The Senate had a rowdy executive session
for about two hours on Wednesday as a result of attempt by Senate
President, David Mark,
to convince his colleagues to give Musiliu
Obanikoro an easy passage, in accordance to the tradition of the upper
chamber in the screening of former senators nominated for appointment as
ministers.
The Senate had over the years adopted
the “take a bow” treatment for nominee ex-senators. Obanikoro was a
member of the upper federal legislative chamber between 2003 and 2007 on
the platform of the Alliance for Democracy. His name is among the eight
new ministerial nominees before the Senate for consideration.
Members of the opposition All Progressives Congress in the Senate had, last week, vowed to oppose the confirmation of Obanikoro.
Our correspondent learnt that Mark,
shortly before plenary and in a bid to ensure that the tradition of the
Senate was not broken, immediately ordered a closed-door executive
session to iron out the differences between Obanikoro and the opposition
senators before the ministerial screening.
One of the senators from the South-West
geo – political zone, who preferred anonymity, told our correspondent
that the executive session was rowdy while it lasted.
He said, “The Senate President pleaded
with us to respect the tradition of the senate by allowing Obanikoro and
two other former senators, who would be appearing before us for
screening to just take a bow and leave.
“We told him such gesture would not be
extended to Obanikoro because of the two petitions against him that were
forwarded to the Senate leadership, which he must address in a
question-and-answer session.
“The insistence of the senate president
that he would not preside over a chamber where the tradition that
predated him would be destroyed led to a rowdy session which lasted for
over one-and-a-half hour.”
The senator explained that it took the intervention of the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, to resolve the issue.
According to him, Ekweremadu suggested
that the screening and confirmation of Obanikoro should be postponed
till a further date pending when the opposition would have a change of
mind.
Another senator, a member of the Peoples
Democratic Party from the North-Central, who also spoke anonymously,
confirmed to our correspondent that the screening of Obanikoro had been
postponed till next week due to the issues raised against him.
He said, “The opposition senators stuck
to their guns that the nominee must address the allegations levelled
against him but the Senate President insisted that he would never allow
such things to happen.
“We however resolved to suspend the
screening of Obanikoro and three others till next week Tuesday, if the
opposition senators would not insist that he must be asked some
questions. “
The senator further explained that the
leadership of the red chamber resolved to take the former Minister of
State alongside three others next week.
However, when the Senate resumed plenary, the senate president did not explain the reason for the closed-door session.
“The senate at the executive session discussed issues of national importance,” he said.
Meanwhile, four nominees- Messrs
Patricia Akwashiki (Nasarawa State); Nicholas Ada (Benue State);
Augustine Akobundu (Abia State); and Fidelis Nwankwo (Ebonyi State),
answered questions from the senators except Akwashiki, who was a
senator.
Ada, a professor of education, while
responding to questions, said that lack of qualified teachers was
responsible for the production of ill-equipped graduates.
He noted that students from “miracle
centres” and those who cheat in examinations, and get higher grades
usually constitute a great menace to the society as they would do
everything to manipulate the system upon graduation.
He said, “So, what we simply do is to
try as much as possible that the teachers training programme for the
school system is strengthened because what the teacher fails to do, is
an irreparable loss and what he does well gives credence to the entire
process.
“I would suggest that we go back to the
basics. In the time past, we had Grade Two Teachers Training programme;
teachers were trained in specific areas. The totality of the teachers
was well groomed and he came out as a very refined person.”
On his part, Akobundu, a retired colonel
in the army, said the best way to tackle the Boko Haram insurgency was
the introduction of the multi-nations military taskforce, made up of
soldiers from Benin Republic, Cameroon, Niger, Chad and Nigeria.
“The solution is making sure that we
maintain the coalition with our coalition partners to make sure that we
rid our nation and their own countries the menace of Boko Haram.
“At the same time, we talk about
fighting terrorism through carrot-and-stick. What is going on is the
stick. And concurrently, I believe that the Federal Government through
the statutory agencies are doing everything to make sure that these
Nigerians who have been displaces are given sense of belonging.”
The screening of Obanikoro (Lagos);
Hauwa Lawan (Jigawa); Kenneth Kobani (Rivers) and Joel Ikenya (Taraba)
has been shifted to Tuesday next week.
Source:Punch Newspaper.
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