Education
FCT Teachers Protest Vacancy Condition for Progression, Disrupt Promotion Test for 13,000 Workers
By Son Tertsea, Abuja
The vacancy policy for the promotion of teachers has not gone down well with the Nigeria Union of Teachers, Federal Capital Territory Wing, on Monday, protesting against it.
Consequently, the union officials and members stormed the Headquarters of the National Open University, Abuja, venue of the ongoing 2025 promotion examinations for 13,000 FCT Administration workers, to register their anger and to press home their demands.
Chairman of the union, Mr Abdullahi Shafa who led the protest, appealed to the Chairman of the FCT Civil Service Commission, Mr Emeka Ezeh, to remove the vacancy condition for promotion.
Shafa argued that teachers were not pool staff and as such, deserve merit not vacancy as a condition for promotion.
According to him, vacancy as a condition for promotion will stagnate career progression for teachers in the FCT.
“The application of vacancy-based promotion for teachers is unjust and detrimental to the teaching profession.
“Teachers should be promoted based on merit and successful performance in promotion examinations rather than the availability of vacancies.
“We deserve special consideration because of the unique nature of our work and the difficult conditions under which many of us serve.
“Therefore, teachers should not be subjected to a vacancy system, as they are deployed across schools in urban and rural communities, where many are facing security challenges, including banditry and kidnapping.”
He pointed out that promotion was a key motivation for teachers and warned that stagnating teachers’ career progression would further discourage them and undermine the education sector.
Shafa said that teachers remained among the least and under paid public servants in the country, despite the critical role they played in nation building.
According to him, some teachers in the country still earn between N50,000 and N60,000 as a monthly salary, in contrast to what their counterparts receive in some developed countries.
“How do you survive with such a meagre amount if you are living in the capital city?
“Therefore, if a teacher sits for a promotion examination and passes the examination, he or she should be promoted.”
He urged Ezeh to engage with the union rather than dismissing its concerns, saying “dialogue is necessary to resolving any dispute” explaining that prolonged delays in resolving the promotion issue had forced teachers to leave their classrooms to participate in protests, with adverse consequences for pupils.
“Our members are not in the classrooms today because they are demanding what they believe is their legitimate right but those who suffer most are the children,” he said.
Responding to allegations that the protests might be politically motivated, Shafa insisted that the agitation was solely aimed at protecting the welfare and career progression of teachers.
Similarly, the Secretary of the union, Mrs Margaret Jethro, stressed that teachers should not be subjected to the same promotion policy with civil servants and advocated the establishment of a Teachers Service Commission in FCT.
“You cannot use a law being used for a core civil servant who needs office accommodation and an official car for promotion of teachers.
“Teachers only need their classrooms as such, the vacancy policy will not work for teachers,” he said.
Jethro said that in 2023, 401 deputy directors passed the promotion examination but only 20 were promoted.
She reiterated the union’s demand that all the teachers that passed the promotion examination in 2023 and 2024 must be promoted before the union would allow the 2025 examination for teachers.
“The benchmark for promotion was set by the authorities and qualified teachers should not be denied promotion after meeting the requirements,” she said.
Responding, Ezeh explained that promotion for FCT workers, including teachers, was clearly spelt out in the guidelines, adding that the union’s demand appears mischievous.
“The system of government is guided by rules, and the commission is only implementing the guidelines for promotion,” he said.
Ezeh said that no one could be promoted without a vacancy because it had financial and establishment implications.
By Nick Ibe, Abuja
NUC-approved landmark project of National Mosque Imam, Prof. Ibrahim Maqari has commenced admissions for the 2026/27 academic year.
This development has made history in Nigeria’s education landscape.
The National Universities Commission, NUC, granted operating licence to Tazkiyah University, the first female-only university in the country in 2025.
The approval, which came alongside eight other new private institutions, spotlights the man behind it, Sheikh Professor Ibrahim Ahmad Maqari, Deputy Chief Imam of the National Mosque, Abuja, and one of Nigeria’s Islamic scholars.
Located in Zaria, Kaduna State, Tazkiyah University is envisioned as a higher institution dedicated exclusively to female students, with prospects of employing an all-female faculty,
Prof. Maqari, who announced the development on his Facebook page, said the university would serve both as a centre of academic excellence and as a moral project for social change.
According to him, profits from the institution would not be pocketed but channelled into a trust fund to support orphans across Nigeria.
“This is a trust from Allah and an amanah (sacred responsibility). The dream is to give women a platform for empowerment through knowledge, and to secure a future for children who have no parents to provide for them.”
Education Minister, Dr. Tunji Alausa, while announcing the new licences, listed Tazkiyah among nine newly approved private universities. Others are Leadership University, Abuja; Jimoh Babalola University, Kwara State; Bridget University, Imo State; Greenland University, Taraba State; JEFAP University, Niger State; Azione Verde University, Imo State; Unique Open University, Lagos State; and American Open University, Ogun State.
