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Consider Paying Salaries Of ASUU Members Too, CONUA Begs FG
The Congress of University Academics (CONUA) has pleaded with the Federal Government, to in interested in stability in the university system, offset the withheld salaries of members of a sister union, the Academic Staff Union of Universities(ASUU) over its last nine months’ strike.
This follows the decision of the Federal Government to pay CONUA members arrears of salaries it (FG) withheld as a result of its no work, no pay policy introduced during ASUU’s industrial action.
CONUA’s President, Dr ‘Niyi Sunmonu, speaking with newsmen after its maiden National Executive Council (NEC), meeting held at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ile, during the weekend, said CONUA’s members under the labour law of the country have the right to be paid for the period of the strike because it did not declare any industrial action like ASUU did.
“Recently, we received a letter from the Federal Government asking the national officers to submit list of members of CONUA, among other things, that we are asked to supply with respect to payment of backlog of salaries and check-up dues.
“That to us is a welcome development and a process that we will see through to the end. CONUA has consistently maintained before now, that it didn’t declare any strike and by the provision of Section 43 Subsection 1B of the Trade Dispute Act, what happened to members of CONUA can be taken to be what happens in the provision of that section.
“It is a lock out for us. At certain times, students in the universities were asked to vacate the university premises by the management. To our mind, what the government is implementing is a ‘no work no pay’ policy. We believe we wanted to work, we didn’t declare strike; the students that we need to teach were asked to vacate campus.
“So, it will be unjust for government to apply it ‘no work no pay’ policy on us and on that principle is what we are following through which we wrote letters to various ministries and it is consistent that we have never declared strike and we are not strike.
“With regards to possible new crisis, as far as we are concerned it won’t degenerate into issues because the other union declares strike and they can actually state their case before the government or the court.
“The only thing we can do at this stage is to appeal to the federal government to be magnanimous to pay everybody. But along the line of principle, CONUA did not declare strike and the ‘no work no pay’ policy will be unjust to be applied on it”.
Responding to question that CONUA was a creation of the Federal Government to fight ASUU, Sunmonu described those spreading the allegation as jittery, affirming that the union was a product of ideology to ensure stable academic calendar in the nation’s university system.
“The last I know is that ASUU is not a government institution that is saddled with the responsibility of recognising or otherwise of another trade union. As far as we are concerned, one of our own ideologies is that there should be an uninterrupted calendar.
“I say this time and time again, It is not to say we are oblivious to the problems in our ivory towers and we are not saying what the government is doing is the best for our institutions but without sinking the boat, we can get to constructive engagement with the government on how we can have an uninterrupted academic calendar and the welfare of the academics are also better addressed.
“As far as we are concerned in CONUA, the issue of recognition or the insinuation that it is a ploy to destabilise that other union doesn’t come in. CONUA was founded on strong ideologies. Ideologies emanated from flagrant disrespect for the constitution and he who comes with equity should do so with clean hands. If you want to tackle or engage the government on wherever fault, you must also not have issues within yourselves.
“All that they are saying are side talks. For us, our focus is our union and the ideology we believed in and we will see it through.”
The Nigeria Immigration Service has officially ended passport production at multiple centres, transitioning to a single, centralised system for the first time in 62 years.
Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, disclosed this yesterday while inspecting Nigeria’s new Centralised Passport Personalisation Centre at the NIS Headquarters in Abuja.
He stated that since the establishment of NIS in 1963, Nigeria had never operated a central passport production centre, until now, marking a major reform milestone.
“The project is 100 per cent ready. Nigeria can now be more productive and efficient in delivering passport services,” Tunji-Ojo said.
He explained that old machines could only produce 250 to 300 passports daily, but the new system had a capacity of 4,500 to 5,000 passports every day.
“With this, NIS can now meet daily demands within just four to five hours of operation,” he added, describing it as a game-changer for passport processing in Nigeria.
