{"id":69547,"date":"2025-07-03T06:16:42","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T06:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=69547"},"modified":"2025-07-03T06:16:42","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T06:16:42","slug":"fct-workers-issue-fcta-21-day-ultimatum-to-resolve-teachers-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/07\/03\/fct-workers-issue-fcta-21-day-ultimatum-to-resolve-teachers-strike\/","title":{"rendered":"FCT Workers Issue FCTA 21-Day Ultimatum to Resolve Teachers\u2019 Strike"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Adenike Lawal<\/strong><\/p>\n

Workers in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), under the Joint Union Action Committee (JUAC), have issued a 21-day ultimatum to the FCT Administration to address their long-standing grievances.<\/p>\n

This follows the conclusion of a three-day protest, which ended on Wednesday, over unpaid entitlements, the ongoing teachers’ strike, and calls for the removal of the FCT Civil Service Commission Chairman, Emeka Ezeh.<\/p>\n

The protest, held from June 30 to July 2, was fueled by what JUAC described as the persistent neglect of critical issues affecting FCTA employees.<\/p>\n

These include the prolonged industrial action by primary school teachers, delayed wage awards for health workers, and non-payment of benefits to several staff members.<\/p>\n

JUAC President, Comrade Rifkatu Iortyer, addressing workers on the final day of the protest, disclosed that a meeting was held with FCT officials but ended in a walkout.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey refused to come out and address the protesting workers who stood in the rain outside the gate. We told them if they couldn\u2019t speak to all of us, then there was nothing to discuss,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Iortyer also outlined a phased plan for industrial action in line with International Labour Organisation (ILO), guidelines.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have issued a 21-day ultimatum. If there\u2019s no response, we\u2019ll proceed with a 14-day notice, followed by a 7-day warning before escalating to full action,\u201d she warned.<\/p>\n

In response to the crisis, FCT Minister Nyesom Wike has begun intervention efforts aimed at resolving the stalemate, particularly the teachers’ strike that has crippled primary education across the territory.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Wike met with key stakeholders, including the chairmen of the six area councils, the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), and the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS).<\/p>\n

NANS had earlier planned a protest at the FCTA Secretariat but suspended the action after being summoned to a meeting by the Department of State Services (DSS).<\/p>\n

The student body later held follow-up discussions with the Chairman of the House Committee on FCT, Hon. Muktar Betara, and eventually with Minister Wike.<\/p>\n

During the meetings, Wike clarified that due to the structure of governance in the FCT, where local government autonomy is fully operational, the responsibility for paying teachers lies with the area councils, not the FCTA.<\/p>\n

However, to resolve the crisis swiftly, he proposed a bailout: the FCT Administration would cover 60% of the outstanding salaries, while the area councils would cover the remaining 40%.<\/p>\n

When the councils failed to meet their obligations, Wike reportedly withheld Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), allocations for May and June, with the intention of redirecting the funds to settle their portion of the salary arrears.<\/p>\n

According to NANS, the withheld funds are expected to be released before the end of the week.<\/p>\n

While acknowledging Wike\u2019s intervention, NANS vowed to monitor the implementation closely.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe remain committed to ensuring that no student is deprived of education due to government failure,\u201d the body stated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Adenike Lawal Workers in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), under the Joint Union Action Committee (JUAC), have issued a 21-day ultimatum to the FCT Administration to address their long-standing grievances. This follows the conclusion of a three-day protest, which ended on Wednesday, over unpaid entitlements, the ongoing teachers’ strike, and calls for the removal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":69548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-69547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69547"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69549,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69547\/revisions\/69549"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}