Strike: Court to Hear ASUU’s Objection to FG’s Suit December 13

UNILAG lecturers stage protest over pro-rata salary

Alex Enumah in Abujaand Funmi Ogundare

The Abuja Division of the National Industrial Court has fixed December 13, for hearing of the Notice of Preliminary Objection (NPO) filed by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) against the federal government’s suit on the suspended industrial action of the universities lecturers.

Presiding judge and President of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN), Justice Benedict Kanyip, fixed the date yesterday, after parties in the suit regularised their processes.

At the resumed hearing yesterday, counsel to the federal government (claimants), James U. K. Igwe, informed the court that his client has filed processes challenging the preliminary objection of ASUU to the substantive suit on its suspended indefinite strike.

Recall that based on a referral made to the NICN by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, the vacation judge, Justice Polycarp Hamman, earlier issued an interlocutory order, restraining members of ASUU from continuing with their indefinite strike.

The order in suit no: NICN/ABJ/270/2022 was upheld by the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, which also ordered ASUU to immediately enter their defence on the substantive suit, as ordered by Justice Hamman, before remitting the matter back to the President of the
NICN.

However, when both parties appeared before the President of the NICN, Justice Benedict Kanyip, Igwe told the court that the defendants filed a preliminary objection, challenging the jurisdiction of the court to hear the substantive suit.

He said the government filed a counter affidavit and written addresses, challenging the defendant’s preliminary objection.

The counsel to ASUU, Femi Falana, who joined virtually, did not object to the processes filed by the federal government.

Kehinde Oyewumi who appeared for the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) told the court that his clients filed an application, seeking to be joined as a party in the substantive suit.

After listening to all the parties, Justice Kanyip deemed the processes of the claimants, challenging the preliminary objection as properly filed and adjourned the matter to December 13, 2022, for hearing of the preliminary objection.

Justice Kanyip also adjourned further proceedings on three other cases related to the dispute between ASUU and the federal government to the same date.   

They included suit no: NICN/ABJ/303/2022-ASUU vs. Minister of Labour and Employment and Registrar of Trade Union, challenging alleged threat by the federal government to withdraw ASUU’s certificate of registration, and suit no: NICN/ABJ/269/2022-SERAP vs. the President, the Minister of Labour and others, asking the court to set aside the referral based on the agreements in existence and to enforce their rights.

The federal government had filed a preliminary objection to the suit by SERAP on the grounds that it was incompetent. 

The fourth case: suit no: NICN/ABJ/336/2022-ASUU vs. the Minister of Labour and four others was adjourned when the court discovered that one of the parties was not served.

The suit is asking the court to withdraw the certificates of registration of the two newly registered trade unions- the Congress of Nigerian University Academics (CONUA) and the National Association of Medical and Dental Academics (NAMDA).

Justice Kanyip had in the course of proceedings in the matter discovered that the two unions were served through the office of the Minister of Labour and Employment and demanded for an explanation from counsel to ASUU, who was represented virtually by Marshal Abubakar.

Marshal told the court that they didn’t know the unions existed, until they heard the announcement of their registration from the Minister of Labour and Employment.

Justice Kanyip responded: “If you didn’t know that they existed, are you supposed to be here. You should go and look for where to serve them. It was only during the military era that orders made on the radio were deemed to be law.

“You are looking for a declaratory order and it should be on the strength of your case and not the weakness of the defence. If you want the withdrawal of the certificate of registration, have you exhibited it? From what I have here, your exhibit 1 is breaking news from the internet. Is it a certificate of registration? According to the Trade Union Act, you are first listed as a trade union and subsequently issued a certificated.”

The apparently infuriated judge adjourned the matter to the same date with others, saying that there must be evidence that all the parties were served before further proceedings on the matter.

Meanwhile, members of ASUU at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), yesterday, boycotted lectures to protest what they called government insensitivity to their plight, saying the pro-rata salary payment could further bring about crisis in the Nigerian university system.

With placards that had inscription such as, ‘Stop Corruption in the university system, release white paper on visitation panel’, ‘ Ngige be mindful of history, ASUU will outlive you’, the university system is not a shrine, hands off Ngige’, amongst others, the union, its former chairmen, along with student leaders and civil society activists, marched from the Julius Berger Auditorium to the gate of the institution, chanting solidarity songs.

Speaking with journalists, the Chairman of the union, Dr. Dele Ashiru recalled why it had to embark on a strike action on February 14, for a period of one month, saying that the intention was to give government the opportunity to address its grievances.

“Unfortunately, the strike rolled over from four to eight weeks, until it got to a comprehensive strike action.”

He expressed concern that the government had deployed all kinds of weapons, including humiliation, hunger, harassment, blackmail, as well instrumentality of the judiciary to force members back to work.

Taking cognisance of the court order that forced out members back to campus and with several interventions by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, he noted that the union had to suspend the strike action to pave way for government to address its demands.

He, however, expressed shock that their salaries for October 2022, were slashed, saying that the action by the government was contrary to all labour laws and ILO convention.

“Rather than disrupt the academic calendar, we have decided to embark on the protest/rally to draw government and all stakeholders’ attention that the government is cooking another crisis in the university system,” he said.

A former Chairman of the union, Prof. Karo Ogbinaka said the struggle was for the students and they must continue to fight for their rights.

In his remarks, the Chairman of ASUU, University of Ibadan branch, Prof. Ayoola Akinwole, described the struggle as that between the working and the ruling class, saying the ruling class do not want the children of the working class to be educated.

“We must be united against the oppression of the working class and the support must start from all stakeholders to make government to be responsible and responsive to the needs of the citizenry,” he said.

Chairman, Joint Action Front (JAC), Abiodun Aremu noted that the right to struggle for public education was for a life time, adding that Nigeria’s resources, must be used to fund its education.

“Fighting to sustain public education is important and it’s a fight that we have just began. For us with ASUU, it’s a total fight. They cannot casualise ASUU. They must be paid,” he added.

He told the students present at the protest to see it as their own struggle.