This is just as the rival group of the Academic Staff Union of Universities said it has a presence in no fewer than 17 universities in the country, adding that it would work towards the registration of new members.

The union’s National Coordinator, Dr Niyi Sunmonu, made this known in Abuja on Tuesday shortly after the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, had in Abuja announced the registration of two additional university-based unions –CONUA and the National Association of Medical and Dental Academics.

Sunmonu said, “As of the last count, even before this registration, we have 17 branches nationwide. It includes state and federal universities. Of course, numerical strength varies from university to university. Now that we have been given legal recognition by the government, we are hopeful that more branches will come on board and more members will come on board.Since the time we started, we said we were going to look at issues from a different perspective, especially concerning using strike action to drive home our demands. There are issues everywhere, and universities are not immune to issues within the country.

We are not saying there are no issues in the universities but we believe that those issues can be approached in a very different manner without using the instrument of a strike.

“Strike action has been greatly overused, and it has been overused to the extent that the damage it has done to the system is more than good. For us, strike action is out.

“We need to organise our branches and be constructive in our engagement with government, constructive in the sense that, whether we like it or not, discussions remain the most potent weapon when you have industrial issues but that discussion needs to take place under what conditions? We want to create an atmosphere that will be a win-win for lecturers, students, parents, the government, and all stakeholders.”

CONUA’s National Coordinator, Dr. Niyi Sunmonu, emphasised the need to democratise the university setting, saying this was what the academics should be after, adding that academics must look at issues from different perspectives.

Sunmonu said there should not be a fixed perspective to issues, noting that it should not be a thing of “only this way or the highway.”

Sunmonu, while speaking on Arise TV  ‘News Night’ aired Tuesday, said the use of strike action to press home demands in the country had been on for well over 40 years, saying, “in that period of 40 years, we’ve had different kinds of governments, the military dictators, the democracy that we all enjoy; we’ve had one response and that response is put pen to paper on agreement and renege on the agreement later.

We are of the opinion that these agreements, to us, are actually done under duress; where you have the situation in which the other party which is the government that you’re actually discussing with, comes to a meeting with a relaxed mind that once they have an agreement that is workable; when they put pen to paper to sign, they would honour that.”

Sunmonu noted that even in situations of outright wars, “issues are resolved at the table; why can’t we devote more time to that so as to avoid casualties? In this case, casualties are parents and students.”

“We want to deploy all our faculties, all our networks to the area of discussions at the table that will lead to a win-win situation; discussions that will lead to an agreement that the other side will not feel it’s being compelled to do,” he said.

The Federal Government on Tuesday, in a bid to weaken the influence of ASUU, registered two unions in the university system, which included CONUA and the National Association of Medical and Dental Academics.

The Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chris Ngige, who spoke while presenting the certificates of registration to the two unions explained that the two bodies would exist alongside ASUU.

ASUU has been on strike since February 14, 2022. The union, which is the most reckoned-with umbrella body for university lecturers in Nigeria, is seeking improved welfare conditions for its members, adequate funding for universities, and the replacement of the government-introduced payment platform- Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, with the University Transparency and Accountability Solution. The latter was designed by ASUU following complaints against the IPPIS over alleged poor standardisation and incompatibility with the university system.