Barr. Adeleke Adewolu has had his nomination as an Executive Commissioner of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) confirmed by the Senate yesterday.
This occurred after the consideration and adoption of the report of the Senate Committee on Communications led by Senator Oluremi Tinubu at a plenary session.
Opposing Voices: However, the decision to appoint Adewolu as NCC Executive Commissioner didn’t go down well with some members of the Senate. Some South-East Senators objected to the confirmation while pointing out lack of representation on the board of NFC.
Citing Section 14(4) of the Constitution, a senator representing Imo East, Senator Francis Onyewuchi demanded that the report of the Senate Committee on Communications be stalled until someone from the Southeast is put in that position.
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Two Senators, Senators Uche Ekwunife and Rochas Okorocha also observed that are no Southeast representatives on the Board of the NCC.
Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, however refused to stop the confirmation of Adeleke. Instead, he directed the Senate Committee on Communications to investigate the matter of marginalization of the Southeast in appointments on the board of the NCC.
Reason explained: Explaining the reason for the non-representation of the southeast on the board of the commission, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, who currently serves as Minority Leader of the Senate, said vacancies were actually reserved for the Southeast zone, unfortunately, it had not been filled.
Elaborating his point, he disclosed that the Southeastern representative on the Board of the NCC relinquished his position to contest elections in another party. That act was blamed as the reason why there are no Southeast representatives on the governing board of the NCC.
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The nomination of Adeleke still received the Senate’s approval after it was put to a voice vote by the President of the Senate.