“We promised two-week delivery, and we’re now pushing for one week.
“Automation and optimisation are crucial for keeping this promise to Nigerians,” the minister said.
He noted that centralisation, in line with global standards, would improve uniformity and enhance the overall integrity of Nigerian travel documents worldwide.
Tunji-Ojo described the development as a step toward bringing services closer to Nigerians while driving a culture of efficiency and total passport system reform.
He said the centralised production system aligned with President Bola Tinubu’s reform agenda, boosting NIS capacity and changing the narrative for better service delivery.
The Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) has disbursed N2.225 trillion as federation revenue for the month of August 2025, the highest ever allocation to the three tiers of government and other statutory recipients.
This marks the second consecutive month that FAAC disbursements have crossed the N2 trillion mark.
The revenue, shared at the August 2025 FAAC meeting in Abuja, was buoyed by increases in oil and gas royalty, value-added tax (VAT), and common external tariff (CET) levies, according to a communiqué issued at the end of the meeting.
Out of the N2.225 trillion total distributable revenue, FAAC said N1,478.593 trillion came from statutory revenue, N672.903 billion from VAT, N32.338 billion from the Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL), and N41.284 billion from Exchange Difference.
The communiqué revealed that gross federation revenue for the month stood at N3.635 trillion. From this amount, N124.839 billion was deducted as cost of collection, while N1,285.845 trillion was set aside for transfers, interventions, refunds, and savings.
From the statutory revenue of N1.478 trillion, the Federal Government received N684.462 billion, State Governments received N347.168 billion, and Local Government Councils received N267.652 billion. A further N179.311 billion (13 per cent of mineral revenue) went to oil-producing states as derivation revenue.
From the distributable VAT revenue of N672.903 billion, the Federal Government received N100.935 billion, the states received N336.452 billion, while the local governments got N235.516 billion.
Of the N32.338 billion shared from EMTL, the Federal Government received N4.851 billion, the States received N16.169 billion, and the Local Governments received N11.318 billion.
From the N41.284 billion exchange difference, the Federal Government received N19.799 billion, the states received N10.042 billion, and the local governments received N7.742 billion, while N3.701 billion (13 per cent of mineral revenue) was shared to the oil-producing states as derivation.
The Governing Council of Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic, Bori, has decried the inadequate power supply and poor state of infrastructural facilities and equipment at the institution.
The Council also appealed to the government, including Non-Governmental Organisations, agencies, as well as well-meaning Rivers people to intervene to restore and sustain the laudable gesture, dreams and aspirations of the founding fathers of the polytechnic.
The Chairman of the newly inaugurated Council, Professor Friday B. Sigalo, made this appeal during a tour of facilities at the Polytechnic, recently.
Accompanied by members of the team, Prof Sigalo emphasised the position of technology, technical and vocational education in sustainable development.
He noted that with the prospects on ground, and the programmes and activities undertaken in the polytechnic, there is no doubt that the institution would add values to the educational system in our society and foster the desired development, if the existing challenges are jointly tackled.
This was contained in a statement signed by Deputy Registrar, Public Relations, Kenpoly, Innocent Ogbonda-Nwanwu, and made available to The Tide in Port Harcourt.
The chairman who restated the intention of his team of technocrats to ensure that KenPoly enjoys desirable face-lift, said the Council would deliver on its core mandates, accordingly.
Earlier, the Rector, KenPoly Engr. Dr. Ledum S. Gwarah, commended the appointment of Professor Friday B. Sigalo as Chairman of the KenPoly Governing Council.
He described him and his team as seasoned technocrats and expressed confidence in their ability to succeed.
The Rector pledged the management’s support to the Council to ensure that KenPoly resumes its rightful place in the comity of polytechnics in the country.
Facilities visited by the Governing Council include KenPoly workshops, laboratories, skills acquisition centre, library, hostels and medical centre.
Chinedu Wosu
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