The journey for the inauguration of President
Muhammadu Buhari’s cabinet began on Tuesday
as members of the National Assembly
commenced screening of the ministerial
nominees.
President Muhammadu Buhari had on September
30 submitted the first batch of his would-be
cabinet members to the National Assembly via the
Senate President, Bukola Saraki.
On Tuesday, the screening process began amid
drama and laughter.
Saraki began the business of the day by reeling
out names of the second list of the ministerial
nominees submitted by the President on Monday.
Shortly after unveiling the names, ministerial
nominees from Cross River State, Udoma Udo was
asked to step forward.
He was simply asked to take a bow and go by the
Senate in a unanimous vote after spending few
minutes answering questions thrown at him by
the Senate President.
Reacting to one of the questions thrown at him,
Udo said, “I feel ready, I feel prepared to hit the
ground running in trying to bring about change…”
adding that “because I am coming from the
private sector, I understand them and speak their
language.”
Former Governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi.
For close to 50 minutes, Fayemi took time to
answer some questions from the senators.
He stated that the National Universities
Commission, NUC, cannot regulate and operate at
the same time, adding that “We need to look at
our curriculum, we need to look at teacher
quality. We need to make public education
attractive.”
He was also tasked on what he thinks can be
done about reforms in the nation’s foreign policy,
poverty eradication, revenue generation for the
government and his plans for the security of the
nation.
The biggest ‘fish’ of the day was former national
chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief
Audu Ogbe.
The outspoken and eloquent Ogbadibo-born elder
statesman dazzled the senators with facts and
figures when asked to comment on what was the
problem with the agricultural sector.
He had told the lawmakers that “Since I was last
in government, I have been practicing agriculture.”
He added that “I want to make it clear to
Nigerians that I am not here because I need
anything, but I am here because the president of
my country has deemed me fit to serve in his
cabinet.”
Ogbe, however, stylishly ignored a question on his
ouster as the PDP’s chairman in 2005.
Next was, Ogbonnaya Onu. The former Abia State
governor also spent seventeen minutes in his
appearance before the Senate for screening
before being confirmed as Minister.
After answering some of the questions, he was
asked to take a bow by the Senate President.
He told the lawmakers that “power is central to
many of the things we do as a country. We need
to pay attention to power generation. We have to
diversify our power generation.”
He advocated the use of coal for the nation’s
power generation, saying that such would make
problems of pipeline vandalization not to affect
electricity supply. He also talked about the resort
to renewable energy such as solar.
In terms of unemployment, Onu said: “we need to
produce more than we are doing now in terms of
agriculture, manufacturing and services.”
On his part, the National Publicity Secretary of the
All Progressives Congress and a Ministerial
nominee, Alhaji Lai Mohammad was also cleared
by the Senate as he was unanimously told by the
Senators to take a bow and go.
Lai, who addressed the senate amid cheers, said
he was very comfortable being in government,
and as such was willing to serve under President
Buhari who deemed it necessary to consider him
as a nominee.
Lai’s introductory speech that was intermittently
interrupted by the cheering lawmakers was
concluded when he said that if confirmed as a
Minister, he will be patriotic, passionate and
honest as he was when he was in the opposition.
Mrs Amina Muhammed was also confirmed as she
was asked to take a bow after parrying questions.
She used the screening to harp on the need for
Nigeria to integrate the new Sustainable
Development Goals, SDGs, into its long term
plans.
One of the issues brought up during her
screening was the disparity in state’s access to
conditional grants while she was the presidential
aide on the MDGs. She however reacted to this
that there was a widely agreed criteria regarding
the distribution of grants.
Mrs. Muhammed however pointed out that her
office was however able to build the capacity of
those states.
Drama and laughter
The screening of APC spokesperson, Lai
Mohammed, caused a loud laughter when he
made a comment concerning the opposition party,
the Peoples’ Democratic Party.
His introduction on the floor was greeted with
shouts of “go and bow!”, “go and bow!!” from the
senators.
Speaking later on, Lai Mohammed threw a jab at
the PDP, saying “four years is too small to stay in
opposition, they might have to stay longer.”
“We will not be as harsh to you as you were to us
when we were in the opposition,” he said.
At this point, Sen. Akpabio addressed Lai
Mohammed, “We must maintain decorum. This is
the Senate, not a House of Assembly,” he said.
“If I know (Lai Mohammed) very well, he may
have one or two propaganda to drop before he
leaves here”, he added.
David Mark keeps mum, watches from the floor
Former Senate President, David Mark maintained
closed lips while his colleagues were busy
throwing questions at the ministerial nominees.
Mark who represents Benue South Senatorial
District was seen sitting quietly while the
screening lasted.
Saraki ignores questions from Nigerians
Observations show that the Senate President,
Saraki did not entertain any question from
Nigerians. The Senate had asked Nigerians to
send in questions for the nominees during the
screening.
No comments:
Post a Comment