Wike Frowns At Mamoud’s Invitation For Another FCT Budget Defence

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has expressed shock over the decision by the House of Representatives Committee on FCT to summon the Minister of State for FCT, Dr. Mariya Mahmoud, for another round of budget defense, weeks after he had already defended the 2025 N1.7 trillion statutory budget.

Wike, while inspecting ongoing projects scheduled for inauguration to mark President Bola Tinubu’s second year in office, said he was baffled by the committee’s action, describing it as a distraction from more pressing issues such as the prolonged strike by public primary school teachers in the FCT.

He stressed that the focus should be on resolving the strike and addressing challenges at the grassroots level through collaboration with the six Area Council chairmen, rather than repeatedly inviting ministers for budget clarifications.

“We have committees of the FCT, the House of Representatives and the Senate. We have chairmen of the area councils, as well 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,” Wike said.

He questioned the logic behind summoning another minister after he had already fulfilled the responsibility of presenting and defending the budget before the National Assembly.

“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,” he stated.

Wike also expressed concern that the House Committee was exceeding its jurisdiction and focusing on irrelevant matters instead of tackling real problems affecting residents of the FCT.

“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 focused on irrelevant things, trying to see how there is division, there is discord in the FCT,” he said.

He reassured residents that the public primary school teachers’ strike would soon be resolved, emphasizing the administration’s commitment to basic education.

“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 the matter will be resolved,” Wike added.

Remi Johnson, Edited By Grace Namiji