By Stanley Onyekwere
There is a sigh of relief for parents and pupils of primary schools across the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), as the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) in FCT and the FCT Minister, Barrister Nyesom Wike yesterday reached an agreement in principle to call off its three-month strike.
This was disclosed after a closed-door meeting with the Area council chairmen, leadership of the NUT, and representatives of the FCT Administration.
Other participants at the meeting also included representatives of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and the National Assembly.
Briefing the media on the outcome, Chief of Staff to the minister, Mr. Chidi Amadi, explained that the meeting was convened by the minister, in addition to previous interventions to find a lasting solution to the prolonged teachers’ strike.
Amadi added that after extensive deliberation, a decision was reached to put the issues to rest.
He revealed that part of the resolution was to withhold the 10 per cent accrued Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the area councils for the past six months.
According to him, the funds would be used to settle 70 per cent of the minimum wage owed the teachers.
He adds:“Although it will not cover 100 per cent of the debt for now, it will cover about 70 per cent. This is a laudable move towards addressing the fracas once and for all”.
Also, the chief of staff added that the minister had also directed that a Special Committee be constituted, composed of three members of NUT, two members from FCTA, one of the area council chairmen and representative of NANS.
He noted that the committee would revisit all the other outstanding issues and within the next two weeks, submit a report detailing how the other outstanding 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”.
Similarly, Chairman of Abaji Area Council, Abubakar Umar Abdullahi, said: “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 per cent 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 per cent IGR should go to the teachers”.
Abdullahi, who spoke on behalf of the Area Council chairmen, expressed optimism that the strike would be called off before Friday, so that children would go back to school.
On his part, 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 class.
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.
Not left out, 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.
It could be recalled that the teachers had embarked on the strike in March over non-implementation of minimum wage
Other issues included non-implementation and payment of 25 per cent and 35 per cent salary increase, and non-implementation and payment of 40 per cent peculiar allowance.
Also, the union were 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.
