Mr Bitrus Garki, the Mandate Secretary of the Area Councils Services Secretariat in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), says Area Councils should be blamed for the ongoing teachers’ prolonged strike.
According to him, it is largely the responsibility of the Area Councils.
Garki said the FCT administration had intervened on several occasions to end the indefinite strike, but to no avail.
The Mandate Secretary made the remarks while addressing protesters led by controversial social media critic and influencer, Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan (VDM), in Abuja on Monday.
Persecondnews recalls that primary school teachers in the FCT have been on strike since March 24, 2025, about 90 days, over the failure of the Area Council Chairmen to implement the new national minimum wage of N70,000 approved by President Bola Tinubu’s administration since 2024.
In response to the prolonged strike, VDM had gathered school children in uniform and organized a makeshift class in front of the ministry gate, where he taught them the alphabets.
“S for Suegbe, T for ….., W for …..”, VDM voiced out out , while the children chorused.
Garki said: “The FCT administration has been intervening in Area Council matters. This responsibility is largely the responsibility of the Area Councils.
“But because this is the state and we also have a relationship with the local government, that is why we come in to intervene in many cases, not just as regards to school, including infrastructure, and many other things.
“These are collaborative efforts, the local governments are duly elected and they are also a tier of government on their own.”
Garki also assured that the authorities would address the issue, stating that he however could not say exactly when the issue will be resolved.
He said: “We have heard what you have said, and we have received you, but what I can guarantee you is that your message has been heard loud and clear, and the authorities will sit on this matter and see that it is addressed.
“As to when this will happen, because this is multi-faceted and involves stakeholders’ collaboration, which has been happening. I cannot stand here and say this is when it is going to end.
“But I can tell you that the administration is working closely, not just with the Area Councils, including the NUT, and also the NULGE and the NLC have been sitting on this matter to address it.
“Just to mention, recently, even the traditional institutions, the traditional rulers who are also within my office, have called in the union to discuss and dialogue this matter.
“They have also referred their solutions to our desk, which we are also looking at to see that this matter is addressed.”
He called for patience, adding that the FCT Minister was doing everything to ensure that the area council chairmen “do what they ought to do”, for schoolchildren to return to schools.
In response, VDM issued a seven-day ultimatum to the administration, after which they would resume the protest
He, however, said the protest will continue tomorrow, to demand an end to the ongoing strike by primary healthcare workers who had also been denied the payments of the N70,000 minimum wage.
VDM said: “We have decided to give them a week. In the meantime, if they do not do anything and the children are not back in school, we will have to come with more students. We will invite students from the whole FCT to come. So we are giving a week, and hopefully, we will get a positive result.
“On the issue of primary healthcare, I hope you people are still talking about that. If you are not, we will do primary healthcare tomorrow. Today is for the students. We are going to do for primary healthcare.
“It is just for Wike to be seeing, we are not fighting him. Let him just see so that he will remember, maybe he has forgotten.”
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