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There was drama at the Red Chambers yesterday during the screening of the 47 Ambassadorial Nominees sent by President Buhari to be okayed by the legislature. The list of the 47 Nigerians was sent by the President on June 9, requesting the senate to approve it as soon as possible.
The Screening Panel that consisted of members of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs chaired by Senator Monsurat Sunmonu, representing Oyo Central asked the nominees several questions ranging from diplomatic issues to the names of the senators representing their states, their geopolitical zones and the states in them, how many local government areas in their states, how many lawmakers in the Senate, among others.
While some performed excellently, some flopped. Here are the names of the would-be ambassadors that didn't perform well yesterday.
1. Vivia Okeke (Anambra State): Okeke was asked to recite the anthem, murmured when she got to the second to the last line of the first stanza, “One nation bound in freedom.”
2. Ibrahim Isah (Niger Delta): Isah, currently serving in Turkey, was asked to recite the national pledge. When he reached the third to the last line, he said, “To defend her unity and integrity,” instead of “to defend her unity and uphold her honour and glory.”
3. Jane Ndem (Benue State): She currently serves in Japan. She got the number of lawmakers in the Senate (109); she also got the names of senators representing her state but when she was asked to name 12 states in Nigeria and their capital, she got 11 but named Lagos and Lagos as its capital instead of Ikeja.
4. Baba Garba (Kano State): Garba, while reciting the pledge, skipped the “to serve Nigeria with all my strength” line, he returned to it and skipped “to defend her unity” again.
5. Janet Bisong (Delta State): Ms. Bisong while apologising for not being able to state the number of local government areas in her state, was interrupted by one of the panelists, Senator James Manager, who is from Delta, saying, “You know it; it’s 25.”
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In a sharp reaction, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Ita Enang, who led the nominees before the panel, after the exercise was postponed to Wednesday, however, said the reports of nominees not been able to recite the anthem and the pledge, which were already trending online, were not true. But a Senator who spoke with some journalists after the screening debunked Enang's claims, noting that some of the nominees truly goofed.
PUNCH
The Screening Panel that consisted of members of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs chaired by Senator Monsurat Sunmonu, representing Oyo Central asked the nominees several questions ranging from diplomatic issues to the names of the senators representing their states, their geopolitical zones and the states in them, how many local government areas in their states, how many lawmakers in the Senate, among others.
While some performed excellently, some flopped. Here are the names of the would-be ambassadors that didn't perform well yesterday.
1. Vivia Okeke (Anambra State): Okeke was asked to recite the anthem, murmured when she got to the second to the last line of the first stanza, “One nation bound in freedom.”
2. Ibrahim Isah (Niger Delta): Isah, currently serving in Turkey, was asked to recite the national pledge. When he reached the third to the last line, he said, “To defend her unity and integrity,” instead of “to defend her unity and uphold her honour and glory.”
3. Jane Ndem (Benue State): She currently serves in Japan. She got the number of lawmakers in the Senate (109); she also got the names of senators representing her state but when she was asked to name 12 states in Nigeria and their capital, she got 11 but named Lagos and Lagos as its capital instead of Ikeja.
4. Baba Garba (Kano State): Garba, while reciting the pledge, skipped the “to serve Nigeria with all my strength” line, he returned to it and skipped “to defend her unity” again.
5. Janet Bisong (Delta State): Ms. Bisong while apologising for not being able to state the number of local government areas in her state, was interrupted by one of the panelists, Senator James Manager, who is from Delta, saying, “You know it; it’s 25.”
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In a sharp reaction, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Ita Enang, who led the nominees before the panel, after the exercise was postponed to Wednesday, however, said the reports of nominees not been able to recite the anthem and the pledge, which were already trending online, were not true. But a Senator who spoke with some journalists after the screening debunked Enang's claims, noting that some of the nominees truly goofed.
PUNCH
