Cabinet Secret Screening: Ozekhome Blasts Ambode, Calls Lagos Assembly ‘Rubber Stamp’

Human rights lawyer, Mike Ozekhome (SAN), has lambasted the Lagos House of Assembly for secretly screening commissioners and special advisers.  Governor Akinwunmi Ambode had on September 21 sent the list of would-be cabinet members to the Assembly for screening. The governor requested the screening and approval of 36 persons with 23 as commissioners and 13 as special advisers.
The Assembly set up a 15-man ad hoc committee headed by the Deputy Speaker of the House, Wasiu Eshilokun-Sanni, to secretly screen the nominees and make recommendations to the general Assembly.

But the Assembly approved all the 36 nominees after a voice vote and forwarded their names to the governor for inauguration.
Reacting, Ozekhome told Punch that it was wrong of the Assembly to screen commissioners and advisers in secret in the same week that the Senate was openly screening ministerial nominees.

He said Lagos State would never grow if the Assembly continues to act secretly and irresponsibly
“The action is wrong, undemocratic, insincere, unconstitutional and reeks of moral turpitude. The people have a right to know those who govern them. Public scrutiny allows for objection by members of the public against unsuitable persons.
“Government affairs should not be carried out with the eerie secrecy with which witches and wizards carry out their nefarious activities. Governor Ambode has to show Lagosians that he has nothing to hide.”
He said true change would never be attained if the Lagos Assembly continues to act as a ‘rubber stamp’ which panders to the dictates of the executive arm of government.

“Both the governor and the Assembly should be blamed, especially the House that has abandoned its constitutional responsibility for whatever reason. All of them are making a mockery of democracy.”
“Is the APC as a ruling party not answerable to all Nigerians, especially in a cosmopolitan state like Lagos? Is the APC a government of autocracy or dictatorship?”
Daily Post.