It is no longer news that there is no love lost between the immediate past governor of Rivers State and current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Barrister Nyesom Wike, and the sole senator representing the FCT, Ms. Ireti Heebah Kingibe.
Wike and Kingibe have not had a good working relationship since they assumed their respective offices in 2023.
The political brickbat between the duo took on a different dimension when Wike, penultimate week, threatened to stop the re-election of Kingibe, boasting that the senator would not return to the red chamber in 2027.
Political analysts had observed that it would be a matter of time before Kingibe and Wike would ‘fight dirty’.
This is much so, especially since they have separate political affiliations, with Wike being of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) but serving in an All Progressives Congress (APC) administration after his appointment by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, while Senator Kingibe was elected on the platform of the Labour Party (LP).
Kingibe’s victory ended Philip Tanimu Aduda’s three-term, 12-year reign as the senator representing the FCT.
Aduda had served two terms in the House of Representatives between 2003 and 2011 before being elected to the Senate in 2011.
Aduda is an ally of the minister, as he is seen at many functions hosted or attended by Wike. In fact, many analysts trace the feud between the minister and the senator to that relationship.
First salvo
Senator Kingibe, in September 2023, took on the minister over claims that he was not carrying her along in the scheme of things and warned that Wike lacked the executive powers to demolish ‘illegal’ buildings in the FCT.
However, the first open salvo from Kingibe was on January 21 this year, when she said the minister was not cooperating with her over the insecurity situation in FCT. She said he still sees himself as a governor and also sees Aduda as the FCT senator.
Kingibe added that the FCT minister has been uncooperative, refusing every overture for cooperation to fight insecurity in the FCT.
“We are the ones who have historical knowledge of the area. It is imperative that we work together. I have sent WhatsApp messages and written one or two letters to him. I didn’t get any response,” the senator said.
She added that her attempts to draw his attention to potential flashpoints of insecurity were rebuffed.
At the time she was making this remark, the FCT had experienced a spate of attacks and abductions by armed bandits, including the kidnapping of a family of seven, including six sisters and their father, at Zuma 1 in the Bwari area of Abuja.
Also in June this year, during a plenary session at the Senate, Kingibe aired her frustration on the floor about how the affairs of her constituency were being carried out, lamenting that she was being sidelined.
The senator, while raising her concern under point of order during the plenary presided over by Senate President Godswill Akpabio, said that despite being the highest elected officeholder in the FCT, she was not aware of the budget before the Senate for consideration.
Wike’s delayed response
Wike did not respond immediately. And efforts to get his side of the matter were rebuffed by his aides. About two months later, on March 16, he spoke on the issue.
The minister said Senator Kingibe was petty for expecting him to abandon his friend for her because he had lost an election.
Wike also alleged that part of the reason Senator Kingibe was angry at him was because the senate president denied her wish to be the chairman of the senate committee on FCT.
Wike, at a media parley in Abuja, speaking metaphorically, said, “Somebody wants to be your friend. I said I don’t want to be your friend. Is it by force?”
Sending a subtle warning to the senator, Wike said, “Nobody can intimidate me. I was a minister before; I became a governor of one of the most important states in Nigeria; and now I am a minister of FCT.
“You’re saying the minister does not carry me along. I don’t have the back. People don’t know how to go about things. It is not by intimidation.”
Renewed hostilities
After that, there was some quiet on both sides for a while until penultimate Monday, July 1, when Senator Kingibe said Wike was acting like FCT governor and that Abuja people were not impressed with him for “ignoring their most pressing needs.”
In his reaction later that day, Wike, at the flag-off ceremony of the construction of the Mabushi bus terminal, which was also attended by Speaker of the House of Representatives, Abbas Tajudeen, asked Kingibe “to hug a transformer” if she wasn’t satisfied with his performance in office so far.
The FCT minister, who warned the senator to stop what he called undue attacks, said if she was not careful, her blood pressure could rise. He also challenged the senator to seek re-election in 2027, predicting that she would be defeated.
FCT transformers won’t harm Kingibe – Aide
Reacting, Hajiya Nana Kazaure, media aide to Senator Kingibe, said that the transformers Wike was referring to do not have electricity and thus would not have any effect on Senator Kingibe.
She also said that FCT is not Rivers State and that while Wike was appointed, Kingibe was elected and can be re-elected by the people, and Wike cannot speak for FCT, though he is the minister.
She, however, called for immediate and amicable resolution of the problem in the interest of FCT development and the wellbeing of the people.
Akpabio wades in
Speaking on the matter, Senate President Akpabio urged the minister not “to pay heed to detractors.”
Akpabio spoke while flagging off the construction of the Kugbo bus terminal in the Nyanya area of the nation’s capital, Abuja.
“A lot of people will say things. I saw a legislator on television mentioning that she was not carried along. Well, she is a member of the Senate, and when a decision is taken, she is bound by that decision.
“Please ignore every distraction and be rest assured that no matter what you do, not everyone will praise you. Others will still try to find faults,” Akpabio said.
Other Nigerians too
Commenting on the development, Reno Omokri, a former social media aide to ex-president Goodluck Jonathan, warned that Wike is ‘opening too many battlefronts’.
Omokri, on his X handle, advised Wike to learn how to choose his battles, making reference to Wike’s ongoing rift with his successor as Rivers State governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, which had already heated up the polity ahead of the 2027 general elections.
“Wike is opening too many battlefronts. He should learn how to pick and choose his battles. At worst, Ireti Kingibe is just an irritant. As FCT minister (Wike), she (Kingibe) has minimal ability to do you any actual harm beyond nuisance value. You are already fighting an obstinate foe in Rivers. Why will you leave the elephant you are carrying on your head to use your toe to kill an ant? What if you slip and fall?
“You are threatening her that she will not return. First of all, that is undemocratic. But even if Wike’s threat to stop her re-election is not undemocratic, how many ruling parties have won in the FCT?
“The FCT traditionally votes for opposition parties. Buhari lost the FCT in 2015 and 2019. President Tinubu lost it in 2023,” Omokri said.
Also, activist and lawyer, Deji Adeyanju, said that only FCT residents can decide who becomes senator in 2027 and not Wike.
Adeyanju said Wike can’t decide for the people because FCT is not Rivers State.
Posting on his X handle, he reminded Wike that incumbent presidents are defeated in the FCT.
The Labour Party (LP) FCT Chairman, Peter Diugwu, urged President Tinubu to take disciplinary action against Wike, saying that while the minister is a presidential appointee, the residents of the FCT elected Kingibe.
Diugwu said Wike’s remarks against Senator Kingibe were also an attack on the LP and the FCT residents, which she represents.
He said that the party would respond to Wike during the upcoming area councils’ election in the FCT.
He said, “We do not know on whose authority he is speaking. We want him to know that this is not Rivers, and the FCT is not an extension of Rivers State. It is the LP that would decide whether Ireti is coming back or not, not Wike. He has no right or locus to ask her to go and focus on 2027; that is not his business.”
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