In its bid to clip the wings of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the Federal Government on Tuesday approved the registration of Congress of Nigerian University Academics (CONUA), a breakaway faction of ASUU.
The government also approved the registration of the Nigerian Association of Medical and Dental Academics (NAMDA) as a trade union.
Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, who presented the certificates to the two unions, said they would operate alongside ASUU.
The information was contained in an invitation to reporters on Tuesday by the Deputy Director of Press and Public Relations, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Oshundun Olajide.
CONUA, a breakaway faction of ASUU, is led by its National Coordinator, โNiyi Sunmonu, a lecturer at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife. Though the organisation currently enjoys marginal presence in few universities across the country, it is seen as a strategic move by the government to break the ranks of the striking lecturers and woo some of them back to the classrooms. Attempts to cajole or coerce ASUU to drop the nearly eight-month strike in the public universities, through many measures including intimidation by the government and court action, have not broken the resolve of the members.
ASUU has been on strike since February 14 to press home its demands. The strike is due to the failure of the federal government to renegotiate the agreement it signed with ASUU in 2009 including adequate funding of the system, replacement of the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS), with the UTAS, as the payment platform in the university sector, among others.
The teachers say that IPPIS has never worked in any university system anywhere, adding that the system shuts the doors against foreign scholars, contract officers and researchers needed to be poached from existing universities to stabilize new ones.
But the Federal Government insists that the payment model is for transparency and neither intended to trample upon university autonomy.
Despite a ruling by the National Industrial Court on September 21, 2022 ordering the university to return to work, the University lecturers have remained adamant.
Last week, ASUU through its lawyers, filed an appeal against the court ruling.
