By Desire Emmanuel
Ahead of Senate screening of the remaining ambassadorial nominees sent to the National Assembly by the Presidency, there is growing disquiet over the composition of the list, especially regarding the violation of the Federal Character Principle as enshrined in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
In fact, senators are said to be spoiling for a showdown over the list, as some of them have advised the Presidency to withdraw the list from the Senate and go through it again for a review.
For example, they cited the inclusion of the name of a senator from Yobe State, Adamu Garba Talda, who died in July this year, as an ambassadorial nominee as one of the reasons the Presidency should review the list
It was also discovered that while some states have three or four nominees, others have none, a clear violation of the Federal Character principle.
For example, regarding the career and non-career list, the North-East zone has seven nominees while the South-West has 15 nominees. The North-West has 13, the South-East has nine. The North-Central region has 10 nominees while South-South has 11 on the list.
The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, at plenary last Thursday formally read the list and referred it to the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs for further legislative action.
Some of the senators kicking against the list said it was in breach of Section 14(3) of the constitution which mandates that the composition and conduct of the Federal Government must reflect the “federal character of Nigeria” to ensure national unity and loyalty.
The section reads: “The composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few State or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that Government or in any of its agencies.”
President Bola Tinubu has so far forwarded a total of 65 ambassadorial nominees to the Senate for confirmation, including 34 career ambassadors and 31 non-career ambassadors.
