The senator representing the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Ireti Kingibe, bares her mind on her impact on her constituency and her experience as a first time lawmaker in the Senate, among other issues. Excerpts:
YOU have complained of being sidelined, not allowed to represent your people, why?
The truth is that I didn’t go through the process, but, at this point in time, I think that since we’re in the process of discussion and sorting it out, I would like us to leave that and go to how my constituency is being marginalised generally. The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has the unique situation of having the president as the de facto governor of the Federal Capital Territory and he administers that territory through a minister and one elected senator, all the members of the National Assembly because they are in fact, the equivalent of the state assembly for the Federal Capital Territory. They are also responsible for ensuring that the rights of the people of FCT are maintained just like any other state assembly. So, it’s not just that, but because I am the highest elected official in the FCT, everything that happens in the FCT, the people complain to me and expect me to go through whatever authorities to get it sorted out. A few days ago, there was a fire incident in Abuja, it was me they spoke to on what must be done. In the past, that arrangement worked very well. But it has not been so seamless with the current minister of the Federal Capital Territory. I’m not sure why this is so. He has said that I claim that I’m the senator of the FCT and he’s obliged to deal with me. But I’m saying that by Section 122 and 124 of the Evidence Act, he is bound by the judicial notice of the occupier of the seat of the Senate of FCT. I’m also saying that the section 24 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria imbues on him a duty, that is, the Honourable Minister. I’m not calling any names because anybody who is minister is bound by those same laws and duties to abide by the constitution, to respect all these ideals, institutions and legitimate authorities. So just the same way that some Nigerians would have voted for the president, and some would not have, but as soon as he’s declared president, he becomes the president for everybody. Nobody can pick and choose who would rather be the president. And therefore, the same applies to all offices, regardless of party, or any other position.
The man you are talking about is Wike, a former governor of Rivers State, now the FCT minister. He has responded that you want him to be your friend but he doesn’t want to be your friend, that you should leave him alone.
Please what constitutes friendship between two people who have never met each other? I have never sat in the same room with the minister except in a Senate committee. So how does friendship arise? Why would I want to be the friend of somebody I do not know? The truth of the matter is that the minister refuses to speak or communicate in any way with a senator representing the Federal Capital Territory, so how are the wishes and the needs of the people to be communicated to him. Please tell me if you know a way to do that.
He has done some projects, appointed permanent secretaries and says he’s concentrating on his work and that you are blackmailing him.
To do what! To disregard the needs of the people? The minister may be a great minister in a ministry that has no people. But the unique situation of the FCT minister is that, apart from infrastructure and roads, he also has to take into consideration the needs of the people in that territory. That’s the difference between him and the Minister of works or any other ministry. The minister of FCT is almost acting as the governor for the president. So it’s not just being a regular minister. He says he commissions roads. Yes, those roads were started by Muhammad Bello and I commend him for finishing some of them. But, the people took me on when those roads were commissioned. They said, Madam, you people are celebrating roads in Maitama, Asokoro Central Business District, but the bulk of the people do not live there. Show me the projects where the people live. That’s the difference. It’s almost like a governor telling you that he builds some roads, so he doesn’t care what the needs of the people are; they have needs. So it’s not good enough. The people are not impressed. I commend him because I see that some things are done. But at the end of the day, they don’t have water. That fire that happened in Karu could have been prevented if there was water, but I don’t know if you know Abuja, the fire truck has to go all the way to Asokoro to get water then come back, not to talk of the fact that there were no access roads into the market and a whole litany of issues. Those are the issues the people are going to tell the senator, not the minister. It is the same with insecurity, the people scream, Senator, Senator, and the Senator says, Minister, sort out the insecurity, and he says he doesn’t have to speak to me.
You have been quoted as saying you are being excluded from key decisions affecting the Federal Capital Territory, do you think this is because you are from a minority party (Labour Party) or because you are a woman?
It’s not because; I’m a woman. In all fairness to the Senate, as a body, it’s not very difficult to exclude the women and they do not exclude us. We get involved in as many things as we would really like to. Your party matters a bit, but not seriously. I’m on several committees, I am aware of every little detail of what goes on in every other committee.
What are the priorities you think have not been addressed in the best interest of the people of FCT residents?
