Senator Ireti Kingibe has criticized President Bola Tinubu's decision to appoint Nyesom Wike as the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), calling it a critical error.
In a chat with Arise TV on Monday night, July 14, Kingibe who has been at loggerheads with Wike, accused him of ruling the capital with complete disregard for the law.
Kingibe, who represents the FCT in the Senate, has been at odds with Wike since he took office. Kingibe accused Wike of ruling the capital with disregard for the law and exhibiting autocratic leadership.
The senator cited Wike's unilateral decision to reduce the University of Abuja's landmass from 11,000 hectares to 4,000 hectares without following due process as an example of his alleged disregard for the law.
“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.”
Kingibe and Wike's feud has been public, with Wike recently telling Kingibe that she won't return to the Senate in 2027. Kingibe had also compared Wike unfavorably to former FCT Minister Nasir El-Rufai, saying El-Rufai outperformed Wike in terms of responsiveness to residents' needs.
The FCT lawmaker said her conflict with Wike stems from his alleged autocratic leadership and consistent violation of constitutional procedures.
“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.”
She claimed Wike’s leadership style has led to job losses and widespread dissatisfaction among 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. 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 criticise President Tinubu for giving Wike such political prominence, despite being a member of the opposition.
“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.”
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