Niger - The Niger House of Assembly has confirmed nine nominees as the post of new commissioners for the state.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that this came barely 24 hours after their names were submitted to the assembly by Gov. Babangida Aliyu .
The nominees screened and cleared on Thursday included the Secretary to the State Government, Mr Daniel Shashere, the Head of Service, Ahmed Matane, and Alhaji Umar Nasko.
Others were the Chief of Staff, Dr Mohammed Yahaya, Mr Joshua Bawa, Muhammed Nuhu, Alhaji Mahmoud Bello, Abbas Bello and Abdullahi Mamman.
The assembly asked five nominees out of the nine to “take a bow” and go after they had been introduced and given their profiles.
Yahaya was however grilled for several hours by the legislature concerning areas of his specialisation.
While responding to a question, he urged various governments to stop paying lip service to agricultural policy.
He said the present government will open up opportunities for farmers as agriculture hiring scheme would be on the top agenda.
The nominee said this would enable farmers have access to tractor hiring at a subsidised rate.
The assembly later turned itself into a committee of the whole house, where the results of the screening were adopted.
The nominees were then cleared and the Clerk of the Assembly, Alhaji Mohammed Kagara, directed to forward their names to the executive arm.
The Speaker, Adamu Usman, expressed confidence in all the nominees.
``They will live up to expectations as some of them have been in the system for a long period of time,’’ he said.
NAN