The Congress of University Academics (CONUA), has stated that any meeting called by the federal government to discuss issue relating to the welfare of university lecturers without its inputs is unacceptable and will create more problems rather than solving any.
CONUA National President, Dr Niyi Sunmonu, in a media interview, said that registered and recognised academic staff unions in the Nigerian university system were more than one.
“As at today, we have Congress of University Academics, CONUA, our union and two others. We were registered in October 2022 following a due process that began in 2018. When the federal government set up the Yayale Ahmed Committee last year, we got a letter on December 20, 2024, informing us about the committee. However, up until now, we have not been invited to attend any meeting.
“It is a truism that you cannot shave a man’s head behind his back, when he is unavailable. They cannot discuss issues that have to do with us without us making our own inputs. The International Labour Organisation Convention 98 says that when any labour matter arises and there are many labour unions in that sector, all the labour unions are to be part of the deliberations and discussions.
“Not carrying all the unions along will be a contravention of the Trade Union Act also and it will be against the tenets of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended,” he said.
Sunmonu stressed that CONUA would never toy with the welfare of its members and called on the government to do the needful by paying the necessary attention to the education sector.
University lecturers and the federal government are currently locked in a battle over some demands by the lecturers. They are mostly welfare and provision of facilities that would aid the work of the university teachers.
Members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), last week embarked on protests across the country, but CONUA is triggered that the government seems to be tilting in favour of ASUU by calling its members for meetings and sidelining CONUA.
Apart from ASUU and CONUA, there is also the Medical and Dental Consultants’ Association of Nigeria, MDCAN, another academic staff union in the Nigerian university system.
