Nigerian workers under the umbrella of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Council Abuja, have declared an indefinite strike, asking workers in the public and private sectors across the FCT to close schools, hospitals, government offices and other establishments.
The walkout started yesterday, Wednesday, October 7, after the expiration of a seven-day ultimatum issued to the FCT Administration (FCTA) over the promotion of teachers.
The labour council claimed the FCTA did not respond to its demands in a satisfactory manner especially its demand that the requirement of vacancies for the promotion of teachers be removed.
Central to the matter is the FCTA’s stance that instructors can only be promoted when there are vacancies.
The NLC stated the approach has led to years of career stagnation among teachers and is not relevant to the teaching profession.
In resolutions signed by its Chairman, Comrade Knabayi Adalo, the council stated that FCT teachers are not core civil servant or pool workers and as such should not be subjected to a vacancy-based promotion system meant for pool officials.
It claimed instructors recruited by the FCT Universal Basic Education Board, UBEB and FCT Secondary Education Board, SEB were employed especially to teach and should be promoted “as and when due”.
The NLC has also demanded that teachers who are due for promotion in 2025 be permitted to do their promotion exams before or along with those who are due in 2026.
Another demand is the revocation of letters of redeployment and demotion sent to directors who have benefited from the Harmonised Retirement Age for Teachers Act, 2022.
The council is urging for the quick return of the dissolved management teams of FCT SEB and FCT UBEB.
The decision to go on the strike was decided during the council’s State Executive Council, SEC, meeting held on October 6, at the NLC FCT Secretariat.
The union body at the conference rejected the FCTA’s response to its ultimatum, saying that it was “neither clear, positive nor sincere”.
The SEC said the statement did not address the vacancy requirement, which it termed the “root cause of career stagnation”, and was also mute on what the council called the “illegal redeployment of directors”.
“The response from the FCTA is ambiguous and is totally unacceptable,” the SEC added.
The council further stated that it “shall not continue to tolerate the continued dehumanisation of FCT teachers through obnoxious policies alien to the teaching profession.
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