Group warns Ireti Kingibe to stop distracting Wike

 

A group, Movement for the Advancement of National Transformation (MANTRA), has urged the Senator representing the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Ireti Kingibe, to stop sounding combative in her comments and instead work with Nyesom Wike to restore and improve the Abuja master-plan.

The group made the comment following claims by Ireti Kingibe that Wike lacks executive powers among other issues in the administration of the FCT.

The group’s convener, Jude Ndukwe, and publicity secretary, Sani Gafar, in a statement to the media on Saturday, said, “the remarks of the senator gives her out as being unneces­sarily combative.

The appealed to her to see Wike as a partner in progress rather than a rival.

“We are shocked to read the re­marks of Senator Ireti Kingibe regarding Wike’s works as FCT Minister and wish to state that such outbursts are unnecessary, unhelpful and retrogressive,” the statement partly read.

“While we respect the views of the senator as that of one con­cerned for the FCT, it is pertinent to put some records straight for the sake of posterity.

“It is not true that Wike as FCT minister does not have ex­ecutive powers as stated by Sen­ator Kingibe. As a member of the Federal Executive Council, Wike has full executive powers to administer the FCT according to the vision and dictates of the President who appointed him. It is the same for all the ministers and Wike’s cannot be different.

“It is also not true that Man­date Secretaries appointed and inaugurated for the FCT need pass through screening at the senate. To agitate for that is to demonstrate lack of knowledge of government processes.

“Appointment of mandate secretaries is not a creation of the legislature, but that of the executive. In fact, it was the creation of an Executive Order by former President Olusegun Obasanjo after the dissolution of the Ministry of FCT in 2004.

“The Executive Order, ‘Es­tablishment of Functions and Departments and Ministry of Federal Capital Territory (Dis­solution) Order No 1, 2004 (as modified)’, gave the President the powers to appoint and inaugu­rate mandate secretaries as may be recommended by the minister of FCT without any need of pass­ing through screening by the sen­ate or any other such institution.

“Never in the history of the FCT has such appointments been a subject of controversy be­tween a minister and the senate and we urge Senator Ireti Kin­gibe to stop stoking fire where there is none.

“While it took the immedi­ate past minister of the FCT, Mohammed Bello, a whole year after his appointment to inaugu­rate mandate secretaries for the FCT, it took him even longer to inaugurate same in his second tenure without any fuss by any senator.

“To this end, rather than at­tempt to vilify Wike, he should be commended for inaugurating the mandate secretaries only few weeks after his appointment. Such a gesture is indicative of a man who is open to working with people rather than doing it all alone.”