Abdul-Rahman Abubakar and Turaki A. Hassan
21 November 2008
The toughest grilling for ministerial nominees was reserved yesterday for National Agency for Food, Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) director general Professor Dora Akunyili as well as Engineer Sani Mohammed Ndanusa when the Senate began screening the 13 nominees sent in by President Umaru Yar'adua on Monday night. Mrs. Akunyili, from Anambra State, and Ndanusa, currently the Niger State Commissioner for Transportation and Infrastructural Development, had to answer several questions each hurled at them by senators.
Ambassador Ibrahim Kazaure from Jigawa State and Alhaji Ikra Aliyu Bilbis from Zamfara State had the easiest time because they were not asked any questions, in line with the Senate tradition of expressing courtesy to former lawmakers. They were asked to 'take a bow and go'. Kazaure was a senator in this republic, while Bilbis was a member of the House of Representatives in the abortive Third Republic.
The two men did not go scot-free however, because Deputy Senate Leader Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN) warned them not to disrespect the legislature shortly after their confirmation as ministers "as one of our former colleagues had done." He said, "We have a convention here that senators nominated to be ministers are entitled to some courtesy. But we have a case of one of us who came and enjoyed such courtesy and when he became minister, he trained his guns at us."
Senate President David Mark however overruled Senator Ndoma-Egba on the matter saying, "I want you to know that this is a fair question but I want to overrule it. You know that this is your constituency and if you are made minister, you should represent us with facts and figures."
Ndoma-Egba was apparently referring to former Minister of National Planning Senator Mohamed Sanusi Daggash, who clashed with senators over the 2008 budgetary allocation to his ministry, which the Senate slashed. At some point, the lawmakers alleged that he was misleading the President on some allocations made in the budget, which caused a delay in passing the 2008 appropriation bill in the National Assembly.
While answering senators' questions, Prof. Akunyili said there was a need for reform in the health sector in order to create synergy between all professionals in the medical sector. According to her, "We need to carry out a re-orientation in the health sector for professionals to know that when they work in concert it would be to the betterment of our people.
There is no need for rancour between the professionals; they must all work together."
Asked if there are corrupt officials in NAFDAC who are likely to derail the organisation from the fight against fake drugs when she leaves the organization, she said, "In any organisation with over 2,000 people I cannot swear with either the Bible or the Qur'an that there are no corrupt people in NAFDAC. We succeeded because we worked as a team but I cannot remain in NAFDAC all of my life. Constitutionally it is not allowed."
She said if the current level of fight against circulation of fake drugs is sustained, "We expect the rate of fake drugs to drop to 4 percent in the next four years. It is presently below 10 percent, from 75 percent in 2001."
On his part, Engineer Sani Ndanusa told senators that for Nigeria to attain greater heights in global sporting activities, there is a need for a sports development master plan in the country.
Ndanusa, who is the Chairman of Nigeria Tennis Federation, said "There are traditional sports that we are good at and we must draw a master plan that would determine where we want to be in terms of sports tomorrow." Ndanusa, who is a water resources engineer, was asked several questions on irrigation, dams and flooding as well as sports.
Screening of the remaining nine nominees is expected to continue Tuesday next week with former Ebonyi State governor, Dr. Sam Egwu expected to be the first to take the stand.
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