Protesting FCT teachers disrupt civil service promotion exams
Teachers under the umbrella of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Wing, on Monday disrupted the 2025 promotion examination for civil servants organised by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), protesting the non-promotion of teachers allegedly due since 2023 and 2024.
The promotion examination, scheduled to hold at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) along the Kubwa Expressway, Abuja, could not commence as planned after hundreds of protesting teachers barricaded the entrance to the examination venue.
The protesters, drawn from the six area councils of the FCT, were led by the FCT NUT chairman, Comrade Abdullahi Mohammed Shafas, and the union’s General Secretary, Comrade Margareth F. Jethro.
They carried placards and chanted solidarity songs while demanding the promotion of teachers who, they said, had remained stagnated despite passing previous promotion examinations.
The chairman of the FCT Civil Service Commission, Emeka Ezeh, who arrived at the venue around 8:12 a.m., was prevented from addressing candidates waiting to write the examination after the protesters blocked access to the lecture hall.
He was forced to retreat into the examination complex, where he remained while armed police officers were deployed to secure the premises.
Addressing journalists, Shafas said the union decided to disrupt the exercise because the commission had allegedly failed to promote teachers who had been due since 2023 and 2024.
He argued that there was no justification for conducting the 2025 promotion examination for other civil servants in the FCT while teachers who had already passed previous promotion examinations remained unpromoted.
“It is unacceptable that teachers who sacrifice to work in rural communities amid insecurity are denied promotion after meeting all the requirements,” he said.
Shafas also criticised the application of ‘vacancy’ as requirements to teachers’ promotions, arguing that the teaching profession should not be subjected to the same criteria as the mainstream civil service.
He noted that many teachers work under difficult conditions, particularly in rural areas affected by banditry and kidnappings, yet receive poor remuneration.
Also speaking, the union’s General Secretary, Margareth Jethro, said the NUT had repeatedly engaged the Civil Service Commission over its promotion guidelines, particularly the provision making promotion subject to available vacancies.
She argued that teachers should be exempted from the vacancy requirement because they are not pool staff like other civil servants.
Responding, the chairman of the FCT Civil Service Commission, Emeka Ezeh, said the commission could not deviate from the existing civil service promotion guidelines.
He maintained that the commission was bound by the rules governing promotions and lacked the authority to alter them.
Last Wednesday, the FCTA and the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) announced the commencement of the 2025 promotion exercise for more than 13,000 civil servants across 150 cadres and grade levels, following approval by the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike.
As of the time of filing this report, the promotion examination had yet to commence, with the commission chairman remaining inside the examination complex under police protection while the protesting teachers continued to occupy the entrances to the lecture and examination halls.(Daily Trust)
