The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Federal Capital Territory (FCT) chapter, is set to call off the three-month primary school teachers’ strike any moment from now following the intervention of the FCT Minister Nyesom Wike.
Mr. Chidi Amadi, the Chief of Staff to the Minister, said this in Abuja on Thursday after a closed-door meeting with the Area Council Chairmen, NUT leadership, and representatives of the FCT Administration.
Amadi, in a statement sent to Persecondnews on Thursday by Lere Olayinka, Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and Social Media to the Minister, said other participants at the meeting included representatives of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and the National Assembly.
He explained that the meeting was convened by the minister, in addition to previous interventions, to find a lasting solution to the prolonged teachers’ strike.
“After extensive deliberation, a decision was reached to put the issues to rest,” he said.
Amadi announced that part of the resolution was to withhold the 10% accrued Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the area councils for the past six months.
He said the funds would be used to settle 70% of the minimum wage owed the teachers.
“Although it will not cover 100 per cent of the debt for now, it will cover about 70%. This is a laudable move towards addressing the fracas once and for all,” he said.
Amadi said the minister had also directed that a special committee be constituted, comprising three members of NUT, two members from FCTA, one of the Area Council Chairmen, and a representative of NANS.
The committee will revisit all other outstanding issues and submit a report within the next two weeks, detailing how these issues would be permanently addressed.
He said: “In addition to addressing the issues of the primary school teachers, Wike had taken a decision to address all outstanding issues of the local government employees.
“The minister pledged to personally intervene to ensure that their demands are addressed by the FCTA. This is to ensure that the area councils resume full operations effectively immediately.”
Speaking on behalf of the Area Council Chairmen, Mr. Abubakar Abdullahi, acknowledged the resolution, saying, “Although it was not in favour of the area councils, it was necessary to resolve the issues.
“Six months of our IGR had been held to settle this issue. Ours at this point is to appeal to NUT to consider our children and call off the strike. Please NUT, we are calling on you to respect the fact that the minister has taken his time to resolve this matter.
“Wike had clearly stated that by law, he has no right to take the 10% IGR of the area councils to clear the outstanding debt of the teachers. However, the chairmen have all agreed because they also, collectively, want an end to the strike and so we have agreed that the 10% IGR should go to the teachers.”
He expressed optimism that the strike would be called off before Friday so that children would go back to school.
Also, the National President of NANS, Olushola Oladoja, lauded the resolutions and expressed hope that the outcome would finally put the matter to rest and the teachers return to classrooms.
Oladoja commended the minister for taking the bold step, stressing that any of the council chairmen could take him to court over such a decision.
“However, I believe because the council chairmen also want the issue resolved, they have no option but to concede the IGR for six months,” he said.
On his part, the NUT Chairman, Mohammed Shafa, acknowledged the deliberation, but said he would get back to the NUT State Executive Council, where the final decision would be taken.
Persecondnews reports that the teachers had embarked on the strike in March over the non-implementation of the N70,000 minimum wage.
Other issues included the non-implementation and non-payment of a 25% and 35% salary increase, and the non-implementation and non-payment of a 40% peculiar allowance.
The union is also demanding the payment of the N35,000 wage award and the implementation of the template on outstanding entitlements of teachers as agreed in 2022.
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