A faction of striking Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has called for liberalisation of university academic unions to end incessant strike in the nation’s public universities.
To this end, the faction operating under the aegis of Congress of University Academics, CONUA, has appealed to the federal government through the Ministry of Labour and Employment to immediately register it as a trade union just like ASUU, saying such development would break the monopoly being currently enjoined by ASUU.
The group which accused ASUU of using strike as only tool to resolve its issues with the government, said such development must stop, as according to it, there were many ways of resolving issues.
National Coordinator of CONUA,Dr Niyi Sunmonu, who led executive members of the group to a press conference, Friday, in Abuja, said ASUU’s consistent strike has caused more harm than good in the university academic system.
Dr Sunmonu, who said lecturers under his group,have not been on strike,faulted the government for its continuous withholding of their salaries. He appealed to the government to as a matter of urgency, release the salaries of lecturers who did not participate in the ongoing strike declared by ASUU.
Recalling that the request for registration of CONUA was presented to the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment in 2018,Dr Sunmonu wondered why it has taken the ministry so long to get the union registered as a trade union.
Noting that there were many non academic unions in the unity system,he called on the government to give such opportunity to the academics so that there could be healthy competition, thus erasing the incessant strike actions that have bedeviled academic activities in public universities.
Dr Sunmonu noted that liberalisation of academics unions in the universities would ensure cross fertilisation of ideas that would bring about healthy competition as well as protect the interest of other stakeholders.
“We need a paradigm shift from the old order in our universities and CONUA will focus on inculcating the spirit
” We underscore the fact that what we are asking for is liberalization. And what that will bring on the table is that before you embark on any industrial action, cross fertilisation of ideas is needed.
“What we have noted over the years is that ideas are usually muffled and what you see is the perspective of some people and the perspective of other people not actually reflective of what transpired at the end of the day.
” So when we have liberalisation, what we will eventually have is healthy competition , the interest eventually resulting in the protection of the interest of other stakeholders would be protected,” he said.
According to him,since the freedom of association was enshrined in Nigeria’s constitution,there was nothing wrong in having two to four academic unions in the nation’s universities.
Noting that CONUA was christened in 2018,he bemoaned the delay in approving it as a full-fledged academic union by the federal government.
Noting that Nov. 19, 2020, the
Minister of Labour and Employment, held a public meeting with CONUA delegates where he gave the ministerial committee to conclude the review of registration of CONUA, he said,” We are aware that the committee has since submitted its report. We have therefore been waiting to hear from the government on our registration.”
Dr Sunmonu, who denied that CONUA was a frivolous union, described it as an “assemblage of visionary and courageous academics with immense potential to stem the tide of consistent decline in the image of university.”
He said that any further delay in the registration of CONUA would amount to undermining fundamental human rights of the people.
Speaking also, the National Publicity Coordinator of CONUA, Dr Ernest Nwoke blamed ASUU’s endless strike what he said,was the “monopoly given to academic union in universities.”
According to him, the only solution to the strike was liberalising academic staff unions in universities so that lecturers would be free to belong to academic union of their ideology.
” For more than 40 years now in the Nigerian universities system, there has been monopoly of academic staff unionism in Nigerian universities. For that period of time, there has been liberalisation producing very functioning three unions.
” There is no ripe time than now for the liberalisation of academic union to put an end to the strike in our university system,” he said.
•Source: Vanguard
