By Abubakar Jimoh

The continued reluctance exhibited by the executive and legislative arms towards confirmation of some key appointments and re-appointments in the country remains a major concern that if not promptly addressed will frustrate the good efforts and resources hitherto committed to the fulfilment of the present administration’s promises and mandates.

It is worrisome that half way and two years remaining for the administration to complete its first tenure and probably seek re-election, several appointments germane to the fulfilment of the promises made during electioneering campaigns and critical to the attainment of change mantra are yet to be announced.

Even amongst those announced, there are so many still awaiting Senate confirmation, while some are yet be tabled before the Senate. This unwholesome development if not immediately arrested would negatively impact on the popularly and globally-acclaimed mandate of the Buhari Administration and militate against the delivery of its much-touted vision and objectives.

While the role of shopping and appointing the right candidates to fill various positions is an integral part of the executive’s mandates to coordinate policy direction and translate its agenda into impactful reality, the Nigerian Senate is constitutionally empowered for confirmation of Federal Executive appointments.

It would be recalled that in October 2015, following a public outcry condemning the delayed ministerial appointments by President Muhammadu Buhari, the need to restructure the Federal Government ministries and to effect his party’s mantra of change in government processes and operations were given to account for the delay in sending names of ministerial nominees to the Senate.

Following the appointment of Ministers into various ministries, one would wonder why the Presidency drags its foot from effecting new and renewed appointments in some departments and agencies through legislative endorsement.

The recent outright and persistent rejection of some appointments sent to the Nigerian Senate for confirmation by the Presidency not only backpedals the on-going executive’s efforts at shopping for right candidates into the right positions, but also a clear indication of unhealthy executive-legislative relation, which has serious implications on our nation’s political stability, democratic and governance process.

Among the key appointments awaiting confirmation by the Senate includes the Chairman, Director General and Members of Pension Commission, Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), the embattled Director General, Lottery Regulatory Commission, the reappointment of Chairman, Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), Engr. Elias Mbam announced nearly a year ago but who is yet to assume duty following the inability of the Presidency to submit his name to the Senate for confirmation.

It is worthy to note that more vacancies are waiting to be filled in strategic Constitutional bodies like INEC where 37 slots of States Electoral Commissioners are still vacant, the Federal Civil Service Commission, the Federal Character Commission, Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, Federal Character Commission amongst numerous others. Most of these agencies of government play stabilizing roles in the political economy and continued existence of Nigeria.

Giving the above essential responsibilities, immediate attention to the confirmation of leadership and membership of such key institutions becomes imperative to ensure accelerated delivery of the present administration’s agenda.

Jimoh writes from AMAC Estate, Airport Road, Abuja

By Destiny Ugorji

Contrary to reports of his plans to appeal to the Supreme Court against his disbarment by the Nigerian Bar Association, there are strong indications that controversial founder of a Facebook group, The Due Process Advocates, Emeka Ugwuonye may be contemplating going on exile.

This is as pressure mounts over the myriads of cases before him, particularly, the N10b defamation suit slammed on him by ex-husband of Abuja missing woman, Charity Aiyedogbon, Mr. David Aiyedogbon.

Impeccable sources from Ugwuonye’s Facebook group, The Due Process Advocates (DPA) who spoke on the grounds of anonymity confirmed this to our correspondent Tuesday.

According to one of the sources, “Ugwuonye has concluded plans to leave the country. There are too many cases; problems everywhere. Court cases are too many and threats of new cases coming daily. Now that he has been disbarred, he will have to hire lawyers to defend him and the money is not even there. He is seriously considering running out of the country, to save his head.”

When asked where the DPA founder plans to elope to, he said: “he is considering one of the African countries. Ghana is top in his chart.”

Meanwhile, Ugwuonye announced his plans to travel to the United States on his Facebook group, The DPA a few days ago.

In what appears like a perfection of his planned move, in a post on the 27^th of May, 2017, titled:  “introduction of Mrs. DPA Rambo and update on DPA administration,” Ugwuonye tactfully transferred managerial functions of the DPA to a new Facebook account, DPA Rambo.

“Yesterday night, Mrs. DPA Rambo joined the DPA group and we were glad to receive her. She is quite a character. She is an agent for special purposes in this group. Her work is to post all public announcements and management messages for DPA. Mrs. DPA Rambo will sit in all DPA meetings and meetings of DPA Admin. She is the person that will post the announcement of the meetings to our members. I urge all of you to pay close attention to this lady.”

“If I may still inform you, Mrs. DPA Rambo is going to make several critical announcements this weekend. For instance, the ID Cards of members will be ready next week and arrangements are being made for members to create personal profile and upload their accounts with a picture that they want to appear in their ID cards. But this is only for fully registered members.”

“…..She is to relieve me from having to make management announcements and notices from my personal account. Also, members who have information to send to DPA management must direct their messages to Mrs. DPA Rambo. Please, don’t try to send friendship requests to Mrs. Rambo. She does not accept friendship requests. However, she will receive your messages and will respond in due course.”

An interrogation of the Facebook name, DPA Rambo suggests that it is an account that may have been created by Mr. Ugwuonye himself to divert attention from his personal account, which, sources say he has used to cause irreparable damage to both himself and some members of the public.

In another development, on the 29^th of May, 2016, Ugwuonye alleged an attempt at hacking his Facebook account- Emeka Ugwuonye.

“Early this morning, approximately 1:00am, this Facebook account came under a massive and sustained attack by some enemies of DPA. Facebook organization alerted me and I engaged standard security measures all in place to protect the confidences of people in contact with me and the integrity of DPA operations and planning. That led to the temporal disabling of this account.”

Checks reveal that in 2016, in an alleged botched attempt to destroy evidence in his case against David Aiyedogbon, Ugwuonye allegedly pulled down the same account, but restored same following media attacks and exposure.

It would be recalled that, for falsely accusing him of having a hand in the sudden disappearance of his estranged wife, Charity Aiyedogbon, Mr. Aiyedogbon instituted a defamation of character suit of Ten Billion Naira (N10b) against Lagos Lawyer, Emeka Ephraim Ugwuonye.

The Suit, with number CV/2750/16, between David Aiyedogbon (Plaintiff) and Emeka Ugwuonye (Defendant) on defamation of character, before Justice Peter Kekemeke of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court 14, Apo Abuja; also prays that the defendant be ordered to pay the cost of the suit.

The Plaintiff is also seeking an order of perpetual injunction “restraining the Defendant, his Agents, Privies, Associates or whosoever called” from making further defamatory publications against him and his family members.

So far, Ugwuonye has raised two objections in the matter, first, challenging the Court’s jurisdiction and another, urging the court to reverse itself on its earlier ruling on jurisdiction. He lost in the both instances, with costs awarded against him.

The matter is adjourned to September, 2017, for hearing of the substantive suit, where he will be required to produce evidence to substantiate his claims.

Reliable sources reveal that Mr. Aiyedogbon’s lawyer, Tony Ogbulafor may have also filed a personal suit against Mr. Ugwuonye for wrongly accusing him of giving a bribe (in an envelope) to a Police man to detain him.

Police sources also reveal that, while some persons have already been charged to Court (awaiting trial) for their roles in the disappearance of Charity Aiyedogbon, others that have questions to answer will also be charged soon, to explain their roles in the controversy. Ugwuonye may be among those to be prosecuted.

Just last week, Ugwuonye, a former United States-based Nigerian lawyer, who was disbarred in New York and Maryland for professional misconduct was also disbarred in Nigeria for fraud.