Kingibe: Wike Can’t Decide My Fate in 2027 Polls, Abuja Waste Crisis is Worsening

• Alleges senate c’ttee on FCT in Comatose

Sunday Aborisade in Abuja

Senator Ireti Kingibe, representing the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in the Senate, has dismissed suggestions that the Minister of the FCT, Nyesom Wike, held the power to determine her political future.

She declared that no minister could impose electoral outcomes on Abuja voters.

She also raised the alarm over the worsening refuse situation in the FCT, weak oversight by the Senate Committee on the FCT, and poor implementation of President Bola Tinubu’s reforms, which she said have failed to ease Nigerians’ suffering.

Speaking during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today, Kingibe responded to comments attributed to Wike suggesting that her return to the Senate in 2027 was uncertain, saying such claims betrayed a misunderstanding of FCT politics.

“Minister Wike cannot make me win, neither can he make me lose. FCT is not structured that way. From former president Olusegun Obasanjo till now, hardly anybody controls how the people of the FCT vote. He has absolutely no say in whether I return to the Senate or not.”

Kingibe stressed that her recent move from the Labour Party to the African Democratic Congress (ADC) was not driven by fear or political pressure from the minister.

She said it was as a result of the deep factional crisis within the Labour Party, which she said made it constitutionally and practically impossible to run elections on that platform.

On her relationship with Wike, the senator said she had been unfairly portrayed as being at loggerheads with the minister, insisting that her criticisms were rooted in oversight responsibilities, not personal animosity.

While acknowledging that Wike had executed commendable road projects, she said governance of the FCT could not be reduced to road construction alone.

Senator Kingibe said, “Anytime anybody does something commendable, I will commend them. But it is also my job to point out lapses. The minister does some good things, but he does not follow the rule of law many times.”

She lamented the lack of synergy between the FCT minister and elected representatives, noting that unlike previous administrations, there had been no regular consultative meetings to discuss the needs of residents.

Kingibe warned that waste management in the FCT had reached “very critical proportions,” with refuse piling up across the city.

She also expressed concern over environmental risks arising from construction on flood channels and green areas, as well as the dire state of public hospitals, which she said lacked basic drugs beyond painkillers.

Beyond the FCT, the senator painted a grim picture of the national situation, arguing that although some of President Tinubu’s policies, such as subsidy removal, were well-intentioned, their implementation had been deeply flawed.

She said Nigerians were yet to see any “light at the end of the tunnel,” as hardship, hunger and insecurity persisted.

“The policies may be good, but implementation is the problem,” she said, adding that weak enforcement and lack of consequences had allowed systems to be routinely circumvented.

Kingibe also accused the Senate Committee on the FCT of being largely inactive, describing it as “mostly comatose,” despite the National Assembly’s constitutional role as the legislature for the capital territory.

As 2026 unfolds, she called for renewed cooperation between the executive and legislature, warning that without stronger governance, accountability and structural reforms, both the FCT and the nation risk further decline.