Obanikoro’s confirmation hearing stalled at Nigerian senate

Former Minister of State for Defense, Musiliu Obanikoro, was today forced to leave the Nigerian Senate after arriving there with his family to start his confirmation hearings. Mr. Obanikoro, a former senator and ambassador to Ghana, had arrived at the National Assembly with a retinue of aides and family members to begin confirmation hearings after President Goodluck Jonathan recently nominated him once again to fill the same position from which he resigned last year to pursue a failed dream to become the governorship candidate of the PDP in Lagos.

Several senators told SaharaReporters that the mood in the Senate was so hostile to Mr. Obanikoro’s nomination that his sponsors, sensing imminent defeat for him, quickly arranged a suspension of the hearing to spare him a grueling session and likely public disgrace.

Mr. Obanikoro is expected to return to the Senate next week Tuesday to restart the process. A PDP senator disclosed that many of his colleagues were not happy that President Jonathan did not withdraw Obanikoro’s name as a ministerial nominee after the former minister’s involvement in a scandal that has assumed international dimensions.

After today’s disappointing outing at the Senate, Mr. Obanikoro immediately began a fresh round of lobbying of Nigerian senators, according to three senators who spoke to us. One of the sources said Mr. Obanikoro had confessed last week that he was involved in the Ekiti tape, but tried to lessen the gravity of his role as a senior Defense official telling an army general that his promotion would depend on the general’s willingness to do the illegal bidding of the PDP and the president.

Source: Sahara Reporters