President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime has appealed to the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to reverse its opposition to the registration of two new academic unions in the Nigerian public university system.

Labour minister Chris Ngige made the call in a statement on Tuesday.

The new unions are the Congress for Nigerian University Academics (CONUA) and the Nigeria Association of Medical and Dental Academics (NAMDA). CONUA and NAMDA received letters of recognition recently by the ministry in Abuja.

However, in a letter to Mr Ngige, NLC president Ayuba Wabba demanded the withdrawal of the letters issued to the unions because their registration contravened the laws guiding trade unionism.

Mr Ngige, in his reply, on October 12, appealed to NLC to allow the new unions to exist in the spirit of freedom of association, insisting that the Trade Dispute Act 2004 gives him the sole power to register new trade unions, either by registering a new union or regrouping existing ones.

He reiterated that the new unions were offshoots of regrouping, and their applications were considered by two ministry committees, adding that the registrar of trade unions participated when the first recommendation for approval was given in 2019 and 2022.

Mr Ngige claimed that CONUA and NAMDA were regrouped from the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) for efficiency and effectiveness in the system.

The minister added that to protect these groups of university teachers whose worldview differs from the restive parent union.

“Comrade President, do not unnecessarily oppose the registration of these new academic unions. Because with ASUU, they are all like seeds on the academic soil of Nigeria and which will grow into big trees we don’t know, but the one which her trees are not bearing good fruits, we already know. So, as an uncle of the unions oppose none in the spirit of Freedom of Association,” he said.

Mr Ngige added that the matter was a subject of litigation in the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) in the most recent case, which the President of the NLC failed to mention in his narration of court cases.

“The case of the Nigerian Union of Pensioners (NUP) and the regrouped Federal Parastatals and Private Sector Pensioners Association of Nigeria (FEPPAN) from NUP where the law on regrouping of trade unions was extensively explored and ruled upon,” argued the minister. “Unlike the cases cited by the president of the NLC to misinform the general public and unfortunately lead astray his affiliate trade union, ASUU.”

(NAN)