With 10 Ministerial nominees screened on Tuesday, the Senate will today (Wednesday) screen the next set of the nominees which includes former governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, Dr. Chris Ngige, former governor of Anambra State and Babatunde Raji Fashola, former governor of Lagos State.
Other nominees that will face the Senate screening include Senator Hadi Sirika, Aisha Alhassan, from Taraba, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun Ogun State and Abubakar Malami.
The Senate is also to screen Barrister Adebayo Shittu, Oyo, Mr. Solomon Dalong, Plateau, Ibe Ibechukwu, Delta, Ahmed Isa Ibeto, Niger and Suleiman Adamu.
None of the ministerial nominees is expected to have issues with the Senate given the manner their colleagues were screened on Tuesday.
The most controversial nominees such as the former governor of Rivers State, former governor of Lagos and Adebayo Shittu based on initial petitions filed against them are also not expected to undergo hitches, all of them having submitted their papers detailing their level of competence and experiences in public service to convince the Senate.
Earlier, Rotimi Amaechi, who faced the Ethics and Privileges Committee of the Senate in respect of the petition filed against him by the Government of Rivers State had had the petition stood down on the basis that the matter against him was still pending in court.
Mrs. Amina Mohammed who appeared before the Senate Ethics and Privileges on petition filed against her was screened without a fuss on Tuesday by the Senate.
On Amaechi’s case, the Committee had alluded to a section of the Senate Rules, which forbids any matter pending in court to be entertained.
However, indications are rife that the second batch of ministerial nominees submitted to the Senate by President Muhammadu Buhari will have to wait till next week to be screened.
The Senate President had earlier in the day read the names to members shortly after he declared the plenary to be in session.
The fresh nominees from President Buhari include former first Lady of Yobe State, Khadija Buhar Abba Ibrahim, Claudius Ololeye Daramola, Professor Anthony Anwuka, Geoffrey Onyeama and Brig. Gen MM Dan Ali (rtd).
Others include Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed, Okechukwu Enelamah, Mohammed Bello, and Mustapha Baba Shehuri.
The rest are Ms Aisha Abubakar, Heineken Lokpobiri, Adamu Adamu, Professor Isaac Adewole, Pastor Usani Usani Uguru and Abubakar Bawa Bwari.
Meanwhile, 10 of the 21 ministerial nominees earlier submitted to the Senate by President Muhammadu Buhari were screened by the Senate on Tuesday during its plenary.
Some of the nominees were subjected to gruelling moments of drilling, while few of them were accorded special preferences during screening, prompting Senators to chorus to them, “Bow and go”.
Former governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, was the most grilled among the nominees as Senators took close to one hour to engage him.
He, however, gave a good account of himself as he was made to answers many questions bordering on his tenure in Ekiti State as well as on his activities in politics.
In all, 10 nominees were screened by the Senate including Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, Chief Audu Ogbe, Dr. Christopher Ogbonniah Onu, Dr. Osagie Enahire, Lt. Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Mrs. Amina Ibrahim Muhammed, Engr. Suleiman Hassaini Adamu and Ibrahim Usman Jibril.
Apart from Fayemi, Senators focused more attention on Dr Ogbonniah Onu, Dambazau, Engr Adamu, Jubril and Dr. Ehanire, while they apparently softened the ground for Senator Udoma, Ogbeh, Lai Mohammed and Mrs. Mohammed, who after brief presentations were asked to ‘bow and go’.
First to face the screening hurdle was Senator Udoma who expressed surprise that President Buhari deemed it necessary to propose him for appointment in his cabinet.
He told the Senators that having garnered experiences in politics and service in the private and public sectors, he will be more prepared to assist in delivering the agenda of the government of President Buhari in changing Nigeria.
He expressed delight that he had served in the Senate in many capacities, more so as its one-time Appropriation Committee Chairman, from where he said he proceeded into other government services, mostly in the Security and Exchange Commission.
He said if appointed as Minister, he will hit the ground running, counting on the experiences he had acquired in the private, public sectors as well as in politics.
Fayemi, who went through a long moment of grilling, was made to give account of his stewardship as former governor of Ekiti State as he debunked reports that he left the state with a huge debt.
He said when he became the governor, he met a debt of N30 billion, while the monthly allocation due to the state was not more than N3 billion all through, a reason he said he took to the capital market to raise a bond of only N25 billion to execute projects by his government.
Fayemi said before leaving office, he cleared the N30 billion debt, while leaving behind the debt of only N18.5 billion. He told the Senators that he never used part of the money his government borrowed on payment of salaries, but deployed all on infrastructural development.
Former National Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Audu Ogbe commanded the interest of Senators who softened the ground for him during screening.
Ogbe when allowed to speak advised that for Nigeria to get out of economic doldrums, it should begin to focus more attention on Agriculture and Education.
He said the Nigerian government will need to go back to the drawing board to lay a comprehensive programme on agriculture with the aim of generating more employment opportunities and attaining food security with deployment of modern farming system.
