ABUJA – Senate of the Federal Republic yesterday, became rowdy for more than half an hour over alleged bias by President Mohammadu Buhari in his Federal appointments.
Senators of Southern extraction had accuse President Buhari of being biased in favour of his northerners particularly Katina, his home state and the northeast.
However, some northern senators disagreed with them insisting that Buhari was fare to all Nigerians irrespective of tribe and tongue.
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 SP 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, the dsp 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.
Ekweremadu 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 therefore enjoined the Senate to stood down the confirmation process and called for investigation into the alleged lopsided appointments.
Sen. Ahmad Lawan, leading a pack opposing senators countered that the appointments were balanced.
“Whenever government sends in any request for confirmation of appointment, government does its home work very well.
What the DSP raised is not a complete picture. He has restricted his conclusion to very few.
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 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 23/07/18.
The situation became more tense, when 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 argitated 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 was shouted down by the northern senators.
Undaunted, Sen. Mau Ohanbuwa (Abia North) came to Utazi’s rescue and insisted that the matter be stood down until investigation is conducted.
At this point, presiding Senate President Saraki unilaterally referred the matter to the Senate Committee on Federal Character and Inter-governmental affairs.
He however promised stopping the process once it becomes unnecessary to continue.
Meanwhile, the National Assembly yesterday, declared seats of deceased lawmakers vacant.
Senators included, Mustapha Bukar (Katsina North) and Ali Wakili (Bauchi Sout) who died on April 4, 2018 and March 17, 2018, respectively.
That of the House of Representatives is late Umar Jibril of Lokoja/Kogi federal constituency.
However, the seat of a former governor of Plateau state Joshua Dariye was not declared vacant by the eighth Assembly.
Dariye who is representing Plateau Central senatorial district was sentenced to 14-years jail term by a Federal High Court.
Also, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had asked INEC to declare Dariye’s seat vacant.
The appeal by the PDP followed Dariye’s his defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Thursday, September 22.
The party told INEC that Dariye’s action was unconstitutional and should be dealt with appropriately.
Meanwhile, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Yakubu Mahmood has Indicated that by-elections for the vacant seats would be conducted in the next 30 days.
Speaking at a meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners in Abuja, Mahmood added that the Obudu 1 State Constituency of Cross River state has also been declared vacant.
“In the last few days the commission has received an official declaration of vacancies from the National Assembly in respect of Bauchi south senatorial district, Katsina north senatorial district and the Lokoja federal constituency in Kogi state.
A similar declaration was made by the Cross River state House of Assembly in respect of Obudu 1 state constituency.
Consequently, the commission is set to conduct by-elections to fill the vacancies in the four constituencies which have a total of over two million registered voters spread across 3,355 polling units in 234 wards and 22 local government areas.
Considering the requirement of the law that such an election should be conducted by the commission within 30 days following the declaration of vacancy, we are planning to conduct all the four elections on the same date in all the four states”, Mahmood declared.
