FG Wins as CONUA, NAMDA Get Certificate of Registration

Cursory: The Federal Government may have succeeded in breaking the ranks of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) as it presented certificates of recognition to the Congress of Nigerian University Academics (CONUA) and the National Association of Medical and Dental Academics (NAMDA).

The certificate was presented to the unions in Abuja on Tuesday, January 17, by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige. While presenting the certificate, he also gave indication of payment of the withheld salaries of CONUA members.

The minister lauded CONUA for organizing its points around relevant sections of the Trade Dispute Act, as well as the Trade Union Act.

“I am happy that CONUA is doing the right things by citing relevant sections of the laws to back up its claims on why the Federal Government should pay them their withheld salaries. Their behaviour is unlike some other unions that talk without empirical data and figures. We have heard you. The Federal Government will study your request and respond appropriately,” he said.

Ngige also lauded managements of teaching hospitals of universities in Bauchi, Maduguri, Sokoto and Enugu for opting out of the eight months strike.

Justifying the registration of the two unions from the existing ASUU, Ngige said the procedures adopted in the registration exercise followed due process.

His words:

“There are organisations that have been unbundled. For example, the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) was unbundled into power generation and distribution companies. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) was recently unbundled into the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).

“Here in the ministry of labour and employment, we unbundled the pensioner national union. So, there is nothing unusual in unbundling any organisation. The two unions approached us sometimes in 2017 on the need for them to have their separate unions. We set up a committee to review that. It was CONUA that came first.

“Then NAMDA came and we set up committees to study their requests. They claimed that the interests of their members such as allowances are not always captured when ASUU struggle for theirs. They also said some of their members were suspended from ASUU.

“Their case was about exclusion. After we studied their cases, the ministry then decided to register them. Today, I am presenting them with the certificates of recognition as well as the gazette. We advertised in the newspapers for anyone to come up with objections before the requests were gazetted.

“We did not receive any complaints. That is why we are now presenting them with the certificates. By this step, the two unions are officially recognised as labour unions in Nigeria.”

Read Also: FG to Pay Lecturers Withheld Salaries

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