ABUJA – Screening of ministerial nominees came under way in the Senate yesterday with the candidates canvassing a change in the way we do things.
Ten candidates namely, Sen. Udoma Udo Udoma (Akwa-Ibom), Dr. John Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti), Chief Audu Ogbe (Benue), Dr. Christopher Ogbonnaya Onu (Ebonyi), Dr. Osagie Ehanire (Edo), Lt. Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau (Kano), Alj. Lai Mohammed (Kwara), Amina Ibrahim Mohammed (Gombe), Engr. Suleiman Hussaini Adamu (Jigawa) and Mr. Ibrahim Usman Jibril (Nasarawa) were screened.
They saw danger signals that threaten Nigeria economic well-being and proffered various ways of mitigating the problems.
Dr. John Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti), observed that there was a mismatch in academic enrollments in the country. According to him, the number of school graduates far outweighs positions available in the higher institutions. He also advocated improvement in quality of school teachers, curriculum and enrollment.
On Nigerian foreign policy, he opined that Nigeria should drive and enforce alternation of power and discourage perpetration as is currently being observed in some Africa countries.
He debunked allegations that he left a huge debt burden in Ekiti State as former governor arguing that government is continuum and could not be run in isolation. He explained that in 2010, when he took over government, Ekiti State was “understandably saddled” with obligations in excess of N30 billion to banks, contractors and others. He tried to reduce the burden, completed some abandoned projects before going to the capital market to borrow N25 billion.
As, for Audu Ogbe (Benue) Let’s go back to the drawing board and re-strategise our agricultural business. Agric extension services should be revived; we should invest massively in agriculture; interest rates should be reduced to make capital accessible to the people. He alerted that Nigeria is in great danger as its inability to feed and absorb her citizens is growing by the day.
Ogbonaya Onu (Ebonyi), stressed the need to pay greater attention to power generation. He noted that climate change has affected hydro sources, which he noted has made it imperative for Nigeria to intensify search for alternative sources.
He therefore suggested that coal should be adopted as a means of power generation. According to him, Nigeria has the best coal in the world because its sulphur content is very low. He also noted that with application of coal, the vexatious pipeline vandalism would have been mitigated.
Taking his turn, Dr. Osagie Ehanire (Edo), noted that the sector is not doing well. He therefore urged that Nigeria should design their own models, instead of copying advance economies whose problems are not the same with Nigeria.
He also urged that curriculum of health institutions in the country should be upgraded to bring them in line with realities on ground and reasoned that management style of the hospitals should be improved upon, while orientation Programme should be organised for health workers so as to enable them boost morale of patients and patients’ relations.
Further more, the German trained medical doctor canvassed introduction of peer review among medical doctors to mitigate wrong diagnosis. On traditional medicine, he noted that the practice should be regulated, to set standard for practitioners.
Lt. Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau (Kano) on his part canvassed regular review of Nigeria Defence policy to get the best way to make the military provide a good ground on which Defence thrive.
The former Chief of Army Staff told the Senate that the country’s annual budget alone cannot fund the military and suggested that the country should take advantage of the United Nation’s reimbursement system to further enhance our armed forces.
According to him, the UN reimbursement system helps to enforce discipline in terms of punctuality, neatness, and maintenance of vehicles among others; and improves capacity through operation and maintenance of modern equipment.
Amina Ibrahim Mohammed who was at the beginning of the day’s business, cleared as a nominee from Gombe to be screened, told the senators that the policy instruments that give birth to Vision 20:2020 does not apply any more in the face current economic realities.
She therefore suggested, that in order to sustain the Vision, there was need for the policy review in all its ramifications.
The screening exercise continues today.

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