VeryDarkMan Leads Protest To Wike’s Office Over FCT Teachers’ Strike

Social media critic and influencer, Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan (VDM), on Monday staged a protest at the office of Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, over the prolonged strike by primary school teachers in the territory.

The protest, which took place at the Minister’s gate, saw VDM wearing a school uniform alongside dozens of schoolchildren. His appearance, which shows solidarity to the pupils, highlighted the plight of pupils affected by the industrial action.

VDM during the protest set up an open-air classroom at the location, where he taught the children letters of the alphabet.

“S for Suegbe, T for Tinubu, W for Wike,” he called out, as the children, dressed in school uniforms, echoed his words, as passersby and security personnel at the minister’s residence watched.

VDM, who declined to speak, insisted that the Minister’s gate had become the children’s new classroom.

At the time of filing this report, the children went on break, where they were seen eating food reportedly provided by VDM and his supporters.

The protest follows growing public discontent over the ongoing strike, which has kept primary school pupils at home for over 90 days.

The industrial action, which began on March 24, 2025, was called by primary school teachers in the FCT over the failure of Area Council Chairmen to implement the new national minimum wage of N70,000.

The crisis stems from the refusal of the six Area Council Chairmen in the FCT to implement the wage increase, as well as address demands for salary arrears and other allowances.

Despite several protests by teachers and allied unions, including the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the councils have not met the demands, leading to the disruption of basic education across the territory.

FCT Minister Nyesom Wike had, on several occasions, expressed frustration over the councils’ inaction.

During a media chat on May 12, Wike disclosed that he had withheld the 10% Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) allocation normally disbursed to the area councils because of their failure to pay the teachers.

“I can’t sack them because they are not appointed by me, they are elected. So I said, look, what I should do is to make sure that I withhold the 10% allocation of our IGR. And then set up a committee to make sure that if these funds are released, the money is being paid to the teachers. It is very embarrassing, very unfortunate,” Wike said.

The Minister maintained that while critics accused him of infringing on local government autonomy, his action was necessary to safeguard the education of children in the FCT.

“You are talking about autonomy now. Autonomy? The money has been released to you, as allowed. Yet, you are depriving people of their wages. And then you want me to fold my hands and allow our children to be at home because you want to have local government autonomy? It is not the same thing,” he argued.

Wike however assured that the funds will be paid directly to the teachers, and a monitoring committee, comprising representatives of the area councils, is being set up to oversee the disbursement.

“These are teachers who take care of our children, and you are happy that you are not paying them their salaries. I don’t know why people don’t have a conscience,” Wike lamented during an earlier media briefing in May.

Meanwhile, the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), FCT chapter, insisted on the full implementation of the new minimum wage, the 40% Peculiar Allowance, 25-35% salary increase, and the N35,000 wage award promised by the federal government.

The NUT Chairman, Abdullahi Shafa, had in April accused the Area Council Chairmen of misappropriating funds released by the FCT Administration, including the sum of N4.1 billion meant for teachers’ salaries.

He called for investigations by the National Assembly and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Labour unions have warned that failure to resolve the crisis could lead to the escalation of protests, with threats of a territory-wide shutdown by the NLC and its affiliates.

The FCT Administration has promised that resolution is underway, but parents, teachers, and civil society are growing increasingly impatient with what they describe as government inaction.

VeryDarkMan Leads Protest To Wike’s Office Over FCT Teachers’ Strike is first published on The Whistler Newspaper