The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, will meet with chairpersons of the FCT area councils, leadership of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) and National Association of Nigeria Students (NANS), Thursday.
The meeting, according to a statement by NANS in Abuja Wednesday, is to finalise modalities for the reopening of all public primary schools in the FCT.
The statement was signed by NANS’ national president, Olushola Oladoja, and the association’s national public relations officer, Adeyemi Ajasa.
The association stated that it had earlier resolved to stage a mass protest Wednesday morning at the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) secretariat.
It added that its leadership was invited to a high-level engagement at the Department of State Services (DSS) headquarters, where the issues at hand were thoroughly discussed in the interest of national security and students’ welfare.
It said the first meeting at the DSS paved the way for a second strategic meeting with the chairperson, House of Representatives Committee on FCT, Muktar Betara.
NANS said the engagement revealed the root causes of the ongoing industrial action by the NUT and the efforts made thus far by the Wike-led FCTA.
It added that a third meeting was held with Wike Tuesday, where the minister explained the issues at hand.
“That the FCT remains the only unit of the federation operating full local government autonomy, hence all salary payments, including that of primary school teachers, are the sole responsibility of the area councils.
“The FCT Administration is not directly responsible for the backlog of teachers’ salaries and therefore should not be held solely accountable for the inadequacies of the area councils,” NANS said. (NAN)