By Daniel Tyokua
Public primary school teachers in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have protested non-implementation of the N70,000 national minimum wage by the six Area Council chairmen.
President Bola Tinubu had signed the national minimum wage into law on May 29, 2024, but primary school teachers in FCT have not started enjoying it.
During a peaceful protest on Thursday at the Federal Capital Territory Secretariat’s gate, the chairman of Nigeria Union of Teachers FCT, Abdullahi Shafa, said they started the struggle in December, 2024 to press home their demand.
He said despite the fact that the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, had approved and released the sum of N4.1 billion to pay the minimum wage, the six area council chairmen have remained adamant to implement the new wage.
According to him, the council chairmen had also refused to implement N30,000 wage award, 25 to 35% salary adjustment, 40% peculiar allowance, 35% CONHESS/CONMESS salary adjustment as well as non-remittance of pension deductions to PFA from the workers’ salary.
He said despite the numerous strikes by workers, the council chairmen remained adamant, unmoved and insensitive to the plight of both primary school teachers and workers in the council secretariats.
Shafa said, ‘’It is on this premise that the two unions, the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) and the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), has decided to stage a peaceful protest to the FCTA in Area 11 on Wednesday, April 23, 2025, over non- implementation of the minimum wage and other entitlements of the workers by the six area councils’ chairmen.”
“It would be recalled that workers under the umbrella of the joint unions of NUT and NULGE resumed the strike action over non-implementation of their new minimum wage by the council chairmen a month ago”.
The unions had last week claimed that the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, had released N4.1 billion to the six area council chairmen to implement the minimum wage and other backlogs of teachers and area council workers’ arrears.
The chairman of Kwali Area Council, who is also the chairman of ALGON in the FCT, Danladi Chiya, did not respond to several calls and text messages sent to him on the matter.
He added that, “In December, we started the struggle for the implementation of the minimum wage, which we sat down with the area council chairmen and came out with a resolve, with an agreement, that in January they will implement. They didn’t.
“We called for a strike. We went again for a sitting. They say in February, they are going to implement.They didn’t. Now, we went to the minister, and that the minister intervened and gave the sum of 4.1 billion Naira for the area council, for the six area councils, to go and implement these monies.
“The minister has already intervened, but the area council chairmen ran away with the money, said the money is meant for project, the money is ecological fund” Said Shafa.
