By Amos Ogunrinde
A parallel academic trade union in Nigerian universities known as Congress of University Academics, CONUA has appealed to the Federal Government to grant the union full registration to enable it operate on its own.
The National Coordinator of CONUA, Dr Niyi Sonmunu made the appeal during a courtesy call on the Minister of Labour and Employment Dr Chris Ngige in Abuja.
Dr Sunmonu explained that the members of CONUA in about twenty universities in the country can no longer belong to the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU due to unreconcilable differences in philosophy and modus operandi.
He condemned the ongoing prolonged strike and ASUU’s insistence on using a new payment software called Universitiy Transparency and Accountability Solutions UTAS instead of the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System, IPPIS which has already been adopted for payment of Federal Government workers in the country.
Dr Niyi Sonmunu also requested the Federal Government to stop the deduction of union dues of about three thousand members of CONUA to ASUU’s account.
Responding, the Minister of Labour and Employment Dr Chris Ngige who described the demand of the group as legitimate, promised to consider it objectively with a view to fastracking the registration process for CONUA.
Dr Ngige accordingly directed the Trade Unions Department in the ministry to constitute a committee to re-evaluate the request for the registration of CONUA and submit the report within four weeks.
