Posted by By Emmanuel Aziken on
THIRD Republic governors, Ambassador Fidelis Tapgun of (old Plateau) and Alhaji Yahaya Abdulkarim (old Sokoto), are among the12 ministerial nominees whose names were forwarded to the Senate for confirmation, it was announced yesterday.
ABUJA - THIRD Republic governors, Ambassador Fidelis Tapgun of (old Plateau) and Alhaji Yahaya Abdulkarim (old Sokoto), are among the12 ministerial nominees whose names were forwarded to the Senate for confirmation, it was announced yesterday.
However, a nominee earlier presented to replace Mrs. Mobolaji Osomo as Ondo State representative in the Federal Executive Council, has been withdrawn in favour of Dr. Segun Mimiko, the current Secretary to the Ondo State Government.
The Senate screening, is however, coming against the background of anger by Senators who are peeved by the determination of the executive branch to cut their budget.
At a closed door session yesterday, Senators discussed allegations that the Minister of Finance had written a memo to her colleagues in the Federal Executive Council that the budget had been cut. She was said to have told the ministers that the decision to scale down of the budget was reached between the executive and legislative branches of government.
Senators were said to have denied playing any role in the action and thus set up a committee comprising members of the Senate Committees on Petroleum and Appropriation to study the issue with a view to reporting back. Efforts to get a response of the Finance Ministry did not succeed last night.
The Senate is expected to begin the screening of the ministerial nominees today in what is expected to be the last ministerial shake-up before the expiration of President Obasanjo's second tenure in 2007. The 12 nominees forwarded to the Senate President in a letter dated July 1, 2005 by President Obasanjo are:
* Mrs. Helen U. Esuene,
Akwa Ibom State
* Mrs. Obiageli K.
Ezekwesili, Anambra State
* Mrs. Maryam Ciroma,
Borno State
* Dr. Joseph Odidi Itotoh,
Edo State
* Hon. Ahmed Abdulhamid,
Jigawa State
* Chief Bayo Ojo, Kogi State
* Halima Tayo Alao, Kwara
State
* Dr. Rahman Olusegun
Mimiko, Ondo State
* Dr. Kingsley Kolapo
Akinroye, Osun State
* Sir Fidelis Tapgun,
Plateau State
* Dr. Edmund M. Daukoru,
Rivers State
* Mallam Yahaya
Abdulkarim, Zamfara State.
Mrs. Helen Esuene:
Born on November 23, 1949, Mrs Esuene holds a Masters degree in Finance and has a Higher National Diploma obtained from the Federal Training Centre in Kaduna.
A veteran civil servant, served in the civil service of the South Eastern State and later Cross River State between 1968 and 1985. She was between 1991 and 1992 Chairman of the Board of Akwa Ibom State Commission for Women. Currently a member of the National Political Reform Conference. She was the wife of the late military governor of the old South Eastern State, Brig.- Gen. J. U. Esuene.
Obiageli K. Ezekwesili:
Currently Senior Special Assistant to the President and Head of the Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit, Mrs. Ezekwesili was born on April 28, 1963. Qualified as a chartered accountant in 1991.
She graduated top of the class in the Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government in 2000 (Master of Public Policy Administration), University of Lagos, 1987 (Master of International Law and Diplomacy) and University of Nigeria 1985 (Bachelors of Science in Business Education)
Famed as Madam Due Process for her effort in bringing transparency to the award of government contracts, Mrs Ezekwesili had in the past served as a Director (Africa) of Transparency International and an executive of a host of finance companies. She is married to Pastor Chinedu Ezekwesili of the Redeemed Christian Church of God and they have three sons including a set of twins.
Maryam Ciroma:
Born on September 11, 1954, Mrs. Ciroma is a 1978 graduate of Political Science from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and has a postgraduate diploma in Public Administration.
She has worked as cadet editor, NTA Kaduna, and was in the federal civil service between 1980 and 1985. Since 1995, she has acted as Chairman/Chief Executive of Intis Investment Company Limited. Her only foray into the political arena was in 2003 when she made an attempt to represent the Borno South Senatorial District on the platform of the PDP. She is married to Mallam Adamu Ciroma.
Dr Joseph Itotoh:
A renowned educationist, Dr. Itotoh, 64 last May, came to national reckoning as national President of the All Nigeria Conference of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS) between 1979 to 1981 and has severally served as member and chairman of several education related institutes and commissions and ad-hoc committees.
Between 1986 and 1990, he was President of World Confederation of Organisations of the Teaching Profession (WCOTP). He was Commissioner for Education in Edo State between 1992 and 1993, a member of the 1995 Constitutional Conference and was a member of the Governing Council of the University of Jos between 1999 and 2004.
Hon. Ahmed Abdulhamid: Hon. Abdulhamid nominated to represent Jigawa State in the Federal Executive Council was born on March 3, 1966. He was elected into the House of Representatives in 1992 in the Third Republic and at the commencement of the Fourth Republic he joined the PDP and was the North-West zonal auditor. He served on the board of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), represented the state as commissioner in the Federal Character Commission and was recently the Jigawa State coordinator of the Poverty Eradication Programme.
Chief Bayo Ojo (SAN):
Chief Ojo, 49 this November, is the national President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA). Ojo studied Law at the University of Lagos and was called to the bar in 1978 and is a chartered member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, London.
He worked as a state counsel, Ministry of Justice between 1979 and 1983 when he took up appointment as Head of Chambers, Oniyangi and Co., Illorin. He founded Bayo Ojo and Co in July 1986 from where he has been practising. He has held several appointments in the state executive committees of the NBA in the old Kwara State and at the national level.
Halima Tayo Alao:
Mrs. Alao, currently a Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Works and Transport, Ilorin, Kwara State was born on December 6, 1956. She has a Masters degree in Public Administration, 2003 from the University of Illorin and a Masters of Science degree in Architecture 1981 obtained from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. She joined the Kwara State civil service in 1982 and has attended several courses.
Dr. Olusegun Mimiko:
Born on October 3, 1954, Dr. Mimiko obtained his medical degree at the University of Ife in 1980 after obtaining an earlier degree in Health Sciences from the same university in 1976. A member of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), he is currently Secretary to the Ondo State government, a position he took up in May 2003. An influential factor in Ondo politics, a two-time Commissioner of Health in the state, he resigned from the Adefarati administration in 2002 to team up with the PDP which eventually beat Adefarati' Alliance for Democracy (AD) in the 2003 elections. He is a recipient of several awards.
Sir Fidelis Tapgun:
Ambassador Tapgun was Director-General of the Obasanjo-Atiku Campaign Organisation between 2002 and 2003. Before then, Mr. Tapgun made his name as Governor of the old Plateau State in the Third Republic and was subsequently, Nigerian Ambassador to Kenya between 2000 until his recall to head the President's re-election campaign in 2002.
Yahaya Abdulkarim:
Alhaji Abdulkarim was elected Governor of the old Sokoto State in the Third Republic on the ticket of the National Republican Convention (NRC). Born on August 21, 1944, he joined the civil service of the defunct North Western State government as a teacher and rose through the service to become Director-General in the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, Sokoto State where he retired in 1989.
He was turbaned Sarkin Rafin Sokoto by the Sultan of Sokoto and received the Order of the Niger (OON) in 2000.
Dr. Edmund Daukoru:
Born on October 13, 1943, Dr Daukoru obtained a Ph.D in Geology in 1970 from the Imperial College of Science and Technology where he was a Shell scholar. Currently the Special Adviser to the President on Petroleum, he was Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) between 1992 and 1993.
He has attended several petroleum related courses. He received several awards. Dr. Daukoru is a member of several associations.