IMSU Strike Drags On: Students Face Uncertainty as ASUU and University Authorities Remain at Odds

Nearly twelve weeks after lecturers at Imo State University (IMSU), Owerri, stopped work, the strike by the university’s chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) shows no sign of ending. For students, the result is a stalled academic calendar and no clear date for when normal lessons will return.

How the strike began

ASUU-IMSU declared a total and indefinite strike on 10 August 2026, saying the Imo State Government and the university management had failed to implement an agreement on improved welfare and conditions of service for academic staff. The union also pointed out that the same agreement was already being implemented in some other state-owned universities, including institutions in Bauchi, Ekiti, Ogun, Osun and Sokoto.

The agreement at the centre of the dispute is the 2025 Federal Government-ASUU deal, which took effect in January 2026 across public universities in Nigeria. According to a report by the Federal Information Centre in Owerri, the union had presented the agreement to management several times and then issued a 21-day ultimatum before downing tools.

This is not the first time the university has faced such a standoff. The union says some of the grievances triggered its 2024 strike, which was suspended after management reportedly gave assurances that the issues would be resolved. It has also complained that the university’s continued retention under the Treasury Single Account undermines its autonomy.

Students caught mid-exam

The timing of the strike made it especially painful for students. Online reports from the day describe a final-year student who said she had only just sat her first paper when union members entered the hall and announced the strike, stopping the exam. For final-year students in particular, such a disruption raises fresh doubts about when they can finish their programmes and graduate.

A growing call for the governor to step in

By mid-September, with the strike at its 37th day, ASUU’s Owerri Zone appealed to Governor Hope Uzodimma to step in. As Visitor to the university, the union said, he should summon the university administration, the Governing Council and ASUU to a round table so he could be fully briefed. The union alleged that management may not have given him the full picture.

The same statement raised wider concerns about the state of the institution. ASUU claimed that academic staff numbers at IMSU had fallen from more than 1,000 to about 500 through migration, retirement and death, and that the last recruitment exercise was in 2014. These are the union’s claims, and this report found no published figures from the university to confirm or dispute them.

The fight over examinations

The dispute has increasingly centred on exams. Earlier in the strike, the union’s branch chairman, Stephen Oguji, said lecturers would not evaluate or grade scripts from examinations held during the strike, and urged students to back the union’s push for the state government to implement the agreement.

By late October, management had scheduled second-semester examinations for the 2025/2026 session. The union rejected the move. Oguji told journalists: “ASUU-IMSU is on strike, and the strike remains in force.” The union also alleged that management wrote to the Visitor claiming the union was not on strike, and that non-academic and casual staff had been engaged to conduct the exams.

The union further claimed that its members faced pressure during the dispute. According to Tribune Online, ASUU said members had been subjected to threats and arm-twisting tactics, including arrest, detention and eventual bail. These are allegations from the union’s side, and independent confirmation was not found.

What the union says it wants

As of 26 October, the strike had run for 77 days. ASUU-IMSU set out conditions for resuming work that go beyond the 2025 agreement itself. They include the constitution of a committee to conduct elections for heads of department, the cancellation of examinations and postgraduate defences held during the strike, and a formal agreement that members will not be victimised for taking part.

The union acknowledged the toll on students and families but argued that holding examinations amid an unresolved dispute would neither protect academic standards nor restore confidence in the university’s academic processes.

The other side of the story

The university’s position is harder to pin down in the public record. Most of what has been reported about management’s stance, including the scheduling of exams and the reported letter to the Visitor, comes through the union’s account. When Premium Times sought a response to the union’s allegations, the state’s Commissioner for Education, Professor Bernard Ikegwuoha, did not answer calls, WhatsApp messages or texts. Without a detailed public statement from either management or the state government, students are left to piece together the situation from one side’s account.

What needs to happen next

Both sides appear to agree on one thing: the current stalemate is hurting students. How to end it is where they split. The union wants the 2025 agreement implemented and its conditions met before it returns. Management has so far chosen to press ahead with exams. Without direct talks, neither position looks likely to shift.

The union has asked for Governor Uzodimma to bring all parties to the table. Whether he does may decide how much more of the 2025/2026 session students lose. Until then, thousands of IMSU students are left waiting for answers that neither side has yet given them.