PROTESTS at state levels greeted
Tuesday’s announcement of President Muhammadu Buhari’s ministerial
nominees by the President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki.
Saraki at plenary announced 21 names as
contained in the ministerial list sent to him on September 30, saying
the screening of the nominees would commence on Tuesday, October 13.
But from the Coalition Against Corrupt
Leaders came a petition to the Senate against the nomination of a former
Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola. Indeed, CACOL’s petition had
been dated Saturday, October 3, asking the Senate not to confirm Fashola
“should his name pop-up as a ministerial nominee.”
In
the petition signed by the CACOL’s executive head, Debo Adeniran,
copies of which were sent to Buhari and Speaker of the House of
Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, the group urged the senators to visit
Lagos, as governed by Fashola, before screening and confirming him for
any appointment as a minister.
“Visit the Lagos Fashola left behind
before confirming his appointment as minister” is the title of the
group’s petition in which read in part, “Howbeit, if the rumour making
the rounds in some quarters, which has also been confirmed by some
sections of the media, is anything to go by, we would say Nigerians’
hope for a true change has been dashed with the inclusion of some names
that in a saner environment should not appear on the list, if integrity
and honesty are the basis of the selection criteria.
“We are therefore constrained at this
point in time to bring to your attention our critical reaction to the
rumoured nomination of the immediate past governor of Lagos State, Mr.
Babatunde Fashola, as a minister in the new government.”
The group therefore catalogued a number
of fraud and corruption allegations, most of which it had before now
levelled against Fashola.
Also, an anti-corruption group known as
Integrity Group has petitioned the President and the Senate to protest
the nomination of a former Governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, as a
ministerial nominee.
The group accused Amaechi of alleged fraudulent practices during his tenure as governor.
The group urged Amaechi to first clear
his name over “allegations of fraud concerning the sale of state power
plants and conversion of proceeds of $302m, unlawful payment of over
N4bn to Clinoriv Specialist Hospital and unlawful enrichment of a firm,
Messrs Collect Nigeria Ltd. with public funds amounting to over N1.5bn.”
Addressing newsmen in Abuja on Tuesday,
the Publicity Director of the group, Mr. Livingstone Wechie, alleged
that Amaechi was currently being investigated by anti-corruption
agencies for unlawful enrichment and conversion of over N70bn state
resources.
He added that the former governor had
resisted efforts to make him to explain the circumstances regarding the
money to the people of Rivers and that he failed to appear before the
Justice Omereji-led Judicial Commission of Enquiry set up by Amaechi’s
successor, Governor Nyesom Wike.
In Oyo State, the ruling All
Progressives Congress asked on Buhari to revisit his nomination of a
legal practitioner, Adebayo Shittu, claiming that the
ministerial-nominee was not a team player in the party.
It was learnt that Governor Abiola
Ajimobi was opposed to Shittu’s choice but the APC state secretary,
Mojeed Olaoya, told one of our correspondents in Ibadan, the state
capital, on Tuesday that the issue was between the nominee and the APC
and not with the governor.
Responding to the opposition of his
candidacy, however, Shittu said he contributed to the success of the
party and that he had nothing against Ajimobi.
Olaoya said, “This is the party talking
and not the governor. It was the party that wrote a letter to the
governor asking him to convey our message on Shittu’s nomination to the
President. We have published paid advertisement in the newspapers
stating our position on Shittu’s matter.”
The party stated that despite the
state’s contribution to President Buhari’s victory at the poll, it was
not being adequately compensated. It stated in the advertorial that
Shittu’s nomination had further compounded the political challenges
being faced by the party because of the nominee’s “unacceptability among
the people.”
Saraki said on Tuesday that the screening of the nominees, 21 in all, would commence on Tuesday, October 13.
He said this during Senate plenary after reading out the names of the nominees.
Spokesperson for the Senate, Dino
Melaye, also told journalists shortly after plenary that the upper
legislative chamber would in the interim called for the profiles and
other documents on the nominees in order to ensure thorough screening.
He said, “While we want to expedite
action, we also want to be very diligent and thorough in the screening
of the ministerial nominees. We want to ask for the citation and profile
of the nominees so that senators can study the resume of the nominees
and this will guide us in asking questions and guide our deliberations
when we start the screening.
“We want senators to have enough time to
study submissions by the nominees so that relevant questions could be
asked during the screening exercise. It is also from the Curriculum
Vitae that we will be looking at possible portfolio that the President
may be giving to the various nominees.
“The screening exercise would be taken
live on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and it would not be influenced
by political or religious affiliations.”
Fashola, Ogbeh, Amaechi…
Earlier in plenary, the President of the
Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki, had unveiled the much awaited nominees,
reading out names that had been correctly speculated in the media.
