It has emerged that President Muhammadu Buhari nominated someone without proof of sufficient education to represent the North East in the proposed Governing Board of the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) – a very critical and sophisticated agency.
The nominee is Alhaji Aliyu Saidu Abubakar, who incidentally is one of those calling for the scrapping of the Senate in order to reduce government waste.
His lac of sufficient academic qualification emerged when the nominee appeared before the Senator Gilbert Nnaji-led committee on Communications for the ongoing screening of NCC board nominees on Wednesday.
At first, Abubakar defended his position that the Senate should be done away with when member of the committee confronted him, asking why he would accept to appear before the same Senate which he once led a protest for its scrapping.
He stood his ground and insisted that the senate be scrapped as cost of running the legislative arm was high and unbearable.
The nominee said the payment of huge transport, wardrobe and dressing allowances and others to Senators was a clear economic loss to the country. He also listed the purchase of luxury cars for Senators as another reason why the upper chamber is undesirable.
“The Senate is an avenue for wastage of scarce economic resources of the country. The Senate must go”, Abubakar insisted.
However drama started after the committee listed what it described as “grave irregularities” in the personal records of the nominee while going through the copies of resume he submitted.
The committee observed that apart from birth certificate, there were only copies of court affidavit and police extract dated the same day, claiming loss of his credentials.
This made the committee to form the opinion that the court affidavit and police extract may have been procured after he (Abubakar) had been nominated to serve in the board.
The high-point was when the committee said it was interesting that the highest academic qualification of the nominee was a one-year “Diploma in Computer” from Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi. And it also found it curious that the attached statement of result was dated 23rd September 2016, also obtained after he had been nominated by President Muhammadu Buhari.
When he was confronted to explain why he chose to present documents that were otained shortly after his nomination and also why he believed he was qualified to function as a National Commissioner in such a critical agency like NCC given the rigours, challenges and required expertise for efficiency of the commission, Abubakar said he “did not bother to go for the credentials.”
He added that he “only went to school merely for knowledge having been self-employed prior to the nomination.”
It is however unclear if President Buhari is aware of Mr. Abubakar’s academic background or if he did enough vetting, which would have revealed what the Senate had found out, before his nomination.
Calls to his media aide, Garba Shehu were not answered
cpcnews.org 