The Nigeria Labour Congress, FCT Council, has given the Federal Capital Territory Administration seven days to address unresolved issues affecting teachers in the territory or face an indefinite strike.
The labour union issued the ultimatum in a letter dated September 8, 2026, and addressed to the FCT Minister. The letter was signed by the Chairman of the NLC FCT Council, Knabayi S. Adalo.
The dispute follows a disagreement between FCT teachers and the administration over the use of available vacancies as a condition for promotion. The issue had earlier led teachers to protest and disrupt the 2025 promotion examination for workers under the FCT Administration.
The Nigeria Union of Teachers, FCT Wing, had opposed the vacancy requirement, arguing that teachers work in specific establishments and are not part of the general pool of civil servants. According to the union, making promotion dependent on available vacancies could prevent qualified teachers from advancing in their careers.
The latest disagreement also involves the implementation of the Harmonised Retirement Age for Teachers in Nigeria Act, 2022. The law provides that teachers should retire at 65 years of age or after completing 40 years of pensionable service, whichever comes first. Education officers are also covered by the definition of teachers under the law.
The National Industrial Court had, in a judgment delivered in July 2026, ruled that the eight-year tenure policy for directors could not be applied to teachers and education officers where it conflicted with the provisions of the 2022 retirement law.
The court consequently cancelled relevant circulars issued in 2026 by the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation and the Federal Ministry of Education to the extent that they affected teachers and education officers.
Against this background, the NLC said the NUT FCT Wing had held several engagements with the FCT Civil Service Commission and other authorities in an attempt to resolve the problems. However, the congress said those efforts had not produced a satisfactory outcome.
One of the union’s main complaints is the continued application of the vacancy condition to teachers who are regarded as field workers rather than pool staff. The NLC said the policy was preventing many qualified teachers from progressing to higher positions.
The labour body also called for teachers who were qualified to participate in the 2025 promotion examination but were prevented from doing so to be allowed to take the examination.
It said the situation had affected the morale of the affected teachers, especially as promotion examination results for other categories of workers had already been released while preparations for the 2026 exercise were underway.
Another issue raised by the NLC concerns the redeployment of directors of educational agencies who are covered by the harmonised retirement age for teachers.
The union said some of the affected directors had been moved back to classroom duties while junior officers were allegedly placed in positions previously occupied by them. It argued that the development was unfair to the affected officers and could affect the proper running of educational agencies in the FCT.
The NLC said the grievances had remained unresolved despite letters, meetings and a peaceful protest by the teachers’ union.
It therefore demanded that the FCT Administration stop applying the vacancy requirement to teachers’ promotions, allow teachers who were eligible for the 2025 promotion examination to take it alongside those qualified for the 2026 exercise, and reverse the redeployment of directors of educational agencies to classroom positions.
The congress gave the FCT Administration seven days from the date it received the letter to act on the demands.
It warned that failure to resolve the issues within the period would lead to an indefinite strike involving workers across the Federal Capital Territory.
Despite the threat, the NLC said it remained open to dialogue and wanted to maintain industrial peace. However, it said the continued failure to address the concerns of FCT teachers could no longer be ignored.
Meanwhile, the FCT Secondary Education Board’s promotion guidelines generally make promotion subject to the availability of vacancies. The guidelines also require eligible senior officers to sit for written examinations and meet other conditions before promotion.
The vacancy requirement is at the centre of the teachers’ disagreement, with the NLC specifically challenging its application to teachers working under the FCT Administration.