Amid the lingering strike by primary school teachers in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, the Minister, Ezenwo Nyesom Wike on Thursday blamed the development on the imposition of minimum wage on all employers of labour without taking into consideration their peculiarities and ability to pay.
Wike, who frowned at the way he was being blamed for the protracted strike action as the FCT minister despite local government autonomy, also faulted the teachers for being unrealistic and making outrageous demands.
Newsmata.com.ng reports that at the heart of the strike is a long-standing dispute over the non-implementation of the New National Minimum Wage by the six Area Councils that oversee the Local Education Authorities (LEAs).
The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), FCT Wing, declared its stance in a communiqué issued after an Emergency State Wing Standing Committee (SWSC) meeting held on March 22, 2025, in Gwagwalada.
The Union expressed deep frustration with the failure of the Area Councils to implement the revised wage structure and settle wage arrears, a demand they considered non-negotiable in the face of rising economic hardship.
But fielding questions during his monthly live media parley in Abuja, the former Rivers State governor recounted how he had intervened in resolving the problem, including his “illegal” decision to “seize” the council areas’ statutory 10% internally generated revenue, IGR for May and June, which would be augmented to pay the teachers.
Wike promised to pursue a constitutional review that would take the responsibility for the payment of primary school teachers off the area councils.
Giving the background to the teachers’ strike, the minister challenged journalists if they had gone to find out whose responsibility it is to pay them.
He insisted that “It’s not our responsibility. It’s the area councils. Several times, we have gone to intervene. Have you heard that the secondary schools are on any strike? Have you heard that we have not paid our workers their salaries? Remember too, we have always talked about the autonomy of local governments. You are forcing me to seize their funds, tomorrow you say governors, FCT minister, always collect the allocations of local governments”.
According to him, “We have come together, we say listen, the last time, we had to bail them 60% out of the money. And the teachers also should try to understand too.
“And that is one of the problems we have in this country today of our type of federalism where you fix minimum wage for everybody without considering the peculiarities. Now, you have said this is what they are going to earn, but you have not found out what is the allocation to these area councils and how much do they make? Do they have the capacity to pay this? Why not have allowed them to negotiate? Anyway, it has happened, it has happened.
“I do not have power to seize their funds. Mind you, we do not have any Assembly; our Assembly is the House of Reps and Senate. So, I cannot unilaterally take action except they amend the law. So, when I sat down with them, I said listen, in negotiations, it’s give-and- take. You too must face a reality. One problem we have with the labour is this. Who would say they should not earn their wages? Who would do that? But the reality is that with what they are facing, with the funds available to them, can they? Certainly not.
“I say let us take it in phases. However, what they are talking about is arrears. Do you know how much that is? About N18 billion. And I said look, it’s not in dispute, it’s not in doubt. Even some of the demands they make is outrageous, with all due respect. However, we have struggled – it’s even illegal what I have done, by seizing the 10 percent IGR of the area councils – May and June. I said don’t give to them. let’s calculate how much it is and let’s see how much we can put in”.
When the issue of consent by the councils was raised, Wike retorted, “Now you are talking about consent. These are the things. If you follow the way it is supposed to be, the legality aspect of it, you know what I’m doing is not constitutional. However, this is where public interest now over-rides. Should we continue to allow our children to be at home simply because by law, you have no power to do it? It’s not every time we talk law, law”.
And when the potential danger in the action was pointed out, he queried, “what do you want me to do? Do you want me to wait for amendment? How long will it take? It can take you up to one year”.
Admitting that the council areas have no capacity to shoulder the responsibility of payment of primary school teachers, the minister said the only way out is amendment of the law. “What is sustainable is that the law must be amended. The federal ministry of Education issued a statement. It is not FCT; it is area councils. It is like in the states now; you are owing salary, you are saying federal government has not done anything. What is the business of the federal government? They have given you your allocation. You go and solve your problems….
“That is why you see in most states, sometimes when they say states are tampering with local government funds, it’s because of these primary school teachers’ salaries because we don’t want anything that will make teachers to sit at home. So, it gives room now to interfere in local government allocation”.
Disclosing that a meeting of stakeholders in the logjam had been summoned for 12pm in his office, Wike stated that “the chairman of FCT and the chairmen of area councils in the House of Reps will be here today. We have met, and they’ve all agreed to see how we could propose an amendment to see how to avoid this type of problem in future. They appreciate and agree that people don’t have the facts about the entire scenario”.
Giving an insight on how he had been struggling to pay FCT workers’ salaries, the minister said “When you see the staff of the FCT, you ask yourself. The FCT has about 50,000 workers. How? As I speak to you now, the salary is about almost N13 billion every month. What do we really get from the Federal Government? If the Federal Government gets N800bn a month. They give us one percent. One percent of N800bn is N8bn. With N8bn, can I pay the salaries with the new minimum wage? Can it pay allowances, health hazard, this, all kinds of things?”
Surprised that he had watched the strike to go on for so long without an attempt to end it, Wike accused the teachers of not being realistic and being difficult when it was suggested that the payments be phased.
He said “They have not been happy when I said with the situation we are in now, there is nothing we can do about it. All they are saying is that it’s our right. I say well, it is your right, you don’t have to cause security crisis”.