Primary school teachers in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) will resume their strike action starting Monday, January 15, 2024.
The decision was announced by the National Union of Teachers (NUT) FCT Wing.
The strike, which initially began in September 2023, aimed to pressure authorities to implement a 40% Peculiar Allowance and settle 25 months of outstanding minimum wage arrears. Despite a temporary suspension in October after the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, established a six-person committee to investigate the issues, teachers say progress has been slow.
OBSERVERSTIMES recall in a statement signed by Abubakar AbdullahI the national chairman of the association and chair of the Abaji area council, stated
the strike action followed the failure of the six area councils’ chairs to pay the teachers’ 40 per cent peculiar and other outstanding allowances.
The communique was jointly signed by Stephen Knabayi, Margaret Jethro and Haruna Samson, chair, secretary and publicity secretary, respectively. The teachers claimed that they had given the six councils’ chairs a seven-day ultimatum to pay the 40 per cent peculiar and other allowances owed them.
They alleged that throughout the ultimatum, the area council chairs neither acknowledged receipt of the letters nor invited the union for dialogue, nor attended to any of their concerns.
The teachers’ concerns include non-payment of 25 months’ arrears of the 2019 approved national minimum wage, non-release of some promotion letters to beneficiaries, non-implementation of released promotion letters, etc.
They explained that the strike was their last option, having exhausted all available avenues to meet their demands.