FOR SUSTAINABLE PEACE IN OUR UNIVERSITIES, TINUBU GOVERNMENT MUST ACT FAIRLY.

One of the most urgent challenges facing Nigeria today is the deepening crisis in our universities. For decades, industrial disputes have disrupted academic calendars, eroded the quality of teaching and research, and dashed the hopes of countless students. At the heart of this crisis lies a consistent pattern: government’s selective response to staff union demands and its failure to treat all stakeholders in the university system with fairness.

If the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is truly committed to reform and renewal, then the time has come to act with courage, equity, and sincerity. Sustainable peace in our universities cannot be achieved by addressing the grievances of one group while neglecting others. Academic staff, non-academic staff, technologists, and administrators all play indispensable roles in sustaining the life of the university. To favour one while sidelining the rest is to sow fresh seeds of conflict.

The reality is simple: peace cannot be negotiated on the basis of bias. Each union—ASUU, SSANU, NASU, and NAAT—has legitimate concerns rooted in years of unfulfilled promises and systemic neglect. These issues include wage disparities, poor welfare conditions, inadequate funding, dilapidated infrastructure, and the erosion of university autonomy. Addressing the plight of one group while dismissing others is like patching one crack in a collapsing wall; the structure remains unstable.

What Nigeria needs is a comprehensive settlement anchored on justice. The government must convene inclusive dialogues, honour existing agreements, and create a transparent framework for collective bargaining. Above all, it must demonstrate the political will to see beyond short-term expediency and commit to the long-term stability of higher education.

University education is not a bargaining chip—it is the bedrock of national development. Every disruption in the academic calendar translates into lost opportunities, weakened institutions, and a generation left behind. A nation that cannot guarantee stability in its citadels of learning cannot hope to compete in today’s knowledge-driven world.

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President Tinubu has often spoken of “renewed hope.” But renewed hope in the education sector will only be real when fairness, not favouritism, guides policy. For once, let us put aside politics and do what is right for our universities, for our students, and for the future of this country.

Sustainable peace is possible. But it demands justice, equity, and sincerity from those in power. Anything less will keep our universities trapped in a cycle of endless crisis.