ASUU strike: Lecturers demand reopening of universities

ASUU denies receiving N100b from the government

Group of lecturers under the auspices of the Congress of University Academy, CONUA called for the immediate reopening of universities for the resumption of academic activities.

Remember that CONUA applied to the Minister of Labor and Employment to be registered as one of the academic unions in the universities.

The group clashed with ASUU and made frantic efforts to be registered as a separate union.

CONUA on Friday stormed the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, NICN, in solidarity and support for the Federal Government for the Universities to reopen for academic activities without prerequisites so that Court Proceedings and negotiations can continue with students back in classrooms.

CONUA declared its interest in joining the case in court on Friday.

Information journalists in Abuja, its national coordinator, Niyi Sumonu, who led his members to court, said they are discussing with their lawyers to see how they can legally join the case.

He said they applied for registration at the Federal Ministry of Labor in 2018 and are waiting for the handover of the registration certificate.

According to him, “We are interested in the case because any matter related to the universities, teaching, lectures and industrial action is of utmost importance to us because the outcome will affect us.

“Because we are waiting for registration, we cannot be part of the pack. We are talking to our lawyer to see which part of the law will let us into the case.”

Sumonu added that their members who are from federal and state universities have never gone on strike.

Recall that ASUU went ahead with a one-month warning strike on February 14 over the alleged inability of the Federal Government to meet their demands and has extended the strike till date.

Some of the demands include the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement, payment of earned academic allowance, the
discrepancies caused by IPPIS and demand for replacement of the payment platform with the University Transparency Accountability Solution, UTAS, among others.

Although the government claimed to have made offers to ASUU, the union also claimed that there was no meaningful offer from the government, hence it remained adamant to call off the seven-month-old strike.

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