Primary school teachers in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja on Wednesday, embarked on indefinite strike action over the failure of the area council chairmen to reach agreements with the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT).
The News Agency of Nigeria, NAN reports that the state Chairman of the FCT Wing of the NUT, Comrade Stephen Knabayi, disclosed this to newsmen after their emergency executive council meeting at the Teacher’s House Gwagwalada.
Knabayi said the emergency meeting was to review the level of compliance and commitment of the council chairmen to the agreement with the union which led to the suspension of the industrial action on December 1, 2021.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the teachers had in December embarked on an indefinite strike, which was suspended after a week, following an emergency meeting of the State Wing Executive Council.
According to the chairman, the teachers are no longer ready to be taken for granted until their demands are met by the relevant authorities in the FCT.
He said the emergency meeting lauded the effort of the FCT Minister, Mallam Muhammad a Bello for fulfilling his promise to pay the outstanding 2018 promotion arrears to secondary school teachers in the territory.
He said the union also acknowledged the implementation of the 2019-2020 teachers’ promotion across the six area councils in November 2021.
He said the union, however, observed with dismay the non-compliance by the area councils’ chairmen to abide by the agreement for the payment of the backlogs of the Local Education Authority (LEA) teachers outstanding entitlement in their various councils.
He affirmed that the union had directed all primary school teachers in the territory to stay away from their duty posts while parents are advised to keep their children and wards at home.
“The six area councils are owing about N14.3 billion arrears from 2015 till date,” he said.
