By Henry Umoru
ABUJA — THE Senate, yesterday, witnessed a rowdy session over Presidential nominees into the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, following protest from Senators from the North-East geo-political zone of the country over what they called high level marginalisation.

The Senators, who complained of total rejection of nominees from the zone, stressed that President Goodluck Jonathan must in the spirit of federal character correct the anomaly, adding that until the president ensures that the north eastern zone of the country was adequately represented, the names must not be approved by the Senate.

The Senators also advocated that the replacement of dropped persons must be replaced from the zone, even as they urged the Senate and the President to take the north eastern zone more seriously.

The North East states are Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe.

The protest from the zone came when discussions were called for on the report presented by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, Senator Umaru Dahiru (PDP, Sokoto) on the screening of nominees for appointment as chairman and members of the National Human Rights Commission and Agencies.

Senate okays Odinkalu, 6 others

Meanwhile, the Senate, yesterday, confirmed the appointment of Dr. Chidi Anslem Odinkalu as Chairman of the Commission and six other members, just as it rejected the confirmation of Mr. Jones Osim, representing Human Rights NGOs and Cynthia Ene Olofu Ogbe, representing the women as members of the commission because of their failure to meet up with stipulated requirements.

Those whose nominations were approved yesterday besides the Chairman, Dr. Chidi Anslem Odinkalu were Prof. Ben Angwe as the Executive Secretary.

Other approved nominees included Mr. Kayode Komolafe, Mr. Dave Obidi C. Ezeigwe, Ranti Bosede Dauda, Saaadatu Mahdi and Olufunmilayo Falana as members.

Why Osim, Ogbe were dropped

According to the Committee, Osim, who hails from Abia State, was disqualified because he failed to display sufficient knowledge of the nature of responsibilities and function of the Commission and that he lacks exposure and experience in human rights issues.

On Mrs. Cynthia Ene Olofu Ogbe, the Senate noted that the nominee failed to demonstrate knowledge and sufficient experience in human rights issues and therefore, was not capable to represent women on the Board of the National Human Rights Commission.

Mark moves to remedy situation

Senate President David Mark who tried to douse the tension, gave an explanation that aside the nomination of Chairman and the Secretary, other nominations were made by various organisations of which the President might not have influenced.

According to him, “the President nominated two people, the chairman and secretary. The media is not nominated by the President. The media was nominated by someone else and the President had no reason not to respect the nominees. The NBA and other bodies represented in the Board also submitted their representatives. So, this is my own explanation on this particular case and since the committee has made its recommendation, we have to listen to the committee and you cannot hold the President responsible for the names submitted.”

“When we have a situation like this, we must look at it very objectively and put away sentiment. When professional bodies are asked to nominate, we should be careful how much we think we can influence their nomination because we are not members.