The Senate on Wednesday confirmed eight
ministerial nominees, including a former Minister of State for Defence,
Musiliu Obanikoro.
Seven of the nominees had a smooth sail
during the session but when it was Obanikoro’s turn, the All
Progressives Congress senators kicked and cited reasons why he should
not be considered for a ministerial appointment.
Among their reasons were that the
nominee from Lagos State had been implicated in “very sensitive issues
that touch on national interest,” and court cases, including one by a
Peoples Democratic Party member, Kemi Lawal, which restrained the
Senate from confirming him.
But
Senate President, David Mark, ruled them out of order and insisted
that he had not been served any court order restraining the Senate
from confirming Obanikoro, who is also a former PDP governorship
aspirant for Lagos State.
The APC senators, who vehemently raised
their opposition to the confirmation of the former minister were
Bukola Saraki, Olugbenga Ashafa, Babajide Omoworare, George Akume,
Olubunmi Adetunmbi, Ali Ndume and Ganiyu Solomon.
Another APC lawmaker, Mudashiru Hussain,
nearly threw caution to the wind when he attempted to rush at a PDP
senator, Smart Adeyemi, for allegedly distrupting the opposition
lawmakers’ arguments on why Obanikoro should not be cleared.
It took the timely intervention of some APC senators sitting close to Hussain to stop him from doing so.
Angered by the fact that Mark ruled them
out of order, all the APC senators walked out of the chamber and
addressed a news conference where they expressed their disappointment at
the Senate leadership’s handling of the issue.
In spite of the walkout by the APC
lawmakers, Mark went ahead to rule on the voice votes of the PDP
senators for the confirmation of Obanikoro and the other nominees as
ministers.
The nominees, who received the special
privilege of ‘take a bow’ were Hauwa Lawan, (Jigawa); Kenneth Kobani
(Rivers) and Joel Ikenya, (Taraba).
The others who were screened last week
but were confirmed on Wednesday are Patricia Akwashiki (Nasarawa);
Nicholas Ada (Benue); Augustine Akobundu (Abia) and Fidelis
Nwankwo (Ebonyi).
At the news conference, the spokesperson
for the APC caucus, Babafemi Ojudu, said, “We found it incumbent on
us to let Nigerians know what our opinions are on this matter but the
Senate President would not listen.”
Also, the leader of the caucus, George
Akume, said it was regrettable that Senate leadership which they had
in the past supported, did not respect their view on the case of
Obanikoro.
He said, “The Senate, in its sitting
today(Wednesday), was rancorous and acrimonious because of one
nominee who has been a senator before and had also been passed as a
minister and ambassador.
“Senators from Lagos had never raised
objection to his earlier nomination and confirmation in the past but
something happened after he became the minister of State for Defence.
“He is alleged to have participated in the massive rigging of the Ekiti governorship election in June last year.
“The alleged action, is a breach of the
constitution. In a civilised world, his name should not have come up for
screening in the first place. Hence, we are all opposed to him.”
Akume argued that Mark, by his action,
had altered the tradition of the Senate which states that any nominee
rejected by at least two senators from his state of origin, should not
be cleared.
He said, “The three senators from Lagos
opposed to the nomination of Obanikoro but the Senate President and his
PDP colleagues decided to take the advantage of their numbers to
override what is supposed to be basically a very straight forward issue.
“We wonder whether we want to grow
democracy in this country or whether we want to destroy it. Rule of the
senate forbids it not to act on any issue in court but the Senate
leadership had ignored this.
“Nigerians are being deceived by the
behaviour of the senate. They do not want to listen to us and this is
highly unfortunate and we are very disappointed in the action of our
leadership.”
But the senate leadership, at a separate
news conference by its spokesperson, Eyinnaya Abaribe, described the
APC senators allegations against Obanikoro as unfounded.
He said, “In our law and the
constitution of Nigeria, anything that is a mere allegation that is not a
court decision is nothing but a mere allegation.
“Everyone in Nigeria is deemed to be
innocent until proven guilty and even the Senators who addressed the
press conference and spoke about the qualification or otherwise of
Obanikoro are enjoying this privilege because some of them have EFCC
cases.
“They are still in the Senate because of
this privilege of being innocent until proven guilty and so they cannot
go to a press conference, and try to convict somebody when the person
has not been convicted by a court of law.
“They cannot enjoy that privilege
themselves and sit in this senate and then turn around and now say that
somebody else cannot enjoy that privilege.
“The laws of Nigeria are very clear; you
are innocent until proven guilty, so that is what played out on the
floor of the Senate.
“The Senate, having known that this is
the laws of Nigeria, and this is the constitution of Nigeria that every
Nigerian is entitled to this privilege, went ahead to do what it is
supposed to by law do which is somebody that is on the floor of the
Senate who has not been convicted.
“Until somebody is convicted by a court,
then his employer will determine what to do with him; the Senate is not
a court of law.”
Abaribe also argued that the senators formed a quorum when the fate of the nominees were determined.
Shortly before the news conference by
the APC caucus, a young man believed to be the son of Obanikoro, drew
the anger of Oluremi Tinubu, at the lobby of the National Assembly.
Tinubu was said to have drawn people’s
attention to what she called the ‘uncultured’ behaviour of the young
man, who insisted that he did not utter any word against her.
EmoticonEmoticon