Teachers pay dispute shuts Nigeria schools for months

ABUJA (AFP) — A strike by elementary school teachers in Nigeria’s capital is dragging into its fourth month, as workers demand to be paid the minimum wage enacted almost a year ago but yet to be implemented.

Affecting more than 400 schools in Abuja, the prolonged closure has left over 50,000 pupils without lessons, according to the teachers’ union, in a country where more than 20 million children are already out of school.

The Nigeria Union of Teachers in the capital says it will not call off its strike until the 70,000 naira ($45) national minimum wage is implemented and outstanding salaries and entitlements are settled.

President Bola Tinubu signed the new wage into law in July 2024, more than doubling the west African country’s previous minimum wage of 30,000 naira.

The move was meant to soften the effects of rampant inflation that has followed the government’s economic reforms over the past two years. Yet implementation has lagged nationwide as local governments have been left to institute the wage hikes.

“We went on two warning strikes and we are currently on the third,” union leader Abdullahi Mohammed Shafas told Agence France-Presse. “Despite arguments and promises, the government has not been able to fulfill any till now.”

Critics have blamed Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, which includes Abuja, for the impasse.

Wike says he has approved the new wages, accusing the local government councils of failing to pay.