• NLC rejects Wike’s ‘No Work, No Pay’ threat

About 5,990 education officers in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have begun sitting their rescheduled promotion examinations after the intervention of the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike.
   
Nevertheless, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has rejected the minister’s ‘No Work, No Pay’ directive over the ongoing strike by teachers.
   
The examinations, which cover promotions from Grade Level 13 to Grade Level 17, began on October 5 and entered their sixth day yesterday.
   
However, the development has done little to ease the industrial dispute between the FCT Administration (FCTA) and the organised labour, with the NLC insisting that the indefinite strike declared by its FCT Council remained lawful.
   
In a circular dated October 11, 2026 and signed by the FCT Council Chairman, Comrade Knabayi Adalo, the labour body described Wike’s ‘No Work, No Pay’ directive as unconstitutional, illegal and unenforceable.
   
The labour body argued that the strike was a legitimate response to what it described as the FCTA’s failure to address teachers’ grievances, including the introduction of a vacancy clause in promotion arrangements, the non-conduct of the 2025 promotion exercise for affected officers, and the alleged demotion of directors benefiting from the Harmonised Retirement Age for Teachers Act, 2022.
   
Meanwhile, the President of the Joint Unions Action Congress (JUAC) in the FCTA and Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), Rifkatu Iortyer, disclosed that union leaders were engaging in informal mediation to resolve the disagreement between organised labour and the FCTA.
   
She urged both parties to return to the negotiating table, warning that prolonged disruption could affect students and academic activities in public schools across the territory.