Appeal court orders ASUU to resume work immediately

• Judgment, New Unions Won’t Resolve Conflict, Stakeholders Warn
• Ngige: More Varsity Unions Coming

The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja yesterday ordered members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to resume work with immediate effect.

However, stakeholders in the education sector have cautioned that the Appeal Court judgment, registration of Congress of Nigeria University Academics (CONUA) and the Nigeria Association of Medical and Dental Lecturers in Academics (NAMDA) would not herald a peaceful industrial atmosphere in the university system.

The appellate court gave the order in a ruling on an application by ASUU seeking permission for it to appeal against the order of the National Industrial Court, which asked the striking lecturers to resume duty.

The industrial court had on September 22 granted an interlocutory order following an application to that effect by the Federal Government, ordering university lecturers to return to work pending the resolution of their dispute with government.

Dissatisfied with the ruling, ASUU, through its counsel, Femi Falana (SAN) headed to the appellate court to seek redress. At the Appeal Court, ASUU filed an application dated September 28, seeking the leave of court to file an appeal against the industrial court order.

But in its ruling, the Court of Appeal, which granted ASUU “conditional leave to appeal the order of the Industrial Court”, insisted that ASUU must obey the order of the lower court with effect from today, October 7.

The three-man panel led by Justice Hamman Barka said for ASUU to file its notice of appeal within seven days, it must show evidence that its members resumed work on October 7.

Commenting on the development, the National President of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), Dr. Tommy Okon, said there was still room for negotiation between ASUU and the Federal Government, saying the parties must resolve to amicably negotiate the issues in dispute and be willing to yield grounds.

He urged the Federal Government to invite ASUU to the negotiation table and propose reasonable offers with an open mind that would be able to accommodate the shifting of hitherto held high moral ground.

“I think that government should invite ASUU for another round of negotiation but this time must come to the table with an open mind. I think the new unions should work harmoniously with the ASUU for the betterment of the students,” he added.

With the election around the corner, Okon said the strike must not be allowed to fester more than what has been witnessed. Okon also said the ‘no victimisation’ clause often inserted in agreements after negotiations mean that all salaries and entitlements would be paid, saying the insistence of the government that it would not pay for the eight-month ASUU members have been on strike must be revisited and resolved for the benefit of the workers.

He also noted that the attempt at dividing the labour movement through a multiplicity of unions and trade centres would only help to solidify the bond of the movement.

He said: “We remember that in 2005, the Federal Government moved to break the labour ranks by registering the Trade Union Congress (TUC) to rival the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). But rather than weakening the trade labour movement in Nigeria, that move helped to solidify the movement even more. There has been no national strike that has taken place in Nigeria since 2005 and the TUC and NLC had not collaborated to prosecute. History tells us that multiplicity of unions in any sector has not helped to factionalise workers. It may seem to work in favour of the government only in the short term. In the long run, the movement always wins.”

Okon said it was uncharitable to blame ASUU for the ongoing imbroglio in federal universities, adding: “What is happening is in two ways. The first is on the part of the government and the other on the side of ASUU. No side wins it all in industrial relations. I am sure that if the government had given a reasonable offer to ASUU, there would have been some negotiation based on the offer made. Our slogan, which is ‘the struggle continues’ connotes that the struggle for a better working condition is not a one-off thing. It is a struggle that continues. For the government to register other unions does make that a right option as well. What the government is trying to avoid today, they will run into it tomorrow. This struggle will not end in a few days.”

But the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, has insisted that irrespective of some relevant sections of the Trade Union Act, he could authorise the registration of unions in any sector he deems necessary.

When the Minister was reminded that the Trade Unions Act clearly states that another trade union cannot be registered by the Minister in a sector where a similar one (s) is already existing, the Minister cited Section 32 of the Act that empowers such registration to the discretion of the Minister.

He cited how he midwifed the registration of a union for pensioners in the contributory pension scheme when the Nigerian Union of Pensioners (NUP) became vociferous about non-payment of pensions in the country by organising protests and rallies across the nation.

He also hinted that more unions would be registered in the universities in due course, adding: “Yes, that is what the law says but there is another proviso that the Minister can register new unions where the existing one (s) no longer serves the purpose it was established. We registered pensioners in the contributory pension as a breakaway from the NUP when it was becoming too big and there was restlessness everywhere among the pensioners. The NUP went to court, but the court said the minister was right in registering another union. I can tell you that after these two new unions, others are coming and we will register them if they meet the requirements.”

However, a former Director-General of the Nigerian Employers Consultative Association (NECA), Olusegun Oshinowo, lambasted the Minister for destroying the fabric of Nigerian industrial relations. 

“Ngige is either unaware of this fact, which I very much doubt, or he just chose to ignore it in the face of the expediency and desperation to break ASUU out of frustration not minding the damaging effect of such an action on our entire industrial relations system,” Oshinowo noted. 

He declared that by the action of the Federal Government, Nigeria was unwittingly departing and distracting from a basic tenet and principle underlining the creation and existence of the industrial trade unions as they presently exist. 

He further observed that on the face of it, it may seem that there was nothing illegal in the minister’s action as it conforms with the ILO Convention 87 on Freedom of Association, an issue for which the ILO was at daggers drawn with the Nigerian government for many years following the 1978 restructuring exercise, which the ILO considered to be in breach of Convention 87. 

“We have since overcome that opposition and the social partners/stakeholders have embraced the current structure as appropriate for our milieu and situation. I am of the view that the structure is long overdue for review. Such a review, however, cannot be in the way and manner Ngige has sought to emasculate and balkanise ASUU, a rather selective and vendetta-pursuing action. The review has to be based on a thorough and well thought out process of redefining our industrial relations policy and revising the rules for the setting up of trade unions in Nigeria, which would then be of general application,” he said.