Garba Shehu, senior special assistant to the president
on media and publicity, says the rift between the
executive and the senate will soon be resolved.
He said this known on Wednesday while interacting
with state house correspondents.
The senate on Tuesday resolved to suspend the
consideration of all the nominees which the executive
sends to it for confirmation.
This followed the comment of Acting President Yemi
Osinbajo that Ibrahim Magu, acting chairman of the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC),
despite being rejected by the senate.
Shehu said Osinbajo’s remarks were misconstrued and
that the acting president was “merely lending” voice to
the view expressed by Femi Falana, a human
rights lawyer.
“Our understanding is that some remarks made by the
acting president some months ago when he was the
vice-president because the president was around at
that time, an opinion he gave is being misconstrued,”
he said.
“A senior lawyer in the country offered an opinion, in
which he said some categories of public officers
traditionally cleared by the national assembly need not
go through that process, that those ones can be
appointed by the presidential fiat; they don’t have to
go through screening.
“But several months ago, in his position as Vice-
President Osinbajo gave a personal opinion saying
what this lawyer said made sense.”
Shehu said though the government had not taken any
decision on the issue, all parties involved in the matter
will soon meet to resolve it.
“There is no official position by the government of
Nigeria… the federal executive council never sat down
to take a decision to say that some categories of
officials will not be sent to the national assembly or
that the authority of the senate under the constitution
to screen and pass nominees has never been
questioned by the government or the federal executive
council,” he said.
“From the time the vice president gave that opinion to
now, more than twenty nominations have been
forwarded to the senate and quite a number of them
have been screened, sworn-in and are now occupying
positions so, therefore, this is not a big issue as some
people want to make it.
“The party, government and the national assembly will
sit on a round table and this matter will be discussed
and resolved. I assure you.”
TheCable
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