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.
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