Uproar in Senate over alleged lopsided appointments

There was uproar in Senate yesterday for more than half an hour over alleged lopsided appointments by President Mohammadu Buhari into federal agencies .
This is as the upper legislative chambers ordered its committee on federal character and inter- governmental Affairs to look into the alleged topsidedness and report back Tuesday, next week.
Trouble started, when Senate President Bukola Saraki, read a letter from President Muhammadu Buhari seeking legislative confirmation of appointments into the board of Federal Emergency Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA).
A former deputy governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Tunde Lemo, has been appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari as chairman along with six other members of the board of FERMA.
No sooner had the Senate President read the presidential communication than Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremdu accused President Buhari of favouring a section of the country in his appointments to the detriment of other sections.
Coming under a Constitutional Point of Order, Ekweremadu drew attention of the Senate to the manner at which the government was making appointments to favour only a section of the country which is contrary to the Federal Character.
He cited Section 14(3) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic that deals with the principles of Federal Character to butress his point thus: “The composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the Federal Character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few state or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that government or in any of its agencies”.
He enjoined the senate to stand down the confirmation process and called for investigation into the alleged lopsided appointments.
But the Senate Leader, Ahmed Lawman (APC Yobe North) leading a pack of northern senators countered that the appointments were balanced.
He said: “When government sends in requests for confirmation of appointments, government does its home work very well and what the DSP raised is not a complete picture.
He has restricted his conclusion to very few appointments.
“If you go to the larger picture, that issue is not supposed to be raised in the first place.
I’ m not from the South West part of Nigeria, let me be blunt.
The issue raised is predominance but if we can have a larger picture, I’m sure we will see a balanced spread of appointment.
So, I don’t want us to devote so much time looking at the very narrow picture of what government is doing in regards to appointment” Ekweremadu’s request was however granted, after a heated debate.
Katsina born Sen.
Tijani Kaura led Senate Committee on Federal Character was directed to investigate Buhari’s appointments and present a report to the chamber on Tuesday the 24/07/18.
The situation became tense, when From left: Governors Atiku Abubakar Bagudu of Kebbi, Abdulaziz Abubakar Yari of Zamfara and Aminu Bello Masari of Katsina, during the meeting of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), in Abuja yesterday Photo: Ayuba Raji At least 7, 727 ad-hoc staff will be recruited by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the conduct of bye election into Katsina North senatorial district in Katsina state.
The election followed the death of the senator representing the area, Mustapha Bukar on April 4, after a protracted illness.
INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, Jibril Ibrahim-Zarewa disclosed this at a stakeholders meeting yesterday in Katsina.
“The Senate informed INEC of the vacancy in a letter received on July 13, 2018.
“The commission has 30 days to conduct the bye-election between July 13 and August 12,” he said.
He said the ad-hoc staff to be recruited would include NYSC members, students of tertiary institutions and staff of Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies working in the state.
Zarewa revealed that Smart Card Reader machines would be used for the verification and accreditation of voters during the exercise.
He said that the constituency covered 12 local governments, including Baure, Bindawa, Daura, Dutsi, Ingawa, Kankia and Kusada.
Others are Mai’adua, Mani, Mashi, Sandamu and Zango.
He said going by the 2015 general election, all the affected local governments have a total of 855,092 registered voters.
He noted that 835,013 voters collected their Permanent Voter Cards (PVC’s), with remaining balance of 20, 079 uncollected.
He further said that INEC embarked on Continuous Voter Registration exercise early 2017, for persons who transferred their registration areas or applied for replacement of lost PVCs.
He said, “A total of 23, 105 voters were so far registered, 6, 066 PVC’s collected with remaining balance of 15, 892,” he said.
He appealed to the political parties, media, traditional and religious leaders, as well as other stakeholders to cooperate with the commission to ensure success of the exercise.
‘INEC is up to the highest tenets of integrity, openness, laying level playing ground for a free, transparent, credible and acceptable election.
“We will live up to our vision, mission and core values of integrity and impartiality,” he said.
(NAN) another presidential communication seeking legislative confirmation of appointments into the Federal Civil Service Commission in which, Buhari’s Katsina born Dr.
Bello Tukur Ingawa is to be the chairman.
Apparently agitated Sen.
Chukwuka Utazi argued that the appointments of the current administration had been so lopsided and favouring a particular region of the country.
He therefore submitted that the request should go the way of FERMA, but he was shouted down by some senators from the northern part of the country.
Undaunted, Sen.
Mau Ohanbuwa (Abia North) came to Utazi’s rescue and insisted that the matter be stood down until investigation is into the matter is conducted.
At this point, presiding Senate President Saraki unilaterally referred the matter to the Senate Committee on Federal Character and Inter-governmental affairs

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