He was asked to also bow and go after a brief presentation.
Next was Dr. Ogbonniah Onu, who started by painting a pathetic image of Nigeria with dwindling resources, increase in social vices and security challenges.
He said notwithstanding the problems facing Nigeria, he was optimistic that the country will rise again.
Onu emphasised the need for the new government in pay attention to power generation as part of measure aimed at regenerating the economy.
According to him, the need to diversify power generation with emphasis on other sources of power would be of great help to Nigeria. He said, over the years, Nigeria has been concentrating on hydro and natural gas sources alone, contending that the two have never been not enough to lift the power sector in the country.
Dr. Osagie Ehanire, a nominee from Edo State told the Senators that as a medical doctor with long years of practice in Germany, he has always been looking forward to returning home to deploy his experiences and to be part of the change agents in Nigeria.
He said he got the opportunity when on returning to Nigeria he identified with the campaign train of President Buhari, as he expressed strong belief that his nomination was borne out of his good wish for the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Ehanire while responding to questions from Senators affirmed that there have been crises of confidence in the Nigeria’s health sector, stressing that the sector requires more emphasis on primary health with adequate deployment of manpower and equipment.
He suggested that the fight against corruption should also be extended to the health sector in Nigeria, noting that Nigeria needs a crisp health insurance policy which he said should be applied without delay after being crafted.
The Edo State nominee also canvassed for a thorough review of curriculum in the Nigeria’s health institutions to encompass modern ideas, just as he made a case for a peer review mechanism among medical practitioners to curb the problem of poor diagnosed of ailments.
Ehanire in response to a question on traditional medicine said the health sector in Nigeria should learn to regulate the practice because of the danger which he stressed traditional medicine and its practitioners portend for Nigeria.
He said he will apply the knowledge he had gained abroad to solve critical medical problems in Nigeria, promising to work with the government to ensure fulfilment of agreements with medical practitioners as part of means of curbing incessant strikes by doctors and health workers in general.
General Dambazau, former Chief of Army Staff, who also served in the APC Presidential Campaign in charge of security, said it is imperative for Nigeria to begin to make a periodic review of its Defence policy as he disclaimed that Nigeria lacks a definite policy on Defence.
On issue of procurement in the military departments in Nigeria, Dambazau denounced reports that the procurements process has always been duplicated. He noted that by the statute, each military department has its own unit of procurement, which according to him, never amounted to duplication.
He said it was necessary for the government to look into the issue of issue of gratuity and pension of military officers, most especially those often deployed into sensitive assignments both within and outside Nigeria.
Dambazau lamented the crises often created by the activities of Fulani cattle rustlers, as he responded to a question put to him on the issue.
He said cases of frequent clashes between the Fulani cattle grazers and farmers in some parts of the federation have been inimical to agriculture and food production in Nigeria.
He said Nigeria needs to tackle its ecological problem in order to stem the tide of frequent clashes between cattle grazers and farmers, mostly in the middle belt part of the country.
He also lamented that the problem of desertification in the north, and erosion in the south, adding that desertification has been pushing farmers and cattle grazers to move towards the middle belt, where most of the cases of clashes had been reported.
He said while the activities of Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria and other West African countries have been constituting danger to lives and farmlands, the religious and ethnic dimension to the problem have been making solutions difficult to apply.
Dambazau also admited that the menace of Boko Haram in Nigeria has graduated into a full a conflict, noting that the Nigerian army is combat ready to face the menace constituted by the insurgents.
Senators reacted positively to the screening of Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who until his appearance before the Senate was the National publicity Secretary of APC.
He had hardly appeared for screening when Senators began to chorus bow and go, alluding to his status as the spokesperson of the ruling party as his highest point.
When he was eventually allowed to speak, the APC spokesperson tendered apologies on his past exploits which he said had made him to ruffle feathers with political stakeholders in the country.
He said in a lighter mood that if cleared to be minister, he will savour the comfort of being in government while shedding the toga of spokesperson for the opposition.
He said the government of APC will require more time to learn the rope, stating that the four year term of the present government may not be enough to attain that. Senators burst into laughter when he echoed the sentiment.
Lai Mohammed said he would be passionate, committed, loyal and patriotic in service to the government of President Buhari if made a minister.
Despite the controversy trailing her nomination, Mrs. Amina Mohammed had no problem during her screening process.
She told the Senate that his father hails from Gombe, while her mother is of British descent.
She said she had spent almost 30 years in the private sector, as she also recalled that she had a brief stint with civil society groups. She said as a Professor, she had taught in the United States before returning finally to Nigeria to serve.
On how she managed to distribute the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) projects in Nigeria during her tenure as the Special Assistant to the President on MDGs, Mrs. Mohammed said she depended on the criteria laid down for doing so.
She said the MDG projects were sited in states according to the capacity for effective execution demonstrated by benefiting states. She said each of the state must produce evidence that it could handle specific projects, being part of accountability in the management of the projects.
0 comments :
Post a Comment