The minister told the NLC that if ASUU feels aggrieved, the union could approach the courts for judicial remedy as law-abiding citizens just like the Federal Government did through the Ministry of Labour and Employment.
By Jeffrey Agbo
The Federal Government has called on the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to allow the existence of two new academic unions in the Nigerian public university system apart from the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, made the call in a statement signed by the ministry’s head of press and public relations, Olajide Oshundun, on Tuesday in Abuja.
The new unions recently registered by the government are the Congress for Nigerian University Academics (CONUA) and the Nigeria Association of Medical and Dental Academics (NAMDA).
However, in a letter to Ngige, the President of NLC, Ayuba Wabba, demanded the withdrawal of the certificates of registration issued to the unions, on the grounds that their registration contravened the laws guiding trade unionism.
Ngige, in his reply on October 12, had appealed to NLC to allow the new unions to exist in the spirit of Freedom of Association.
The minister insisted that the Trade Dispute Act 2004 gives him the sole power to register new trade unions, either by registering a new union or regrouping existing ones.
He reiterated that the new unions were offshoots or by-products of regrouping and their applications were considered by two committees of his ministry.
He said that this was with the Registrar of Trade Unions participating when the first recommendation for approval was given in 2019, and again in 2022.
He also told the NLC that CONUA and NAMDA were regrouped from ASUU for efficiency and effectiveness in the system.
The minister added that more importantly, it is to protect these groups of university teachers whose worldview differs from the restive parent union.
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“Comrade President, do not unnecessarily oppose the registration of these new academic unions.
“Because with ASUU, they are all like seeds on the academic soil of Nigeria and which will grow into big trees we don’t know, but the one which her trees are not bearing good fruits, we already know.
“So, as an uncle of the unions, oppose none in the spirit of Freedom of Association,” he said.
Ngige added that the matter was a subject of litigation in the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) in the most recent case which the President of the NLC failed to mention in his narration of court cases.
“The case of the Nigerian Union of Pensioners (NUP) and the regrouped Federal Parastatals and Private Sector Pensioners Association of Nigeria (FEPPAN) from NUP where the Law on Regrouping of Trade Unions was extensively explored and ruled upon.
“Unlike the cases cited by the President of the NLC to misinform the general public and unfortunately lead astray his affiliate Trade Union – ASUU,” he said.
Ngige recalled that the NICN in Suit no. NICN/ABJ/219/2019, buttressed its earlier ruling on the matter and which had stated inter alia that the power to register trade unions resides with the Minister of Labour and Employment.
He noted that the last segment of Section 3(2) does not refer to the regrouping of existing trade unions, hence, the differentiation within the section between registering a new trade union and regrouping existing ones.
On NAMDA, Ngige told the NLC that they are medical doctors lecturing in the universities and they were against the incessant prolonged and illegal strikes by ASUU.
Ngige, therefore, said the NLC President should desist from using his position to deceive the general public by misguiding them with mal-citations of labour authorities.
The minister told the NLC that if ASUU feels aggrieved, the union could approach the courts for judicial remedy as law-abiding citizens just like the Federal Government did through the Ministry of Labour and Employment.