A Looming Crisis in Nigeria University: Government Must Heed the Cry of All Staff Unions – A Stitch in Time Saves Nine.

“When the cries of staff unions are ignored, the entire nation pays the price.”

Nigeria’s public university system is once again at a dangerous crossroads. With discontent rising across all staff unions — ASUU, SSANU, NASU, and NAAT — the federal government risks plunging higher education into yet another cycle of strikes, disruption, and decay. This is not merely a question of wages or welfare; it is about the survival and credibility of our higher institutions.

For decades, the story has been the same: agreements signed and broken, promises made and unfulfilled, and institutions left underfunded. When lecturers and non-academic staff raise alarm about poor infrastructure, salary disparities, and deteriorating conditions of service, they are not speaking for themselves alone. They are warning of the imminent collapse of an education system that shapes Nigeria’s future leaders, innovators, and workforce.

Unfortunately, successive governments have often treated these agitations with delay tactics, half-hearted interventions, or outright neglect. Piecemeal responses deepen mistrust and widen the cracks. The result is a vicious cycle of strikes, loss of academic calendar, student frustration, and worsening brain drain as some of the best minds flee to countries where education is valued.

The cost of inaction is clear. Nigeria is already grappling with unemployment, insecurity, and economic hardship. To further weaken the university system is to gamble with national stability itself. Every prolonged closure of universities fuels frustration among the youth and contributes to social unrest. Every broken agreement erodes confidence in governance.

ADVERTISEMENT

It is often said that “a stitch in time saves nine.” The government still has an opportunity to act with sincerity, fairness, and foresight. This requires more than emergency interventions to end strikes; it calls for genuine commitment to fund education, implement agreements, and engage all categories of staff unions without bias.

Education is not an expense but an investment. No country has developed without prioritizing its universities as engines of knowledge, innovation, and human capital. If Nigeria neglects this sector, it mortgages its future. The government must therefore see dialogue with university unions not as a burden but as a responsibility to the nation.

The warning bells are loud enough. Staff unions are speaking out. Students are anxious. Parents are frustrated. The wider society is watching. This government has a chance to rewrite the narrative, to prove that it values education as the cornerstone of development.

History will judge leaders not by their rhetoric but by their actions. Will this government be remembered as the one that saved Nigeria’s universities from collapse — or the one that watched idly as the system crumbled? The choice is still open. But as the saying goes, a stitch in time saves nine.

Egberongbe Tijani Taiwo,PhD,MNIM,MANUPA

Olabisi Onabanjo University Ago Iwoye, Ogun State
titaiwoegbe@gmail.com