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NBAIS Chapter of Non-Academic Staff Union Debunks Report of Alleged Union Suppression & Victimization
By Mohammed Eibo
The NBAIS chapter of NASU has debunked reports of alleged suppression of unionism and victimization of staff by the management of the National Board for Arabic and Islamic Studies (NBAIS).
Comr. Abbas Ibrahim, Chairman, and Comr. Shittu Ibrahim Shi’itawa,
Secretary, of NASU-NBAIS Branch, revealed this in a statement while reacting to the allegations attributed to some unidentified staff.
“The allegations are entirely false, to say the least.”
Accordingly, NASU, the legitimate Union operating in NBAIS, considers it necessary to place the correct facts on record and to dispel the misleading impressions the said publication might have created.
In 2023, the national officers of the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) visited NBAIS with a proposal to unionize staff. As expected, NASU’s constitution was studied by the Legal and Industrial Relations Units of the Board and the union was finally endorsed as eligible to operate in NBAIS.
Consequently, we as interested staff organized ourselves and came up with an Executive Committee of NASU. Since then we have been operating peacefully and impacting positively on the welfare of members, amongst others.
On the other hand, NASU was fully aware that the Academic Staff Union of Research Institutions (ASURI) had similarly visited NBAIS but could not be endorsed for the following reasons:
1. That Rule 2(a) of ASURI’s constitution defines its objective as organizing officers, fellows, teachers or lecturers who are academic staff in research and development institutions and related higher institutions.
2. That NBAIS does not have research fellows or substantive academic staff within its workforce.
3. That Rule 3(a) of the same constitution restricts ASURI membership to persons engaged in full-time research or teaching in research and development institutions of higher learning.
4. That these categories of staff are not found in NBAIS personnel, and it was formally communicated to ASURI.
Despite all these, ASURI, in its bid to unionize NBAIS staff, petitioned the Honourable Minister of Labour and Employment and the matter was referred to the Industrial Arbitration Panel (IAP). While the matter was pending, ASURI dubiously amendment its constitution to widen its membership scope, solely to accommodate NBAIS staff, and proceeded to present this illegitimate amendment for consideration.
“We promptly protested to the Office of the Registrar of Trade Unions, pointing out that the approval of the so-called amended constitution was obtained through misrepresentations and the said approval was immediately withdrawn by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment,” the statement noted.
Disregarding the subsisting dispute, ASURI unilaterally approached the IPPIS office with a list of staff, who were already our registered members and misled the office into effecting check-off deductions from their salaries. This action resulted in multiple complaints from affected staff over unauthorized deductions. We therefore formally protests the poaching of our members.
Presently, the matter has been referred to the National Industrial Court by the Honorable Minister. The records of proceedings have been compiled, and 15th January 2026 has been fixed for hearing.
The statement said the allegation of staff victimization is entirely unfounded, “as we as officials of the NBAIS chapter of NASU are not in receipt of such complaint across the formations.”
In light of the foregoing, it is evident that unionism really thrives smoothly and we as the EXCO members have been fairing well and continue to enjoy harmonious relationship with the Board’s Management under the able leadership of the Registrar/Chief Executive Officer; Prof. Yahuza Imam.
The Board urged the Nigerian media to accord this rebuttal the required prominence in the interest of objectivity and balance reporting.
Edited by Barth Ikiebe – bartike14@gmail.com
