Senate screens Akunyili, three others

The Senate on Thursday commenced the screening of President Umaru Yar’Adua’s ministerial nominees, with emphasis on the need for them to promote harmonious relationship between the Executive and the National Assembly.

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Prof. Dora Akunyili

It recalled its experience with some of its former members who later became ministers and said they must be different.


Four of the 13 nominees whose names were sent to the upper arm of the National Assembly by Yar’Adua appeared for the screening on Thursday.

The four are Prof. Dora Akunyili (Anambra), Senator Ibrahim Kazaure (Jigawa), Alhaji Ikra Bilbis (Zamfara), and Alhaji Sani Ndanusa (Niger ).

IIn keeping with its tradition of extending courtesies to former colleagues, the Senate asked Kazaure and Bilbis to take a bow and go.

Akunyili and Ndanusa were, however, grilled on issues bordering on their educational qualification, current affairs and public life.

The only high points of the exercise were when Senator Felix Bajoma asked Akunyili a rather “off the mark” question and when the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Information and Media, Senator Ayogu Eze, took on Ndanusa on the incongruities in his Curriculum Vitae.


Bajomo had asked Akunyili, who is the Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, if political pressure had ever prevented her from exposing “drug barons.”

But Akunyili, who looked calm and composed said, “We have never hidden anybody. And by the way sir, it is not drug barons because (if) you are talking about drug barons, you are talking about hard drugs.

“Hard drug is under the purview of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency. NDLEA is in charge of hard drugs such as cocaine, heroine and such drugs. We are in charge of illicit drugs and the licit use of illicit drugs.”

She also explained that NAFDAC’s greatest weapon against drug counterfeiters was exposing them.

“We always give their names to the press, we always expose them, and despite the fact that I am from the South-East, it has never deterred me.”

In her response to a question by Senator Grace Bent, on how she would establish a good relationship with the Senate, the NAFDAC boss said, “I believe that if I work very hard by the grace of God, my work will endear me to you. I will not need to seek a good relationship with you.

“I will always respect you like I have always done. I have always worked with the Senate and the House of Representatives in the past seven and half years because we come to present our budget. So, it is basically the same thing but at a higher level.

“I believe that we will work well and that it is not going to affect my job, the job would rather make the relationship better.”


She said with the present approach to the war against counterfeit drugs, the menace would be reduced from the current rate of 10 per cent to less than five per cent.

Akunyili also assured that she would perform well if she became a minister.

She said, “I think the zeal that I put into my work is my nature. And if I am given a higher responsibility because of the job I have done in the past, is it not more sensible for me to work harder to justify the confidence reposed in me? I believe I am going to perform better.”

When Ndanusi took his turn, Eze questioned him for paying little attention to details.

The following ensued between them:

Eze: “You are aware that the job of a minister is the job of an administrator and, therefore, this job requires somebody with an eye for details; a man who is able to identify small prints.

“I have looked at your CV, well there is no pagination. I want to ascertain and be sure that you authorised the publication of this CV. Did you?

Ndanusa: Yes

Eze: “I have looked at the area where you listed some board appointments and there are a lot of small, small slips which actually task your attention for details. If you look at No. 1, I have served or still serving and I think you wanted to write I have served and I am still serving and then you passed it.

“You also wrote Member, Committee on Reorganisation of Niger State Sport Council and I am sure you wanted to write Sports Council and you passed it on.

“Again, you wrote, Member, Marketing Committee of the Confederation African Tennis where you wanted to write Confederation of African Tennis.

“These are just a few things that task the attention for details of our leaders, but I hope that when you get into your office, maybe in the anxiety to get certain things done, that you won’t skip certain details that will impede your performance as a minister.

“These are a few things that task the details of our leaders. I want to also ask you to recite the national pledge.

At this point, the President of the Senate, Mr. David Mark intervened.

Mark: “Sorry Senator Eze, I thought that you were through with your questions. But I think the issue of reciting the pledge, in my very candid opinion, is not very necessary.

Eze: “Your Excellency, I stand corrected as advised.”

Ndanusa, who is the current Commissioner for Infrastructure in Niger State, was also asked a question on the Darfur crisis to which he said he was not conversant with.


He said, “I want to say that I am not too clear on the issue of the Darfur crisis.

When it was Kazuare’s turn, the Senate Majority Whip, Senator Kanti Bello, asked a question which attracted loud murmurs from some of his colleagues.

But Mark calmed frayed nerves when he said, “We know he (Kazuare) is a colleague and we know we have a convention. That is not in doubt. The President of the Senate, however, allowed the Deputy Majority Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN), to make a few observations.

Ndoma-Egba said, “Our distinguished colleague, we have a convention here that Senators who are nominated by the executive arm enjoy certain courtesies when they come here.

“And I believe that you are entitled to this courtesy but we had a recent experience that one of us who came before us and enjoyed the courtesies that are attached to him by being one of us went back and trained his guns at us.

“We know that your primary loyalty as a minister will be to Mr. President and Commander-in-Chief. But we just want to satisfy ourselves, when you become a minister, will you, like our colleague under reference, also train your guns at us? If you will, will you tell us what is wrong with us?

Mark again intervened and said, “Senator Kazaure, as you will well understand, that was a very fair question. Fair as the question is, I want to overrule it. And I will tell you why I want to overrule it because it couldn’t be any fairer than that.

“I think the main thing is to note that, this is also your constituency, and if you go, we want you to represent us with facts, not fiction. I think that is the main thing we would like to get out.

“The courtesy we are extending to you is because we believe that you are a distinguished Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and as a minister, our credibility is also at stake in the way you do your own business.

“We would want you to excel if at the end of the day you are confirmed. Excel among your colleagues so that we can be proud that as a Senator, you have also distinguished yourself.”

After admonishing the Senator to be of good behaviour, Mark asked his colleagues if it was their wish for Kazaure to take a bow and go.

They unanimously answered yes. The nominee was subsequently asked to take a bow and go.

Bilbis was given a similar treatment for being a former member of the House of Representatives.

After listening to his experience in public service, Mark said, “Distinguished colleagues, he was a member of the House of Representatives.

“Alhaji Aliyu, it is our tradition to allow our colleagues to take a bow and go. Let me also say that if and when you are confirmed, you should bear it in mind that you represent legislators across this country. We expect that you should be well above board, be exemplary and be one that others would want to emulate.”