Shehu Sani Condemns Senators Over Poor Screening Of Ministerial Nominees

By Frank Oshanugor

A social activist and former Senator, Shehu Sani has taken a swipe at the Senate President Godswill Akpabio and his colleagues in the current 10th Assembly for turning ministerial screening exercise into a circuit show of “take a bow” by some former governors included in the ministerial list sent by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for screening.

The former lawmaker who spoke on Wednesday while contributing on ARISE TV morning programme relating to the ongoing protest by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) over fuel subsidy removal, said it was quite disappointing that the Senators did not seem to understand their constitutional responsibilities as an independent arm of government.

Explaining this, Sani pointed out that in America and other countries where democracy is practiced, it is the duty of the lawmakers to discreetly scrutinize the private

and public life of any nominee for ministerial appointment or any other public office with a view to ascertaining whether the nominee is perfectly qualified to occupy such office.

He wondered why Nigerian Senators were fast becoming rubber stamp of the presidency particularly as witnessed under President Muhammadu Buhari and currently under

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu when the Constitution has assigned distinct roles to each arm in line with the doctrine of separation of power.

According to him, a former Governor like Nasir El Rufai would not have passed any screening for ministerial appointment if the Senators had diligently probed his activities as Governor for eight years. He described E

l Rufai as a man full of divisiveness and anti-people tendencies. Such a Ministerial Nominee should not have been allowed to take a bow if the lawmakers were equal to their task, he posited.

Similarly, if Sani’s position is anything to go by, former Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike would be disqualified by the Senators if they were not acting as rubber of the President. Wike has been widely known as a man lacking

in integrity in the last days of his administration in Rivers State due to

inconsistent statements and utterances that were far less expected from a Governor.