By Chinedu Echianu
The Federal Capital Territory Council of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has declared an indefinite strike across the FCT over the administration’s refusal to remove the requirement for vacancies before teachers can be promoted.
The strike commenced on Wednesday, October 7, following the expiration of a seven-day ultimatum issued by the labour council to the FCT Administration (FCTA) to address its demands.
The NLC directed workers in the public and private sectors to shut down schools, hospitals, government offices and other establishments across the territory.
The dispute centres on the FCTA’s policy that teachers can only be promoted when vacancies are available. The NLC said the policy has resulted in years of career stagnation for teachers and is inappropriate for the teaching profession.
In resolutions signed by its Chairman, Comrade Knabayi Adalo, the council argued that teachers employed by the FCT Universal Basic Education Board (UBEB) and FCT Secondary Education Board (SEB) are recruited specifically to teach and should therefore be promoted “as and when due.”
The council maintained that FCT teachers are not core civil servants or pool staff and should not be subjected to a vacancy-based promotion system designed for pool officers.
The NLC is also demanding that teachers who became eligible for promotion in 2025 be allowed to sit for their promotion examination before or alongside the 2026 candidates.
Other demands include the withdrawal of redeployment and demotion letters issued to directors who benefited from the Harmonised Retirement Age for Teachers Act, 2022, and the immediate reinstatement of the dissolved management teams of FCT SEB and FCT UBEB.
The decision to commence the strike was taken at the council’s State Executive Council meeting held on October 6 at the NLC FCT Secretariat.
The labour council said it rejected the FCTA’s response to its ultimatum, describing it as “neither clear, positive, nor genuine.”
According to the SEC, the response failed to address the vacancy requirement, which it described as the “root cause of career stagnation,” and was also silent on what the council called the “illegal redeployment of directors.”
“The response of the FCTA is ambiguous and totally unacceptable,” the SEC said.
The council said it would no longer tolerate what it described as the “continued dehumanisation of FCT teachers through obnoxious policies alien to the teaching profession.”
