Include file cannot be found with 2.1 release of LuaJIT on EL8

Problem:
Currently we are building our internal NGINX rpm's. On EL 7 this is not a problem but on EL 8 nginx complains about LuaJIT missing. Both builds are using the same RPM spec file. The error:

• ngx_http_headers_more_filter_module was configured
  adding module in ./lua-nginx-module-0.10.15
  checking for Lua library ... not found
  checking for Lua library in /usr/local/ ... not found
  checking for Lua library in /usr/local/ ... not found
  checking for Lua library in /usr/pkg/ ... not found
  checking for Lua library in /opt/local/ ... not found
  checking for Lua library in /usr/local/*/lua51/ ... not found
  checking for Lua library in /usr/ ... not found
  checking for LuaJIT library in /usr/local/ ... not found
  checking for LuaJIT library in /usr/ ... not found
  checking for LuaJIT library in /usr/ ... not found
  ./configure: error: ngx_http_lua_module requires the Lua library.

I also tried to force the ld location using LUAJIT_LIB system environment.

The LuaJIT from Openresty is installed under /usr/local/lib:

> <mock-chroot> sh-4.4# ls -al /usr/local/lib
> total 1340
> drwxr-xr-x.  4 root root    180 Oct  6 14:03 .
> drwxr-xr-x. 12 root root    240 Oct  6 13:32 ..
> -rw-r--r--.  1 root root 868140 Oct  6 13:52 libluajit-5.1.a
> lrwxrwxrwx.  1 root root     22 Oct  6 13:52 libluajit-5.1.so -> libluajit-5.1.so.2.1.0
> lrwxrwxrwx.  1 root root     22 Oct  6 13:52 libluajit-5.1.so.2 -> libluajit-5.1.so.2.1.0
> -rwxr-xr-x.  1 root root 503552 Oct  6 13:52 libluajit-5.1.so.2.1.0
> drwxr-xr-x.  3 root root     60 Oct  6 13:52 lua
> lrwxrwxrwx.  1 root root     16 Oct  6 14:03 luajit-5.1.so -> libluajit-5.1.so

Environment:

NGINX: 1.17.3
Centos: 8
ngx_lua: 0.10.15
Luajit (openresty version: v2.1-20190912
or
LuaJit (os version): luajit-devel-2.1.0-0.16beta3.el8.x86_64

Reproduce the EL8 build using the mentioned RPM spec file and ./configure checks, then inspect how lua-nginx-module locates the LuaJIT library under /usr/local/lib. Done means the NGINX configuration accepts the installed OpenResty LuaJIT 2.1 library on EL8 without the missing-Lua-library error.