TheCable

Akintunde Akinwande, President Muhammadu Buhari’s nominee for the position of chairman of the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), has again failed to show up for screening at the senate.

This is the second time in one month that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor will fail to appear for the mandatory screening.

In October, Akinwande did not turn up for screening before the senate committee of power, a move that was interpreted as a rejection of the appointment.

But the presidency faulted the reports on his rejection, attributing Akinwande’s absence to his inability to tidy up his paper work before the screening date.

Back then, Ita Enang, senior special assistant to the president on national assembly matters (senate), had said the nominee had written to ask for more time.

He had said Akinwande was trying to formalise his resignation at MIT, where he lectures.

But at a second screening session convened by the power committee chaired by Eyinnaya Abaribe, a senator from Abia state, Akinwande was not just absent, he informally told the committee that he was not available for the job.

According to NAN, a source disclosed that Akinwande sent a text message to a member of the committee that he was uninterested in the job.

But Enang reportedly tried to persuade the committee not to interprete Akiwande’s absence to mean that he had declined the president’s nomination.

“I would want to plead to the committee that the nominee was simply absent. I will communicate with the president and get more information about him and get back,” he said.

This remark was quickly rebuffed by members of the committee, who openly declared that they had tried enough and would not be ready to reconvene a third screening session for Akinwande.

At this point, Suleiman Hunkuyi, a lawmaker, posed a question to Enang: “But if somebody says ‘I will not be able to make it’, what does he imply?”

Enang was unable to respond.

The committee said it would submit its report on the screening and a final decision on Akinwande would be communicated to the senate at plenary.

Another source said Akinwande turned down the job because he was not consulted before the announcement was made, and also because he was not ready to leave his present businesses.

“We also learnt that enough consultation was not made before the man was nominated,” the source said, adding that Akinwande also failed to present himself to the Department of State Services (DSS) for security checks.

In July, TheCable had reported that Akinwande had been preferred to Supo Sasore, thought to be the choice of the minister of works, housing and power, Babatunde Fashola.