CONTRARY to a core provision of the Trade Union Act, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige has presented a certificate of registration to the Congress of Nigerian University Academics (CONUA), a breakaway faction of the striking Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
Dr Ngige presented the certificate to CONUA on Tuesday, where he also presented a certificate of registration to the National Association of Medical and Dental Academics (NAMDA).
The ministry had in a letter of invitation to journalists signed by Mr Olujide Oshundun, Head, Press and Public Relations, announced that the Minister, Dr Chris Ngige, will be presenting the certificate of registration to CONUA on Tuesday.
The presentation of the certificate of registration by Dr Ngige is a clear violation of the unambiguous provision of the Trade Unions Act (Cap. T14 2004).
While the Act provides that an application for registration must be supported by at least fifty members of an intending union, a requirement that is easy to meet, Section 3, sub-section 2 of the act, however eliminates any prospect of registering a union where a functional one is already operating.
“No combination of workers or employers shall be registered as a trade union save with the approval of the Minister on his being satisfied that it is expedient to register the union either by regrouping existing trade unions, registering a new trade union or otherwise howsoever, but no trade union shall be registered to represent workers or employers in a place where there already exists a trade union,” the subsection states.
Dr Ngige’s move comes at a time when the federal government is obviously exasperated with the determination of ASUU to continue with its strike that will be eight full months next week, October 14, which will be one full academic session.
The minister and the President of ASUU, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke had last Thursday exchanged hot arguments at a meeting convened by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila.
While Ngige accused ASUU of deliberately frustrating the government’s efforts at resolving the crisis and mobilising Nigerians against the government, Prof Osodeke charged Ngige of peddling lies against the union.
Since his appointment as Minister of Labour and Employment, it has been a cat and mouse scenario between Ngige and trade union leaders, especially every leadership of ASUU, a situation which had made President Buhari to direct that the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, to take over the negotiations between ASUU and the federal government.
CONUA, with its headquarters in Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), was formed in 2018 following a leadership crisis within the university’s chapter of ASUU which broke out in 2016 during the selection process of a new vice-chancellor of the university.
NLC’s alarm over plot to ban ASUU
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) had recently raised alarm about a plot by the federal government to proscribe ASUU under the excuse of that the union had failed to submit its audited financial report in line with a request of the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige.
The NLC had in a letter signed by its President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, noted that ASUU rendered its financial report for 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 as at September 8, 2022 and called on the Registrar of Trade Unions to accept the Annual Financial Report and Audited Accounts submitted by ASUU, saying that ASUU should not be punished for demanding that government respects the Collective Bargaining Agreements it entered with them.
“Our attention has been drawn by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to a letter dated 7th September 2022 written to ASUU by the Registrar of Trade Unions on the foregoing subject.
“We understand that ASUU had responded to the directives of the Registrar of Trade Unions to submit its Annual Financial Reports and Audited Accounts within 72 hours. The Annual Financial Reports and Audited Accounts of ASUU as requested were submitted by ASUU to the office of the Registrar of Trade Unions, Federal Ministry of Labour in less than 24 hours, specifically on the 8th of September 2022.
“We are greatly alarmed that the timely submission of the Annual Financial Reports and Audited Accounts by ASUU in accordance with the directives of the Registrar of Trade Unions was rejected by the staff at the Office of the Registrar of Trade Unions.
“The staff disclosed that they were under strict instructions not to accept ASUU’s Annual Financial Reports and Audited Accounts. Later efforts to send the requested union’s financial documents by courier services were equally rejected by the office of the Registrar of Trade Unions. Please find the documents related to the stated facts attached herewith.
“Juxtaposing the unnerving short notice given to ASUU to submit its Annual Financial Reports and Audited Accounts with the unveiled threats by the Registrar of Trade Unions to withdraw ASUU’s Certificate of Registration and the rather callous refusal to accept the same documents upon submission by ASUU all signpost a very sinister agenda which is capable of destroying the current general harmony in industrial relations in Nigeria.
“The current travail by ASUU appears to resonate with remarks in the public domain that government has perfected plans to proscribe the Academic Staff Union of Universities. If such a plan is true, it would only serve to remind us of the dark years of military rule where unions where proscribed for standing up in defence of the rights of workers,” Wabba stated in the letter.
