In fulfillment of its assurance to do expeditious screening and confirmation of the 28 ministerial nominees sent to it last Thursday by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Senate commenced the process on Monday.
Fourteen of the nominees scaled the screening hurdle on the floor of the Red Chamber.
Contrary to its assurance of rigorous screening, seven of the nominees were accorded the privilege of the “bow and go” convention .
The list included Acting national chairman of the All Progressives Congress who incidentally is the nominee from Borno State, Senator Abubakar Kyari, Honourable Abubakar Mommoh (Edo); former Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike; his counterpart from Jigawa State, Mohammed Badru Abubakar; Senator John Owan Enoh (Cross Rivers State); Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar (Bauchi) and Honourable Nkiruka Onyejeocha ( Abia State).
The nominee from Taraba state who incidentally was a former federal lawmaker, Senator Abubakar Sani Danladi was stripped of the privilege.
The nominee was asked questions, bordering on a Supreme Court pronouncement which barred him from holding public office for 10 years after he was allegedly found culpable for lying on oath.
Senator Danladi however told the lawmakers that no such pronouncement ever emanated from the apex court.
He said : “The Federal High Court, Jalingo, as at the time I contested for the governorship election, said that because of my age on my certificate, the judge gave a judgement against me.
“I now took the matter up to the Appeal Court. When we were in the Appeal court, they just struck out the case.
“The same thing, Justice (Mary) Odili said that the Federal High Court Jalingo was wrong to have decided the judgement in that way because when I was Deputy Governor in 2007, then the judgement on that, the same Federal High Court Jalingo used their veto power at that time to rule against me.
“So, from Supreme Court, I had to go back to the Federal High Court Jalingo because the Supreme Court said there was no basis for the Federal High Court Jalingo to do that judgement.
“Then the same jurisdiction of Federal High Court Jalingo and now sat on the same judgement and set aside that judgement that was hanging on me.”
The Senate President Godswill Akpabio who interjected the nominees said “the Federal High Court Jalingo gave a judgement against you that you were not qualified to contest on the basis of perjury that you lied on oath, in respect of your date of birth then later, that same Federal High Court sat on the same matter and cleared you?
“What we are saying is that the moment the Federal High Court gave the first judgement, the Federal High Court has become ‘Functus Officio’ in law and can no longer sit as an appellate court over the same judgement.
“So, you will definitely send what you need to send and we will study them because it is in the interest of Nigeria and it’s in public interest.”
Senator Danladi however told the Senate that he is presently at the apex court and that the Supreme Court is yet to give a judgement on the matter.
Senator representing Lagos East, Tokunbo Abiru also called the attention of his colleagues to the discrepancies in the Curriculum Vitae of the nominee from Benue State, Professor Joseph Utsev.
The Professor of Water Resources and Environmental Engineering, told the lawmakers that he was born in Gboko, Benue State on December 2, 1980 and he attended the University of Agriculture, Makurdi where he studied Civil Engineering and graduated with a Second Class Upper in 2004.
Utsev said he observed the mandatory one-year National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in Kaduna in 2006.
He also disclosed that he bagged his Master’s Degree from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 2007 and further bagged a doctorate degree from the same university in 2011.
While seeking for clarification, Senator Abiru said it was impossible for the nominee to start primary education at the age of three.
“You were born on December 2, 1980 but reading further down, you attended St John Primary School, Gboko, in 1989,”
“I am wondering whether you finished secondary school in 1989 which suggest that you started primary school at the age of three to finish in 1989.”
“You also claimed that you went to secondary school in 1995.
“What appeared a bit distorted” is that “you graduated in 2004 meaning that you probably would have spent nine years for your first degree”.
The nominee responded that he started primary school in the year 1984 and got his first school leaving certificate in 1989.
“I furthered to secondary school to 1990 to 1995, that was when I got my SSCE (Senior School Certificate Examination),” Utsev explained.
“I was actually supposed to pass out in 2003 but there was a prolonged strike by ASUU, I spent six years in the programme and that was why I graduated in 2004,” the nominee added.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio however said the nominee probably finished nursery school at the age of three to start primary school at the same age.
“The question was you were born in 1980 and you had your first leaving certificate in 1989. That means that the period you should have been in nursery school at the age of four years, you were already in Primary one,” Akpabio said which elicited laughter from the lawmakers.
President of the Senate justified the “bow and go” privilege accorded former Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike.
Senator Akpabio said the Red Chamber was aware of the records of Wike having served as Minister of Education during the Goodluck Jonathan administration.
The President of the Senate recalled that the former governor had appeared before the Senate for screening when he was nominated as a minister .
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