9JA NOTEBOOK: SENATOR DAVID MARK LED SENATE AND CONFIRMATION OF ... http://9janotebook..com/2015/03/senator-david-mark-led-senate-and.html?spref=tw

SENATOR DAVID MARK LED SENATE AND CONFIRMATION OF SEN. MUSILIU OBANIKORO MINISTERIAL BID.

It is on record that the ministerial nomination of Senator Musiliu Obanikoro by President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was the first time in the history of Nigeria, when well meaning and non-partisan citizens, some respected members of the ruling party will express their displeasure for a ministerial nomination and so also the major opposition party did nothing than to go haywire by ensuring that a man with pending court cases hanging on his neck like gold plated shackles is not returned as a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Unarguably, the evil that men do live after them; this is the case of Sen. Musiliu Obanikoro. An excerpt from the Nigerian archive gives a reminder that Sen. Musiliu Obanikoro was opportuned to have been appointed as Caretaker Committee Chairman of Surulere Local Government on the platform of National Republican Convention where financial corrupt cases were traced to his coffer and abuse of office was the order of the day. Inspite of this, he was later elected as the State Deputy Chairman on the same platform with the hope that self aggrandizement and abuse of office will not repeat itself thereby forgetting that the hood does not make the monk. Sen. Musiliu Olatunde was appointed by Governor Michael Otedola’s administration as a Director, LASBULK (Lagos State Bulk Purchasing Corporation), and member, Lagos State Football Association. He served at different capacity as a Delegate to Local Government Congress, State Congress, and National Convention. He was also the Chairman, Lagos Island Local Government where he was reported to have masterminded the magnanimous conflagration that consumed the Lagos Island City Hall building in order to submerge his financial misappropriation but the said plan was aborted as he was still made to appear before the court of law to answer questions that bothers on abuse of office, in addition Sen. Musiliu Obanikoro as national Executive member, Grassroots Democratic Movement (GDM) under the military government of General Sani Abacha was also a beneficiary of the government that was marred by a monumental financial misappropriation and gross abuse of office.

Senator Musiliu Obanikoro was appointed State Commissioner for Home Affairs and Culture in 1999 and served for four years before he was elected senator for Lagos Central in April 2003, under the Alliance for Democracy (AD). During the election, each political party accused the other of hijacking ballot boxes but was later affirmed to have been orchestrated by Obanikoro. He was unable to achieve anything as a serving senator than the empowerment of his street vultrons. On his pursuits to key into the ruling party for protection from legal actions, he later defected to the People's Democratic Party (PDP) and was later appointed by President Olusegun Obasanjo as a member of the 2004 Amirul-Hajj Committee, as a kickback for his defection to PDP. In July 2006, Engineer Funsho Williams seeking to become PDP candidate for the Lagos State governorship election, was gruesomely murdered, with indications that it could have been orchestrated by either Sen. Musiliu Obanikoro considering his frightening desperation for the PDP governorship ticket for the ruling party in Lagos State, which prompted the Nigeria Police investigating the case to have arrested all gubernatorial aspirants of his party including him, but were all later released after a futile investigation.

In April 2007, Hilda Williams, widow of the murdered Engineer Funsho Williams, had earlier been declared winner of the Lagos PDP gubernatorial primaries, but the PDP National Executive Committee (NEC) led by Ahmadu Ali gave the governorship ticket to Obanikoro. He contested for governor of Lagos State on the PDP controversial ticket, but lost the violence marred election to Babatunde Fashola of the Action Congress. The disunited PDP under Chief Bode George, an ex-convict also lost the Lagos State Senate and all but one House of Representatives and 37 State House of Assembly seats to the Action Congress (AC). President Umaru Yar'Adua appointed Sen. Musiliu Obanikoro as Nigeria High commissioner to Ghana in May 2008, as compensation for his governorship loss to Babatunde Fashola, he was later appointed as Minister for State on Defense by President Goodluck Jonathan as a compensation for his much anticipated defeat by Gov. Babatunde Raji Fashola at the 2011 gubernatorial election after a campaign that was believed to have been characterized by hooliganism and without a spell of strategic plans for the people of Lagos.

It is no gain saying that, Sen. Musiliu Obanikoro’s ministerial position paid off for the ruling party in elections conducted in Ekiti and Osun State respectively, as the Minister for State for Defense was successful in deploying armed forces for the elections in order to achieve hidden interest which was later exposed to the public in a released tape which indicted himself and his co-plotters that orchestrated the Ekiti election rigging. Interestingly, his strategic rigging of Ekiti gubernatorial election produced Ayodele Fayose who is also standing a case in the court of law based on his eligibility to contest the Ekiti Governorship position, having being previously impeached in office for abuse of office and financial misappropriations. Unfortunately for the ruling party, the Osun State governorship election could not go the Ekiti pattern even with the deployment of masked armed men of the State Security Service (SSS) on the orders from Sen. Musiliu Obanikoro. There was coarse resistance from the people of the State who seems not ready to vote a candidate with corrupt and murder cases hanging on his neck like gold shackles. The State and national leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC), work harder for the reelection of Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola as the Governor of the State of OSun, though the victory was challenged by his opponent, Sen. Iyiola Omisore but was later discarded by the Election petition tribunal that sited in Osun State, Nigeria.

Despite several allegations of his role in the Ekiti State gubernatorial election rigging and the earlier mentioned cases hanging on Sen. Musiliu Obanikoro’s neck like a diamond coated shackles and further clipped to his legs like metal chains, the Sen. David Mark led Nigerian Senate on Wednesday, confirmed Sen. Musiliu Obanikoro as a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as the PDP members of the Nigerian Senate allowed Sen. Musiliu Obanikoro to “take a bow and go” without answering questions, in a well rehearsed and staged session, under the pretence of the privilege reserved for former Federal lawmakers. Before Wednesday’s confirmation, It was reported that the Nigerian Senate had deferred the approval of Sen. Musiliu Obanikoro’s nomination as a minister after he was alleged recently in a leaked tape that sparked national outrage, where he confirmed been working on President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan instruction on the Ekiti State governorship election rigging in 2014.

Conclusively, it is no news that Sen. Musiliu Obanikoro was propelled to sponsor a protest which was staged and led by young and unemployed youths carrying placards with bold anti-APC inscriptions in the Lagos metropolis, the protest was aimed at neutralizing the counter position of the major opposition party who were hell bent to stall his confirmation by the Nigerian Senate but unfortunately for Nigerians who registered their displeasure for Sen. Obanikoro’s nomination, the Nigerian Senate proceeded with the confirmation on Wednesday 11 March 2015 and this was immediately followed by a Sen. Ganiyu Olanrewaju Solomon led All Progressives Congress Senators staged a walkout from the session. Ever since then, the decision of the Sen. David Mark led Senate to confirm the ministerial nomination of Sen. Musiliu Obanikoro by President Goodluck Jonathan has successfully raised the dust to the horizon leaving Nigerians with a lost hope for our ailing democracy and the fear of unknown for our unborn cities.

A country that has no respect for the opinions and views of her people can never grow her democracy, for democracy is all about the people and the people alone.

Sulaiman Kazeem
sulaimanadeshina@yahoo.com
@KazeemDiary

That is gej transformation agenda