Aisha Abubakar

Aisha Abubakar, ministerial nominee from Sokoto state, faces fresh obstacles to her confirmation by the Nigerian senate.

Two fresh petitions were submitted to the senate today, opposed to her nomination.

The fresh petitions, followed the resolution last week by the All Progressives Congress in the state rejecting her nomination, because she was not known to the party, not a member of the party and also  because she comes from the same zone, like Governor Aminu Tambuwal.

The first petition against her, which was submitted to the Senate Privileges and Ethics committee was dismissed on technical grounds: the panel said the petition  was wrongly addressed.

The committee stressed that all petitions sent to the Senate must be addressed to the Senate President.

Senator Sam Anyanwu, chairman of the committee  told the petitioners, led by Mrs Balarabe Abdu, to properly address the petition and represent it if they still wished to pursue the case.

He said that the letter should be addressed to the Senate, through their representative in the Senate.

The chairman said that the letter was addressed directly to President Buhari and the Senate was only copied alongside other recipients.

The petitioners said Abubakar was not a member of the APC or any other political party, and therefore questioned her competence.

In her defence, Aisha Mohammed said that she was a public servant and would remain a public servant, until she was successfully confirmed by the senate.

Aisha was educated at Queens College Lagos, 1978-1984. Thereafter, she bagged a Bachelor of Arts in  Politics and International Studies from University of Warwick(1987-1990) and a Masters in Development studies at Leeds University.

She returned to Nigeria to take part in the National Youth Service, 1992/93 and served at the Continental Merchant Bank.

She had worked at AfDB, African International Bank and worked for nine years at Abuja Enterprise Agency. He was appointed the acting CEO of the agency in February 2014, before he was  appointed as a director of the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate in June this year.

Her job has been with SMEs and it was possible President Buhari wanted to tap her experience in the trade ministry.