The Congress of University Academics, CONUA in obafemi awolowo university, Ile-Ife has revealed it’s position on the strike threat issued by the Academic staff union of universities in the institution.
ASUU-OAU on Tuesday had issued a fresh threat to commence Indefinite strike over failure of the management to pay their earned academic allowance, DAILY GIST reports.
The lecturers in the institution noted that plans have been concluded to begin an indefinite strike since the ultimatum given to the University management to pay the allowance to deserving ASUU members has already expired.
But speaking on the development, CONUA berated ASUU over the strike threat on the issue of earned allowance.
CONUA reacted in a statement issued by it’s national coordinator, Dr Niyi Sunmonu and made available to DAILY GIST.
Sunmonu said the refusal of ASUU members to subject their claims to verification as practised previously need explanation, adding that CONUA is insisting that verification must be done to ascertain claims submitted by lecturers.
According to him, while the first tranche of the money was to be paid, both ASUU and CONUA agreed on the need for verification by the National Universities Commission, NUC, but now they are trying to avoid the same exercise because the university is to conduct the verification.
“It is quite funny changing the rule of the game in the middle of the game. This was part of the questions that we post to the University management during our meeting with them that what has changed with verification.
“The Vice Chancellor, Professor Eyitope Ogunbodede told us that the verification would have to be done here because things have changed. Please verify from our friends on the other side why they are afraid of verification if they had nothing to hide.
OAU Management Reacts
Reacting to ASUU’s threat on Wednesday, the management told DAILY GIST that it’s not holding on to the earned academic allowance of the lecturers in any way
The management of OAU through its Spokeperson, Mr Abiodun Olarewaju disclosed this in an exclusive chat with DAILY GIST on Wednesday
According to him, the university is ready to give every eligible member their entitlement.
On why the management has not paid earned academic allowance to ASUU lecturers, Mr Abiodun noted that the University management has paid the non teaching unions but because there is a disagreement between the members of the academic staff which the University Management wants them to resolve and come up with a common position.
He said: “And when that is done, the University management will release the money and give every eligible academic staff their due.
Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and Congress of Universities Academic (CONUA) are the two academic unions that operate as parallel bodies with almost similar modus operandi, even though the latter is a breakaway faction of the former.
How CONUA came into existence?
In February 2018, some aggrieved lecturers of ASUU-OAU complained of marginalisation and of being unfairly treatment, a development that resulted in a splinter group that birthed CONUA the following month.
At its inauguration, the National Coordinator of CONUA, Dr. Niyi Sunmonu, said the sole purpose of CONUA was to redirect unionism, restore peace and stability in universities in Nigeria and come up with new approaches of engagement in addressing members’ welfare.
CONUA which started in OAU over three years ago has tentacles in Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma; Federal University, Oye Ekiti; Federal University, Lokoja; and Kwara State University, Malete.
