Power outage halts screening of ambassadorial nominees
An unexpectedly prolonged power outage at the National Assembly complex, on Tuesday, marred the screening of 46 non-career ambassadorial nominees, forcing the federal legislature joint committees on Foreign Affairs to suspend the exercise for over two hours.
The Senate had last week mandated the committee to screen the nominees following their re-nomination for consideration and confirmation by President Muhammadu Buhari after the previous 46 nominees were rejected by the legislature following series of petitions against them.
The committee, chaired by Senator Munsirat Sumonu and co-chaired by Hon Nnenna Ukeje, shortly after declaring the screening open and screened about six nominees including Zanna Bura (a former senator) from Yobe state; Yusuf Maitama Tigga, (Bauchi); Ahmed Ibeto (Niger); Hon Kabir Umar (Sokoto); and Baba Madugu (Bauchi), suspended the exercise as there was an instant power outage during screening of the fifth nominee, Baba Ahmad Jidda (Borno), who was caught in the midst of questions being thrown at him by the lawmakers.
The committee, having waited for close to one hour with the light not quickly restored, resolved to commence with the screening in order to conclude with Jidda, after which it later decided to suspend the exercise pending the restoration of power.
Earlier, Chairman of the Committee, Senator Sumonu who recalled the essence of the screening following refusal of Senate to consider the first list of 46 nominees initially sent to it by the president on the November 01, 2016 due to protest from various quarters, said that the screening exercise, which is in line with section 179 (14 ) of the 1999 constitution as amended, which vested on the Senate the power to screen and confirm nominees of the president, will be just and fair to all nominees without compromising the quality of representations that Nigeria will have abroad.
The committee will continue with exercise wednesday.
