Abuja doubles down on plan to register CONUA to destabilise ASUU
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Abuja has asked a committee to look into the registration of Congress of University Academics (CONUA) after the group renewed its pitch for it, a move critics see as playing into the hand of the government to split the ranks of lecturers.
CONUA National Coordinator Niyi Sunmonu disclosed as much on Monday when he quoted the authorities. And the committee is set to brief Labour and Employment Minister Chris Ngige.
“Some days ago, the Minister of State for Labour, Mr Festus Keyamo, SAN, said publicly that CONUA has met all requirements for it to be registered as a trade union, but we don’t know what is still delaying that,” Sunmonu said.
“There is always the need to look at issues from more than one perspective. Moreover, we operate in an academic environment ….
“We don’t want to believe that the Academic Staff Union of Universities [ASUU] is behind this reluctance on the part of the government [to register CONUA].”
Abuja is pushing plan B to register CONUA after a heavy public backlash greeted rumour of its move to proscribe ASUU, which led to its denial of the ban.
What ASUU has demanded all these six months of its strike is better funding of tertiary education to ensure effective teaching equipment and improve staff welfare to stem brain drain.
CONUA itself will need such tools and the environment to engage in academic activities the government is not willing to fund.
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Committee to brief Ngige
CONUA had about four years ago submitted application to the Ministry of Labour and Employment to be registered as a separate body of lecturers, according to a source who spoke to Vanguard.
“We are aware that a group of university lecturers has applied to be registered as an affiliate of the Nigeria Labour Congress. It has been about three or four years they applied for the registration,” the source said.
“The application was referred to a committee that looks at it based on constitutional provisions. The committee is expected to brief the Minister of Labour, [Chris Ngige], who has the responsibility to carry out such assignment.”
CONUA gives reasons for seeking registration
“Look at it this way,” Sunmonu added on Monday, “when the GSM revolution started in the country, the pioneers said per second billing was impossible but another operator came and started per second billing, every other operator joined and the society has become better for it.
“We all know that there is freedom of association in the country as enshrined in the constitution.
“In the university, when someone is defending his final project, he faces an audience who would look at his work in different perspectives. That is intended to make things better.
“We don’t want to believe that the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, is behind this reluctance on the part of the government.”
Sunmonu denied reports that Abuja wants to us CONUA to destabilise ASUU.
“We were members of ASUU before some issues came up in 2016 at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, and when justice was not done and majority of members felt it was a deviation from what a union should stand for, CONUA eventually came up in 2018.”