Tuesday 21 April, 2026

FCT teachers went on indefinite strike this week. What makes this different from every previous strike is that it's the same strike, never actually resolved.

On Monday morning, parents dropped their children at public primary and secondary schools across Abuja and found locked gates. No teachers. No notice beyond what the union had issued on Friday. Just closed classrooms on the first day of third-term resumption.

The NUT, FCT chapter, had declared the strike after exhausting what they say were two rounds of ultimatums. The dispute goes back to 2022. It centres on unpaid minimum wage arrears, an unimplemented committee report, and a promotion process that has stalled because the administration insists on "vacancies" before any teacher can advance, regardless of how long they've served or how qualified they are.

Here's the key detail. In July 2025, FCT Minister Nyesom Wike intervened and set up a committee to harmonise all outstanding teacher entitlements. The committee did its work. It submitted its report in August 2025. The report has never been released. The report has never been implemented.

Eight months. Nothing.

The NUT issued a seven-day ultimatum in March 2026. Then a 28-day grace period. Then the strike.

Wike did implement the ₦70,000 minimum wage. That part is acknowledged. But the structural issues that produce these strikes every year remain untouched. No promotion reform. No released report. No accountability for the Area Council chairmen who were supposed to pay 60% of the arrears and didn't.

This is not a new crisis. It's the same crisis on a cycle. The government intervenes with a partial concession, the teachers return, the remaining issues sit in a drawer, a new ultimatum is issued, another strike begins. The pattern has repeated in 2022, 2023, 2024, and now 2026.

In Abuja, right now, a child in Primary 1 who was supposed to start third term yesterday is at home.

That child's mother is calculating how long this runs. Whether she can afford a private school for a few weeks. Whether anyone will learn anything if it extends past May. Whether the WAEC students whose exams are approaching have any margin left.

She already knows the answer. She's been here before.