By Daniel Tyokua
The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike has called on the House of Representatives Committee on FCT to focus on resolving the prolonged strike embarked upon by public primary schools’ teachers.
He said the House committee should be bothered on how to liaise with the chairmen of FCT Six Area Councils on addressing the strike issue and not irrelevant things.
Wike’s position came on the heels of an invitation extended to the minister of state for FCT, Dr Mariya Mahmoud by the House committee to come for another budget defence after he (Wike) had defended the 2025 FCT N1.7trillion statutory budget, few weeks ago.
The Houses of Representatives Committee on FCT had days ago also asked Mahmoud to appear before it and give explanations on the 2025 budget.
Wike after inspecting projects on Thursday, slated for inauguration to mark President Bola Tinubu’s second year in office, said the committee was concentrating on what does not fall within its jurisdiction.
He said the responsibility of the Senate and House of Representatives committees is to oversee what the area councils are doing because the legislature of the FCT currently is the National Assembly.
According to him, steps by the House of Representatives Committee to bring about discord in the Federal Capital Territory would not work.
The Minister said the strike issue will soon be resolved, considering how significant education is to the administration.
He said, “We have committees of the FCT, the House of Representatives and the Senate. We have chairmen of the area councils, as chairmen of committees on area councils, their responsibility is to oversee what the area councils are doing because the legislature of the FCT today is the National Assembly.
“The chairman of House Committee has to look at the problem in the area councils. But it’s unfortunate they concentrate in just inviting minister to come and defend budget.
” I have never seen in my life where the minister has defended a budget and another House Committee chairman of area councils will tell another minister of State to come and present a budget.
“People don’t do what they are supposed to do. They concentrate on things that do not fall within their jurisdiction. By now, I thought that the chairman House of Representatives Committee on 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 have focus on irrelevant things, trying to see how there is division, there is discord in the FCT.
“Very soon this problem would be sorted out. Regarding the public primary school teachers, 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 matter will be resolved” Wike said.
