ASUU breaks up

*We’ve not registered any splinter group-Ngige

*Ministry sets up C’ttee to study request

The Federal government may have welcomed and begun moves to do business with the splinter group that recently pulled out from the Academic Staff Un­ion of Universities (ASUU).

Some university lectur­ers had recently broken away from the Academic Staff Un­ion of Universities to form a new group, known as Con­gress of University Academ­ics (CONUA).

However, the federal gov­ernment through the minister of labour and Employment on Sunday said that it is aware of the request but yet to regis­ter it.

‘’I’m aware of the Union but it is not registered yet. They submitted their applica­tion for registration last April. A committee has been set up by the ministry to look into their request’’, Ngige said on Sunday.

Meanwhile, National Co­ordinator of the new union, Niyi Ismaheel, who spoke to journalists after its national stakeholders meeting at the Obafemi Awolowo Universi­ty, Ile Ife, said that the lectur­ers decided to form the new group to redefine unionism and restore peace and stabil­ity in universities

In the Coordinator’s ad­dress, which was made avail­able to The AUTHORITY in Abuja, Ismaheel said that the new union would form a new approach of engagement in addressing the welfare of its members and to put to an end to “the unnecessary wasting of student’s academic time as a result of frequent strike ac­tion.”

He disclosed that the new union has received an over­whelming acceptance from many Universities, adding that it has members in Am­brose Alli University, Ekpoma, Federal University, Oye Ekiti, Federal University, Lokoja and Kwara state university, Molete.

“The union is putting nec­essary documentation in place for official recognition by the university management and the government,” he added.

Meanwhile the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, has confirmed that the union has applied to the Ministry for registration, since its first meeting in April 2019.

Ngige also noted that a committee has been set up to look at their application.

“They have not been regis­tered yet. Their application is in the ministry. They submit­ted it even before I left. They submitted the application in April. It has not been treated.

“We are still looking at their application. I asked a committee to look at it. When we look at the committee re­port we will know (what to do),” the minister said.

It would be recalled that the Federal government has been in a long time disagree­ment with ASUU, after gov­ernment allegedly failed to im­plement certain agreements it reached with the Union that led to the call off of last strike by university lecturers.

Also the Federal govern­ment had recently approved the registration of a faction Labour Union, known as the United Labour Congress (ULC), led by Joe Ajaero as a labour centre in the midst of lingering crisis that erupted after the last election into the leadership of the Nigeria La­bour Congress.

NLC is currently in dis­agreement with the Federal government over the imple­mentation of the approved N30,000 minimum wage.

Source: Authority