Ireti Kingibe Biography – Early Life and Career Beginnings
Ireti Heebah Kingibe, born on June 2, 1954, in Kano State, Nigeria, is a distinguished civil engineer and politician.
She began her career as a Quality Control Engineer with Bradley Precast Concrete Inc. from 1978 to 1979.
She then joined the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s Design Unit, where she worked from 1979 to 1991.
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Education
Kingibe’s education started at Emotan Preparatory School in 1966. She attended Queen’s College Lagos between 1966 and 1967 and Washington Irving High School from 1970 to 1973.
She earned a degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Minnesota between 1975 and 1980.
Professional Achievements
Returning to Nigeria for her mandatory service year (1981-1982), Kingibe served as a Project Supervisor at the Nigerian Air Force Base in Ikeja, Lagos.
She then worked with New Nigeria Construction Company in Kaduna as a Planning Engineer and later as a Consultant for Belsam Limited.
Between 1990 and 1994, she served as the Regional Engineer for Lodigiani Nigeria Limited, Lagos. Currently, she is a Senior Partner at Kelnic Associates in Abuja.
Ireti Kingibe Biography – Political Career
Kingibe’s political journey began in 1990 when she was appointed Adviser to the National Chairman of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP).
In 2003, she ran for the FCT senatorial seat under the All Nigeria People’s Party. She later joined the People’s Democratic Party in 2006 but moved to the All Progressive Congress (APC) in 2014 due to dissatisfaction with the PDP.
In 2015, she ran for the senatorial seat under APC but later withdrew. Kingibe joined the Labour Party in 2022 and became their FCT Senatorial candidate for the 2023 elections, which she won.
Before the elections, she pledged her basic salary to a special fund to address infrastructural deficits in rural communities within the nation’s capital. On August 8, 2023, she was named Chairman of the Senate Committee on Women Affairs.
Controversy
On February 28, 2023, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Ireti Kingibe the winner of the Federal Capital Territory. However, the announcement was met with disagreement from other party agents who refused to sign the result sheet.
Kingibe held a press conference asserting that there was no basis for canceling the election she won and accused opposition parties of bribing electoral officers and attempting to rig the election. She also reported that thugs attacked the Gwarinpa Collation Centre, destroying result sheets.
Personal Connections
Kingibe is the younger sister of Ajoke Muhammed, wife of former Nigerian head of state Murtala Muhammed.
Disclaimer:
All content in this article (Ireti Kingibe Biography) were culled from Ireti Kingibe’s Wikipedia page
