Drama as Tinubu’s nominee from Benue Utsev’s age stirs controversy
The ministerial nominee of President Bola Tinubu from Benue state, Prof Joseph Utsev, was on Monday, July 31, faced with a stiff opposition by some senators who were not comfortable with the age provided in his resume.
Telescope.ng reports that two nominees including the former governor of Rivers state, Nyesom Wike had been screened before Utsev was asked to tell the Senate about himself.
Utsev, while making his speech, said he was born in 1980 and finished his primary school leaving certificate in 1989.
Apparently dissatisfied with Utsev’s explanation, the senator representing Lagos East senatorial district, Tokunbo Abiru, asked the nominee to make the clarification on the grey area.
The nominee, however, said that he was enrolled into primary school in 1984 and finished in 1989. This did not go down well with other senators as they insisted that the was no way he would have entered primary school at the age of 3.
The Senate president, Godswill Akpabio, who doused the tension, sarcastically said: “The nominee is an exceptional student and that may account for why he entered primary school at the age of 3.”
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