By Sarah NEGEDU
Relief may have finally come the way of primary school teachers in the Federal Capital Territory, as some area councils have begun payment of the new minimum wage being demanded by their workers.
Recall that employees of the six area councils, including primary school teachers, under the Local Education Authority, LEA, and health workers have been on strike over the non-implementation of the new minimum wage and the non-payment of other allowances.
The workers union, including FCT chapter of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT and the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees, NULGE, had at intervals gone on strike after the six council chairmen failed to respond to other outstanding demands to pay workers 40 percent peculiar allowance, 25 percent salary increments and 35 pecent wage award among other demands.
However, The Abuja Inquirer gathered over the weekend that some area councils like Abuja Municipal Area Counci, AMAC, Gwagwalada and Abaji Area Councils have all begun payment of the N70,000 new minimum wage to their striking workers.
A message posted on the official social media handles of the chairman of AMAC, on Friday, announced that the chairman, Hon Christopher Maikalangu, had started implementing the N70,000 minimum wage.
Also, the Abaji chapter chairman of the NUT, Usman Gana, confirmed that the LEA teachers in the council were also paid the new minimum wage.
Some staff of the Abaji area council, who spoke with our correspondent, confirmed receiving alerts of their salary reflecting the new minimum wage.
A primary school teacher, Abdullahi Haruna, said he received his salary reflecting the new wage, but unfortunately a large chunk of it has gone to the payment of debts.
“Yes, it is true, the new minimum wage was paid by the area council chairman, Alhaji Abubakar Abdullahi. I received alert too but I have to withdraw the money to pay debts for food stuffs and school fees of my children,” he said.
Another staff of the area council, Abigael Yohana, confirmed to have received the new wage.
“I received alert reflecting the N70,000 new minimum wage on Wednesday around 9:12 pm. We pray that God will touch their heart to pay the other entitlements they are owing us by the end of this month,” she said.
Also, some staff of Gwagwalada area council confirmed receiving the new minimum wage, saying the payment brought some relief to them.
Though the three other area councils of Kwali, Bwari and Kuje are yet to pay their workers, president of FCT NULGE, Comrade Abdullahi Kabir, has hinted that payment will be made before the end of next week.
The union leader however warned that the payment of the new wage does not guarantee that the union would call off or suspend the ongoing strike.
