IMSU Strike: It Is Not About ASUU, It Is About Whether IMSU Will Remain a University
By Innocent Nnubia
When many hear ASUU-IMSU is on strike, they say, “ASUU is at it again.” But this strike that started on August 10, 2026, is different. This is not just about welfare. It is about whether IMSU will remain a university or become a centre where certificates are shared without teaching.
A Strike and an Exam on the Same Day
How can a university declare examinations on the same day its lecturers commenced a lawful strike? On August 10, 2026, ASUU-IMSU began its industrial action to demand the implementation of the 2025 FGN-ASUU Agreement. On that same day, the Management rolled out examination timetables.
This single act exposed the plan: to break the strike, not to solve it. For over 77 days now, from August 10 to date, ASUU-IMSU has been on strike while IMSU has been conducting examinations without lecturers.
The Agreement Is Not New, The Disobedience Is
The agreement causing this crisis was signed in December 2025 and took effect from January 1, 2026. It has been implemented in all Federal Universities and at least 26 State Universities. But IMSU has refused.
From January to October 2026, IMSU lecturers are owed arrears. September and October salaries have not been paid at all – not at the old rate, not at the new rate – while non-academic staff have been paid. How do you expect a hungry lecturer to conduct an examination?
Who Is Conducting the Exams?
This is the question the Visitor, the Governor of Imo State, must ask. If ASUU-IMSU has been on strike since August 10, who set the examination questions? Who is invigilating? Who will mark and moderate?
Reports from campus show non-academic staff and casual workers are being used to conduct degree examinations. This is academic fraud. A degree earned without being taught or examined by a qualified lecturer is worthless. ASUU is not stopping examinations; ASUU is saving IMSU certificates from becoming ordinary paper.
Several Letters Before the Strike
This strike did not start suddenly. Before August 10, ASUU-IMSU wrote several letters to Management, held two meetings with it, wrote three letters to the Governing Council and engaged stakeholders twice. All were ignored.
Even after the strike started, the expanded Management met ASUU-IMSU on August 27 and only begged for suspension without commitment. The Governing Council’s subcommittee met ASUU on October 20 and 22, and again, the only offer was “suspend first, we will talk later.” They did that in 2024 and got nothing. As our elders say, “A man who was bitten by a snake once is afraid of even an earthworm.” ASUU-IMSU will not allow what happened to them before to happen to them again. That is why they say, “No Retreat, No Surrender.”
What ASUU Wants Is What Any Worker Wants
- Pay September and October salaries.
- Time-bound plan to pay January-August arrears.
- Conduct HOD elections as provided in the 2025 Agreement.
- Cancel all examinations and postgraduate defences done since August 10 during the strike.
- Sign a non-victimization agreement.
- Written commitment on postgraduate allowances and pension.
- Pay all withheld salaries.
- Provide a clear process to pay Earned Academic Allowances.
Governor Must Act Now
Is it true that the Vice-Chancellor reportedly wrote to the Visitor that ASUU is not on strike? If ASUU is not on strike, why are casual workers conducting examinations since August 10?
Your Excellency, IMSU is sinking. If you allow a university to run examinations without professors, tomorrow it will award degrees without learning.
This strike is not ASUU versus Management. It is about whether IMSU will remain a university.
