President Muhammadu
Buhari has got a third rejection from someone he nominated to head the
Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC)
– Two other Nigerians had recently rejected the president’s offer that they should serve as the country’s diplomats
– The
reason given by Pauline Tallen, one of the former nominees, was the same
argument reportedly given by the nominee for NERC.
It is
the third major blow for President Muhammadu Buhari within one weekas
another Nigerian has rejected an offer from his government. This time,
Professor Akintunde Akinwande has reportedly rejected an offer by the
president to serve in the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission
(NERC) as chairman.
This
was made obvious by Akinwande’s absence at the Senate session on
Tuesday, October 25 when he and his other nominees were to be screened.
The
Nation quoted a source as saying Akinwande turned down the offer based
on the alleged fact that he was not consulted before the nomination was
made.
Two
other Nigerians, including Pauline Tallen from Plateau state had earlier
rejected Buhari’s offer to be Nigeria’s diplomats based on the excuse
that there were no adequate consultations.
In the
case of Professor Akinwande, he was said to be the only one whose
profile and credentials were missing among the seven nominees for the
board of NERC.
While
Akinwande was to be the chairman, the other nominees for the board
appointment included Sanusi Garuba (vice chairman), Nathan R Shatti
(commissioner), Dr. Moses Arigu (commissioner), Dafe C Akpeneye
(commissioner), Prof Frank Okafor(commissioner) and Musiliu O
Oseni(commissioner).
While
claiming that Akinwande was doing a project at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT), the reported source added: “We also
learnt that enough consultation was not made before the man was
nominated. We were informed that the nominee may have turned down his
nomination.”
Following
the absence of Akinwande, the chairman of the committee mandated to do
the screening informed that the exercise would not continue adding that
the board was very important for the boosting of power sector in the
country.
He
said: “Regrettably, when members of the committee assembled to screen
the nominees made by President Muhammadu Buhari, we were told that the
chairman designate was unavoidably absent.
“The
Presidential liaison who brought the nominees informed us that the
chairman was unavoidably absent.” He noted that the board members were
nominated three months ago and wondered why the presidency did not have
the knowledge that any of the members would reject the offer.
“We cannot screen them until we have a formal communication from the presidency,” he said.
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