TheCable

The federal government has presented a certificate of registration to the Congress of Nigerian University Academics (CONUA).

Chris Ngige, minister of labour and employment, presented the certificate to CONUA on Tuesday.

CONUA is a breakaway faction of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

Ngige also presented a certificate of registration to the National Association of Medical and Dental Academics (NAMDA).

The development comes amid a strike by ASUU over the demand for increased funding for public universities, a review of lecturers’ salaries and allowances, among other issues.

The strike has lasted for over seven months.

Meetings between the federal government and ASUU have not yielded any concrete result that signifies that the strike will end soon.

However, the federal government had filed a case against ASUU before the national industrial court over the prolonged strike.

In its ruling, the court had ordered the lecturers to resume, but ASUU has filed an appeal seeking a stay of execution of the judgment.

Recently, the leadership of the house of representatives met with ASUU and federal government officials over the strike.

President Muhammadu Buhari had, at a recent meeting with pro-chancellors of federal universities, also promised to “make further consultations” over the strike by the lecturers.

Meanwhile, ASUU has said it is willing to suspend the strike if the federal government accepts its “minimum demands”.