THE Senate, on Wednesday, screened and confirmed the appointment of seven ministerial nominees, whose names were forwarded to it on Tuesday by President Goodluck Jonathan.
In a wide departure from tradition, the Senate immediately confirmed the nominees after screening seven of the 34 sent by President Jonathan.
It was learnt that the Senate acted swiftly to avoid undue pressure on its members from some lobbyists, who wanted some of the nominees dropped.
Usually, the Senate would screen the nominees and set aside a day for confirmation. But the president of the Senate, Mr David Mark, immediately announced the confirmation, following the screening of the seventh nominee, who appeared on the floor of the Senate, on Wednesday.
Sources in the Senate said that the senators were moving to avoid any scandal from lobbyists who were said to be piling intense pressure on senators to stop some ministerial nominees from being confirmed.
Former chairman of Senate Committee on Federal Character and Inter-Governmental Affairs, Senator Smart Adeyemi, had said, on Monday, that many of the senators had come under pressure from lobbyists, who were moving to scuttle the confirmation of some of the ministerial nominees.
Those confirmed on Wednesday were former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Allison-Madueke; former Labour Minister, Mr Emeka Wogu; former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Senator Bala Mohammed; former Minister of Niger Delta, Elder Godsday Orubebe; former Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu; former Minister of State for FCT, Navy Captain Caleb Olubolade (retd) and former Minister of Education, Professor (Mrs) Ruqayyatu Rufai.
The senators had earlier approved the request of the president to appoint 20 special advisers. The president’s letter to that effect was sent to the Senate on Tuesday.
While appearing before the Senate, Allison-Madueke said that though the planned removal of petroleum subsidy was a difficult decision, it had become inevitable. She, however, said that the government would provide palliatives before it could take such a decision.
She also said that the government was hopeful of getting oil in the Chad Basin in the northern part of Nigeria within the next 24 months, adding that efforts would also continue in the Benue axis.
The former Minister of Petroleum said that the government was searching for over N1 trillion to offset the oil subsidy.
She stated that the government spent over N1 trillion to subsidise oil products but that the end buyers were being denied the benefits by middlemen.
Allison-Madueke further stated that the same middlemen had ensured that kerosene had continued to remain scarce in the country.
According to her, despite the supply of 11 million instead of the needed eight million litres per day, retail buyers were still finding it difficult to access kerosene.
According to the minister, Nigeria’s four refineries were now working at 60 per cent capacity, adding that refineries had failed in the past because the turnaround maintenance were given to incompetent companies.
“Our refineries are not abandoned, they have been moved from 30 per cent capacity utilisation to 60 per cent. We have put in place a robust turnaround maintenance programme for the refineries; we have brought in companies that originally built the refineries for their turn around for, at least, 90 per cent capacity utilisation.
“We have signed an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the Chinese, to build three additional refineries in Kogi and other places. In three year’s time, Nigeria will be a net exporter of refined products and stop importing,” she said
She also asked the Senate to take a second look at the Petroleum Industry Bill, with a view to addressing contentious areas, adding that the bill was meant to revolu-tionise the gas industry in the country.
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Senate confirms Allison-Madueke, Orubebe, 5 others as ministers •‘Why Senate hurriedly confirmed nominees’ •FG searching for N1trillion for…