Although Tazkiyah’s permanent site is planned for Kaduna metropolis, its take-off campus will be in Zaria before relocating fully.
Education
More Funds for NELFUND As Tinubu Redirects EFCC-recovered Funds, Unclaimed Dividends to Loan Body
By isa Abdul, Abuja
President Bola Tinubu has taken hold steps to make the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, NELFUND, financially heft by directing that recovered funds from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, be diverted to it to meet its growing funding obligations.
Dr Tunji Alausa, Minister of Education, disclosed this Wednesday while briefing State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council meeting.
The Federal Executive Council also approved a presidential directive that all unclaimed dividends from the Capital Market Trust Fund and the Dormant Account Trust Fund be channelled to NELFUND, he added. The move is to make the fund financially buoyant enough to meet its expanding obligations to Nigerian students. He announced that:
“The president, in his benevolence, has now directed that all funds recovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission be diverted to NELFUND to continue to support its funding.
“This was also approved by FEC: that all unclaimed dividends from the Capital Market Trust Fund and the Dormant Account Trust Fund should also be directed to NELFUND, so that NELFUND will be financially buoyant to meet its growing obligations today.
“Note, and the President was very clear, not ceased properties, or recovered looted funds, but liquid funds, from the EFCC will now be transferred to NELFund.“
The minister said the directive was consistent with a campaign promise President Tinubu made to ensure access to education for Nigerian students.
He noted that the funds will include unencumbered monies which are not under legal contention.
–SUBEB Teachers Protest Contempt of Court Judgment, Accuse Grace Adagba of ‘Dribbling’ Them_
By Felix Umande
It was a rainy morning, placards and pain in Makurdi on Tuesday, August 18, 2026, as a group known as “Aggrieved Primary School Teachers under SUBEB” staged a protest in the Benue State capital to demand implementation of a 2024 court judgment on the Federal Government’s harmonized retirement age for teachers.
The protesters, most of them elderly men and women, some with their children in tow, marched to government offices to express what they described as “years of injustice, unlawful retirement and salary denial” by the State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB.
Addressing journalists during the protest, Chairman of the group, Comrade Kpandegh Dennis, said the teachers were fighting for their right to remain in service for 5 additional years as approved by the Federal Government with effect from January 1, 2021.
Comrade Dennis recalled that while some states had implemented the Harmonised Retirement Age for Teachers Act 2022, Benue under former Governor Samuel Ortom allegedly implemented it “the other way round” by secretly paying selected teachers while retiring others.
“We instituted a legal action. And by the grace of God, we won the case on the 30th of April, 2024,” he said.
According to the judgment delivered by Hon. Justice E. D. E. Isele, the court declared that the claimants “are still in the employment of the Defendants and due for retirement upon attainment of the chronological age of 65 years or 40 years of pensionable service.”
The court also ordered SUBEB “to restore the names of the Claimants on the payroll… and to compute and pay to the Claimants their respective salaries and allowances due from the date of their purported retirement.”
The teachers accused the immediate past acting SUBEB Chairman, Mzaga Iorhemba, of forcing them into “unlawful retirement” and diverting their salaries. “You will receive alert, the money will not hit your account. So we had pay slips, no salary for such people,” Dennis alleged.
Following a petition to Governor Hyacinth Alia on October 17, 2023, the governor removed Mzaga and directed the current SUBEB Chairman, Dr. Grace Adagba, to resolve the matter.
Dennis said Dr. Adagba conducted screenings on March 14, 2024 and again on February 27-28, 2025, but “after the screening, none of us were reinstated. She dumped us and carried other persons.”
He further alleged that after the teachers’ counsel filed a motion for contempt of court, the then Attorney-General, Fidelis Mnyim, intervened and pleaded for an out-of-court settlement within 30 days. “As soon as the matter came down low, the woman started firing us again,” he said.
The group also referenced a resolution from the Tor Tiv which they said SUBEB has ignored.
With rain-soaked clothes and children by their side, the protesters appealed directly to Governor Alia and the Federal Government:
“Our appeal to government is that because Grace doesn’t want us to continue with our job — though the court has given us our right, our 5 years is intact — let them pay our 5 years to us to go and settle with our family.
“As you can see us, because of the rain, we are caught up. If not, we planned that we will come out with our children. See this small one is not up to 18 years. We have nothing to chop. We have served this state!”
In its April 30, 2024 judgment, the court granted the following reliefs:
- Declaration; that the claimants have not attained retirement age and remain staff of SUBEB until 65 years or 40 years of service.
- Order; directing SUBEB to restore the claimants to the payroll and pay all outstanding salaries and allowances from the date of purported retirement.
- Injunction; restraining SUBEB from further tampering with the claimants’ employment.
- Cost; of N1,000,000 awarded to the claimants. The claim for general damages was refused.
As of press time, SUBEB Chairman Dr. Grace Adagba was yet to respond to the allegations.
The protesters vowed to sustain their agitation until the state government complies fully with the court judgment.
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