Buhari’s 21 nominees, as read out by
Saraki, include Abubakar Malami (SAN) (Kebbi); Abdurahman Bello
Dambazzau (Kano); Aisha Jumai Al Hassan (Taraba); Alhaji Lai Mohammed
(Kwara); Babatunde Raji Fashola (Lagos); Adebayo Shittu (Oyo); Solomon
Dalong (Plateau); Senator Chris Ngige (Anambra); Rotimi Amaechi
(Rivers); and Chief Audu Ogbeh (Benue).
Others are Mrs. Amina Ibrahim( Kaduna);
Dr. Osagie Ehaneri (Edo); Emmanuel Kachukwu (Delta); Dr. Kayode Fayemi
(Ekiti); Mr. Suleiman Adamu (Jigawa); Mrs. Kemi Adeosun (Ogun); Dr.
Ogbonnaya Onu (Ebonyi); Ahmed Isa Ibeto (Niger); Ibrahim Usman Jibril ;
Senator Hadi Sirika (Katsina); and Senator Udo Udoma (Akwa – Ibom).
Saraki said the nominees would be screened during plenary on Tuesday.
But the Minority Leader of the Senate,
Godswill Akpabio, who raised a constitutional point of order noted that
it was constitutionally wrong for Buhari to send 21 names as ministerial
nominees, instead of 36.
Saraki noted the observation of Akpabio
and explained that the President had already noted in his letter that
the complete list would soon be forwarded to the red chamber.
Buhari not for screening
Melaye denied reports that Buhari would be screened by the Senate since he had appointed himself as the petroleum minister.
He said, “We are not going to screen
President Buhari but ministerial nominees. The insinuation that he would
be screened as minister of petroleum is baseless and untrue. It’s a
product of imagination of people with inordinate ambition.
Melaye, who said he could not ascertain
whether the Senate had received any petition against the ministerial
nominees, said all petitions received would be treated accordingly.
“I cannot say how many petitions had
been received. Petitions on nominees will form basis for the screening,”
he said, adding however that the Senate would be able to do a better
job if the President would furnish it with the expected portfolio of the
nominees.
Senators react
Senator Jeremiah Useni, in an interview
with journalists, said having only three women on the ministerial list
was not good enough.
“I wish to see more women on the list. I
believe that the President will be more gender sensitive in the next
batch since he said the 21 names he sent is a partial list,” he said.
He also ruled out the possibility of
giving special considerations to either serving or past members of the
National Assembly whose names are on the list, saying “there is no rule
on the issue of take a bow. The fact that the seventh Senate adopted a
convention does not mean that the Eight Senate will adopt same.”
But the Senator representing Delta
North, Peter Nwaboshi, in an interview with journalists, expressed
disappointment that the list contained names of older men and women who
had served as ministers about 36 years ago.
He said, “I think the youths of Nigeria
should ask questions. How can people who served as ministers during the
former President Shehu Shagari’s administration in 1979 be presented as
ministers? I was a small boy when the particular nominee was minister
about 36 years ago. You are bringing the person to be minister now.
“One would have expected that the
younger generation would have been injected into the list. I wonder
where we are going to in this country. When will the youths be given
opportunity?
“We already know all the people in the
list. They are governors who just finished their tenure after eight
years. Is that the change they are talking about? It is left for
Nigerians to judge.
‘Buhari never told me I would be minister’
A former Governor of Ekiti State, who is
one of the ministerial nominees, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has described his
nomination as a surprise.
He told reporters at the national
headquarters of the All Progressives Congress in Abuja on Tuesday that
Buhari never gave him a hint about being nominated in spite of closeness
to the President.
The former governor served as the Director of Research and Strategy in the Buhari 2015 Campaign Organisation.
In response to a question as to whether
his nomination came to him as a surprise, Fayemi said, “Well, to the
extent that I was not told by the President that I was going to be on
his list, yes, it came as a surprise. The President is a surprise
master; let me put it that way.
“He did not tell anyone to the best of
my knowledge and I would have thought that I was in vantage position to
know more than others, I was with him for five days before then.
“I was with him in New York at the
United Nations General Assembly and he never uttered a word about his
list to me nor to anyone else.
“We came back to Nigeria together, I was
with him up till 4pm on the evening he submitted the list to the
President of the Senate and I didn’t have any clue of what is going to
happen. So, to that extent, I was pleasantly surprised.”
Another Ekiti ex-governor, Segun Oni, said Buhari had proved to all that he was not only a statesman but also a loyal party man.
He said, “The President is a party member and his thinking is always along with the party and he has always been saying so.
“You will know that the President, on
his own, knows the party and he wants to involve the party as much as
possible and he has done that. No one can complain now because you will
see that the leaders that we will want to see are there and we are very
grateful to the President.”
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