…As Senate screens nine nominees

There was a mild drama and uproar in the Senate on Tuesday as the upper chamber of the National Assembly blocked a petition accusing the former Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, of being behind the insecurity and disunity that engulfed Kaduna during his tenure.

Senator Sunday Karimi, representing Kogi West Senatorial District on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), had brought the petition against El-Rufai when he stood before the Senators for screening.

The petition notwithstanding, the Senate went ahead to screen El-Rufai and asked him to go, after responding to other questions posed to him by some Senators, on how to tackle the lingering problems of the power sector in Nigeria.

El-Rufai had wanted to speak on the petition brought against him, but the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, immediately intervened and said that the Senate would refer the matter to the appropriate quarters and then asked him to bow and go.

All three Senators from Kaduna State, who are incidentally members of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) supported the screening of El-Rufai for confirmation as a Minister.

Also, Senator Sani Musa and a few other Senators even made a case for him to be granted the privilege to take a bow and go as was done to Nyesom Wike of Rivers State when he appeared for screening on Monday.

Meanwhile, the Senate was able to screen a total of nine ministerial nominees out of the fourteen remaining nominees from the twenty-eight names forwarded to it by President Bola Tinubu.

President Bola Tinubu had on Thursday, July 28, 2023, forwarded a list of twenty-eight ministerial nominees to the apex legislative Chamber, asking it to confirm the nominees for appointment as Ministers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Consequently, the Senate commenced the exercise on Monday and screened fourteen of the nominees, with fourteen of them pending.

After approving the votes and proceedings of the previous legislative day, the apex legislative Chamber resumed the screening of the remaining nominees who were listed on the Order Paper for the day’s legislative business.

The first person to be screened was the former Governor of Ebonyi State and Deputy Senate Leader, Senator David Umahi, who by the tradition of the Senate, was asked to take a bow and go, after introducing himself, since he is a member of the apex legislative Assembly.

After Umahi left the podium, then the economic expert and former Lagos State Commissioner for Finance, Olawale Edun, was ushered in for the exercise.

Fielding questions from the Senators, Edun who was grilled for more than one hour, posited that Nigeria has no justification for being poor, given the country’s enormous blessings of human and material resources in the land.

The Senate grilled the ministerial nominee from Ogun State, Olawale Edun, taking him on sundry issues of Nigeria’s tough economic challenges and seeking to elicit solutions from him.

Edun was particularly subjected to interrogation by the lawmakers, making him answer questions as if had been appointed the minister of Finance.

He told the Senators that Nigeria had all it takes to be successful given its vast human and material resources, stressing that all that was necessary was a clear vision and commitment to set the country on the path of economic growth and development.

Edun said that he accepted the call to serve, hoping to re-enact the success story of Lagos when he served as Commissioner in Tinubu’s cabinet and then as Governor.

The economist expressed support for fuel subsidy removal and the unification of foreign exchange, admitting, however, that both policies have come with serious pains for the citizenry.

Edun expressed optimism that the pains would soon give way for gains and sustainable economic development.

The Senate also gave a reasonable period of time to the ministerial nominee from Katsina State, Musa Dangiwa, who was alleged to have rushed to pay his tax for the last three years just last week because of his nomination.

Other nominees screened by the Senate include Chief Uche Geoffrey Nnaji (Enugu); Stella Erhuvwuoghene Okotete (Delta); Mr Adekola Adebayo Adelabu (Oyo); Hon. Ekperikpe Ekpo Akwa (Ibom); and Barr Hannatu Musawa (Katsina).

For now, the Senate has screened twenty-three out of the twenty-eight ministerial nominees forwarded to it for approval for appointment by President Tinubu. The screening will continue tomorrow.