Senate Confirms Chidoka, Suleiman as Ministers

By Omololu Ogunmade 

The Senate yesterday confirmed Corps Marshall of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Osita Chidoka, and a lecturer at the University of Abuja, Dr. Abubakar Olanrewaju Suleiman, as ministers. The confirmation was sequel to the request in a letter forwarded to the Senate last week

by President Goodluck Jonathan, imploring the senators to expeditiously confirm the appointments of the two men. He said the decision was in compliance with Section 147(2) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

During his confirmation yesterday, senators who perceived that he would be handed the portfolio of either the aviation or transport minister, questioned him on what difference he would make if posted to either of these ministries.
In his response, Chidoka said from a recent audit conducted by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), Nigeria’s aviation was rated above average, adding that the audit report only showed that Nigeria’s aviation sector was not as backward as people think but is rather handicapped by shortage of fund to drive its growth.

According to him, Nigerians’ dream to have a world class aviation sector would continue to remain an illusion until the nation is ready to invest huge capital that can drive infrastructure capable of transforming it into world standard.

He also said Nigeria needed to boost infrastructure in accordance with its huge population of 170 million, noting that in the last few years, Nigeria only invested N730 billion in aviation compared with Brazil which he said, spent whopping $20 billion on infrastructure in preparation to host the just concluded world cup.

“We will not achieve anything without funding relevant agencies,” he said.
He promised to unify the operations of Nigeria’s airports if he is made aviation minister, noting that besides Lagos and Abuja airports, other airports in the country are running at a loss as a result of low patronage.

Chidoka also said Nigeria had refused to open its airspace very wide, observing that the country is not doing well in passenger traffic. According to him, with 14 million air travellers in Nigeria, the number of aircraft coming into the country is very small when compared to the population.

He promised to ensure that Nigeria explores its capacity to enable it attain world class standard in aviation sector if appointed to function in that capacity.

He also suggested the need to close down Apapa, Lagos seaport and move it to Lekki while leaving the former to be controlled by the private sector as he blamed the trend on complacency in infrastructural development, insisting that Nigeria needs to build infrastructure that compliments its aspiration.

“Our infrastructure is not expanding. For instance, l don’t know why we cannot close Apapa seaport and move over to Lekki and leave the Apapa port in the hands of private sector. We have to dream of building infrastructure that matches out aspirations,” he said.

The FRSC denied the insinuation that FRSC imposed new number plates and driver’s licence on Nigerians, recalling that the Senate Committee on Federal Character and Inter-governmental Affairs organised a public hearing on the matter after which he said, it was resolved that the policy was good and should continue.

He also said the commission consulted other states of the federation before coming up with the policy, adding that international bodies had hailed the new driver’s licence innovation and consequently exchanged data with FRSC over it.
He also disclosed that Kaduna State records the highest number of deaths through road accidents while Abuja records the highest number of crashes not resulting in death.

On his part, Suleiman, while responding to a question on insecurity in the land, said the problem got to this level following the nation’s failure to identify much earlier what could constitute security threats and consequently nip it in the bud.

He listed such threats to include the growing spate of almajiri in the North and failure to accord due benefits to the South-south region where oil, the nation’s mainstay, is produced.

He also blamed rampaging terrorism on the attitude of a group of people whom he said were sympathetic to the course of Boko Haram, emphasising that the war cannot be easily won as long as there is no united front across the nation to defeat Boko Haram.

He also harped on the need to engage academics to embark on research with a holistic approach on how Nigeria got to where it is today as he accused the Nigeria Customs and Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) of not doing enough to protect the borders, a situation he said, resulted in movement of arms into the country unchecked.

On foreign relations, Suleiman who is a member of Nigeria Institute for International Affairs (NIIA), said Nigeria needed to drop the belief that it was doing so much in support of smaller African nations, submitting that by its position as the largest black African nation, it must continue to provide necessary support for other African nations.

“If there is any part of Nigeria’s foreign policy that has gathered controversy, it is the one that has to do with African policy. Some people believe that we are doing so much in Africa, spending our money on other African countries in the name of big brotherliness in the name of being good to other African countries.

“We cannot leave Africa’s problem for other smaller African nations. Nigeria, by divine roles, we are destined to take care of other African nations. We cannot say that because there is crisis at home, we cannot look at issues in Mali, Sudan or other African countries. Though we have the problem of scarce resources but if we have to fold our arms and watch events among our neighbours, before we may know, those events will catch up with. By virtue of our population and our resources, we are to carry African nations with us,” he said.

In his remark after the confirmation, Mark said: “These two nominees that were confirmed, as young men, they should bring new ideas on board. They should not go there and just fall in line and not perform. We expect that they would perform because before us they have performed very well. So, we hope that when they go there, they would perform very well too.”