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The federal government’s decision to register two new academic unions has been resisted by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).
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In the midst of the Academic Staff Union of Universities’ strike, Minister of Labor and Employment Chris Ngige delivered letters of recognition to two new unions, Congress for Nigerian University Academics (CONUA) and the Nigeria Association of Medical and Dental Academics (NAMDA) (ASUU).
In response, NLC President Ayuba Wabba demanded that the recognition be revoked on the grounds that the unions’ registration broke the statutes governing trade unions.
Wabba added that the recognition aims to “disrupt” friendly ties.
The NLC President further asserted that, in addition to Ngige previously disclosing that the new unions applied for registration in 2018, which, in his view, is a blatant contradiction of the minister’s assertion that they were regrouping as justification for granting them certificates, article 3(2) of International Labor Organization (ILO) convention 87 on freedom of association and protection of the right to organize also makes it clear that public authorities should not interfere in the process.
The declaration said;
What is your motivation for registering CONUA and MAMDA? is the question on every sane Nigerian’s mind. Is it a reorganization of trade unions or a response to CONUA and MAMDA’s application to be registered unions, which was submitted in 2018?
“Unfortunately, while the contrary is true, you have accused us of interfering.
“Your biased attempt to’re-group’ an existing trade union or actually individuals (something our labor laws never contemplated) in utter disregard to tripartism which is a core pillar of ILO is an attempt to interfere with, infiltrate, and balkanize an existing trade union — at best to score on vengeance, and at worst to destroy cordial industrial relations in Nigeria,” the statement reads.
We are also disturbed by the fact that your ‘patriotic’ intervention to save the ostensibly expelled and underrepresented academic staff at our universities came after you openly expressed your deepest frustration with your failure to end the ASUU strike.
Overall, Honourable Minister, we still want to think that you weren’t given the best advice possible on this issue.
The letter asks the Chief Labour Law Officer of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to “redress this grievous injustice done to our labor jurisprudence by the ‘awarding’ of trade union certificates to CONUA and NAMDA.”
