By Felix Durumbah
Another fruit of this week’s three-day protest by irate workers of Federal Capital Territory Administration FCTA) has manifested.
Perhaps, panicked by threat by the workers’ umbrella Joint Union Action Committee JUAC) to proceed on full-blown strike on the heels of the protest, authorities of FCTA have approved one of the key demands of the workers: training and retraining programmes for staff members.
They had earlier hurriedly okayed the commencement of promotion exercises for the staff, another key demand of the workers.
Ahead of the protest, which kicked off on Monday, June 30, and ended Wednesday, July 2, the workers had expressed deep frustration over poor welfare conditions imposed on them by the administration of FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike.
Among their grievances was that since Wike came to office in August, 2023, training and retraining programmes, a statutory feature for employee capacity enhancement under all of Wike’s predecessors, had been stopped.
They also bellyached over lack of promotions since 2023; non-release of the statutory overhead funds –which enable Heads of Secretariats, Departments and Agencies (SDAs) and directors to take care of day-to-day running of offices to be able to deliver on President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
Some interpreted the non-release of the funds as alleged bid to sabotage the president’s Agenda in FCT.
The situation was so bad, the workers claimed, that many SDA Heads and directors were rendered cash-strapped to the extent that money to purchase mere A4 papers to write official memos was grossly lacking.
However, the Administration has, again, seemingly bowed to pressure and is now ready to amend its ways.
People&Politics exclusively obtained a four-paragraph circular from the FCTA to this end.
The letter, originating from the Office of Head of FCT Civil Service (HOS) and addressed to Permanent Secretaries and directors, requested them to bring up their staff training requests and requirements.
Titled ‘Submission Of Approved Training Programmes From May 2024 Till Date’, the circular was signed by R.B. Ajayi, Permanent Secretary, Common Services, for the HOS.
It was backdated to June 27,2025.
Part of the letter read:”Sequel to the need to ensure systematic, efficient and result-oriented workforce and staff development, I am directed to request for list(s) of all approved training programmes from May, 2024 till date in the format below.”
The letter went on to draw up a table with the various subtitles of “S/No; Title of Programme;
Mode of Training (Short term, foreign,long term, in-house, induction, pre-retirement, international/technical collaboration); number of participants; location of training/duration; cash implications”.
In paragraph three, the letter urged the affected top officers to submit same on or before Wednesday, June 2, 2025.
Finally, it asked the officers to treat the matter “with utmost urgency and priority.”
People&Politics gathered that news of the training circular is like music to the ears of FCTA staff matters who believe they have suffered unprecedented agony since Wike became Minister.
However, there remain, unmet, other demands of the workers such as overhead, payment of eight months’ arrears of salaries of enforcement squad of Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) and several others.
While ending the protest on Wednesday, JUAC Chairperson, Mrs Rifkatu Iortyer, who addressed the workers, disclosed that the next steps are the issuance of 21-day notice to the FCTA authorities, to be followed by a 14-day notice, and finally a seven-day notice –in line with extant labour laws — to accede to the workers’ demands.
Though she did not indicate what labour would do after the last notice,if the Wike-led management still had not agreed to all demands, Iortyer hinted that the staff would embark on “what they (authorities) don’t want to hear of.”
An insider told People&Politics that if all negotiations fail, staff would proceed on indefinite strike. That could, however, be sometime in August.
A male employee told the paper:”I have worked under several Ministers here since El-Rufai’s time. They never joked with staff welfare. But this Wike perhaps thinks our welfare doesn’t matter a dime in relation to his roads and bridges projects. If protest and strikes are the language he understands best, we’ll continue to dish them out to him.”
