By Johnbosco Agbakwuru & Joseph Erunke

ABUJA — STIFF opposition from All Progressives Congress, APC, Senators and few members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, yesterday stalled screening of the former Minister of State for Defence, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, for ministerial appointment.

Obanikoro

The Senate, however, screened four of the eight nominees forwarded by President Goodluck Jonathan to fill the vacant positions created as a result of the resignation of former ministers who contested party primaries in their states.

As a result of the controversy the nomination of Senator Obanikoro has generated, Senate President David Mark embarked on a closed-door session where he tried to persuade Senators to follow the tradition of the Senate where a former Senator would be asked to take a bow and leave without being asked questions.

But this did not go down well with APC Senators who had stoutly opposed the clearance of Senator Obanikoro over his alleged involvement in the Ekiti governorship election.

Closed-door session

A source privy to the closed-door session said the session was rowdy for more than 30 minutes as APC Senators and few of their colleagues from the PDP had maintained their positions despite the plea from the Senate President who had reminded members that it could be their turn one day after they had left the Senate

Mark, according to the source, had pleaded that there should be no questions for Obanikoro in obedience to the established rule, arguing that if Senators were allowed to ask questions, there was no way the issue of Ekiti saga would not be mentioned.

It was gathered that the Senate President diplomatically succeeded in persuading the Senators to take the screening in batches with the hope that before next week, things might change and that if nothing changed, the remaining nominees would be screened.

The APC Senators had last week protested the inclusion of Obanikoro following his alleged role in the Ekiti election and had even insinuated that in some other climes, President Jonathan should have resigned.

Besides, they claimed that the three Senators representing Ekiti in the Senate had opposed the nomination of Obanikoro and had also allegedly written to the President to register their protest, demanding the withdrawal of the nomination.

The Senators further reasoned that there was even a case against Obanikoro to that effect pending in court, and the nomination should not be mentioned in the Senate.

However, one of the Senators was of the view that since there was an existing tradition of allowing a former member to bow and go, there was no need asking Obanikoro questions, adding that it would also mount to sub-judice to ask him questions on a matter that is pending in court.

On resumption, Mark while reporting progress only said that at the closed-door session, issues of national importance were discussed.

Screened nominees

The four nominees screened were, Senator Patricia Akwashiki from Nasarawa State, who was, according to the tradition of the Senate as a former Senator, told to take a bow and go.

Also screened were Prof. Nicholas Ada from Benue State, Col. Augustine Akobundu (retd), Abia State and Engr. Fidelis Nwankwo from Ebonyi State.

The remaining nominees whose screening was deferred till Tuesday apart from Obanikoro were Mrs. Hauwa’u Lawan, Mr. Kenneth Kobani and Senator Joel Ikenya.

Fielding questions during the screening, Prof. Ada who was a Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Benue State University and had acted as the Vice-Chancellor of the university for more than six times said lack of qualified teachers was responsible for the low rated students which universities produce in recent times.

Ada suggested that planners of education policy in Nigerians should go back to the basics and revisit the Grade 11 teachers programme even as he condemned the attitude of parents who only send their wards to schools without really trying to find out the kind of training that was given to students.

He said that it was the joint responsibility of parents and teachers to ensure that students were given adequate training and good moral behaviour which would help to curtail the issue of cultism in tertiary institutions.

Ada while answering questions on the possible way of reducing incessant strikes in tertiary institutions in the country said that with the present situation of things, strike will not end but he said that it was his belief that it would not continue indefinitely.

According to him some of the things that would help to reduce strike in the universities was mutual understanding between government and the university lecturers where government would only make promises based on the available resources and try to keep to such promises, while lecturers themselves should also consider the economic realities in the polity.

While answering questions on the root causes of security challenges in the country, Col. Akobundu who is the National Vice Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, South East explained that issues of ethnicity, religious intolerance, porous borders and inequality in distribution of wealth were the four main issues responsible for insecurity in the system.

After screening of four nominees, the Senate President announced that screening of the other nominees was deferred till next week.