Engineer Ireti Kingibe is, ordinarily, the sort of individual who should always be at the center of the system, irrespective of the party in power. She is not a populist or a rabble rouser. Beyond politics, she has something upstairs to contribute to the efficient working of the system. And she has exposure too, being an engineering graduate of the well regarded University of Minnesota in the United States. Above all, she belongs to every part of Nigeria, be it to Kano in the Northwest, the Yoruba nationality, the Northeast by marriage, then some parts of the Southsouth and, of course, the her gender constituency.
Map of Nigeria showing Abuja right in the middle
But the Nigerian system, regretfully, doesn’t work that way. It is still more quantitative than qualitative. And so she has a formidable roadblock to overcome to become the Senator for the FCT constituency. Senator Philips Aduda of the People’s Demoratic Party, (PDP) is formidable in more senses than one. He is the incumbent and he is a ‘shon of the soil’, a sentiment he will certainly mobilise in this small struggle for power.
Both candidates have good ideational frameworks to be the Senator for this strategic constituency. While it would be good for an indigene to be the Senator of the FCT, some people would ague it would even be ‘gooder’ for a woman to occupy the position. Intervention would be at a loss which to choose, all the two – indigenous people and gender – being some of the most powerful currents across the world today.
But it is beyond what Intervention or anybody wishes. It depends more on the context. For instance, what might have been Kingibe’s fallback in this contest? Indigeneship could work miraculously for Senator Aduda just as it could fail him disastrously, depending on what he has achieved in the four or so terms he has been a legislator, (two in the House of Representatives and two in the Senate). He could become a victim of the discontent with the established parties across Nigeria – APC and PDP. This is more so that the voting population in the FCT is beyond the indigeneship criterion. Abuja is multi-everything. It depends too on what Kingibe has promised the indigenes. If she has an irresistible offer on the table, hers could neutralise the opponents. And if the Labour Party enjoys a bandwagon, then, she can floor any other contender.
However it turns out, the FCT Senatorial seat will be among the few Senatoial seats that will not be a local affair because of the ideational clash involved: gender versus identity. Well, there is also clash of parties: Labour party where Kingible is and the PDP where Aduda is. It means the election of the senator to represent the FCT from 2023 will be very entertaining. Ireti Kingibe has always been a sensation in politics, first as a senatorial aspirant some decades ago.
