President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday submitted a list of 32 non-career and 56 career ambassadorial nominees to the Senate for confirmation.
The President in his letter to the Senate President, stated that nomination was in accordance with section 171(1)(C) subsection 4 of the 1999 Constitution as amended.
Mr Jonathan in the letter expressed the hope that the Senate would treat the request expeditiously.
Some of the nominees include; the former minister of Foreign Affairs, Ojo Madueke, Bianca Ojukwu, former senior special assistant to the president on Diaspora Affairs, and former minster of Aviation, Fidelia Njeze.
Others are the PDP’s financial secretary Tukur Mani, Nathaniel Olorunfemi, the permanent secretary of the Federal Capital Territory Administration, Nigeria’s ambassador to Morroco, Abdalah Wali and Esther Audu, Nigeria’s ambassador to Gambia.
Meanwhile, the Senate president, David Mark, on Thursday assured foreign missions in Nigeria of their safety adding that the federal government had risen up to check the menace of security threat.
A statement by Paul Mumeh, the chief press secretary to the Senate president, said “there is no need to panic or contemplate leaving Nigeria on account of security.”
In the statement, the Senate president maintained that the same-sex marriage law passed by the Senate was irrevocable in spite of the threat of foreign nations to withdraw assistance to Nigeria.
Meanwhile, the minister of Education, Ruqayyatu Rufai is to appear before the Senate committee on Education on Tuesday to explain reductions in capital allocation to federal universities.
Prof Rufai is also expected to explain to the committee the rationale behind budgetary allocation for the nine proposed new universities.
The Senator Uche Chukwumerije-led committee on education gave this directive on Thursday following the minister’s inability to explain reasons behind the reductions and the budgetary allocation to the yet-to-be established universities.
The committee had observed a reduction from ₦16 billion in the 2010 budget to ₦14 billion in the 2011 budget.
It also observed that there was a provision for budgetary allocations to the nine universities whose bills had yet to be passed by the National Assembly.
A member of the committee, Abubakar Bagudu explained that the reduction could be as a result of the amendment of the Education Trust Fund by the National Assembly.
“One explanation could be because last year the National Assembly amended the Education Trust Fund so that all the monies from the Educational Trust Fund are now devoted only to the tertiary education sector.
“Last year, capital allocation to the universities in the budget was ₦16 billion, not including monies given to them by the Education Trust Fund.
“This year it will be about ₦14 billion, but this year they will have more from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund following the amendment made by the National Assembly.”
The minister had, however, explained earlier that the reductions had come from the budget office and appealed to the committee to give her until Tuesday to provide a detailed explanation.
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