Professor Akintunde Akinwande, nominee of President Muhammadu Buhari, as Chairman, Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, failed to appear at the Senate yesterday for screening.
Akinwande also refused to present to the Committee on Power, Steel Development and Metallurgy, his date of birth, qualifications, specialization, post-graduate experience and National Youth Service Corps, NYSC.
Akinwande was said to have turned down the nomination because he was not consulted before the announcement.
“He is not ready to leave his present businesses to take up the job,’’ a source told Vanguard, adding that Akinwande was doing a project at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT.
Akinwande had also failed to present himself to the Department of State Services, DSS, for security checks.
Speaking, Chairman of the Committee, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, told newsmen that the screening could not be done in absence of the chairman designate.
He postponed the screening until the Presidency reverts to the Senate.
“Regrettably, when members of the committee assembled to screen the nominees made by President 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 said.
Abaribe said the Presidency should have known whether the chairman-designate would attend the screening or not.
“The commission is vital and cannot function without a chairman,’’ Abaribe stated.
Other nominees for the NERC board are 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).
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