… Abuja monarchs wade in, say schools, health centres threatened

The FCT Council of Traditional Rulers has waded into the five-month-old strike embarked upon by teachers and area council workers in the Federal Capital Territory.

The traditional rulers, led by their chairman and Ona of Abaji, Alhaji Adamu Baba Yunusa, had met with the labour leaders to discuss the way out.

The royal fathers, at the meeting, told the labour leaders that schools and health centres in the rural communities were currently under threat of running aground as a result of the strike.

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Abuja Metro reports that primary school teachers, area council workers, including health workers at the primary health centres, have been on strike since March this year.

The striking workers under the FCT chapters of the National Association of Midwives and Medical Nurses of Nigeria, the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) and Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), were demanding the total implementation of the new national minimum wage as well as payment of backlog of their arrears and entitlements owed them by the six area council chairmen.

The workers had since then locked up primary schools, closed health centres as well as the area councils; secretariats.

But at the meeting with the labour leaders, the traditional rulers pleaded with them to release desk officers at the primary health centres across the six area councils to enable them to attend to the patients.

They also appealed to the unions to create an avenue through which the primary six pupils could write their entrance examination to enable them to enter the Junior Secondary School 1 at the beginning of next season in September.

The chiefs, after the meeting, said they decided to invite the union leaders in order to mediate between them and the area council chairmen.

The traditional rulers said they were disturbed over the shutting down of health centres in the area councils, stressing that the decision has adversely affected patients with tuberculosis and HIV who require special treatment.

The chiefs’ council chairman said the traditional rulers were also disturbed that primary six pupils in all the six area councils might not be promoted to JSS One if they failed to write the necessary promotional/entrance examinations.

He, therefore, pleaded with the workers to look into the two key areas – the health and the fates of the Primary Six pupils – assuring that the chiefs will meet with the area council chairmen to find a lasting solution to the impasse.

“What the workers were demanding had been highlighted and the traditional rulers have seen reason with them but we want to appeal to you to release desk officers in our health centres to enable patients suffering from various ailments to have access to treatment.

‘’We are also pleading that the teachers should allow the pupils in Primary Six to take the necessary entrance examinations for them to be admitted into JSS 1 in September,’’ he said.

The traditional rulers also appealed to the striking workers to shelve their planned mass protest slated for July 7 and 9 to enable them to reach out to other key stakeholders in the education sector, including members of the House of Representatives’ committee on FCT Area Councils and Auxiliary Matters.

Earlier, the president of the FCT council of the NLC, Comrade Stephen Knabayi, who spoke on behalf of the joint labour union leaders, told the chiefs that their demands included but not limited to the new minimum wage, which, he said, was being haphazardly implemented by the six council chairmen.

He said the unions had been discussing the new wage with the six area council chairmen and the FCT Administration with no result.

He said, “Your royal highnesses, there is also an issue relating to various arrears, running to about 10 months now which the six area council chairmen owe the workers.’’

He said the council chairmen had also failed to implement the 40 per cent peculiar allowance for the workers.

While appreciating the traditional rulers for wading into the matter, the FCT NLC chairman said the leaders of the affected affiliated unions would meet to deliberate on their requests.

Abuja Metro reports that the Esu of Bwari, Dr Ibrahim Yaro (JP), Sa’Rubochiyi of Rubochi, Alhaji Ibrahim Mohammed Pada, the Agabe of Gwargwada -Ugbada, Alhaji Hussein Agabi Mam, the Aguma of Gwomani, Alhaji Adamu Saba, and the Etsu-Mi Wako, Alhaji Usman Abdulazeez attended the meeting.

Other traditional rulers at the meeting were the Sa’Karuyi of Karu, Joseph DanfulaniNarayi, the Etsu of Kwali, Luka AyedoNizasan, the Chief of Garki, Alhaji Usman Ngakupi’i, Sarkin Pai, Alhaji Abubakar Sani, the Gomo of Kuje, Haruna Jibrin Tanko and the Etsu of Yaba, Alhaji Aliyu Yakubu.

It could be recalled that the FCT minister, Nyesom Wike, had some weeks ago promised to intervene in the crisis but with no positive result yet.