PTA urges Wike to intervene in FCT workers, teachers’ strike

The chairman of the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) in the FCT, Alhaji Usman Abubakar, has appealed to the minister of the FCT,  Nyesom Wike, to intervene to end the one-month strike by the area council workers and primary school teachers over the non-implementation of their minimum wage. Addressing newsmen in Gwagwalada, on Tuesday, Abubakar said […]

The chairman of the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) in the FCT, Alhaji Usman Abubakar, has appealed to the minister of the FCT,  Nyesom Wike, to intervene to end the one-month strike by the area council workers and primary school teachers over the non-implementation of their minimum wage.

Addressing newsmen in Gwagwalada, on Tuesday, Abubakar said it was quite worrisome that primary school pupils have remained at home for one month due to the strike action.

He said the lingering strike action by both area council workers and primary school teachers posed a danger not only to the children but the parents, noting that some children were turning into scavengers while others hawked on the streets.

He said the association was quite appreciative of Wike’s intervention to tame the strike action last year, through payment of 40 per cent peculiar allowances of both primary school teachers and area council workers.

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“Actually, the FCT minister, Nyesom Wike, has not relented in his efforts to intervene in this issue of primary school teachers and area council workers’ strikes, but we are still appealing to him to intervene on this again in the interest of not only the parents but the children,” he said.

The PTA lamented that though both junior and senior secondary school students were resuming for their third term examinations, primary school pupils still remained at home without even completing their second term examination.

He also appealed to the six area council chairmen under the FCT ALGON to come to a negotiation table with the two joint unions, NUT and NULGE, in order to ensure that the strike action is ended.

Recall that primary school teachers and area council workers, under the joint unions of NUT and NULGE, are set to embark on peaceful protest on Wednesday, to press home their demands over the non-implementation of the minimum wage and other entitlements by the six area council chairmen despite the release of N4.11 billion by the FCT minister.