownership for many Nigerians. A wild plot twist, but we’re here for it.
Your next big read
→“I Became a Waiter and Lived in a Basement After Selling Everything to Move to Canada”:Ifiok (40) was the guy who kept people on payroll in Nigeria, but when he sold his properties, shut down his businesses and left for Canada, life rid him of his privileges. In this story, he shares how he became a waiter in his new country and spent two years living in a basement with his family of four until things changed.
→What’s It Like to Date While Disabled in Nigeria?: Romantic relationships are complex enough when everyone involved fits into society’s narrow ideas of what’s “normal.” But for people living with disabilities, love can come with even more layers
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