BY SEGUN ADEBAYO, ABUJA – With less than a year to the end of the tenure of the present administration, the Senate, on Wednesday, screened and confirmed the seven ministerial nominees whose names were sent to it last week by President Muhammadu Buhari for confirmation as Minister-designates.
The nominees screened and confirmed as minister-designates include Henry Ikechukwu Ikoh (Abia), Umana Okon Umana (Akwa-Ibom), and Ekumankama Joseph Nkama (Ebonyi), Goodluck Nana Opiah (Imo), Umar Ibrahim El-Yakub (Kano), Ademola Adewole Adegoroye (Ondo), and Udi Odum (Rivers).
While fielding questions from Senators, one of the nominees, Ikechukwu Ikoh, said in tackling the issue of job creation, efforts must be made to grant operational licenses to operators of modular refineries in the country while Umana Okon Umana from Akwa-Ibom State, who is the Managing Director of the Oil and Gas Free Zones Authority, underscored the need for Nigeria to step-up its production capacity so as to boost foreign exchange earnings and reduce the country’s reliance on importation.
Similarly, Ekumankama Joseph Nkama, admonished young Nigerians to tap into new areas of investment to foster self-reliance and productivity, particularly in the country’s trade sector.
On the lingering strike action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Nkama called on the federal government and ASUU to reach a compromise just as he urged the National Assembly to provide additional funding for the educational sector to meet some of the needs of the union.
According to him; “There will be the need for compromise. For a very long time, ASUU has been sticking to their guns that all the agreements reached earlier must be implemented and we know that from the same source – the same national purse – there are several contending interests seeking for attention.
“My advice will be that federal government and ASUU will have to come to a compromise, and through this, we would be able to solve the issue of ASUU strike once and for all.
“I know the importance of budgetary provision. I want to appeal to the Senate that when the budget is being made for the coming year, there will be adequate provision for the education sector, so that some of these needs that the ASUU members are asking for as a union will be met,” he said.
Also lending his voice on the need for an end to the ASUU strike, Ademola Adewole Adegoroye, said the action of the union is against the interest of Nigerian students, adding however that more effort must be made by government to find a lasting solution to same.
In keeping with its legislative tradition, a former member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Goodluck Nana Opiah was asked by the Senate to take a bow.
In his own remarks during his screening, Umar Ibrahim El-Yakub, who is the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (House of Representatives), said when sworn-in as a member of the Federal Executive Council, he would sustain and consolidate on the harmonious working relationship between the Executive and National Assembly.
