‘You won’t return to Senate’ – Wike again tells Ireti Kingibe

Federal Capital Territory FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, has told the FCT Senator, Ireti Kingibe, that she will not return to the National Assembly in 2027, describing her as illiterate and insisting that all loans taken by the FCT Administration followed due process and National Assembly approval.

Wike made the remarks on Tuesday while responding to questions from journalists during an inspection of ongoing road projects in the FCT, after Senator Kingibe had accused him of taking loans without approval.

“She is an illiterate, with all due respect, and that is why she is not going back to the Senate. She has nothing to offer to the people of the FCT. There is no way you can go and take a loan without the approval of the National Assembly. Anyone take a loan, you will include it in the budget that this aspect of this budget, the government is going to collect loan,” the minister said.

Wike said he would rather not dignify the senator’s comments with further reaction, describing her as already on her way out of political relevance following the choice residents had made to back President Bola Tinubu and his preferred candidate for the FCT senatorial seat, Philip Aduda.

“I don’t want to comment about her. When the time is right, let her pack her bags out, the people have made their choice by agreeing to support President Tinubu, and then will support Philip Aduda for Senate. So, let us not waste our time reacting to inferiors who failed in all ramifications. I don’t want to react to it, I am above that,” he said.

The minister argued that the more relevant question the senator should have raised was whether the loans were being applied to development, rather than the fact that a loan was taken at all. “I thought she would criticise that I am doing nothing. So if her problem is that I took a loan, if I took a loan, I am using it to work. I thought her concern would have been: are we applying the loan to work for the interest of residents? She believes that we can’t run infrastructure without loans, and that we must have taken a loan, that is her problem,” he said.

Wike also dismissed the timing of the criticism as politically motivated, linking it to the recent lifting of the ban on campaigns for the presidential and National Assembly elections, and pointed to his ongoing project inspections as proof of performance ahead of the polls.

“When is the time to campaign? Look at what we are doing. That is the campaign. The ban on campaign has been lifted for the President and National Assembly, am I not right? As I finish now, then she know what we are doing, and they are seeing every road, and tell everyone that this is what President Tinubu is doing. Who will see what Mr President is doing and will say that he will vote for another person? That is not correct. So, I am doing my job. While we are doing an inspection of the project, we are also doing a campaign,” he said.

On the state of the projects inspected, Wike said he was impressed with progress recorded across the sites visited, including the N1 road and stretches covering Tunga Madaki down to Zuba and Kagini.

He said the projects, once completed, would have a direct economic impact on residents of the affected rural communities, adding that the happiness of the people remained the essence of governance.