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The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that teachers in the FCT, under the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) and the FCT chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), declared the indefinite strike over three demands.<\/p>\n
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The demands are removal of the vacancy requirement for teachers\u2019 promotion, recall of teachers affected by the halted 2025 promotion exercise to write their promotion examination and reversal of the redeployment of directors and principals who are beneficiaries of the extended service arrangement from administrative offices to classrooms.<\/p>\n
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NAN reports that the FCT Administration had extended teachers\u2019 retirement age to 65 years and 40 years in service, but directed that some principals and directors who had overstayed in administrative positions be redeployed to classrooms to create vacancies for younger teachers.<\/p>\n
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Labour leaders, however, rejected the move, prompting the shutdown of schools, hospitals and other public establishments.<\/p>\n
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However, cracks have emerged within the teachers\u2019 ranks as the Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools (ASUSS), FCT chapter, in a notice disowned the strike.<\/p>\n
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ASUSS directed its members to remain at their duty posts and prepare for the 2026 Computer-Based Promotion Examination scheduled for Oct. 5 to Oct. 13.<\/p>\n
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Similarly, a Coalition of Concerned FCT Teachers has questioned the rationale for the strike.<\/p>\n
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Speaking at the briefing, Mukhtar said while teachers deserve fair career progression, children must not become the price for securing it.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThis is the same union that held our children at home for three to four months. We cannot go back to that era where our children will be at home and cannot compete with their colleagues,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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Mukhtar alleged that the strike was politically motivated, pointing to the reported involvement of the FCT NLC Chairman, Mr Knabayi Stephen Adalo, who was the African Democratic Congress (ADC) candidate for Kuje Area Council chairmanship in the 2026 election.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf somebody contested for an elective position and lost, and he feels the next job is to cause commotion in the education sector, we will not accept it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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He said the association would from Thursday constitute a voluntary team to monitor schools across the FCT to ensure resumption of teaching and learning.<\/p>\n
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\u201cPolitics is different from professionalism. UBEB has even pulled out of this drama,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
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Also speaking, Mr Faruk Onimisi, a member of FCT NUT, said many teachers were caught unawares by the strike.<\/p>\n
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\u201cAs at 10 p.m. yesterday, I had concluded my lesson plan. This morning, students were asking why there is no school. We saw only a forwarded WhatsApp message directing teachers to embark on strike,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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Onimisi said two of the three demands had been substantially addressed, noting that the FCT Civil Service Commission had reviewed the vacancy clause and had directed affected 2025 candidates to join the 2026 promotion examination.<\/p>\n
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\u201cOut of the three issues presented, two have been resolved. So where is this strike coming from?<\/p>\n
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\u201cLook at the last WAEC result that was released, FCT performed woefully. Unnecessary strikes will not solve these issues,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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He argued that redeployment of elongated officers was necessary to free vacancies and that many beneficiaries above 60 years who are classroom teachers had accepted their postings without complaint.<\/p>\n
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Earlier, Basah said promotion in public service was subject to merit and availability of vacancies as provided in Public Service Rule 020701(e).<\/p>\n
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He urged the FCTA to publish the applicable promotion framework, eligibility requirements, vacancies and implementation timelines.<\/p>\n
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He also demanded uninterrupted access to promotion examinations for eligible teachers, transparent review of disputed redeployments and meaningful participation of parents in discussions on school disruption.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe support teachers\u2019 welfare, not an indefinite shutdown. We support teachers\u2019 dignity, but choosing to protect the classroom does not make a teacher an enemy of organised labour,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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Basah called for an urgent negotiating meeting involving the FCTA, Civil Service Commission, education boards, NLC, NUT and ASUSS to resolve outstanding issues.(NAN)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Abuja Resident Youth Association (ARYA) and the League of Civil Society Groups have demanded immediate suspension of the indefinite strike declared by teachers in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1478,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,215],"tags":[822,823],"class_list":["post-1477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","category-education","tag-fct","tag-teachers"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG-20261007-WA0104.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1477"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1483,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1477\/revisions\/1483"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}