In what could well be described as a watershed moment in the festering industrial impasse rocking Rev. Fr. Moses Orshio Adasu University, Makurdi, a high-powered national delegation of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) stormed the institution, holding a marathon dialogue with the University Administration and the Expanded Executive Committee (EXCO) of the Union. The meeting was a deliberate attempt to sift truth from rhetoric and to ascertain whether the Union’s grievances and its looming strike were grounded in justice or in mere agitation.
Presiding over the deliberations, the ASUU-BSU Branch Chairperson, Comrade Sule, reeled out eleven burning issues threatening to suffocate the University’s academic life; which included the non-implementation of the 25% and 35% wage awards, the failure to enforce the new National Minimum Wage, the non-payment of promotion arrears since 2018, and the erratic payment of salaries to promoted staff. He further lamented the incomplete disbursement of Earned Academic Allowances (EAA), unresolved pension anomalies, snail-paced external assessments for professorial promotions, the violation of due process in the appointment of the Vice-Chancellor, and the expiration of the Deputy Vice Chancellors’ tenure—all compounded by the glaring omission of BSU from the recently passed supplementary budget.
With a voice heavy with disillusionment, Comrade Sule bemoaned what he called “a betrayal of trust,” lamenting that since March 2025, repeated engagements with both the University and the State Government had yielded nothing but empty promises. “Our members,” he declared, “are weary, disenchanted, and rapidly losing faith.”
Responding, the Acting Vice Chancellor, Prof. Simon Ubwa, maintained that the administration of Governor Hyacinth Alia attaches utmost importance to staff welfare. He cited progress in professorial promotions, disclosing that of the 20 external assessments conducted, 11 had been concluded, while the remainder awaited Council ratification.
In his remark, the ASUU Zonal Coordinator (Nsukka Zone), who led the national delegation, was unsparing in his verdict. He described BSU’s condition as “a grotesque aberration in the Nigerian academic family,” noting that Benue State University remains the only state-owned university yet to implement the National Minimum Wage and wage awards—a grave indictment in a country where even less-endowed institutions have complied.
He also warned of an impending leadership crisis arising from the expiration of the Deputy Vice Chancellors’ tenure and the failure to commence the process of appointing a substantive Vice-Chancellor before November 3, 2025.
At the end of the stormy session, the delegation adjudged ASUU-BSU’s demands as “both genuine and incontrovertible,” since none had been denied by the Administration.