The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, will meet on Thursday with FCT area council chairmen, the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), and the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) to discuss reopening public primary schools in the territory.
The meeting was confirmed in a statement released in Abuja on Wednesday by NANS President, Olushola Oladoja, and the group’s Public Relations Officer, Adeyemi Ajasa.
NANS explained that it had earlier planned a mass protest at the FCT Administration Secretariat on Wednesday, but this was suspended after the group’s leaders were invited to a high-level meeting at the Department of State Services Headquarters.
NANS said the first engagement led to further meetings, including with Muktar Betara, Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on FCT, where they discussed the ongoing teachers’ strike and its impact on students.
A subsequent meeting with Wike clarified that since the FCT operates full local government autonomy, area councils are solely responsible for paying primary school teachers’ salaries.
NANS quoted Wike as saying the FCT Administration was not directly responsible for the salary backlog.
To resolve the crisis, Wike proposed a bailout, offering to cover 60% of the outstanding salaries while the councils paid the remaining 40%. When this plan stalled, the FCT Administration withheld the area councils’ Internally Generated Revenue for May and June, intending to use these funds to settle the councils’ share.
NANS said the withheld funds were expected to be released before the end of the week and that it had suspended the planned protest while monitoring the situation.
“We reaffirm our commitment to defending the rights of Nigerian students and ensuring no child is denied access to education due to governmental lapses,” the association stated.
