Senate screens ambassadorial nominees

The Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs on Wednesday began the screening of career ambassadorial nominees forwarded to the upper chamber by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for confirmation. However, a mild drama unfolded at the National Assembly Complex in Abuja when one of the nominees, Emmanuel Adeyemi, failed to name all three senators representing his home state of Ekiti. Members of the committee described the incident as embarrassing and unacceptable. Adeyemi, a deputy director in the Office of the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, had earlier impressed the panel with his academic and diplomatic record, including foreign postings in Hong Kong and France, where he earned a PhD. But the tone of the session changed abruptly when he attempted to acknowledge only two of Ekiti’s senators. He correctly named Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele (APC, Ekiti Central) and Senator Yemi Adaramodu (APC, Ekiti South), but froze when asked to identify the third—Senator Cyril Fasuyi (Ekiti North). His struggle prompted murmurs among lawmakers, and at one point, a member of his delegation was seen attempting to discreetly search for the missing name on Google. The committee also screened several other career diplomats, including Ahmed Sulu Gambari, Maimuna Besto, Monica Enebechi, Ahmed Monguno, Kingsley Onaga, Magaji Umar, and Aminu Nasir. In an unexpected moment, Senator Jimoh Ibrahim, a former Ondo State governorship aspirant, appeared before the committee even though his name was not originally on the schedule for Wednesday’s session. He was simply asked to “take a bow and go.” Wednesday’s exercise marked the second phase of the screening. Earlier, Kayode Are (Ogun), Aminu Dalhatu (Jigawa), and Ayodele Oke (Oyo) had also appeared before the panel.

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