Teachers embark on indefinite strike in Akwa Ibom

Teachers in Akwa Ibom State under the aegis of Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) have proceeded on indefinite strike, protesting government unwillingness to respond to their demands. The indefinite strike was declared effective Tuesday midnight, indicating that no teacher reported for work on Wednesday.

The Union’s Senior State Secretary, Comrade Victor O. Amirize, in a statement declared that “the NUT, therefore, ordered all primary and secondary school teachers in public schools to embark on the industrial action.”

The state NUT said that the government failed to fulfill the promise to pay one-year leave grant on compassionate grounds and make complete payment of one-month minimum wage arrears to primary school teachers.

The teachers demands were identified to include the refund of seven and a half per cent contributory pension to primary school teachers, payment of gratuity/harmonisation of pension to retired teachers, payment of 2013 to 2021 leave grant to primary school teachers, payment of promotion arrears for six years, 2011 to 2016 to primary school teachers, the release of results of the 2017, 2018 promotion exercise conducted by SUBEB, immediate commencement of 2019, 2020, 2021 promotion exercise and appointment of teachers as permanent secretaries.

The NUIT also demanded that the Akwa Ibom State government Teachers Amnesty programme should be re-opened to cover the teachers that were cut off during the last amnesty programme, the promotion result of teachers who attended the last promotion exercise in 2020 should be released without recourse to pass in the administrative professional officer compulsory examination (APOCE) as this was not a requirement at the point of the interview.