The Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU), has threatened to engage operators of
private universities across the country for denying workers the right to unionise.

Already, the union has lined up a number of industrial actions against management of privately owned universities, part of which is to file a suit at the National Industrial Court (NIC).

Though the labour ministry is aware of this development but lacked the will to confront the management of these institutions because they are owned by highly placed individuals in the society.

General Secretary of the union, Comrade Peters Adeyemi, who confirmed this development, decried the attempt by private and public employers to “suffocate and kill unions” stressing that the Constitution of the country provide workers the freedom to organise.

He said the refusal to allow the existence of unions is not peculiar to private universities alone stating that management of Akwa Ibom State University and Federal University, Oye-Ekiti have equally denied workers the right to associate freely.

“Akwa Ibom State Univeristy workers are not unionised. We have to take them through the NIC for them to agree that NASU should exist. As I am talking to you now, at the federal University, Oye-Ekiti, we have declared an industrial dispute with the vice chancellor.

“The case is already with the ministry of labour. That is a federal university. I am giving you these examples for you to know that the problem is not only with private university. Going to the private universities, we have done all that we needed to do to get the workers unionised but the management have refused,” he said.

He said the union has assembled several letters from the management of the private universities in which it was stated clearly that they do not want union to exist.

According to him, there is this erroneous believe that if they allow union to exist, they will make trouble and disrupt academic calendar.

He claimed that some of these universities have gone to the level of inserting in the letter of appointment of employees that they will not be members of any union stressing that the workers have accepted the conditions because of their desperation for jobs.

“It has gone to a ridiculous level that a university that obtained license from the federal government of a country where the constitution provides freedom of association is denying workers the right to unionise. We are going to challenge that in court,” he said.

He added: “The owners of these institutions are very powerful and they can do anything. The private universities are owned by former presidents, former vice presidents and former Attorney General. These are individuals who know the law yet they choose to break it with impunity. These are individuals who had the opportunity of running this country at the highest level but when they establish private universities, they no longer have respect for the Constitution of this country.


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So they want the private universities to join them in delaying people thereby converting four years course to six or eight year? Who says the accumulated costs on the side of the students?

The constitution of the country stipulates freedom of association. This freedom applies both to the employers & employees, to associate or not. The employers have chosen not to associate with you enemies of progress NASU, who like to reap where you did not work.