The presidency has opened
discussions with the Senate leadership over the refusal of the upper chamber to
confirm the head of the country’s anti-graft agency.
The Senate twice refused to
confirm Ibrahim Magu as the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC).
But the government has kept Magu
in office in acting capacity for over one year now.
This has, however, drawn the ire
of the Senate which has stood down nearly all nomination requests from the
Presidency until Magu is removed.
Sources yesterday revealed that
the Presidency has reached out to the Senate in order to find a middle ground
upon which the dispute could be resolved.
A meeting to that effect was held on Monday
with both parties, our sources said.
Presidency and Senate sources
said, at the moment, confirmation of close to 50 nominees of the president is
pending.
Confirmation of nominees for the
Deputy Governor and four members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Pension Commission (PenCom), Code of Conduct Bureau (CBB), Independent
Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), National Lottery Regulatory Commission
(NLRC), Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) among others, are pending.
Contacted, Senior Special
Assistant to the President on National Assembly (Senate),
Senator Ita Enang confirmed that
the presidency has resumed talk with the Senate.
“We are not resting on our oars;
we are conducting the best and highest level of diplomacy. We have started
talking again; we have changed the tone of our speaking. We are arriving at
something like a middle ground that would be satisfactory to all parties.
“So long that these appointments
stand unconfirmed, foreign investment, funding from foreign partners and
governance are being affected. We are not attacking, we are engaging and I
believe in the next few days, the result will be evidenced and we will come out
of it,” he said.
Asked whether the executive has
agreed to sack Magu, Enang said: “We are working with them and we are arriving
at some solutions “.
When our correspondent asked him
to list the number of pending confirmation, he said: “We have nominees for
NERC, CBN, Pension Commission, NDIC, NDDC among others.”
Again when asked on whether the
executive has agreed to implement the resolution on Magu, he repeated: “We are
arriving at some solutions “.
Meanwhile, the Senate yesterday
confirmed the nomination of Rufus O. Akeju (Lagos) and Mohammed Isah (Kebbi) as
Resident Electoral Commissioners of the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The confirmation followed the
consideration of the report of Senate committee of INEC on the screening
chaired by Senator Suleiman Nazif (APC,Bauchi). The Senate approved the
recommendation of the committee rejecting Ahmad Bello Mahmud ( Zamfara).
The confirmation came five months
after 12 other nominees (RECs) had been confirmed. Our correspondent reports
that Senator Tijjani Kaura (APC, Zamfara) and Senator Kabiru Marafa clashed over the Zamfara nominee.
While Marafa was in favour of the
confirmation of the nominee, Kaura objected to it on the grounds that the (nominee) was not from Zamfara state. He
said the nominee is from Sokoto state.
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