Kaduna State University management has pushed back against allegations from its branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities that more than 200 lecturers, including professors, have quit the institution over poor conditions of service.
Vice-Chancellor Prof. Abdullahi Ibrahim Musa issued a statement Tuesday challenging ASUU-KASU to substantiate the figure with verifiable evidence — including the identities of affected staff, their resignation dates, and their stated reasons for leaving. He argued that staff movement through resignation, retirement, and transfer is a normal, global phenomenon that should not be presented, without context, as proof of deteriorating conditions.
The dispute follows a press conference on Monday by ASUU-KASU chairman Dr. Abubakar Abdullahi, who said the departures — most to newer universities within and outside Kaduna State — stemmed from poor remuneration and the university’s failure to implement the 2025 Federal Government-ASUU Agreement, in effect since January despite most federal and several state universities already rolling it out. He warned that continued delay would leave arrears accumulating from January 2026, and gave authorities a two-week ultimatum before threatening an indefinite strike, a move the union’s national leadership has since backed.
Musa maintained that some welfare issues remain outstanding but said management is addressing them. He pointed to a N50 million monthly intervention fund jointly established with the state government and ASUU-KASU, more than N200 million disbursed in 2026 for overhead costs such as laboratory reagents and student field trips, and over N300 million invested in accrediting more than 57 academic programmes. He also cited three KASU researchers ranked among the world’s top two percent of scientists and more than £945,000 in research funding secured over the past three years as evidence of a functioning institution.
The Vice-Chancellor urged ASUU-KASU to return to the negotiating table rather than pursue action that could disrupt the academic calendar, warning against allowing genuine welfare concerns to be drawn into partisan politics.
