Wike seeks NASS intervention in FCT primary school teachers’ strike

Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike, has urged the National Assembly (NASS) to intervene in the lingering strike embarked on by primary school teachers under the FCT area councils.

Wike disclosed this while responding to questions from newsmen on Thursday in Abuja, during inspection of ongoing and completed projects billed for inauguration to mark the second-year anniversary of President Bola Tinubu in office.

He expressed concern and called on elected council chairmen and National Assembly committees on FCT area councils to step up, saying denying children education is like staging a coup against society, disputing that the area council chairmen are not too powerful.

He said, “I don’t know what you mean by too powerful. All I would say is they were elected, and they were not appointed. So, we have been talking to them to understand that this is democracy, one thing you must know is that denying people education is like trying to say that you are causing a coup in the country or in the FCT.

“But you see, the problem we have, just like what you’ve said, we have committees of the FCT, the House of Reps, and the Senate. We have chairman of the area councils. The chairman of the committees of area councils, their responsibility is to oversee what the area councils are doing because the legislature of the FCT today is the National Assembly.

“That is what the chairman of House Committee of the National Assembly has to look at the problem in the area councils. But it’s unfortunate they concentrate in just inviting minister to come and defend. I’ve never seen in my life where the minister has defended a budget and another House Committee chairman of area council will tell another minister of State to come and present a budget.

“People don’t do what they’re supposed to do. They concentrate on things that do not fall within their jurisdiction. By now, I thought that the chairman of the FCT area councils would have come up to say, Chairmen of area councils, this is not right. What do we need to solve this problem? But they will focus on irrelevant things, trying to see how there’s division, discord in the FCT.”

Wike was reacting to the summons to the FCT Minister of State, Dr. Mariya Mahmoud, over her alleged failure to honour a prior invitation to a critical budget defence session, an act the lawmakers described as blatant disregard for parliamentary oversight and the interests of FCT residents.

Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Fredrick Agbedi, issued the directive in Abuja on Monday, expressing frustration that only three out of 14 agencies under the Minister’s supervision appeared before the committee.

Wike further added, “We have said those things would not work. But go home and sleep very well. Very soon, this problem should be sorted out regarding the primary school teachers, because nobody can feel happy when the teachers are at home. It is the basic thing that we must do, and I can assure you very soon that the matter will be resolved.”