News Analysis – By Abdul Lauya
The end of the three-month strike by primary school teachers in Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT) signals not triumph but tragedy, a failure of governance that has strangulated a system once upheld as a model for sub-national administration. Under FCT Minister Nyesom Wike’s authoritarian hand, the territory’s primary education sector has been suffocated by centralized control, fiscal coercion, and institutional dysfunction.
What began as a dispute over unpaid wages, covering minimum wage arrears, a 25–35% salary increment, a 40% peculiar allowance, and the ₦35,000 wage award, quickly escalated into a full-blown crisis. The strike, which lasted from March to June, left thousands of children locked out of classrooms and exposed the deep administrative breakdown within the FCT’s governance framework.
At the heart of the crisis was a collapse of local autonomy. Constitutionally, the Area Councils are responsible for administering and funding primary education. Yet over time, their authority has been eroded by an increasingly centralized Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) under Wike’s control. Though councils generate Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), they lacked the freedom to allocate it as needed, trapped between political pressure and administrative paralysis.
Wike’s intervention, directing the withholding of six months’ worth of Area Councils’ 10% IGR to pay teachers, was the final tightening of the noose. While effective in breaking the strike, it was an extraordinary abuse of executive power. The move bypassed constitutional revenue protections, undermined democratic governance at the local level, and set a dangerous precedent: that ministerial authority can override legally assigned fiscal rights in the name of expediency.
Though schools may reopen, the effects of this strangulation linger. Teachers are demoralized. Area Councils are weakened. Trust in institutions has been severely damaged. The FCT, once a flagship of responsible federalism, is now a warning sign of what happens when governance is reduced to unilateral enforcement rather than collaborative problem-solving.
This style of leadership, characterized by command-and-control decrees rather than negotiation, is not new under Wike. Since his appointment under President Bola Tinubu’s administration, Wike has consistently centralized power, sidelined local voices, and dismantled institutional boundaries in the name of efficiency. But as the education crisis shows, the cost of such imperial governance is paid in lost school days, weakened institutions, and a diminished public trust.
If the FCT is to recover from this, reform is non-negotiable.
First, local government fiscal autonomy must be restored and legally protected. No minister should have the power to unilaterally divert constitutionally guaranteed revenues. Transparent, automated salary payment systems are also necessary to prevent delays and reduce opportunities for misuse.
Next, a permanent multi-stakeholder education forum must be established, bringing together FCTA officials, Area Councils, teacher unions, parents, and civil society. Such dialogue platforms can resolve disputes before they become crises. Decentralizing educational governance further, by empowering Area Councils with full administrative and budgetary control, will ensure that decisions reflect local realities.
Performance-based funding should be introduced to reward councils that demonstrate measurable improvements in attendance, learning outcomes, and teacher support. Additionally, an independent education crisis resolution body must be established to mediate disputes, outside of the political machinery.
Finally, a new legal framework must be enacted to guarantee teachers’ rights, ensuring that salaries, working conditions, and grievance mechanisms are protected and institutionalized.
The strangulation of primary education in the FCT is not just a story of unpaid salaries. It is a story of how power, when left unchecked, can suffocate institutions that serve the public good. The children of Nigeria’s capital deserve better than an education system held hostage to political brinkmanship.
If the FCT is to lead by example again, it must reject authoritarianism in all its forms and rebuild a system where governance empowers, not suffocates, and where education is a right, not a bargaining chip.
