He spent over a decade in the Foreign Service cadre and has been in politics since the 1970s, serving six heads of state; most recently as a member of the inner circle of President Muhammadu Buhari.

[3] In 1993, he was the vice-presidential running mate to Chief Moshood Abiola in the annulled 1993 presidential election, before later joining the government in service of military dictator General Sani Abacha.

In 1968, he received a bachelor's degree in international relations from the University of Sussex (alongside Thabo Mbeki), before proceeding to the BBC Television Training School.

[11] At the university, he became acquainted with the Kaduna Mafia, a group of young western-educated intellectuals, civil servants and military officers from Northern Nigeria.

In 1988, he was made director of organization of the People's Front of Nigeria (PFN) which consisted of politicians such as Atiku Abubakar, Bola Tinubu, Abdullahi Aliyu Sumaila and Rabiu Kwankwaso, which was then led by Shehu Musa Yar'Adua.

[18] Coming in second, Kingibe considered joining forces with Atiku Abubakar combining 5,231 votes to challenge Abiola.

However, after much prodding Shehu Yar'Adua asked Atiku Abubakar to withdraw from the campaign, with Abiola promising to make him his running mate.

[18] Unable to join with Atiku Abubakar, Abiola was later pressured by SDP governors to select Kinigbe as his Vice-presidential running mate, creating a Muslim-Muslim ticket which was initially thought to be a deal breaker in the elections.

[28] Following his removal from office, Kingibe maintained a low profile and later became critical of President Goodluck Jonathan's for his inability to suppress the insurgency in the North-East.

[32] Since then,[33] he has gone on to feature prominently alongside Abba Kyari as a powerful behind the scenes decision-maker[34] – shaping the administrations intelligence and foreign policy.