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.