CONUA seeks registration, liberalisation of academic unions

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The Congress of University Academics (CONUA), an association of academic staff in Nigerian universities, has called on the Federal Government to hasten its registration to stop incessant strikes that have paralysed academic activities in universities and to break the monopoly of academic unionism in the ivory towers.

CONUA’s national coordinator, Dr Niyi Sunmonu, who made the call at a press conference in Abuja on Friday, said the democratisation of academic unionism would bring about the cross-fertilisation of ideas and healthy competition which would be in the interest of every stakeholder in the education sector.

According to Dr Sunmonu, while the Nigerian constitution allows for free association, giving legal recognition to CONUA by the Federal Government will not only provide alternative perspectives for the achievements of constructive engagement with stakeholders in the education sector but it will make hitch-free academic calendars possible.

Sunmonu lamented that the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has paralysed academic activities and disrupted teaching and research in the universities.

But he said that if CONUA is registered, the association proffer solutions to the problems in the university system by avoiding strikes and engaging in ideological consultation, dialoguing and lobbying the National Universities Commission (NUC), the Minister of Education and the House Committee on Education on the need for enhancing budgetary provisions for education “rather than folding our arms when budgets are being prepared and then go on strike to ask for improved funding.”

The don said: “In April 2018, CONUA applied for registration as a trade union at the Ministry of Labour and Employment and on 19th November 2020, the Honourable Minister, Senator Dr Chris Ngige, held a public meeting with CONUA delegates where he gave the ministerial committee reviewing the registration of CONUA four weeks to conclude its work.

“We are aware that the committee has since submitted its report. We have therefore been waiting to hear from the government on our registration.

“CONUA is not a frivolous union but an assemblage of visionary and courageous academics with immense potential to stem the tide of the consistent decline in the public image of and confidence in university education in Nigeria.

“We are immensely worried that the government places the desire not ‘to be seen as the one breaking ASUU’ over and above upholding the fundamental human rights of law-abiding citizens who have demonstrated merit in their quest for the exercise of the constitutionally-guaranteed freedom of association, in consonance with the Section 40 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, and international labour law.

“We believe that any further delay in the registration of CONUA would amount to undermining our fundamental human right to exercise our patriotic duty to provide agreeable options to incessant strikes that have wreaked more havoc than any good they may have yielded.

“It will, furthermore, amount to a commendable effort at deepening the democratic ethos in the educational setting to register CONUA forthwith. We are saddened by our recent experiences in Nigerian universities.

“We have seen unprecedented disruptions in academic calendars in our universities. Between 1999 and 2021, Nigerian public universities experienced strikes for 1,417 days which translates to over five years. The ongoing strike is in its sixth month now.”

Sunmonu said CONUA has branches in the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, University of Benin, Federal University, Lokoja, Federal University, Oye Ekiti, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, and the University of Jos among others.

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