President Bola Tinubu’s nomination of former presidential spokesperson Reno Omokri for the position of ambassador has drawn criticism from the Labour Party’s (LP) factional National Publicity Secretary, Abayomi Arabambi.
Arabambi contended that Omokri should not have been chosen because of his history of vocal criticism of the president, even though all other ambassadorial applicants were worthy of their posts.
Arabambi admitted in an interview with Arise News that President Tinubu has the authority and right to propose people for ambassadorial positions under the Nigerian Constitution.
He emphasized, though, that the Senate must confirm the nominations before they become official.
“Now that the president has the authority to designate his ambassadors, they would appear before the Senate and their resumes would be submitted to the Senate for approval,” stated Arabambi.
“The Akpabio-led Senate would undoubtedly do justice, in my opinion. As you recall, many of them were put forward for ministerial positions, and some were rejected.
“You are not the court, so regardless of the political hirakiri being created by forces denouncing some of the ambassadorial nominees, someone was saying that they should be imprisoned.”
Since they would often ask them to stand on the podium and present their résumé to Nigerians, I believe they should let the Senate do the right work, and everyone should watch it.
“I think everyone was nominated, with the exception of Reno, who I thought the president shouldn’t have taken into consideration.”
“Even though Reno Omokri is qualified, his past criticism of the president may work against him.”
