During the ministerial screening on Wednesday, Senate President Godswill Akpabio blocked the minority leader of the Senate, Simon Mwadkwon, from having presidential spokesman Dele Alake recite the second stanza of the national anthem.
To prove that he has what it takes to be the image maker of Nigeria if nominated Minister of Information and Culture by President Bola Tinubu, Mwadkwon, a member from the Plateau North Senatorial District, requested that Alake recite the second stanza of the national anthem.
But Ekiti Central Senatorial District Majority Leader Opeyemi Bamidele, speaking for the Ekiti State caucus in the upper chamber, said that by requesting Alake recite the national anthem, the Plateau Senator has introduced politics into the screening process.
After Bamidele requested its removal, Senate President Akpabio complied.
Even if you ask me to repeat the second verse on the spot as Senate President, I will. Every adult in Nigeria should know the stanzas by heart, according to the Senate President.
“We are here to do serious business of how to take this country forward, and to ask the nominees what they will bring to the table to help us get out of this economic bind. It’s not always about the music.
Earlier, Mwadkwon stated that Alake described supporters of a certain presidential contender as “wild dogs” during the past presidential election.
On the third day of the screening session, Alake stood before the red chamber as one of President Bola Tinubu’s 47 cabinet nominations.
In the election that elected Tinubu as President on February 25, 2023, Alake, a native of Ekiti State, served as the Director of Strategic Communication for the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council.
When Tinubu was governor of Lagos State from May 1999 until May 2007, Alake served as the state’s Commissioner of Information and Strategy.
To paraphrase the Senator for Plateau North:
You called people who back a certain presidential candidate “wild dogs,” and I read that. Have you ever heard that before? Do you know about it? Do I hear that right?
Akpabio asked his colleagues to avoid campaign topics after Mwadkwon’s query, adding
“campaigns are over” and “questions must be nationalistic and not partisan”
Mwadkwon continued, demanding an explanation from Alake about whether or not it was true that he called his principal’s opponents “wild dogs” during the electioneering process earlier this year.
The other senator was about to make a question on the national anthem when Akpabio interrupted him.
An irritated Akpabio stated, “Dele Alake, te have watched you over the years and we don’t have any doubt about your capacity to handle any portfolio” when the presidential spokesman was cut off in the middle of reading the second stanza of the national anthem.
After more than an hour, the Senate President requested that Alake take a bow, thereby ending the ceremony.
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