OVER 1,000 LECTURERS ARE READY TO END THE ASUU STRIKE, ACCORDING TO CONUA

The Congress of Nigerian University Academics (CONUA), a parallel union that claimed to have broken away from the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has stated that its members are ready to end ASUU's eight-month-long strike.

Misbau Alamu Lateef, the National Legal Adviser of CONUA, insisted that there were over 1000 university lecturers ready to return to class.

Lateef stated this in a statement posted on his Facebook page after the Nigerian government presented the union with a certificate of registration on Tuesday.

"We insisted that the right approach was to insist on the government (our employer) incorporating our peculiarities into IPPIS rather than insisting, as ASUU has futilely done till now, that we must dictate a payroll or payment method to our employer. You will never see any example in the world where employees dictate to their employers the mode of payment of their wages. Yet, that's one of the major reasons ASUU has forced a strike on our universities for 7months plus.

"However, we have nothing personal against our teachers and seniors in ASUU. We are all friends and colleagues even as I type now. We mostly disagree on their modus operandi and ideology (outdated leftist mentality). So, the guiding philosophy of CONUA is Constructive Engagement to rebuild our universities without destroying them.

"What's in this for the hapless Nigerian students? The siege is over. I can assure you that there are 1000s of lecturers only waiting to get back to the classroom to resume their work while the struggle for better funding of universities continues without destroying the universities to build them," he said.