A Nigerian federal court has voided the 8-year retirement policy that the Federal Government tried to enforce against directors in the education sector, delivering a judgment that reverses circulars issued earlier this year.
The National Industrial Court of Nigeria, sitting in Abuja, ruled on 10 July 2026 that teachers and education officers who rise to the rank of director are entitled to remain in service until they turn 65 or complete 40 years of pensionable service, according to a certified true copy of the judgment obtained by Punch.
Justice O. Y. Anuwe, who delivered the verdict, nullified three circulars issued by the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation and the Federal Ministry of Education, both of which had tried to force directors out after eight years in office, in line with Rule 020909 of the Public Service Rules.
The judge held that the circulars conflicted with the Harmonised Retirement Age for Teachers in Nigeria Act, 2022, which extended the compulsory retirement age for teachers in public institutions and widened the legal definition of a teacher to include education officers.
Justice Anuwe granted a perpetual injunction stopping the Federal Government and the Ministry of Education from applying the 8-year retirement policy to teachers and education officers, and ordered each side to bear its own legal costs.
The case, marked NICN/ABJ/79/2025, was brought by Mrs Rakiya Gambo Iliyasu, a Grade Level 17 director in the University Education Department of the Federal Ministry of Education.
Iliyasu had challenged three circulars dated 10 February, 24 February and 26 February 2026, arguing that the 8-year retirement policy could not override the protection given to teachers under the 2022 Act.
She told the court that as an education officer she qualified as a teacher under the law, and could only be retired compulsorily at 65 or after 40 years of pensionable service, not through an administrative circular built around a fixed tenure limit.
Justice Anuwe agreed, ruling that serving eight years as a director “is not a retirement condition for teachers any longer.”
The 2022 Act was signed to address a shortage of experienced teachers and to improve retention of skilled personnel in Nigerian schools, and its broadened definition of a teacher became the central plank of the case against the 8-year retirement policy.
The judgment is expected to affect several directors across the Federal Ministry of Education and other education-related federal agencies who had been served with retirement notices under the disputed circulars.
Each party was ordered to bear its own costs, and the court’s decision effectively confirms that the Harmonised Retirement Age for Teachers in Nigeria Act takes precedence over the 8-year retirement policy for any officer who falls within the statutory definition of a teacher.
For Nigeria’s civil service, the ruling narrows the scope of the 8-year retirement policy considerably, exempting a wide category of education officers who previously faced compulsory exit from directorial posts regardless of age or years of pensionable service.
