The Senate was yesterday uproarious when former Transportation Minister, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, entered the red chamber for his screening. The confirmation exercise of the 43 ministerial nominees had continued Thursday morning without any incident and was proceeding in that fashion until the former time Rivers State governor took his turn and was greeted with rowdiness, protests, and harsh remarks.
But Senate President Ahmad Lawan was, however, quick to remind his colleagues of the extant convention and policy that grant automatic confirmation to nominees who had served in the national and state assemblies. But attempts to extend such an honor to Amaechi, who was speaker of Rivers State House of Assembly for eight years, met stiff opposition from the senators, especially those from his former party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
But for the legislative privilege, former Akwa Ibom governor, Godswill Akpabio too would have gone through a tough screening process as Senate Minority Leader, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, pointedly told him that he would have made him sweat.
Occasional shouts of disapproval were heard from lawmakers every time the presiding officer tried to clarify the issue. The chamber became more vociferous when ex-Gombe State Governor Danjuma Goje drew attention to Order 3 of the Senate Standing Rule where he contended that those that served in state Houses of Assembly were never in the group of persons accorded automatic confirmation by the said law.
In a swift response, Lawan said there was nothing wrong in granting automatic confirmation to former state lawmakers even when the rule did not allow it. He explained that the upper legislative chamber enjoys the privileges of changing its regulations from time to time.
As the tension grew, George Thomson Sekibo (PDP: Rivers), raised another point of order that was barely heard before the senate president diplomatically ruled him out of order. But the Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe, who was recognised to speak on behalf of the minority parties, pleaded with Lawan to allow Rivers State legislators to ask Amaechi some questions, a request that was again turned down.
The senate president maintained that the policy and convention of granting automatic confirmation to nominees with the legislative background at the state level remained valid. As the number three citizen tried to persuade colleagues to allow Amaechi to take a bow and go without going through the rigor of screening, more senators objected amid the eventual rowdy clearance.
Abaribe later informed Lawan that members of the Minority Caucus, including those from Amaechi’s home state of Rivers, had messages for him. According to Abaribe, the issue of the controversial neglect of the eastern corridor of the rail project was agitating the minds of the people. He made it clear that Nigerians are unhappy that while some parts of the country were suffering from infrastructure decay, the Federal Government was busy extending projects like railway lines to foreign countries.
Meanwhile, the immediate past Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, has put the statistics of out-of-school children in the country at 16 million. The fresh revelation contradicts earlier claims by officials of the government that the number hovers around 10 to 13 million. Speaking during his screening, Adamu said the figure was based on a February 2019 census. He stated that out of primary school children were 10 million while their secondary school counterparts are six million. Adamu blamed the menace on the lack of funds. Lawan said the legislative and executive arms of government must work together to get the children back to the classroom.
The Senate on Thursday screened additional 10 ministerial nominees, bringing to 20 the total number of nominees screened so far by the upper legislative chamber in the last 24 hours. It had on Wednesday screened 10 nominees from the 43 names forwarded to the Senate by President Buhari on Tuesday.
The first batch of the nominees, comprising immediate past Minister of Transport, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi; former Akwa Ibom State, Governor, Senator Godswill Akpabio, who was also the Minority Leader of the Eight National Assembly before his defection to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC); former Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu; Senator George Akume and six others appeared before the Senate.
Those screened by the Senate included former Senator Tayo Alasoadura (Ondo); former Minister of State for Power, Works and Housing, Hon Mustapha Shehuri ( Borno); former Deputy governor of Yobe state, Abubakar Aliyu (Yobe); Maj Gen Bashir Magaji (Rtd) (Kano); former governor of Bayelsa state, Hon Timipre Sylva (Bayelsa) and Hajia Ramatu Aliyu (Kogi).
