By Emmanuel Iheaka
OWERRI — The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, Owerri Zone, has called on Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, to summon a meeting with the management of Imo State University, IMSU, its Governing Council and union leaders over the ongoing strike by lecturers.
The union made the call in a statement signed by its Zonal Coordinator, Dennis Aribodor, and made available to journalists in Owerri on Thursday.
The statement, titled, “Governor Hope Uzodimma: Imo State University Needs Your Urgent Attention,” said IMSU lecturers had been on strike for 37 days over the implementation of the 2025 Federal Government-ASUU Agreement, which took effect in January 2026 across public universities.
ASUU alleged that the university management might not have fully briefed Uzodimma, who is the visitor to the institution, on the situation at the university.
The union claimed that IMSU had more than 50 casual workers serving as lecturers, who it said earned about N50,000 monthly because there had been no recruitment exercise at the institution for more than 10 years.
It said a roundtable meeting involving the governor, university management, Governing Council and ASUU would enable him to understand the issues confronting the institution.
“Today marks the 37th day the Imo State University lecturers have been on strike. The bone of contention is the implementation of the 2025 FGN-ASUU Agreement, whose implementation took effect in January 2026 across public universities in Nigeria,” the statement said.
According to the union, relevant communications from the National Universities Commission to the university administration, Governing Council and visitor had been transmitted, but implementation of the agreement had yet to commence at IMSU.
ASUU further claimed that several state governments had accepted to implement the agreement, with some already commencing implementation.
The union also alleged that academic staff strength at IMSU had declined from more than 1,000 to about 500 due to migration, retirement and death.
It said the last recruitment exercise at the university was conducted in 2014.
ASUU also questioned the conduct of examinations at the institution during the strike, saying the purported examinations did not qualify as such.
The union urged Uzodimma to urgently intervene by bringing the university management, Governing Council and ASUU to the negotiating table.
“Our appeal as ASUU Owerri Zone is to call on you, as the Visitor of Imo State University, to summon the University Administration and the Governing Council as well as ASUU to a round table to be fully briefed on the very ugly situation in the university so as to properly intervene to save the soul of the university by implementing the 2025 FGN-ASUU Agreement,” the statement said.
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