The front page news of today’s Guardian: ‘Senate drops El-Rufai, Danladi, Okotete, okays Keyamo after apology’. The reason? Security report!
Which security report? If Nyesom Wike passes a security test why not El-Rufai? If not El-Rufai, why not the benign and affable Stella Okotete?
There is absence of fidelity on the part of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu because if politics were to remain a game of interests involving the authoritative allocation of resources based on factors such as popularity and loyalty to the cause of a political party, then Nasir El-Rufai and Stella Okotete should be offended if they are not confirmed as ministers.
How can a female nominee be dropped and replaced, not by another female but by a male in this time and age? I hope not!
Stella Okotete has distinguished herself in grassroots mobilization in national politics of interests and representation. That’s why her nomination generated such feverish euphoria among the Urhobo people of Delta State who have known her as a selfless politician who lives her life for the betterment of others.
Okotete has a reputation for selfless living, being ever willing to share her personal resources with the needy and cared less about using public office to amass wealth for herself. Hence, it was so easy for her to mobilize massive votes for the APC and President Tinubu during the 2023 Presidential Elections. She is said to be extremely loyal to the APC and has never undermined its leadership at both local and national levels, including her mentor, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege.
Okotete as a relatively young woman is highly respected by members of the APC for her independent convictions and commitment to the fortunes of the party hence, her nomination as Minister was considered as so well-deserved by all the shades of the party.
As for El-Rufai, love or hate him, it cannot be take away that he championed the cause, as a Northern Governor, that Nigeria’s Presidency in 2023 must shift to the South. At a time when Iyorchia Ayu of the PDP was dilly dallying about zoning the presidential ticket of its party, El-Rufai maintained unequivocally that power in Nigeria’s federal government must shift to the South with a clear-mindedness that Bola Ahmed Tinubu would be the beneficiary.
No sitting governor in Northern Nigeria was as vociferous as Nasir El-Rufai in support of Bola Tinubu in his quest to become President. Therefore the nomination of El-Rufai as minister of the federal government cannot be rejected by a Tinubu-controlled Senate. Therefore, let the prevarication stop!
Security report has become a euphemism for rejection by the real power brokers of the Tinubu Presidency. They use it as an alibi.
Well, such security report may apply to El-Rufai if they would but certainly not to the gracious Okotete in whose case, some powerful persons simply, further nominated her Urhobo brother Festus Keyamo to replace her after she gave a good account of herself during the Senate screening.
President Tinubu does not have a history of being fickle like the weather. So how come he nominated Okotete and presented her for Senate screening only to change his mind so quickly in preference to Keyamo who was later confirmed so quickly? Does the President prefer a man to a woman?
So those intrigues in Senate and Villa were all about in the struggle to confirm either Okotete or Keyamo?
Note for certain, the Nigerian Senate cannot reject any nominee that the President insists on appointing as a Minister. See the example of Prof. Babalola Borishade in the matter between President Olusegun Obasanjo and the Senate. No matter the number of times the Senate rejected the man, the then President insisted and he was eventually confirmed as minister.
In the case of Tinubu, Nigerians simply witnessed a cracked ministerial list broken into by extra-presidential forces who battle for the control of the Tinubu presidency.
Therefore, can Nigeria afford another round of a President who is unaware of the decisions being made in his name as it once was in the days of President Muhammadu Buhari?
“My name is Bola Ahmed Tinubu and I am the President!”
So be it please we pray!
Frank Tietie
Lawyer & Social Commentator writes from Abuja
Gatekeepers News is not liable for opinions expressed in this article, they’re strictly the writer’s
