When N’Assembly Made Mockery of Screening

  POLITICAL NOTES

There is hardly nothing Nigerians won’t experience or witness under the current National Assembly led by Dr. Ahmad Lawan. In their desperate bid to please the presidency following the key role it played to ensure their emergence, the current leaders of the National Assembly have reduced some of their legislative functions to a laughing stock.

For instance, when the Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs was screening Lauretta Onochie, a presidential aide, for the position of chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), it asked her to answer the questions put to her behind closed doors.

Last month, President Muhammadu Buhari asked the upper legislative chamber to confirm Onochie as the NDDC chair, and 15 other nominees as board members of the commission.

The Deputy Chairman of the Senate Committee on Niger Delta, Senator Bulus Amos presided over the screening following the absence of the Chairman, Senator Peter Nwaboshi.

While appearing before the committee, Onochie was asked the name of her community in Delta State and if it produces crude oil. But as she began to answer, Amos asked her to respond in a closed-session.

This is not the first time the president would appoint Onochie to a position that is subject to the confirmation of the senate.

Onochie was nominated as a Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in October 2020.

Her nomination sparked outrage over concerns that she is a member of the APC, but the presidential aide said she resigned her membership of the ruling party in 2019. In 2021, when the upper legislative chamber considered and screened her for the appointment, she was eventually disqualified.

At the time, the Senate disqualified her on the grounds that Buhari had already nominated May Agbamuche-Mbu as the INEC commissioner from Delta – the same state Onochie hails from.

No sooner did President Buhari nominate Onochie in November as NDDC chair than controversy trailing her again. This time, many believe that she is not from oil-bearing community to warrant the position, among other issues.

The action of the lawmakers makes mockery of their basic function – properly screening of public officers for offices.

Many believe that the decision to ask Onochie to answer the questions put to her behind closed-door was not only to protect her but also to shield her inadequacies from the public glare. It also showed the desperation by the National Assembly to confirm her at all cost.