- Safiu Kehinde
The Senate has approved the appointment of Muttaqha Rabe Darma as the new Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria following his screening on the floor of the chamber.
NPO Reported that President Bola Tinubu had on Tuesday announced the appointment of Darma as the new minister following the resignation of Ahmed Dangiwa.
The President had in the wake of the appointment written to the Senate for the confirmation of Darma as the new Minister.
Appearing before the lawmakers on Thursday for screening, Darma was faced with question-and-answer session as the lawmakers sought assess his suitability for the role.
Darma, responding to some of the questions, promised the accessibility and affordability of Federal Government Housing projects across the country.
“You see, people starting business in real estate, before you know it, they are rich. Before you know it, everybody has bought their houses. Then, government houses are abandoned.
“Well, the profit from doing government work is the welfare of the people. But, because most of these people who are handling these issues are not really put into it to make sure that it works, that’s where I believe the failure is coming from. Now, that’s about accessibility and affordability of these houses.
“We will make sure that they are available and affordable in each way. He said.
Responding to Sen. Binos Yaroe who asked about the fate of his philanthropic works having now been appointed as Minister, Darma vowed to continue with the projects while highlighting his achievements over the past years.
“Now, let me come to Senator Binos Yaroe. Now, he said to me, have you finished doing the philanthropic work that you are here now? No, sir, I have not.
“I have been born a philanthropist and I will continue to do it until the end of my life.
“But I will tell you that when I left here, when I left Abuja, I went to Katina and built a training facility that’s called Human Development Centre. In that centre, from 2013 to date, we have trained over 167,000 young people in different skills, some of them hard, some of them soft skills.”
“So, at the end of the day, all this will do to me is to expose me to becoming more philanthropic by probably extending it to other states where we will also make a lot of impact, just like we did in Katina,” he said.
Following the screening, the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, who read the President’s communication during plenary, referred the request to the Committee of the Whole for consideration, directing that it report back promptly.
The committee’s recommendation was subsequently adopted, leading to Darma’s confirmation.