Industrial Court Strikes Down FG's Eight-Year Tenure for Education Directors

The National Industrial Court of Nigeria has recently invalidated a Federal Government directive that required education directors to retire from service after spending eight years in their roles. The court's decision affirms that teachers and education officers who achieve director status are legally entitled to remain in employment until they reach 65 years of age or complete 40 years of pensionable service.

Justice O. Y. Anuwe, delivering the judgment in Abuja on July 10, 2026, nullified several circulars. These directives, issued by the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation and the Federal Ministry of Education, aimed to enforce the eight-year tenure rule specifically against teachers and education officers serving as directors. According to the certified true copy (CTC) obtained by our correspondent on Tuesday, the court found these circulars to be inconsistent with the provisions of the Harmonised Retirement Age for Teachers in Nigeria Act, 2022. Consequently, the court declared them invalid in their application to teachers and education officers.

Justice Anuwe explicitly stated, “A Teacher or Education Officer, whether he or she got to the post of Director or not, is entitled to retire from service on attaining 65 years of age or 40 years of service.” The Judge further clarified that serving as a director for eight years “is not a retirement condition for teachers any longer.”

The lawsuit, identified as NICN/ABJ/79/2025, was initiated by Mrs. Rakiya Gambo Iliyasu, a Grade Level 17 Director within the University Education Department of the Federal Ministry of Education. Mrs. Iliyasu challenged the directives that sought to compel directors who had completed eight years in office to retire. Her argument was premised on her status as an Education Officer, qualifying her as a teacher under the Harmonised Retirement Age for Teachers in Nigeria Act, 2022. This Act guarantees compulsory retirement only upon reaching 65 years of age or after 40 years of pensionable service. She contended that the February 2026 circulars from the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation and the Federal Ministry of Education unlawfully attempted to force her and other education directors into early retirement before their statutory age.

Justice Anuwe sided with the claimant, noting that Section 3 of the Teachers’ Retirement Age Act explicitly exempts teachers from any Public Service Rule that mandates retirement before the age of 65 or 40 years of pensionable service. The judge also referenced the Act’s definition of a teacher, which unequivocally includes Education Officers, thereby confirming that Mrs. Iliyasu fell within the category of officers protected by the legislation. Furthermore, the court observed that the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation had, in a previous 2025 communication, acknowledged that education officers covered by the Act were exempt from the eight-year tenure policy, making the government's subsequent retirement directives contradictory to its earlier stance.

As a result, the court pronounced the February 10, 2026 circular from the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, along with the February 24 and February 26, 2026 circulars from the Federal Ministry of Education, as illegal, null, and void wherever they applied to teachers and education officers. Justice Anuwe also set aside these three circulars and issued a perpetual injunction, preventing the Federal Government and the Ministry of Education from enforcing the eight-year tenure policy against teachers and education officers in any manner inconsistent with the Harmonised Retirement Age for Teachers in Nigeria Act. Each party was directed to bear its own legal costs.

This legal battle emerged after the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation and the Federal Ministry of Education issued circulars in February 2026, mandating the retirement of directors who had completed eight years in office, in line with Rule 020909 of the Public Service Rules. These directives impacted numerous career education officers holding director positions within the Federal Ministry of Education, despite the enactment of the Harmonised Retirement Age for Teachers in Nigeria Act, 2022. The 2022 Act extended the retirement age for teachers in public educational institutions to 65 years or 40 years of pensionable service, a measure implemented to address the scarcity of experienced teachers, enhance the retention of skilled education personnel, and improve the overall quality of teaching and learning across Nigeria. Crucially, the Act also expanded the definition of teachers to include education officers, a provision central to this legal dispute.

This landmark judgment is anticipated to have significant implications for director-level education officers in the Federal Ministry of Education and other related federal agencies, as it clarifies that the Teachers’ Retirement Age Act's provisions supersede the eight-year tenure rule stipulated in the Public Service Rules for officers protected under the Act.