…as controversy trails Benue nominee’s bio-data
The Nigerian Senate on Monday commenced the screening of ministerial nominees sent to it by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. However, the upper chamber acted contrary to the promise it made to Nigerians that the screening exercise would be devoid of the usual “take a bow and go”.
A total of 14 nominees were screened with 10 of them accorded the privilege of “take a bow and go”.
Also, a mini drama ensued when lawmakers grilled a ministerial nominee from Benue State, Prof Joseph Utsev, citing “discrepancies” in his biodata.
Prof Utsev 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.
The professor of Water Resources and Environmental Engineering said he bagged his Master’s Degree from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 2007 and further bagged a doctorate degree from same university in 2011.
However, Senator Tokunbo Abiru from Lagos East Senatorial District asked Utsev to clarify his biodata.
“You were born on December 2, 1980 but reading further down, you attended St John Primary School, Gboko, in 1989,” Abiru said. “I am wondering whether you finished primary school in 1989 which suggests that you started primary school at the age of three to finish in 1989.”
“You also claim that you went to secondary school in 1995,” Abiru continued, adding that “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 interjected and 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, and the lawmakers had a good laugh.
Akpabio thereafter said the discrepancy in Utsev’s biodata must have been a typo error.
However, a member from Benue North-West Senatorial District, Titus Zam Tartenger, raised Order 42 on personal explanation, saying that there is no discrepancy in the biodata of the professor.
Also, the former governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, took the podium and said President Tinubu would not regret nominating him as a minister, describing himself as a performer.
Speaking during his ministerial screening before the Senate, he said he executed and commissioned series of capital projects across Rivers when he served as governor.
“Every day I was commissioning projects. Mr President will not regret nominating me as a minister,” he said.
Senator Mpigi Barinada (PDP, Rivers) said over 5 million people from the state supported Wike’s ministerial nomination and urged his colleagues to let him follow the usual tradition of “take a bow and go”.
However Senate President Akpabio explained that the former governor was not thoroughly quizzed because the Senate had his records, having formerly served as a minister.
He said Wike had appeared before the Senate for screening when he was nominated as a minister by ex-President Goodluck Jonathan.
It would be recalled that Wike served as Minister of State for Education under former President Jonathan.
