Senator Ireti Kingibe has said that President Bola Tinubu’s biggest mistake so far was making Nyesom Wike the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
During an interview with Arise TV on the night of July 14, Kingibe said Wike has been running the FCT without respecting the law or following proper procedures.
She said her disagreements with Wike are mainly because of how he leads. According to her, he acts in a controlling way and often ignores what the constitution says.
“The primary thing is that the minister doesn’t obey the rule of law. He’s autocratic. He doesn’t follow any rules or any laws. And when you try to draw his attention that governance is based on laws, the rule of law, he doesn’t accept that.
Minister Nyesom Wike has brought back agencies without the enabling laws. If he wants these things, he should ask the National Assembly to create the enabling laws. But he doesn’t, because he’s just autocratic. He feels, I can do anything.”
Kingibe mentioned that Wike canceled many land allocations that had been given to the University of Abuja, which she believes was unfair.
“Abuja University had approximately 11,000 hectares. Minister Wike has revoked 7,000 of it and left them with four. It is definitely against the Land Use Act for you to take land from institutions to give them to individuals.”
She also said that Wike’s leadership has caused many people to lose their jobs, and that his actions have led to a lot of unhappiness among people living in Abuja.
“Every minister has come and found the streets being cleaned by indigent women. Even when some ministers come and want to bring mechanical street sweepers, we say, no, this is a source of livelihood for our indigent women, widows and other underprivileged women. He comes, he’s fired them all… Then he doesn’t replace them with mechanical street sweepers. So Abuja is looking dirty.”
On unpaid local contractors, she said
“There are these people called Abuja Small Indigenous Contractors… maybe about four or five hundred of them that had not been paid. He says, no, he’s not paying them. He didn’t give them the job. And that’s that. And he didn’t. Two years on, they haven’t been paid.”
The senator went on to question why President Tinubu gave Wike such a powerful position, especially since Wike is a member of the opposition party.
“It’s my personal opinion that that is rather unfortunate, because if I were making a list of all the things that President Tinubu has done wrong, the greatest wrong he’s done to himself, the thing that has demarcated him the most has been on Minister Wike.”
She accused the minister of repurposing land meant for a general hospital.
“In Bwari, there’s land allocated for a general hospital. Minister Wike revokes it and he’s having some sort of a market or mall or something put on it. Minister Wike has been harassing all of FCT over ground rent… including embassies,” she added.
When asked what she planned to do with the documents she says show Wike’s misuse of power, Kingibe suggested that she might take further steps based on the evidence she has.
Kingibe said;
“Oh, I’m going to take those documents and go to the body, the equivalent of his state assembly, and insist that that assembly, the president from whom Wike derives his powers, goes back to the National Assembly for approval for everything.
Wike, who is deriving powers from him, does not go to the National Assembly for anything except budget. TSA, all his IGR, what has he done with it? He’s never accounted for anything.”
Responding to whether she fears the minister, she said
“I’m definitely not afraid of him. I’m not saying he should be afraid of me. I’m just saying that considering he should be aware that most things he does, I will know.”
She also shared a security concern following an oversight function.
“The other day I was coming back from… I went for oversight to Sokoto… a black jeep was following me all the way, almost all the way home. But the truth is I’m a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I have rights… I’m not afraid. It’s God who protects.”
