A crack appeared on Thursday in the All
Progressives Congress-Peoples Democratic Party romance in the Senate as
PDP senators walked out of the upper chamber to protest against the
approval of ex-Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, as a minister.
The Senate in plenary on Thursday
considered the report of its Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public
Petitions and confirmed all in the last batch of 18 ministerial
nominees, including Amaechi.
Others cleared include Messrs Adebayo
Shittu (Oyo), Geoffrey Onyema (Enugu), Bawa Bwari (Nige), Mohammed Dan
Ali (Zamfara), Adamu Adamu (Bauchi), Prof Anthony Anwuka (Imo),
Okechukwu Enelamah (Abia), and Muhammadu Musa Bello (Adamawa).
The rest are Khadija Bukar Abba Ibrahim
(Yobe), Claudius Omoleye Daramola (Ondo), Geoffrey Onyeama (Enugu),
James E. Ocholi (Kogi), Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed (Kaduna), Mustapha Baba
Shehuri (Borno), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri (Bayelsa), Prof Isaac
Folorunsho Adewole(Osun), Pastor Usani Usani Uguru(Cross River) and
Abubakar Bwari Bawa (Niger).
The PDP senators had been opposed to the
screening of Amaechi on the grounds that the ex-governor’s fraud suit
in the court needed to be dispensed with before the Senate could touch
his case.
The majority APC senators had however
gone ahead to screen Amaechi on Thursday last week amid protest by the
opposition PDP lawmakers, who later vowed to stop the approval.
There has been a curious romance between
the APC and the PDP since the inauguration of the 8th National Assembly
on June 9 and the election of Bukola Saraki as the Senate President in a
mockery of the ruling APC choice of George Akume.
Saraki was believed to have grabbed
power with the backing of the PDP senators, who also negotiated the post
of the deputy senate president for one of their own, Ike Ekweremadu,
thus foisting on the Senate a curious power sharing model in the upper
chamber since the return of democracy 16 years ago.
The senators, after about one-and-a-half
hours closed door session on Thursday, trooped into the chamber with
stern looks thus sending signals that there might have been
disagreements.
Our correspondents learnt that the
report of the Senate committee on the Amaechi’s petition during the
closed door session had divided the senior lawmakers along party lines.
The chairman of the ethics committee,
Senator Samuel Anyanwu, (PDP, Imo East), who presented the report of the
investigation into petitions against Amaechi, said the panel could not
recommend Amaechi, an APC chieftain from Rivers State, for confirmation
because the matter which gave birth to the petition was still a subject
of litigation.
The report was signed by eight PDP
members and three APC members of the ethics committee. Senate spokesman,
Dino Melaye; Tayo Alasoadura (Ondo Central) and Deputy Senate Leader,
Bala Ibn Na’Allah, all APC members signed the report.
“Since the ministerial nominee had gone
to the Court of Appeal to challenge the content of the petition and the
White Paper of the judicial commission of Inquiry, the Senate is unable
to recommend the consideration of his confirmation,” the report read in
part.
But the Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, said
that deliberations on the report were unnecessary since the upper
chamber was already in the process of confirming the nominee alongside
others, thus triggering a protest by the opposition PDP senators.
The PDP lawmakers insisted that the
report of the ethics committee must be upheld with the Minority Leader,
Godswill Akpabio, saying confirming Amaechi’s nomination in defiance of
the ethics panel report would be subjudice.
He said that since the Amaechi’s case,
which bordered on allegations of corruption, was pending in the Appeal
Court, the Senate by confirming his appointment would be shouldering a
serious moral burden, contrary to the change mantra of the President
Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
Akpabio insisted that the Senate should
respect a gentleman’s agreement reached last week that there should be
proper discussion on the matter before the confirmation.
His position was supported by the Deputy
Minority Whip, Senator Abiodun Olujimi, who noted that though the APC
senators, being in the majority, would have their way at the end of the
day, the opposition lawmakers should be allowed to have their say.
“From all indications we are being shut
out, there is a moral burden not only on this Senate but also on
President Buhari who is riding on the crest of no corruption. The court
of law should hear the nominee before we clear him. Nigerians should
know that this administration is not ready to fight corruption,” Olujimi
said.
The senator representing Amaechi’s
senatorial district, George Sekibo, also cautioned the Senate against
confirming the nominee for appointment.
He said, “We represent our people, and
the Nigerian people we represent are the majority. The majority is not
the APC. The majority are the people, the true determinants are the
Nigerian people who should not be taken for granted.
“There is a moral burden on all of us;
what we do today would be captured. If we encourage corruption when Mr.
President is fighting corruption, we want to join President Buhari to
fight corruption, we hope that all of you will join us to fight
corruption.”
However, the Chairman, Senate Committee
on Rules and Business, Babajide Omoworare, argued that the committee of
the whole senator, by virtue of its relevant orders and constitutional
provisions, reserved the right to amend the report of any of its
committees.
