By Ezrel Tabiowo
Abuja
President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, yesterday recanted his comment on the confirmation of the just appointed service chiefs, after coming under severe fire on social media over his earlier position on the constitutional role of the senate, which was considered a reckless blunder.
Saraki yesterday said the appointment of the service chiefs would still be confirmed by the Senate upon reconvening next week.
In response to a tweet sent to him by one Chinedu Peters on when the Senate would reconvene to confirm the newly appointed service chiefs, Saraki had tweeted back saying “appointment of service chiefs is an exclusive function of Mr President. Senate can only approve Ministerial, parastatal, etc.”
His response, which instantly put him in the centre of a barrage of attacks by social media users, attracted condemnations that took a swipe at his ignorance of constitutional responsibility of the Senate in that respect.
Many of the online users, who attacked him, wondered why a Senator of his standing in the 7th Senate, would display such ignorance despite being aware of a similar confirmation in January 2014, last year.
Consequently, his media of office, in a desperate bid to salvage the situation, issued separate statements yesterday at about 3:30pm to make clarifications on his comments.
The first statement issued by Saraki’s Special Assistant on Social Media, Bamikole Omishore, alleged that Saraki’s tweet on the subject matter was not up to date.
Omishore’s statement said: “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.”
In another statement, the Chief Press Secretary, Sanni Onogu, said the Senate president’s tweet was completely misinterpreted.
It widened the scope of the controversy by stating that Saraki’s response was based on two folds of enquiries tweeted to him.
The statement said: “The attention of the Media Office of the Senate President has been drawn to a story making the rounds to the effect that the Senate does not need to screen or confirm the new Service Chiefs appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari.
“However, we want to make it abundantly clear that based on inquiries made to the Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, on whether the Senate was consulted before the appointment of new Service Chiefs was announced, he had in response tweeted that the appointment of Service Chiefs is the exclusive function of the President as stipulated by the Constitution.
“Let it be known that his comment is now being misinterpreted to say the Senate will neither screen nor confirm the new Service Chiefs. This is far from the truth.”
