Abuja’s elder statesmen have launched a passionate appeal to FCT Minister Nyesom Wike and area council chairmen to immediately resolve the three-month strike crippling primary education and healthcare services across the capital.
Speaking at a press briefing in Abuja on Monday, Mr. Danjuma Tanko Dara, coordinator of the FCT Elder Statesmen Forum, described the situation as “a monumental failure of governance” that has created “a state of social emergency” in the nation’s capital.
The forum painted a grim picture of the strike’s consequences, with Dara lamenting: “While our children roam the streets instead of classrooms, our sick and vulnerable are being denied basic medical care. This is not the Abuja we envisioned.”
The industrial action, now in its 14th week, stems from unresolved disputes over the N70,000 minimum wage implementation and unpaid salary arrears dating back to 2023 for teachers and primary healthcare workers.
Directly addressing Minister Wike, Dara invoked the minister’s reputation for decisive action: “We know Wike as a man of high reputation with action. It is time to deploy that political will to rescue our education and health sectors.”
The elders proposed concrete solutions including reconvening the tripartite committee, direct deductions from council allocations, and establishing a special intervention fund for affected workers.
The scale of the crisis has become staggering, with over 500 primary schools and 200 Primary Healthcare Centers remaining shuttered since the strike began. This has left millions of FCT residents without access to basic education and healthcare services, creating what observers warn could lead to a generational education gap and public health crisis.
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