Kaduna Approves ₦300m Earned Allowance for KASU Lecturers, Sets Up Committee to Avert Strike

The Kaduna State Government has approved a one-off payment of ₦300 million as Earned Academic Allowance for Kaduna State University lecturers and constituted a nine-member negotiation committee to engage the Academic Staff Union of Universities and other staff unions, in what appears to be a last-minute effort to avert a fresh industrial crisis at the university.

The intervention was announced in a statement issued by the Secretary to the State Government, Dr. AbdulKadir Mu’azu Meyere, who said Governor Uba Sani had approved the allowance payment and also authorised the creation of a committee to “comprehensively engage and review” the demands of the Kaduna State University chapter of ASUU and other unions within the institution. The state government said the twin measures were intended to preserve industrial harmony, protect academic stability, and keep dialogue open at a time of rising tension within the university system.

According to the statement, the ₦300 million payment is a one-off intervention targeted at the university’s academic staff under the Earned Academic Allowance (EAA) framework. Meyere said the step builds on what the government described as sustained efforts by the Sani administration to address a backlog of more than ₦800 million in entitlements and allowances dating back to 2016. The government argued that the payment is not an isolated gesture but part of a broader attempt to gradually clear liabilities inherited over several years.

The newly established nine-member negotiation committee is expected to serve as the main channel for resolving the dispute. Available details show that the committee will be chaired by the Commissioner for Education, Professor Abubakar Sani Sambo, and is mandated to engage ASUU-KASU and other staff unions on their outstanding demands. Reports on the committee’s terms of reference indicate that it will review the issues raised by the unions, examine the Consolidated Academic Tools Allowance (CATA) question, compare KASU’s conditions with practices in other state-owned universities, and assess the financial implications of implementing demands linked to the 2025 ASUU–Federal Government agreement.

The government’s move comes against the background of a fresh wave of discontent at KASU. In recent days, the university’s ASUU branch had raised alarm over what it described as poor conditions of service and the failure to implement aspects of the 2025 agreement affecting lecturers’ welfare. The union said the situation had become serious enough to justify a strike threat, with reports indicating that the branch issued a two-week ultimatum to the university authorities and, by implication, the state government. ASUU-KASU also claimed that more than 200 lecturers, including professors and associate professors, had left the institution, though the government has disputed the scale of that figure.

The Kaduna State Government has, however, insisted that it has not been idle. In an earlier defence of its record, the state said the current administration had already spent over ₦896 million on KASU staff welfare and settled a number of outstanding personnel liabilities, including withheld salaries and hazard allowance arrears. It also said more than ₦300 million had been invested in accreditation and resource verification exercises, leading to the accreditation of over 57 academic programmes, the verification of 60 postgraduate programmes, and full accreditation for seven professional programmes.

Beyond the new one-off allowance payment, the government also pointed to a ₦50 million monthly standing order previously approved to support the systematic settlement of outstanding arrears and welfare-related liabilities at the university. That measure had earlier been cited as one of the reasons the institution was able to calm industrial tensions during a previous dispute. By combining that monthly commitment with the newly approved ₦300 million EAA and the negotiation committee, the administration appears to be signalling that it wants a structured rather than confrontational path to resolution.

For students and parents, the development will be received with relief, at least for now. KASU has in recent years been affected by recurring industrial disputes that disrupted the academic calendar and created uncertainty about lectures, examinations, and graduation timelines. Education observers say the success of the latest intervention will depend not just on the immediate payment of the allowance, but on whether the negotiation committee can quickly produce credible, enforceable outcomes on the wider welfare and structural issues raised by the unions.

The broader significance of the Kaduna government’s action lies in what it says about university funding pressures in Nigeria’s sub-national institutions. While federal universities often dominate national conversations about ASUU disputes, state-owned universities face many of the same problems: salary backlogs, unresolved allowances, understaffing, weak infrastructure, and the challenge of implementing nationally negotiated agreements within constrained state budgets. In KASU’s case, the government is trying to position dialogue and phased payments as the practical way forward. Whether the unions accept that framing may determine if Kaduna escapes another disruptive strike.