Ministerial Nominee collapse During Screening
Balarabe Abbas Lawal, a ministerial contender, collapsed on Wednesday while being screened by the Senate, setting off hysterical scenes in the Chamber.
The Kaduna State nominee had talked for several minutes during his screening before collapsing on the floor, prompting several legislators to rush to his aid.
Lawal is one of three new ministerial nominees being interviewed by the Senate, along with Mr. Ayodele Olawande of Ondo State and Dr. Jamila Bio Ibrahim of Kwara State.
Medical personnel were called in to revive him after the slump, and they have now done so.
After the Senate Leader, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, made a motion to extend the session time past 2 pm to finish all the matters for the day, Lawal was the second nominee to be screened.
After completing his speech to the lawmakers, Lawal collapsed to the floor as Sunday Marshal, the senator representing Kaduna South, was speaking and saying that the three senators from Kaduna had no objections to Lawal’s nomination.
The Senate went into closed door session while efforts were being made to revive the nominee who is still inside the chamber.
The nominee stated that he has been in government for a long time and wishes to add his experience to the cabinet of President Bola Tinubu’s administration .
He had said, “I want to indicate clearly that, as part of my career, I was appointed secretary to the government three times from 2015 till today. I want to say that I am likely the longest-serving secretary to the government in Nigeria.
“I have been part of administration; I have been part of policy making. I have been part of trying to change things in the country based on what I did at the federal level and at the state level.
“I want to bring this experience to wherever I find myself in the new cabinet of the president. I want to express my gratitude to all of you for listening, and I also want to extend my sincere thanks to the President of the Senate for allowing me to stand before the chambers.
“This is a house of splendor, a house of integrity. A house of democracy, and I feel highly honoured because, to me, this is the highest point of my career — to stand before this hollowed chamber and say things about myself. I feel very happy; today is maybe my happiest day to be here and be addressing this chamber.
“I want to end here by saying that the environment, which I think I may be going is a very important issue, and we know that we have been going through a lot of issues in that environment.”
Mr Lawal was the chairman of the 65-member transition committee that handled the swearing-in of Uba Sani as governor of Kaduna State, on 29 May.
He served as the secretary to the Kaduna State Government under former Governor Nasir El-Rufai and he is currently serving in the position under Governor Uba Sani.
He headed the transition committee of the state in 2015 and also served as the vice-chairman of the committee in 2019.
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