During his ministerial screening on the Senate floor, the minority leader, Senator Simon Mwadkwon, confronted the former Lagos Commissioner of Information and Strategy, Dele Alake.
Alake was the previous Director of Strategic Communication for the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council and is one of the 28 cabinet nominations that President Bola Tinubu has submitted for screening.
Alake allegedly called supporters of rival presidential candidates “wild dogs” during the most recent presidential election, according to the senator from Plateau North Senatorial District.
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Mwadkwon, “Mr nominee, a lot of accolades have been showered on you and from your CV (curriculum vitae), you’ve done credibly well for Nigeria, especially in the struggle for democracy. I’m convinced.
“Seated as Senators here, the issue of our political parties is secondary; we are Senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I am saying this because of the question I want to ask you. Therefore, any question coming from me should be taken that it is coming from a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and not from the Minority Senate.
“My question is that: I heard you, sir, you said as a writer or as a journalist, you are an image maker, you speak out of inspiration and conviction… You’ve talked about social media too. I have read on social media your statement concerning other political parties during the election.”
The Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, then addressed on behalf of the Ekiti State caucus in the upper chamber after the Senate President upheld Adamu’s Point of Order.
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Adamu disagreed with Bamidele, who brought up Order 55, Order 12, stating that a senator may not be interrupted until a point of order or privilege unexpectedly comes up.
“We are screening ministerial nominees, and we are not supposed to bring in issues that have come and gone,” Bamidele said, after which Akpabio upheld his Point of Order.
The nominee was then requested to sing the second stanza of the national song by Mwadkwon, who then mounted the stage.
Mwadkwon was once more called out by Bamidele, who said that by requiring Alake to perform the national anthem while the other nominees were not, the Senator from the Plateau had injected politics into the selection process.
The senator from Ekiti Central requested that Akpabio strike the request, and the Senate President duly obliged.
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“We are here to do serious business on how to move this country forward and not necessarily to sing songs,” Akpabio said, adding that all lawmakers and nominees know the two stanzas of the national anthem by heart.
Addressing Alake, Akpabio said, “We have watched you over the years, and we don’t have any doubt about your capacity to handle any portfolio”.
The Senate President subsequently asked that Alake take a bow, and the gesture ended the about one-hour exercise.
He said: “I read a statement where you labelled supporters of a particular presidential candidate as ‘wild dogs’. Have you come across that statement? Are you aware of it? Did you say that?”
After Mwadkwon’s question, Senate President Godswill Akpabio urged his colleagues to avoid campaign issues, saying “campaigns are over” and “questions must be nationalistic and not partisan”.
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When asked if it was true that he referred to opponents of his principal as “wild dogs” during the campaigning earlier this year, Mwadkwon persisted and insisted that Alake respond.
Akpabio, however, intervened and requested that his colleague move on to his second query.
Senator Muhammed Adamu of Kebbi Central introduced Order 55, which states that no Senator may make any noise or interrupt another Senator while they are speaking, during the subsequent pauses and murmurs from the floor.
He claimed that when Mwadkwon was presenting his case, there were numerous interruptions from the “other side.”
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