The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) Federal Capital Territory chapter has threatened to go on an indefinite strike if its demands are not met by Thursday.

This was made known by the chapter Chairperson, Stephen Knabayi at the end of an emergency meeting on Tuesday in Abuja.

The FCT chapter of the NUT commenced a five-day warning strike on November 18, over the non-payment of their promotion salary arrears, lack of teachers’ upgrade and insecurity, among others, according to the News Agency of Nigeria report.

However, Mr Knabayi, explained that the demands of the teachers are in two folds, adding that teachers under the FCT Administration and those under the area councils are affected.

Although the union had received commitment from the FCT Minister, Bello Mohammed, on the matter, it continued with the warning strike due to non-commitment from the chairmen of the FCT area councils, Mr Knabayi revealed.

The strike is ongoing. It is a five-day warning strike, which is expected to come to an end on November 24.

We are dealing with two tiers of government in this matter, the state and area councils.

As I speak with you now, we have no issues any longer with FCTA, because of the commitment we have received from the Minister of FCT.

However, we do not have any commitment from the area councils as we speak.

That is why the strike is still ongoing,

he said.

The area council chairperson was urged to take advantage of the window for the warning strike to dialogue with the union.

The NUT Chairperson noted that failure to do that would mean a call for the strike to continue.

We are hoping that tomorrow they will still take advantage of the available window to dialogue with us with the aim of resolving it.

If not, we are expected to meet tomorrow at our level to take the strike to the next level,

he said.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.