The Senate on Thursday screened former Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, after his nomination as a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by President Muhammadu Buhari.
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No sooner had Amaechi mounted the podium and introduced himself than Minority Leader Godswill Akpabio interrupted him with Order 43 of the Senate Rules, which provides for “Personal Explanation” at the “indulgence of the Senate” and “the leave of Senate President”.
To that end, the minority leader said PDP senators would not participate in asking the nominee any questions until the report of the committee was considered in the ‘Committee of the Whole’.
The fresh petition was thereafter referred to the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions for further consideration.
The Senate Leader, Senate Ali Ndume however opposed the stance of Akpabio and the opposition, saying as a former Speaker and Governor, Amechi could as well simply bow and go.
The two and others alleged that all the senators at the closed session had agreed that the PDP senators would insist on not having anything to do with Amaechi, while their APC colleagues also agreed that they would only ask the nominee to only “take a bow and go”.
Shortly after the Senate President Senator Bukola Saraki acknowledged receipt of his curriculum vitae, Amechi was told to highlight his achievements as a former speaker and ex-governor.
After a tensed exchange of words, the Senate President gave the nod for APC lawmakers to ask Amaechi questions.
Fielding questions from the APC senators, Amaechi said he had never received bribe in his life, claiming that his confirmation as a minister would be a credit to the Buhari administration. He said as Senate Leader, it was his duty to market the candidacy of Amaechi, who is a member of his political party, All Progressives Congress (APC).
We declared an emergency in the education sector that guaranteed free and compulsory education up to secondary school level.
“However, because there are challenges, people in Nigerian politics believe that there is the need to compromise and be able to manage yourself around; I will do that but where it clashes with my principles I find it a bit hard to do what people expect me to do”.
“Again, we would like to state that we are overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and recognition for the former governor by all shades of the Nigerian populace and would like to assure everyone that Rt. Hon”.
Amaechi said: “When you deal with the issue of massive unemployment, you deal with the change in the economic mantra”.
Heineken Lokpobri (Bayelsa); Omoleye Daramola (Ondo); Adewole Folorunso (Osun); Baba Shehuri Mustapha (Borno); and Ocholi James (Kogi ) – listed in that order. And we thought that there was a need to do things differently. Anyone who visited Port Harcourt while we served, will testify to the fact that we worked to bring back the old glory of Port Harcourt as the garden and city as the third leg in the economic tripod of Nigeria.
In the area of power, of the 350 Megawatts (MW) total capacity generation assets invested by the government before ours, only 70MW (equivalent to about 20 per cent) was available.
“We did that in Rivers State: for four, five, six years, our budget was highest in education in Rivers State”.
“I think the former president didn’t like it, and when my tenure expired as the chairman of the forum, I was requested not to run for a second term and I felt that as a Nigerian, I reserve the responsibility to exercise my rights. So, if this happens, we will employ quite a number of workers”.
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The last nominee to be screened was Ocholi who explained how the government can reform the prisons in line with modern realities.
