THE Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has exposed a plot by the federal government to proscribe the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) based on a trumped-up charge of non-submission of its audited financial report in line with a request of the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige.
In a letter addressed to Dr Ngige dated September 22, 2022 and signed by NLC President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, the NLC said the action by the government was a deliberate ploy to use the excuse to ban ASUU.
Comrade Wabba, in the letter entitled: “Non-Rendition of Annual Financial Returns and Audited Accounts,” and made available to National Record Friday afternoon, noted that ASUU has rendered its financial report for 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 as at September 8, 2022.
Wabba said the Registrar of Trade Unions should accept the Annual Financial Report and Audited Accounts submitted by ASUU, saying that ASUU should not be punished for demanding that government respects the Collective Bargaining Agreements it entered with them.
“Our attention has been drawn by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to a letter dated 7” September 2022 written to ASUU by the Registrar of Trade Unions on the foregoing subject.
“We understand that ASUU had responded to the directives of the Registrar of Trade Unions to submit its Annual Financial Reports and Audited Accounts within 72 hours. The Annual Financial Reports and Audited Accounts of ASUU as requested were submitted by ASUU to the office of the Registrar of Trade Unions, Federal Ministry of Labour in less than 24 hours, specifically on the 8th of September 2022.
“We are greatly alarmed that the timely submission of the Annual Financial Reports and Audited Accounts by ASUU in accordance with the directives of the Registrar of Trade Unions was rejected by the staff at the Office of the Registrar of Trade Unions.
“The staff disclosed that they were under strict instructions not to accept ASUU’s Annual Financial Reports and Audited Accounts. Later efforts to send the requested union’s financial documents by courier services were equally rejected by the office of the Registrar of Trade Unions. Please find the documents related to the stated facts attached herewith.
“Juxtaposing the unnerving short notice given to ASUU to submit its Annual Financial Reports and Audited Accounts with the unveiled threats by the Registrar of Trade Unions to withdraw ASUU’s Certificate of Registration and the rather callous refusal to accept the same documents upon submission by ASUU all signpost a very sinister agenda which is capable of destroying the current general harmony in industrial relations in Nigeria.
“The current travail by ASUU appears to resonate with remarks in the public domain that government has perfected plans to proscribe the Academic Staff Union of Universities. If such a plan is true, it would only serve to remind us of the dark years of military rule where unions where proscribed for standing up in defence of the rights of workers,” Wabba stated in the letter.
He noted that the entire labour movement is watching with keen interest the developing situation and would respond on the basis of the principle that “an injury to one is an injury to all.”
“We write to urge the Honourable Minister to direct the Registrar of Trade Unions not to be used to execute an obnoxious plot against Nigerian workers especially our lecturers in the universities. The Registrar of Trade Unions should accept the Annual Financial Report and Audited Accounts submitted by ASUU. We posit very strongly that ASUU should not be punished for demanding that government respects the collective Bargaining Agreements it entered with them.
“Finally, we wish to remind government that article 3 subsection 2 of the ILO Convention 87 on Freedom of Association which Nigeria ratified since October 17, 1960, provides as follows: “The public authorities shall refrain from any interference which would restrict this right or impede the lawful exercise thereof.”
“While the entire labour movement watch with keen interest the developing situation with the consciousness that an injury to one is an injury to all, we implore that a stitch in time might still save nine.”
Comrade Wabba similarly wrote a separate letter to the Registrar of Trade Unions, explaining the circumstances for the delay in ASUU filing the report immediately they were prepared, which he said were due to disruptions occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We also understand that ASUU sent one of their staff and their external auditor to personally deliver the requested financial documents on the 9th of September 2022 but their efforts to submit the documents were rebuffed by your staff who insisted that they were under instructions not to accept any document from ASUU.
“ASUU subsequently sent the requested financial documents through courier services but again the staff in your office refused to receive the Annual Financial Returns and the Audited Accounts from ASUU.
“Given the current stalemate, we write to implore you to use your good offices to accept and file the Annual Financial Returns and Audited Accounts by ASUU in accordance with the ‘provisions of Section 37(1) of the Trade Union Act CAP TI LFN 2004.”
