Unity College Teachers Suspend Strike as FG Agrees Two-Week Pause on King's College Concession

Teachers in Nigeria's 117 Federal Unity Colleges are expected to return to classrooms following the suspension of industrial action by the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) over the proposed concession of King's College, Lagos.

The development followed an agreement between the Federal Ministry of Education and organised labour to suspend the proposed concession for two weeks, during which a seven-man committee will review the agreement and other concerns raised by the unions.

The Secretary-General of ASCSN, Comrade Gamaliel Acho, announced the suspension in a statement on Friday, noting that the decision followed a conciliatory meeting with the ministry and other labour unions on Thursday, September 17, 2026.

The directive is expected to ease the disruption of first-term academic activities across Federal Unity Colleges, where the strike had affected preparations for the resumption of students. ASCSN, which represents a significant segment of workers within the Federal Ministry of Education, including teachers across the 117 colleges, had joined the industrial action initiated by the Joint Workers Committee of Unions (JWC) over the proposed concession of King's College and other grievances against the ministry.

Acho stated that the suspension aligns with a communiqué signed after the meeting, which placed the proposed concession on hold to allow for further consultation and review. He disclosed that the seven-man committee comprises representatives of the Federal Ministry of Education, organised labour, the King's College Old Boys Association (KCOBA), and the Federal Ministry of Labour. "The committee is expected to submit its report and recommendations within two weeks," he stated.

The union leader said ASCSN had consequently directed its members to suspend the industrial action pending the outcome of the review.

The proposed 35-year concession of King's College, Lagos, had triggered opposition from workers and other stakeholders, who raised concerns over the future of the institution and the process adopted by the Federal Ministry of Education in reaching the arrangement. The dispute had escalated in recent days, with staff unions grounding activities at the Federal Ministry of Education headquarters and threatening a broader shutdown of Unity Colleges nationwide if the concession was not reversed.

The Federal Government, through Minister of Education Dr Tunji Alausa, and KCOBA have both maintained throughout the controversy that the concession does not amount to a sale or privatisation of King's College, insisting that the Federal Government retains legal ownership and regulatory oversight of the institution under the arrangement. KCOBA has separately pledged to double teachers' salaries, freeze school fees, and raise a ₦100 billion endowment fund as part of its plans to rehabilitate and modernise the historic school.

Despite these assurances, unions had continued to raise concerns over the specific terms of the concession, including how displaced King's College teachers unable to remain at the school under the new arrangement would be redeployed, particularly against the backdrop of a separate presidential approval for the employment of more than 3,000 additional PTA staff across federal unity schools nationwide.

The latest agreement provides an opportunity for the parties involved, government, labour, and KCOBA, to jointly examine the concession arrangement and address the issues that led to the industrial action, before any final decision is made on how the historic institution will be managed going forward. With the seven-man committee's two-week review window now under way, attention turns to whether its eventual report and recommendations will be sufficient to resolve the underlying disagreements, or whether the King's College concession saga will resurface once the review period concludes.