UniAbuja ASUU Strike: CONUA dissociates self, says action baseless

The Congress of University Academics (CONUA), University of Abuja Chapter, has dissociated itself from the ongoing strikeby the university branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

The Chairman, CONUA, University of Abuja Chapter, Prof. Abdul Buba, said this when the group paid a courtesy visit to the Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Abdul-Rasheed Na'Allah, in Abuja on Friday.

Buba said the university system could not be grounded because it had no governing council, a decision that informed industrial actions.

“We believe in a stable academic calendar, and that’s why we believe that there are other ways of handling labour issues than strike actions.

“CONUA addresses issues and not personalities. We also respect the opinions of our members, not the predetermined objectives of the leadership.

”We address issues without sentiments and meet with the right stakeholders in the pursuit of our objectives.

“We are conscious of the negative effects of strikes, and we believe in deploying relevant strategies that will yield positive results in the modern age of innovation,” he said.

He added that CONUA would continue to engage relevant stakeholders to pursue legitimate welfare for its members without dabbling with issues not of concern to its members.

“The ongoing strike in place at the university, CONUA, is not part of it because we believe in academic and service delivery.

“All these five points for the strike are baseless.

“Let me start with the issue of advertisements for the position of vice chancellor. Initially, if  the council were in place, everything about employment for both the employees and the principal officers would start and end with the university governing council.

“But in the absence of the university governing council, the law has no provision for the vice chancellor to appoint any successor, so it is the responsibility of the government to do that. So, there is no way the VC can be accused.

“This is because even the advertorial, if you watch, and other advertorials that were placed by other universities mention the ministry representing the government, so this is baseless,” he said.

Also, the CONUA Secretary, Prof. Issa Abdulraheem, urged the union to focus on the welfare of its members, which was the sole role of establishing a union.

“The union is established to cater for the welfare of its members; all the issues raised by the other union are baseless and have nothing to do with staff welfare.

“And so we believe that we have ways of handling issues with stakeholders without sentiments of personalising issues. All the points raised by the other unions are not in the interest of their members, he said.

On his part, the Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Abdul-Rasheed Na’Allah, appreciated CONUA for its stance in not joining the strike, hoping that the academic programme at ASUU would commence soon.

Supreme News reports that the University of Abuja ASUU branch embarked on a total and indefinite strike on May 2 over the alleged university’s refusal to conduct elections for the office of dean of faculties and provost of the College of Health Sciences.

The union also accused the university of carrying out the promotion of some staffers without following due process.

Other reasons for the strike, according to the union, include the “advertisement of the vacancy of the post of Vice Chancellor without following due process, among others.