By Joyce Remi-Babayeju
The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has said that out of the 14 demands by the striking workers, 10 have been met, while the remaining 4 demands are being looked into with a view to addressing them.
This was contained in a press statement issued on Monday by Lere Olayinka, Senior Special Assistant Public Communications and Social Media to the FCT Minister Barr Nysom Wike.
The FCTA also said that there are workers under various unions, such as the Law Officers Association of Nigeria, who have dissociated themselves from the strike action, and these workers deserve the right to be allowed access to their offices to perform their duties.
The Association of Resident Doctors, Federal Capital Territory (ARD-FCTA), has written to the FCT Minister, Barr. Nyesom Wike, appreciating him for “his exemplary leadership and commitment to the welfare of healthcare workers, as demonstrated by the payment of the longstanding 13-month hazard allowance arrears as well as the payment of one month wage award.
According to Olayinka in the statement, top officials of the FCTA have held several meetings with union leaders, including on Saturday and Sunday.
He said in one of the meetings held with Joint Union Action Committee (JUAC) leaders on Friday, January 16, the demands as well as the interventions of the FCT Minister were laid bare, and at no point did the Minister express unwillingness to address any of the demands.
“An appeal was made to JUAC officials that other pending issues were not severe enough to warrant the declaration of strike action and that dialogue should be adopted in resolving all other issues affecting staff welfare in the FCTA.”
“For instance, one of the demands made was non-payment of the outstanding five-month wage award, payment of which has commenced. Moreover, the outstanding 13 months of Hazard Allowance and 22 months Rural Allowance for Health Workers have been fully paid by the administration.”
“The workers also listed non-payment of 2023 promotion arrears and outstanding 2024 promotion arrears as part of their demands.”
Meanwhile, the outstanding arrears in the sum of N286,166,772.46, covering 724 officers across 24 SDAs, were approved by the minister in December 2025 and are being processed for payment to the beneficiaries.
On the elongation of tenure of retired Directors and Permanent Secretaries in violation of the Public Service Rules, this has been resolved with the minister assuring the workers of strict compliance with the Public Service Rules.
JUAC also raised the issue of lack of training and retraining of staff, and on this, all SDAs have been directed to forward general and specialized training needs to the permanent secretary, Common Services, for onward submission to the office of the Head of Service for further necessary action.
Another issue is the non-remittance of National Housing Funds (NHF) deductions and pension contributions since May 2025, which is the function of workers themselves and has nothing to do with the minister or the FCTA management. The Head of Service has therefore constituted a committee comprising the workers to holistically address all issues relating to all deductions and remittances.
On the claim of a defective promotion examination process with a pass rate of about 22.5 percent, it was pointed out that the figures and percentage presented by JUAC had no official backing, and they were therefore advised to await the formal release of the results of the promotion examinations as directed by the minister.
Furthermore, the issue of overstaying of overseeing directors has been reasonably addressed by the conduct of the 2023 promotion for eligible deputy directors, while the release of the just concluded 2024 staff promotion by the FCT Civil Service Commission will conclusively address the matter.
In all, it can be seen that the FCT Minister has made concerted efforts to address the demands of the workers, and he will continue to accord them top priority.
From all indications, therefore, and considering all the efforts already made by the minister in acceding to almost all the demands as well as explanations by the FCTA management staff in the meetings held, the strike action embarked on by JUAC is unnecessary, ill-motivated, and obviously aimed at achieving purposes other than the welfare of the workers.
However, the Administration has called on security agencies to ensure that workers who are not to be part of the strike have access to their offices to carry out their lawful duties unhindered.
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