Speaking in his office in Abuja during the presentation of certificates of registration to the Congress of University Academics and the National Association of Medical and Dental Academics, Ngige noted that both unions have been officially gazetted and are therefore entitled to all labour rights as enshrined in the International Trade Unions’ constitution.

He said, “Before 2020, CONUA had approached the ministry complaining of a lack of democracy and transparency in the leadership of ASUU, especially in rendering a proper account of their check-up dues remitted from the government.

“Based on these grievances, the ministry decided to register the members of CONUA to operate as a full-fledged union, for which we have issued a certificate of registration and gazetting, which is part of Section 3:2 of the ITU.

Unbundling is not new; the Nigerian Union of Pensioners, NEPA, and NNPC have been unbundled.”

Also, CONUA President, Dr Niyi Sunmonu, alleged that the highhandedness of ASUU’s leadership gave birth to the association, stressing that the era of incessant strikes in the university system was over.

He, however, protested the continued remittance of the association members’ check-up dues to ASUU, asking the minister to intervene to reverse the trend.

The National President of ASUU, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, did not immediately respond to inquiries by our correspondent as calls and messages sent to him remained unanswered as of the time of filing this report.

Meanwhile, branches of ASUU are set to hold emergency congresses starting from Wednesday (today)

Highly placed sources who are executives of the union made this known to our correspondent in Abuja.

The congress will be discussing the government’s recent move to pay withheld salaries of CONUA members.

Branches are expected to take decisions that will be transmitted to the national leadership of the union.

One of the sources who spoke to our correspondent said, “Branches are expected to hold congress. Ours is tomorrow. We have refused to say anything to the press because this is a war we want to be tactical about.”

Another source at the Nnamdi Azikwe University, Awka said, “Yes, it is true. We will be holding our congress in line with the directive of the national body.”

CONUA noted in a statement on Tuesday that it was incorrect for the FG to group the association with members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities who went on an eight-month strike between February and October 2022.

The statement was signed by CONUA’s National President, Secretary, and Publicity Secretary, Niyi Sunmonu, Henry Oripeloye and Ernest Nwoke.

The new union of lecturers is therefore considering dragging the government to court for withholding its members’ salaries.

The statement partly read, “CONUA formally made its non-involvement in the strike known to the Federal Government in a letter addressed to the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, in April 2022.

“In the letter, we made it clear that because CONUA constituted a separate and independent union in the university system, our members did not call for any strike. This was followed by a press conference in Abuja on August 19, 2022, at which it was categorically stated that CONUA was not part of any ongoing strike and that the ‘no work, no pay’ principle ought not to apply to members of the union.

CONUA expects that, due to the express and categorical declaration, the government would seamlessly release our members’ outstanding salaries when it resumed the payment of salaries to all university staff in October 2022. But to our dismay, CONUA members were also paid pro-rata salaries in complete disregard for the fact that we were indeed shut out of duties by the strike.

We then wrote to the Accountant-General of the Federation and the Ministry of Labour and Employment, reminding them that lumping our members in with those who declared and went on strike was a mistake. It was yet another shock for the outstanding backlog of salaries not to have been paid to our members along with the November 2022 salary.”

CONUA said the non-payment of “our withheld salaries” contravenes Section 43 (1b) of the Trade Disputes Act CAP. T8, which stated that “where any employer locks out his workers, the workers shall be entitled to wages and any other applicable remunerations for the period of the lock-out, and the period of the lock-out shall not prejudicially affect any rights of the workers, being rights dependent on the continuity of the period of employment.”

“This provision is consistent with global best practices.

“From the foregoing and as a law-abiding union that pledged to do things differently, we have resolved to seek legal redress of the illegal withholding of our legitimate salaries by taking the matter to court in consonance with the rights enshrined in our laws,” the union added.

CONUA, in a statement on Tuesday, signed by its National President, Secretary and Publicity Secretary, Dr Niyi Sunmonu, Dr Henry Oripeloye and Dr Ernest Nwoke, respectively, said it was wrong for the FG to lump CONUA with members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities who went on eight months strike between February and October, 2022.

The new union of lecturers thereby viewed to sue FG for withholding its members’ salaries.

The statement partly read, “CONUA formally made its non-involvement in the strike known to the Federal Government in a letter addressed to the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, in April 2022.

“In the letter, we made it clear that because CONUA constituted a separate and independent union in the university system, our members did not call for any strike. This was followed by a Press Conference in Abuja on August 19, 2022 at which it was categorically stated that CONUA was not part of any ongoing strike, and that the “No Work No Pay” principle ought not to apply to members of the union.

“CONUA’s expectation is that, due to the express and categorical declaration, the government would seamlessly release our members’ outstanding salaries when it resumed the payment of salaries to all university staff in October 2022. But to our dismay, CONUA members were also paid pro-rata salaries in complete disregard to the fact that we were indeed shut out of duties by the strike. Subsequently, we wrote to the Accountant-General of the Federatıon and the Ministry of Labour and Employment reminding them that it was an error to lump our members with those that declared and embarked on strike action. It was yet another shock for the outstanding backlog of salaries not to have been paid to our members along with the November 2022 salary.”

CONUA said the non-payment of “our withheld salaries” contravenes Section 43 (1b) of the Trade Disputes Act CAP. T8, which stated that “where any employer locks out his workers, the workers shall be entitled to wages and any other applicable remunerations for the period of the lock-out and the period of the lock-out shall not prejudicially affect any rights of the workers being rights dependent on the continuity of period of employment.”

“This provision is consistent with global best practices,” it added.

“From the foregoing and as a law-abiding union that pledged to do things differently, we have resolved to seek legal redress of the illegal withholding of our legitimate salaries by taking the matter to court in consonance with the rights enshrined in our laws,” the union said.

In October, the FG registered CONUA, who had opted to be different from ASUU by bringing new methods as against strike to press home the demands of lecturers for better welfare and university funding.