The Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has clarified that the
appointment of service chiefs by President Muhammadu Buhari will be confirmed
by the Senate on resumption next week.
Saraki had on Monday evening few hours after the appointment
of the service chiefs, responded to a tweet sent to him by one Chinedu Peters
that when would the senate reconvene to confirm their appointment, tweeted a
reply, saying “Appointment of service chiefs is an exclusive function of Mr
President. Senate can only approve Ministerial, parastatals etc”.
A response that instantly put him in the eye of the storm
with 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 a senator in the 7th Senate, where such confirmation was first done in
January 2014, will display such ignorance.
The intensity of the attacks, made the media office of the
Senate President to issue separate statements yesterday to clarify his
position.
While the first statement issued by Bamikole Omishore, the
special assistant to the Senate President on Social Media, 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 his tweet was completely
misinterpreted.
Omishore’s statement reads: “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 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.
Credit: Leadership
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