Actually, some of my interests are not specific to the Senate, but they’re specific to the person administering which is the Honourable Minister. Just like any state assembly, when a governor is not taking care of the rights and the needs of the people, the state assembly draws his attention to it and makes him do it. For one thing, Abuja has no water. Let me even just take the last budget that was passed, this supplementary budget. Let’s just stick with that little budget, only N18 billion has something to do with the people while N20 billion is for renovating 20 schools. We’re building a road to the EFCC, another one to DSS and all those things. Please, with all due respect, those roads may need renovating, maybe the road to the presidential wing, all need work. But, I am saying that for an impoverished nation, for a territory where insecurity is so high, where just walking down the street in Maitama is hard, it shows you the level of insecurity we have. There are so many issues and we don’t have the funds to do them. We need to prioritise, I think that the needs of the majority of the people -healthcare, education, security, water should be priority. We can do other things when we are more liquid, but we are not. Those are my issues.
Is it because you are from the Labour Party, Philip Aduga seems to be having a good relationship with Wike.
Aduga is not the current senator, so he doesn’t have to look out for the interests of the people. When there was a fire, they did not call Philip Aduga, in spite of the fact that it was his ward. They called me, so if Aduga has a good relationship with Wike, that is fine. It does not help the people of the Federal Capital Territory. I have to draw your attention to the fact that the last minister was APC and Philip Aduga was PDP. And the minister worked well with Aduga and we said to him, what’s your problem? He said, no madam, not just me, all of us in APC, that sorry, for this place to work well, the Senator has to work with the minister. So, it doesn’t matter that he’s not in our party. He’s the senator representing this territory and we accepted it as a good enough reason. So, being in a different party, this is not the first time it’s happening. It happened with several senators in FCT because FCT has their own unique way of voting.
You have always decried bad governance, do you think that we are having good governance under President Bola Tinubu?
Well, absolutely not. I have the utmost goodwill and respect for the President and I have no doubt that he probably wanted to be president so he could make a difference. But as things are right now, it does not augur well for his legacy. The president is only as good as his team. Any leader is only as good as their team. Even little me, I’m constantly tweaking people that work with me to get the maximum efficiency. I’m sorry, the people are suffering. I feel that there are several things that can be done; a plan that can alleviate things for the moment and I don’t see it being done at all, which is not his fault. It was a build up to this point. But I also don’t see a credible plan to solve the problems that we are now. I only see things getting worse.
People would say what you are saying is typical of Labour/Obidients way of talking down the government.
I turned 70 years earlier this week, and I would think that my mindset would be a little different from the average Obidient, all young people. But that being said, we cannot look away from the fact that, at least 70 percent of our population is under 40. So when decisions are being taken, you have to consider the fact that this is how young people feel; this is how they think. I’m an idealist. I’m thinking that okay, maybe there’s somewhere where we can all go and change this country and make it the country we can be proud of. But notwithstanding, even when I was in the All Progressives Congress (APC), I still had the same beliefs that we can still do better. You all know I was an ardent Buharist, there was nothing I did not do. I still believed that Buhari was going to change this country. So, I did everything -my strength, my money, everything to ensure that he got in there but things only got progressively worse. We are fast getting to where I feel that we are pushing the people to the wall because now they’re hungry. As a nation. we are resilient, we’re able to take things in our stride, but I don’t think we can take hunger in our stride. And that being said, certain things need to be done urgently and nationally.
What is your impression of involvement of women in politics?
We just have four women in the Senate and generally, we don’t have up to 5 percent in the entire National Assembly, but we have educated women, public spirited women that can’t get into decision making positions and the highest they could be is Minister Of Women Affairs. I believe that we need a legislation for affirmative action. Yes, I know women inclusion works because in the political parties. For example, when you’re asked to provide three delegates from a ward, they say one must be a woman. This should also apply in government agencies such that we do whatever can be done to involve competent women. If you look at countries that have more women in government, they have shown that there’s a direct correlation between economic development and women in governance, policy and decision making processes.
But there is the belief that women do not support women
Maybe that was so in the past, but the awareness and thinking of women has changed somewhat. I know that I got a lot of support from women across board, across parties. Mmyself and some other women are working on creating a database of women all across the country so we can use women voters as a lobby bloc, because it’s not enough to say do something, you have to show it. The second reason why women are not voting for women is how many women do you see on the ballot? Even as proactive as I expected Labour Party to be, out of 109 tickets, only two or three were female. Unless women are on the ballot, you can’t say that they’re not being voted for.
Quote: “I have the utmost goodwill and respect for the President and I have no doubt that he probably wanted to be president. So, he could make a difference. But as things are right now, it does not augur well for his legacy. The president is only as good as his team. Any leader is only as good as their team”
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