Ireti Kingibe: Tinubu’s biggest mistake is making Wike minister

Ireti Kingibe, senator representing the federal capital territory (FCT), says President Bola Tinubu’s greatest political blunder was appointing Nyesom Wike as minister.

Speaking during an interview with Arise TV on Monday, Kingibe said Wike’s leadership style is autocratic and marked by “total disregard for the constitution”.

“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,” Kingibe said.

The senator accused Wike of reinstating scrapped agencies without legal backing.

“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’,” she said.

Kingibe also alleged that Wike revoked 7,000 out of 11,000 hectares of land allocated to the University of Abuja, in violation of the Land Use Act.

“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 said.

Kingibe said Wike’s actions have led to job losses and growing discontent among FCT residents.

“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,” she said.

“He comes, he’s fired them all… Then he doesn’t replace them with mechanical street sweepers. So, Abuja is looking dirty.”

On the issue of “unpaid” local contractors, Kingibe said Wike refused to pay hundreds of small indigenous businesses.

“There are these people called Abuja Small Indigenous Contractors… maybe about four or five hundred of them that had not been paid,” the senator said.

“He says, no, he’s not paying them. He didn’t give them the job. And that’s that. He didn’t. Two years on, they haven’t been paid.”

Reacting to recent polls that rated Wike’s performance positively, she questioned their credibility.

“If truly, Minister Wike is as popular as… You’re talking about that poll, depending on who conducted the poll and how it was conducted,” she said.

“I’m not knocking it, but I am saying local government elections are coming in a few months.

“When we come to any kind of election, can he tell the people, go and do this and they do it? If he can’t, then it means that all that any minister has been doing is blustering and carrying on and just making noise.”

Kingibe said President Tinubu’s decision to empower Wike politically has hurt his administration.

“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 said.

Kingibe accused Wike of revoking land meant for a general hospital in Bwari and replacing it with commercial development.

“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,” she said.

The senator said the minister has been harassing embassies and institutions over ground rent.

“Minister Wike has been harassing all of FCT over ground rent… including embassies,” she said.

She said she plans to submit documents to the appropriate oversight bodies to challenge Wike’s actions.

“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,” she added.

“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.”

On the possibility of collaboration for the benefit of the FCT, Kingibe said Wike has ignored her attempts to reach out.