The Nigeria Union of Teachers, Federal Capital Territory Wing, has protested the inclusion of vacancy as a condition for the promotion of teachers, disrupting the ongoing 2025 promotion examination for FCT workers in Abuja.

The union's members and officials staged the protest at the National Open University of Nigeria, the venue of the examination for about 13,000 FCT Administration workers, preventing teachers from participating in the exercise.

Leading the protest, the Chairman of the FCT NUT, Abdullahi Shafas, called on the Chairman of the FCT Civil Service Commission, Emeka Ezeh, to remove the vacancy requirement from the promotion process, arguing that teachers should be promoted based on merit and performance in promotion examinations rather than the availability of vacant positions.

He maintained that teachers are not pool staff and should be accorded special consideration because of the nature of their work, particularly those serving in rural communities affected by insecurity, adding that making vacancies a prerequisite for promotion would stagnate teachers' career progression, reduce morale and negatively affect the education sector.

Shafas also lamented the poor remuneration of teachers, noting that some still earn between ₦50,000 and ₦60,000 monthly despite their critical role in national development, and urged the FCT Civil Service Commission to engage with the union through dialogue, warning that prolonged delays in resolving the issue had forced teachers out of classrooms to press their demands.