There was mild drama on the floor of the Senate on Thursday as senators screened the persons nominated by President Muhammadu Buhari for the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission, with Otobong Ndem (Akwa Ibom) discovered to have had his Higher National Diploma before possessing his Ordinary level certificate.
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A member of the Senate committee on the NDDC, Senator Matthew Urhoghide from Edo State, called the attention of his colleagues to the inconsistency in the curriculum vitae of Ndem, nominated for director of projects.
He wondered why the nominee would claim he sat for his school certificate examination in 2007 whereas he obtained his Higher National Diploma certificate in 2002.
Urhoghide said, “From the CV before me, the nominee had school certificate in 2007, National Diploma in 1999 and Higher National Diploma in 2002.”
Senator George Sekibo added that Ndem claimed to have obtained his master’s degree in 2012 and Bachelor of Science degree in 2019.
The nominee admitted that there was an omission in his CV and clarified that he first obtained his first Ordinary Level Certificate in 1995 which was omitted in his CV.
The nominee also stated that he sat for another WASC examination in 2007 to enable him to study law after his HND programme.
He promised to avail the committee with the 1995 certificate before he was asked to take a bow and go.
Another drama ensued when Senator Rochas Okorocha said since Ndem had served in the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, he should be asked ‘to take bow and go’.
He said the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, being a former member of the Rivers State House of Assembly, was accorded a similar courtesy during his screening by the Senate but his colleagues opposed to it.
