More drama at Senate ministerial screening

Last week I raised the issue of a few dramatic moments that I observed from the first-week episodes of the Senate screening of ministers. More dramatic episodes were to unfold the ensuing week. One that’s worth retelling occurred on the day Professor Tahir Mamman, a nominee from Adamawa State was presented to the Senate. I watched the entire encounter between the lawyer that has seen it all, and some of the best in the Senate. It was one of the best and arguably the most cerebral questions and answers sessions in the screening exercise. To begin with, in an unexpected turn of events, it was the students of the nominee, now sitting as senators, that surprised their dignified colleagues to eulogise the nominee, one after the other.

Prof Tahir had spent most of his career teaching law at the Maiduguri University where he rose to be the Dean of the Law Faculty. It was from there that he went to even more rarefied heights as the Director-General of the Nigerian Law School and later as the Vice-Chancellor of Baze University. Having spent most of his life career in the classroom he must have been counting to reap his proverbial rewards not here on earth but up there in heaven. It must have been a pleasant twist of circumstances for him to face at the onset not the grilling he feared from the grim-faced senators, but the outpouring of encomiums by students he must have forgotten to have taught many, many years yonder.

Two former students, Mohammed Tahir Monguno, representing Borno North Senatorial District, and Kaka Shehu Lawan, representing Borno Central District swiftly came to his defence. The two senators had both, at one time or the other, held office in the Borno State Government as Attorney-General and Commissioner of Justice. The testimony of Senator Kaka Shehu Lawan particularly went viral, maybe because of his eloquence of delivery and the depth of feelings evident in his presentation.

He said: “The nominee standing before you is Professor Tahir Mamman, once my teacher, Head of the Department, and Dean of the Faculty of Law and Student Affairs, while I was a student at the University of Maiduguri. In part 2, he taught me Constitutional Law, and in part 3, Administrative Law.

“I am very happy to inform this hallowed Chamber that I was a student union leader when he was the Dean, Student Union Affairs at the University of Maiduguri. Comrade Oshiomhole was also my mentor then when he was a Labour leader.

“Mr. President, Professor Tahir Mamman was one of the best brains at the University of Maiduguri. As a lecturer in part 2, he fraternised with the students freely, when you asked him questions, he would answer.

“And then, he would practically expose us to the constitution and how it operates, the modus operandi of power of executive, legislature, and judiciary were actually at our fingertips in part 2.

“In part 3, when the students of the University of Maiduguri were not entitled to accommodation, when he became the Dean of Student Affairs, he maneuvered his way to make sure that the students were accommodated in the hostel. Not only that, he gave us free hands to operate as unionists at the University of Maiduguri.”

The questions that followed from the distinguished senators were of the highest quality and most relevant to our present situation. Senator M T Monguno had earlier put his old teacher on the spot on the need to bifurcate the office of the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice. The Senator told the nominee that he had been pursuing the matter since when he was in the House of Representatives and had even sponsored a bill to that effect but up till now nothing had come out of it. Senator Neda Imasuen of Edo South raised the issue of a court shopping forum whereby litigants run from one court of the same jurisdiction to the other seeking favourable outcomes and what should be done to stop it.

Senator Adams Oshiomhole was worried about the length of time it is taking to adjudicate election cases. He wondered why in countries like Kenya electoral disputes are resolved within a month or two while ours are left to persist endlessly, throwing elected officials into worries about their tenures. He wondered if the nominee could lead the charge to amend the electoral law to bring relief to this untidy state of affairs. Senator Shuaib Afolabi Salisu of Ogun Central raised the issue of using technology to effect judicial reforms to stop forum shopping. He also asked the nominee to ponder how he would advise the government to deploy technology to reduce the cost of litigation of political cases that are now so high. The last question from Senator Sadiq Suleiman Umar of Kwara District asked the nominee to reflect upon the poor state of Nigerian public universities and how they can be given enough resources to enable their graduates to compete globally.

The response from the nominee was crisp and an attestation to his keen intellect and wide exposure in public service. For me, it was a pleasure watching that part of the screening exercise.