Ex-Kwara Speaker Yissa E. Benjamin has blamed the rejection of his nomination as non executive commissioner of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), on vicious politics by politicians in the state.
President Muhammadu Buhari had last August nominated the former speaker as non executive commissioner of the NCC.
The Senate had reportedly said that Mr. Benjamin’s discipline as a nurse does not qualify him to occupy that post.
He accused the Senate President Bukola Saraki of allowing petty politics in Kwara state to override the interest of the State and Nigeria.
Addressing reporters yesterday in Ilorin, the state capital, the former speaker turned pastor, said “from the first day of the announcement of my nomination, there have been talks that I was going to be a victim of vicious politics by local politicians in my home state.
“I have been inundated by people who called themselves loyalists of the Senate president and who have been beating their chests that without the endorsement of the Senate President, my clearance would never see the light of the day. They said that Senator Bukola Saraki would stand in the way of my nomination for the reason that he did not nominate me,” he said.
But Saraki in his reaction to the accusation urged the former speaker to stop playing on sentiments and address issues.
Special Adviser ( Media and Communications) to Senate President, Yusuph Olaniyonu, said that “though I do not have the details of his allegation, but let me say that the decision as to whose Presidential nominee will be cleared after screening is first that of the Senate committee members before whom the nominee will appear and then that of all the 109 members of the Senate who will indicate their opinion on the suitability or otherwise of that nominee for the post he has been nominated into based on the recommendation of the committee.
“The Senate President is primus inter pares, that is, first among equals in the Senate. He cannot single handedly take a decision or override the decision of the majority. No nominee will be rejected if the majority does not support his rejection. In any case, there was a reason given for the rejection of this particular nominee. Why doesn’t he address the specific issue of why the Senate rejected his nomination and found him unsuitable for that post?
“If the President feels very strongly that the NCC cannot function without this nominee, the President can get the nominee to correct the anomaly raised by the Senate committee which screened him and then represent his name to the Senate for reconsideration.”