Strike: FCT schools remain shut as minister/unions meeting ends in deadlock

• 4 council chairmen absent

• Their absence shows they are not serious – Workers

The meeting between the FCT Minister of State, Hajiya Mariya Mahmoud and striking workers has ended in a deadlock.

Abuja Metro reports that only Bwari and Abaji council chairmen personally attended the meeting.

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Those of Gwagwalada, Kuje, Kwali and AMAC boycotted the meeting with some of them sending the vices.

Abuja Metro further reports that the joint unions of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) and the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) had directed their members to begin a definite strike on Thursday.

Following the directive, teachers in public primary schools across the six area councils, as well as their counterparts at the area council secretariats had shut down schools and the councils’ secretariats.

The striking workers are demanding the six area council chairmen to immediately commence the implementation of the N70,000 minimum wage, which they promised to start in January but failed.

However, a resolution meeting, which was presided over by the Minister of State, Hajiya Mariya Mahmoud, on Friday ended in a deadlock with labour leaders insisting that the strike should continue.

In attendance were the Mandate Secretary, Area Council Service Secretariat, FCT DSS Director, council chairmen of Abaji, Alhaji Abubakar Umar Abdullahi and Bwari, John Gabaya, while the chairmen of Gwagwalada, Kuje, Kwali and AMAC were represented by the vice chairmen.

A member of the standing of committee of the NUT, who was part of the meeting, but preferred anonymity, said the meeting ended in a deadlock.

He said the minister appealed to the joint unions to suspend the ongoing strike in the interest of the school children, which the labour leaders turned down.

The unions frowned at the council chairmen, who have refused to honour the MoU they signed in December, when they promised to start the payment of the new wage in January.

The labour leaders said the absence of the council chairmen at the meeting with the minister clearly showed they were not willing to implement the new minimum wage, which he said prompted the joint unions to insist on the strike.

He said, “The FCT Minister of State, Hajiya Mariya Mahmoud, was also not happy with the attitude of the chairmen for not attending the meeting, which clearly shows they are not ready to implement the new minimum wage.”

He said the minister further appealed to the joint unions to accept the implementation of the new wage by March 2025, as promised by the council chairmen.

He said the workers insisted that the implementation must start this February.

The standing committee member further told our reporter that the joint unions at the meeting demanded an unreserved apology from the Kwali council chairman, Danladi Chiya, for allegedly assaulting one of their members who is a staff of the area council for demanding the implementation of the minimum wage.

The publicity secretary for the FCT NUT, Comrade Ibikun Adekeye, also confirmed to our reporter that the meeting between the joint unions and the FCT Minister of State ended in a deadlock, declaring that the strike continues until the new wage is implemented.