Senate rejects list of Non-Career Ambassadorial nominees

The dream of 47 Nigerians to represent this country as Non-career Envoys may have hit the bricks as the Senate on Tuesday resolved that the list of nominees should be sent back to the Presidency.

In a motion ably moved by the Senate Leader, Ali Ndume and seconded by the Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio, the Senate cited controversies and plethora of petitions emanating from the list as reason behind its rejection.

Earlier, the Chairman of Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, Senator Monsurat Sunmonu had submitted that her committee could not commence screening of the Non-career Ambassadorial Nominees due to litany of petitions that saturated the committee secretariat.

“We find it very difficult to commence screening for the Non-career Ambassadorial Nominees. We received over 250 petitions against some of the nominees,” she said.

In his ruling, the Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki said the list should be reverted to the Presidency, to readjust it before submitting to the Senate.

It could be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari sent a list containing 47 names of Non-career Ambassadorial Nominees to be screened by the Senate.

The list, however, suffered rejection in some quarters. While Senator Philip Aduda queried the non inclusion of FCT indigenes in the list, some Analysts also probed why Lagos State could get 3 nominees and states from the North also got 2 nominees, whereas, Imo State had no representative in the list.