By Godfrey AKON
It is no news that that there is no love lost between Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, and the senator representing the FCT, Ireti Kingibe.
What a few know is the Senator Philip Aduda, immediate past senator of the FCT in the mix.
In the 2023 National Assembly polls, the candidate of the Labour Party, Ireti Kingibe, sent Senator Aduda packing after having been there for 12 years.
The INEC in declaring Kingibe winner said she garnered 202,175 votes to Aduda’s 100,544 votes and Angulu Dobi of the All Progressives Congress with 78,905 votes.
While the recent spat has much to do with Wike positioning his ally, Aduda, to return to the Senate in 2027, the foundation for the acrimony was laid in September 2023 when Senator Kingibe, warned the minister to desist from working without the supervision of the National Assembly.
Kingibe said Wike does not have the executive powers but must operate within the constitutional frameworks of the country’s legislative arm.
Kingibe said, “You also have to remember that the minister of the FCT – I’m not sure we have had a former governor as minister, I think we have had one. Some [former] governors may think that as FCT minister… the minister does not have executive powers. He works hand-in-hand with the National Assembly and the president to administer FCT.”
She was particularly irked at the appointment and inauguration of the mandate secretaries of the FCTA by Wike, saying they were supposed to be screened by federal lawmakers.
According to her, the National Assembly would serve the legislative duties to the FCTA as the state Houses of Assembly does to the state governments, adding that as state assemblies were to the states, so was the FCTA to the National Assembly.
“The National Assembly has the duties to screen them as the state houses of assembly usually screen the state commissioners before they would be sworn in,” she stated.
She said, “You must remember that the minister and I have different goals. I was elected by the people, so, I’m answerable to you the people of the FCT, he is not. But working together, I hope we can merge our interests.
An insider who asked not to be named said told this newspaper that the minister had not forgotten and “with his infrastructural exploits gaining the confidence of the president, he believes it was time to assert who is in charge.”
The source further pointed out that, “have you not noticed that there is no event that the minister is having you won’t find Senator Aduda very much present. He reports and closes at the minister’s office every day. The game plan is 2027!”
The political head winds between Wike and Kingibe will blow over in June when the minister stated,,“I overhead somebody (Kingibe) in Arise this morning. Unfortunately, I hear the person is a member of National Assembly and it is unfortunate I say so.
“I challenge that legislator, if you are very popular, in 2027 come and run under Abuja; we will fail you. Do you think that what happened last time, will happen again? It will not happen again. Luckily for me, I am the FCT Minister now. So that is my territory and I’m not afraid.”
Since the minister’s take, many groups including the Labour Party have warned him to take note that the territory was not Rivers State where he could dictate what happens politically.
