Contrary to speculations that the managing director of the World Bank and former finance minister Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala had been dropped by the presidency as a ministerial nominee, she was at the headquarters of the State Security Service (SSS) in Abuja yesterday for screening, LEADERSHIP can reveal.
The former minister was sighted yesterday dressed in her traditional Ankara fabric and her unique head gear at about 3:30pm.
While she was not allowed to speak with the press, a source at the service disclosed that her visit was in connection with her screening as a ministerial nominee.
According to him, the controversy surrounding her nomination was not unconnected with the disparity between her wage as a director of the World Bank and remunerations of ministers in the country.
The senior officer at the service explained that the service of Okonjo-Iweala as a minister should not be lost even if it meant giving her leverage above her colleagues, given her antecedents.
However, those who are not in favour of her nomination have argued that there are those who are not necessarily as ‘brainy’ as Okonjo-Iweala but are more enterprising.
Meanwhile, President Goodluck Jonathan has approved the assignment of portfolios and deployment of two new ministers to their ministries.
A statement signed by the secretary to the government of the federation (SGF) and made available to LEADERSHIP yesterday said Hajiya Zainab Maina (Adamawa State) had been appointed minister of women affairs and social development, while Mrs. Stella Odua-Oghiemwonyi ( Anambra State) is now the minister of aviation.
The SGF added that the two ministers were among the 14 ministerial nominees cleared by the Senate last week and sworn-in by the president on Saturday, July2.
Meanwhile, the second coming of erstwhile minister of water resources, Dr. Obadiah Ando has run into a brick wall as the three senators from his state of Taraba announced his rejection yesterday.
Senators Aisha Jummai Alhassan (PDP, Taraba North), Emmanuel Bwacha (PDP, Taraba South) and Abubakar Tutare (PDP, Taraba Central) told a press conference in Abuja that their action, which is now irreversible, is in deference to the wishes of their constituents who unanimously rejected the nominee and asked them to effect his non-clearance by the Senate.
With their resolute stand, Dr. Ando’s hope of clearancemay be trucated, unless there is a concerted effort by stakeholders both from the state and the federal government to change the three senators’ mind.
Going by the Senate’s rule, for a ministerial nominee to scale the screening hurdle, his nomination must be supported by at least two of the senators representing the state where he comes from.
Alhassan, who spoke on behalf of his two other colleagues, said the people’s objection to Ando’s nomination was based on his non-performance when he was minister of water resources in the last administration as well as his inaccessibility to the people of Taraba State.
Ando was to have been screened by the Senate last Tuesday according to the order in which the nominees’ names appeared on the Order Paper but he was skipped when it got to his turn.
Alhassan denied insinuations making the rounds that the standing down of Ando’s screening last Thursday was to give the nominee time to reach out to the senators for a possible change of mind.
She stated that Ando’s appearance was stood down on Thursday by the Senate to allow for the screening of the two female nominees slated for that day before the Senate adjourned in the spirit of gender sensitivity.
Alhassan maintained that she and her colleagues were “all men and women of very high integrity who will never be influenced or induced with anything to divert the cause of justice or oppose the objective wishes of our constituents”.
On whether their objection to Ando’s nomination will not bring the Taraba senators in direct collision with their state governor, Danfulani Suntai, Alhassan said: “There is no fight in this matter. It doesn’t matter who nominated him. He (the nominee) is to represent the entire Taraba and not the person that supposedly nominated him.”
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