The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has rejected a plan to conscript the union as a ‘guarantor’ of loans, under the Tertiary Institutional Staff Support Fund scheme, recently introduced by the President Bola Tinubu’s administration.

The union’s position was contained in its resolution, signed by the ASUU President, Christopher Piwuna, following a National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, held at the Usmanu Danfodio University, Sokoto (UDUS), from Saturday 16 to Sunday 17, August 2025.

Claiming no prior knowledge, ASUU noted that its rejection of the Federal Government’s loan scheme for tertiary institution staff, followed extensive deliberations by participants at the NEC meeting.

Mr Piwuna stated, “NEC deliberated extensively on the proposed Tertiary Institutions Support Fund. Consequently, NEC resolved to reject the ploy to conscript ASUU as “Guarantor” of loans the union knows nothing about and demands that ASUU be delisted from the process.”

Earlier, in late July, the federal ministry of education announced a welfare-focused loan initiative for both academic and non-academic staff members, under the caveat that the initiative was aimed at promoting financial stability, improving quality of life and career advancement among tertiary institutions workers.

Also, the staff union decried President Bola Tinubu’s slow pace in addressing the union’s long-standing concerns, which includes the stalled 2009 FG/ASUU agreement, withheld salaries from the 2022 strike and unpaid entitlements linked to the controversial Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), among others.

The union stated plans to initiate press conferences and protest actions across its branches, on a date to be announced soon.

“NEC discussed the state of the struggle and government’s slow pace in addressing the issues in contention. Consequently, NEC resolved to organise protests across all the branches simultaneously on a fixed date,” the resolution read.

It added, “As part of the protest activities, press conferences would be held in all branches. The date for the said protests and press conferences would be communicated in due course.”