Nigeria ‘ll no longer be traumatised by academic union dislocation — CONUA

From Lateef Dada, Osogbo

The National Coordinator, Congress of University Academics (CONUA), Dr Niyi Sunmonu, on Tuesday said the body will work towards ensuring that the nation is no longer traumatized by academic union dislocations.

He made the promise in a statement made available to our correspondent in Osogbo shortly after the federal government presented a certificate of registration to CONUA.

He stated that the registration of CONUA as a trade union is monumentally historic.m, describing it as “the validation of the power of the human will.”

Nothing that the union has been on the struggle since 2018, Sunmonu said “it asserts the value of courage, initiative, focus, tenacity, patience, forbearance and persistent positive thinking.”

“We are immensely grateful to the Honourable Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, and his team of diligent staff for insisting on merit, due process and thoroughness all through the processing of our application for the registration of DrUA. The very strict and dispassionate review of our application brought out the best in the membership of the Union.

“We regard the registration of CONUA as a sacred trust and pledge to reciprocate by devoting ourselves unceasingly to the advancement of university education in this country. We would make the details of our programmes available to the public in due course. For now, we are giving the assurance that we would work to ensure that the nation is not traumatized again by academic union dislocations in the country’s public universities.

“We are also deeply grateful to the numerous personalities and well-wishers whose good counsel and concrete actions have facilitated the success we have witnessed today. We believe in the saying that to whom much is given, much is expected. We would therefore constantly strive to make them all proud of CONUA.

“We appreciate the entire membership of the Union for believing in the righteousness of the CONUA cause and for believing in the leadership of the Union, and thereby remaining salutarily steadfast, even when disconcerting and demoralizing situations arose,” he added.