Congress of University Academics (CONUA), a break-away faction of the Academic Staff of Universities (ASUU), has urged vice chancellors of universities in the country to recall students, noting that CONUA members were not on strike.
Dr Henri Oripeloye, CONUA’s National Secretary, at a briefing at Federal University Oye Ekiti (FUOYE), noted that aside members of the body, other lecturers were willing to teach.
“We reject, in strong terms, the claims that we are members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU); we are an independent union on university campuses in Nigeria.
“We commend the National University Commission (NUC) for directing the opening of universities nationwide.
“We want our universities to be reopened so that they will not be left behind in the scheme of things,” he said.
Oripeloye said CONUA believed strongly in objective and constructive engagement with government rather than strike. He noted that they had enrolled into the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) after consultations with the government and their concerns were being addressed.
The Obafemi Awolowo University’s lecturer added that one of CONUA’s main preoccupation was that strike as a weapon to force government’s attention should become a thing of the past.
“We don’t know anything about UTAS, we believe in fruitful interaction with the government to achieve our requests, ” he said.
Oripeloye assured that should VCs recall their students, academic activities would resume without discord in public varsities, adding that many lecturers were ready to resume having complied with government’s directive on IPPIS.
He said there was no conflict between CONUA and ASUU, noting that the two unions only differed in ideology which reflected in their approach to getting government to approve their requests.
He also said CONUA had been interacting with the government on how to solve many of the problems identified on the IPPIS platform.