Omoworare’s arguments that the Senate
rules are subsidiaries to the constitutional provisions were
nevertheless countered by Senator Joshua Lidani, a PDP senator from
Gombe South, who insisted that the rules of the Senate were in consonant
with section 60 of the constitution.
Amid the heated argument, the PDP senators, led by Akpabio, walked out of the chamber.
Thereafter, Saraki recognised Senator
Barnabas Gemade, who thus urged the senate president to go ahead with
Amaechi’s confirmation since the opposition senators, who, he said, had
obviously had their say on the issue, had walked out.
The Senate then went ahead and confirmed the ex-Rivers governor as a minister.
The PDP senators at a news conference
shortly after their walkout noted that while their action was not normal
it was an inevitable means of protesting against an obvious breach of
the law by their opposition colleagues.
Akpabio, who spoke on behalf of his
caucus, said, “We were shut out when we wanted to react to the report
when it was laid. There was a little bit of something we don’t think is
in conformity with morality there. Once a case is before a competent
court of law, any action on that matter is subjudice.
“The committee was able to establish
that the issues that were brought against the nominee are already issues
that were adjudicated upon by the Court of Appeal and other courts of
competent jurisdiction. So, the issue of taking further action on his
nomination, whether by way of appointment or otherwise, did not exist.
“We tried to make this point but they
felt as a majority party there was no need to comply with the law. The
law is very clear that once a matter is before a court of competent
jurisdiction you can not take further action.
“There was nothing wrong with suspending
the issue of confirmation until those cases are disposed of and in this
case I understand it is the nominee that went to the court. It could
have been a good idea for the nominee to withdraw his cases from court
to allow the Senate to go into the matter.
“When that did not happen, we felt that
as lawmakers we have a responsibility to Nigerians not to partake in
that kind of charade.”
On whether the PDP senators would
continue to be loyal to Saraki after the development, Akpabio said, “The
Senate president was returned unopposed hence there was no voting so
nobody can say that anybody supported the president.”
The Presidency on Thursday hailed the confirmation of all the nominees of President Buhari by the Senate.
Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant on
National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Ita Enang, expressed
satisfaction with the decision of the upper chamber.
The APC at the national level said the
confirmation of all the ministerial nominees by the Senate had shown
that there was no longer any division within the APC family.
In a release by the APC National
Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party stated that the
cohesion displayed by the APC senators indicated that the lawmakers were
ready to work with the executive.
Mohammed said, ‘’The cohesion and unity
exhibited by the APC senators on Thursday have shown that our
legislators are ready to work with the executive and the party to ensure
that the agenda of the party is implemented for the benefit of all
Nigerians.’’
He added that the party commended all
its members and leaders in the Senate, including the leadership of the
APC, for the show of unity.
Mohammed further noted that democracy
was at work in the Senate on Thursday, despite the decision of the PDP
senators to walk out over the confirmation of Amaechi.
‘’It is part of democracy that while the
minority can have their say, the majority will have their way.
Therefore, the decision of the PDP senators to walk out is nothing but
democracy in action,’’ he said.
The APC spokesman and ministerial
nominee enjoined both the Senate and the House of Representatives to
continue to work with the executive arm of government in the overall
interest of Nigeria and its people.
‘’With the stage now set for the federal
cabinet to be in place, we implore all Nigerians, irrespective of their
party affiliation, to support President Muhammadu Buhari in his onerous
task of making Nigeria great again,’’ Mohammed said.
Also, the APC in Rivers State described Amaechi’s confirmation as a victory over forces of darkness.
The Rivers APC said that a group of
persons led by the Governor Nyesom Wike had tried to no avail to stop
Amaechi’s screening and confirmation as a minister.
Chairman of the APC in the state, Dr.
Davies Ikanya, said in a statement on Thursday that God used Buhari and
the Senate to frustrate the move to stop Amaechi’s ministerial ambition.
The statement read in part, “Today, 29th
October, 2015, will remain a great milestone in the annals of Rivers
State when against all odds, centering around the mischievous propaganda
by enemies of the state, the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
confirmed one of the best sons of Rivers State, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi,
as a minister despite the sinister petitions against him by misguided
enemies of Rivers State.
“Today, we have come to understand that
truly, God is with Amaechi and none of the plots by his enemies can have
any impact on his life if the meanings of his names are anything to go
by.
“Chibuike, which means ‘God is all
powerful’ and Rotimi, an abridged version of Oluwadurotimi, meaning ‘the
Lord stands by me,’ while Amaechi means ‘who knows tomorrow’ plays a
lot in most of the actions of this patriotic Lion of Niger Delta
politics, the pillar and embodiment of the change mantra in the politics
of Nigeria and a true son of God.”
The APC chairman also commended
President Buhari for nominating Amaechi, adding that the confirmation of
the former governor’s appointment would be a disappointment to enemies
of the state.
He pleaded with Nigerians not to judge
the people of the state by Wike’s actions and that of the governor’s
supporters, adding that “Rivers people are good natured and great
people.”
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