Teddy Oscar, Abuja
Less than 24 hours, after goofing on expected constitutional role of the Senate as regards the confirmation of the just appointed service chiefs by President Muhammadu Buhari, the Senate President, Senator Abubakar Bukola Saraki, said their appointments would still be confirmed by the Senate on resumption next week.
It would be recalled that Saraki had on Monday evening, few hours, after the appointments of the service chiefs, responded to a tweet sent to him by a certain Chinedu Peters, who requested to know when the Senate would reconvene to confirm their appointments, tweeted back: “Appointment of service chiefs is an exclusive function of Mr President. Senate can only approve Ministerial, parastatals etc”.
The response instantly put him in the eye of the storm with the attendant barrage of attacks by social media users, who condemned his ignorance of constitutional responsibility of the senate in that respect.
Many of the online commentators, who attacked him, wondered why as a Senator in the 7th Senate, where such confirmation was first done in January 2014, would display such ignorance.
Following the intensity of the attacks, the media office of the Senate President issued two separate statements at about 3:30 p.m. yesterday to water it down.
While the first statement issued by the Special Assistant to the Senate President on Social Media, Bamikole Omishore, alleged that Saraki’s tweet on the subject matter was not up to date, another one issued by the Chief Press Secretary, Sanni Onogu, said that Saraki’s tweet was completely misinterpreted.
Omishore’s statement read: “This is to clarify the earlier position, which was not up to date and does not represent the position of the Senate President on the issue of screening of the newly appointed service chiefs. The Senate will perform its constitutional duty when it receives communication from the President on the appointments”.
But the second statement, which was signed by the Chief Press Secretary, went further to widen the scope of the controversy by stating that Saraki’s response was based on two fold of enquiries tweeted to him.
The statement read: “The attention of the Media Office of the Senate President has been drawn to a story making the rounds to the effect that the Senate does not need to screen or confirm the new service chiefs appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari.
“However, we want to make it abundantly clear that based on inquiries made to the Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki on whether the Senate was consulted before the appointment of new service chiefs was announced, he had in response tweeted that the appointment of service chiefs is the exclusive function of the President as stipulated by the Constitution.
“Let it be known that his comment is now being misinterpreted to say the Senate will neither screen nor confirm the new service chiefs. This is far from the truth.
“For the avoidance of doubt, Saraki has said his comment is without prejudice to extant laws and court pronouncements on the issue and therefore that the Senate will do the needful when the list of the new Service Chiefs is sent to it by Mr. President…”
