The Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress has disagreed with the Senate new rule that a ministerial nominee must get the support of at least two senators from his state to scale through screening.
The spokesman for the APC in Rivers, Chris Finebone, said in Port Harcourt on Thursday that something was wrong with such a rule on the screening of ministerial nominees.
Finebone explained that a ministerial nominee did not need the support of any senator to be confirmed a minister.
The three representing Rivers State in the Senate – Olaka Nwogu, George Sekibo and Osinakachukwu Ideozu – are all members of the Peoples Democratic Party, while Rotimi Amaechi, former governor of the state and the nominee from the state is of the APC.
Calling on the Senate to forget about such criterion, Finebone recalled that Musiliu Obanikoro, who was from an APC state, but a member of the PDP, was able to scale through and became a minister.
“I am sure that there is something wrong there; there is something not correct there. I know we have had cases where, for an example, Obanikoro never got the support of any senator and he scaled through. So, there is something I suspect that is not right there.
“Beyond Obanikoro, we have also had other examples where ministerial nominees never got the support of senators from their states and they scaled through. How about states where the senators are all from the opposition party? Does it mean that the Federal Government would surrender to the opposition?
“I don’t think it has been happening in the past. There were places where the senators were from the opposition, yet the Federal Government got its ministers not from the opposition party.
“The Senate should forget about such a rule because in the past it never came to play. I want to be sure that it is a new thing they have invented. But it does not work that way; it will not work that way. I don’t want to also believe that the rules are changing with some persons in mind.”
Also, a former aide to the immediate past governor of the state, Tony Okocha, recalled that two senators in the past had opposed the nomination of Henry Ogiri for a position in the Niger Delta Development Commission but that Ogiri eventually scaled through despite such opposition.
“It does not follow. Are we not Nigerians? Obanikoro, who was from a state in the opposition party in the past, was made a minister in recent past despite coming from the state from the opposition party,” Okocha said.
Follow Us
