Distinguished Audience,
Respectable Members of the Press,
I heartily welcome you to this press conference which is to address current critical issues in Nigerian University education.
Preamble
The Congress of University Academics (CONUA) was conceived and birthed by academics across Nigerian universities in February 2018. The membership of CONUA cuts across all ranks of the academic profession. These range from the entry rank of Graduate Assistant to the highest rank of Professor. Some of the branches of the Union include but are not limited to Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, University of Benin, Federal University, Lokoja, Federal University, Oye, Kwara State University, Malete, Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, University of Jos and Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. The Union is growing by leaps and bounds, and many other universities are in the process of inaugurating CONUA as their academic union of preference.
In April 2018, CONUA applied for registration as a trade union at the Ministry of Labour and Employment, and on 19th November, 2020, the Honourable Minister held a public meeting with CONUA delegates where he gave the Ministerial Committee (reviewing the registration of CONUA) four (4) weeks to conclude its work. We are aware that the committee has since submitted its report. We have therefore been waiting to hear from the government on our registration.
In this regard, it is gratifying that, in an Arise TV News interview on 8th August, 2022, the Honourable Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Mr. Festus Keyamo (SAN), said categorically as follows about CONUA’s application for registration: “For the last three years, another association of university teachers, they’ve met all the requirements of registration. They’re there at the Ministry of Labour. CONUA …. We have not registered them, we just respect ASUU. We don’t want to be seen as the one breaking ASUU.”
For us, this statement of the Honourable Minister is a double-edged sword. First, it is gratifying for us that the Ministry of Labour and Employment acknowledges that CONUA is not a frivolous union, but an assemblage of visionary and courageous academics with immense potentials to stem the tide of the consistent decline in the public image of and confidence in university education in Nigeria. Second, we are immensely worried that the government places the desire not “to be seen as the one breaking ASUU” over and above upholding the fundamental human rights of law-abiding citizens who have demonstrated merit in their quest for the exercise of the constitutionally-guaranteed freedom of association, in consonance with Section 40 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, and international labour law. We believe that any further delay in the registration of CONUA would amount to undermining our fundamental human right to exercise our patriotic duty to provide agreeable options to incessant strikes that have wreaked more havoc than any good they may have yielded. It will, furthermore, amount to a commendable effort at deepening the democratic ethos in the educational setting to register CONUA forthwith.
In the meantime, to say the least, we are saddened by our recent experiences in Nigerian universities. We have seen unprecedented disruptions in academic calendars in our universities. Between 1999 and 2021, Nigerian public universities had experienced strikes for 1,417 days which translate to over 5 years! The ongoing strike is in its sixth month now! This has caused damage in no small measure to teaching and research. CONUA is determined to proffer solutions to these endemic problems so that our universities once again will have a breath of life. As a first step, we call on the federal government, as a matter of urgency to convoke a stakeholders’ meeting to include parents, students, all unions and relevant government agencies to brainstorm and find lasting solutions to these perennial problems. We cannot be doing the same thing the same way for many years and expect different results. As a union, we are committed to the entrenchment of quality ideas that will stand the test of time in Nigerian universities.
What will CONUA do differently?
As a new and fast growing union of academics in Nigerian universities, and having considered the issues affecting university education in the country, especially from the perspective of unionism, CONUA has declared that we need a paradigm shift from the old order in our universities. The core focus of CONUA therefore includes the following:
i. inculcating the spirit of discipline among our members to do their work in a manner that will impact positively on the nation;
ii. raising the consciousness of our members on ethical conduct on issues of sexual harassment and how to build an agreeable relationship between students and lecturers;
iii. avoiding strikes by engaging proactively in ideologically-unencumbered consultation, dialoguing and lobbying the National Universities Commission, the Minister of Education and the House Committee on Education on the need for enhancing budgetary provisions for education, rather than folding our arms when budgets are being prepared and then going on strike to ask for improved funding;
iv. advising the government and educating the public on the need to maintain an effective and efficient educational system in the country;
v. seeing ourselves as partners in national development, and therefore getting involved in national discourse to assist the government to take informed and widely acceptable decisions on national issues;
vi. using CONUA membership check off dues for the academic development of our members in terms of financial support for conference attendance and research activities;
vii. working harmoniously with other university-based academic and non-academic unions for the enhancement of the capacities of university staff to fulfill the different mandates in the university system.
Future of CONUA
As a union, our members have been law abiding in the promotion of our collective interests, and have pursued our objectives following due process. CONUA as union is not on strike, and we were doing our work dutifully before the universities were closed by the respective Managements.
We also use this medium to appeal to those Vice-Chancellors who have been harassing and molesting CONUA members on account of the present non-registration of the Union to desist forthwith. The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria allows the free association of like minds pending the completion of the registration process.
It will be the dawn of a new era when CONUA is handed the legal recognition by the Federal Government. It will provide alternative perspectives for the achievement of constructive engagement with stakeholders, thereby making hitch free academic calendars possible. We believe the time is ripe to register CONUA.
Respectable members of the press, thank you once again for your attention.
‘Niyi Sunmonu