After days of uncertainty and postponements, former governor of Rivers State, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi appeared before the Senate yesterday for screening.
The former governor’s eventual screening was carried out by senators of the All Progressives Congress, APC, while minority senators of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, boycotted the exercise.
Disagreement ensued shortly after Amaechi was ushered in to commence the screening, as Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio, raised a Point of Order on Amaechi’s screening when the report on the petition against him was yet to be considered.
Citing order 43 of the Senate standing rules, Akpabio insisted when the Committee on Ethic and Privileges submits its report on a petition against a nominee, it must be considered before screening.
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 PDP senators will not have any questions for the nominee because we have just received a petition on him. The petition was not debated at all and was not adopted. As a result, we will not have anything to ask the nominee,” Akpabio said.
The committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions headed by Sen. Sam Anyanwu (PDP), which probed alleged N70bn fraud allegations against Amaechi laid its report at yesterday’s plenary.
However, the disagreement deepened when the Leader of the Senate, Ali Ndume, in response to the Point of Order, said if the PDP would not ask questions then the APC might ask the nominee to bow and go.
Citing order 53(9) of the same Senate rules, Ndume submitted that as the Leader, he had the responsibility of guiding the Senate properly.
He said the report of the investigation committee had just been laid and what should follow, according to the procedures of the Senate was to make the report available to all senators before debate on it would commence
He said the nominee, having been a speaker for eight years and a governor for another eight years had proved his competence and could be asked to bow and go.
Ndume said: “This is a confirmation hearing. We might as well ask the nominee as a former governor, a former Speaker of a House of Assembly to take a bow and go and not ask him any questions.”
The minority leader, however, moved to clarify his point of order but some of the APC senators were shouting “take a bow and go.”
The President of the Senate, thereafter, moved to quell the situation and cautioned all the senators to stick to screening of the nominee rather than bantering.
The Senate thereafter proceeded with the screening with only the APC senators questioning the nominee, before he was subsequently asked to take a bow and go.
While fielding questions from APC senators, Amaechi made attempts to clear his name of allegations of corruption, including the indictment by a panel of inquiry set up by Rivers State Government, which indicted him of financial misappropriation.
He also spoke on his role in the marketing and emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari, amongst others.
On the twin vices of bribery and corruption, while stating that it was very difficult to define the term corruption, the former governor swore that he has never taken bribe in his life. He said: “Corruption is very difficult to define.
I have never taken bribe in my life. But let me say that if they send a girl to you and you sleep with the girl and do her favour, you are corrupt.
“Corruption is a very wide concept. If people are contesting for a position and you offer your son, brother or sister an opportunity to hold that position, probably the person is not qualified, you are corrupt. So, it is difficult for me to define corruption.”
Giving account of his stewardship as the former chairman of Nigerian Governors Forum, NGF, Amaechi stated that the forum acted as a check on executive recklessness, including the expenditure of the oil subsidy.
He explained that the radical posture of the forum led to the former President Goodluck Jonathan plotting to remove him without success.
“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, I put myself forward and if you saw the forces against me you will think that I will lose. The rest is history but the reason why that happened is because of my radical posture,” the former governor said.
On why he jumped ship and pitched camp with Buhari, Amaechi explained that he took the action when it became clear that the PDP government was reeking in corruption and that Jonathan was not capable of providing the kind of quality leadership that the country needed.
According to him, it became clear that to redeem the country from the drift occasioned by corrupt leadership, there was the need to provide an alternative candidate that would be accepted by all Nigerians desirous of change, which led to the meeting with Buhari.
“We sold to the public the fact that there was massive corruption in the system. And there was the need to fight that corruption. And the only way to fight that corruption is to put a new government. And we had to get a signpost candidate.
“The signpost candidate is a man who the Nigerian public has seen as an incorruptible president. And that was why the party had to put President Buhari forward. And we thought that there was a need to do things differently.
“I thought that as good as the former President may have been, I don’t think he was suitable enough for the growth and development of Nigeria. So, we needed to offer opportunity to somebody we believe is better than the former President.
It was gathered that what played out on the floor of the Senate during the screening, was the manifestation of what took place during the one hour exclusive (closed-door) session, which preceded the exercise.
The issue of how to proceed with the Amaechi case dominated the closed door session. It was also learnt that all efforts by the senators to come to a compromise on how to proceed with the Amaechi case came to naught.
Senators from both sides of the divide were said to have stuck to their guns, and could not compromise their positions.
It was consequently resolved by Saraki to resolve the matter on the floor of the senate and seek the resolution of the matter in the public glare. Five other nominees, whose confirmation was deferred till next week were also screened.
Those screened were Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, Cladius Omoleye Daramola, Adewale Isaac Folorunso, Baba Shehuri Mustapha and Ocholi Enojo James.
The senate last week completed the screening and confirmation of 18 nominees and forwarded their names to the President. There are 11 nominees still waiting to be screened. Their screening would take place next week Tuesday, the senate president said. – National Mirror.
