… Usani was Screened, Usani was not Screened : Issues arising —Samuel Ibor

0
294
Reading Time: 2 minutes

26 September 2018 
In November 2015, Usani was invited by the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Nigerian Senate to be screened to be the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs.
The DSS and the 109 members of the Nigerian Senate got to know that Usani Uguru Usani attended the University of Jos, Plateau State; University of Calabar, Cross River State; Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt, Rivers State and Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London and the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna.
The Nigerian Senate and the DSS got to know that Usani has obtained a Bachelor of Science Degree in Geography, a Post-Graduate Diploma in Management, a Masters in Business Administration, a Master of Philosophy in Environmental Management, a Masters in Globalization & Development and a PhD on Human Growth and Development.
These two Federal Government institutions acknowledged the fact that from February, 1992 to November, 1993, Usani served in the Office of the Governor of Cross River State as Personal Assistant to Governor Clement Ebri on Speech Writing and Policy Analysis, at the same time as Secretary, Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) Relief Committee (a government agenda programme to alleviate the effects of Structural Adjustment Programmes) with added responsibility of Legislative Liaison matters. Within the same period, he was appointed as the Sole Administrator of the Nigerian Legion, Cross River State Command. Between 1994 and 1995, he was appointed as Director Oban (Nigeria) Rubber and Palm Estates Limited.
In July, 1995, he was appointed Commissioner in the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Social Development, Cross River State under Military Administrator Gregory Agboneni; in November 1995, the portfolio was enlarged to include Information duties; so he served a the Commissioner of Information. In February 1997, in a cabinet dissolution and reconstitution, he was reappointed Commissioner of the Ministry of Agriculture, Water Resources and Rural Development under Military Administrator Umar Farouk Ahmed where he served until 1999, after serving with Christopher Osondu, the last Military Administrator of Cross River State on the same agric and water resources Commissioner portfolio. In January, 2001 he was appointed as member of the Governing Board of the Nigerian Copyrights Commission. While in the United Kingdom, from September, 2004–2006, Usani lectured at the London Academy of Management Sciences, Ilford, Essex, in a variety of courses to Business undergraduates, MBA students and professional candidates of ABE and ACCA. He also taught, on a part-time basis, in the London Academy of Higher Education, Stratford, London. The DSS and the Nigerian Senate knows all of these. 
It is not in doubt that in the 2003 general elections under the platform of National Democrats, he was defeated by Donald Duke, and in 2012 under the platform of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) where Sen. Liyel lmoke was declared winner when he contested to become the Governor of Cross River State.
Between July 2014 and November 2015, Usani was elected by consensus, the State Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Cross River State.
On the 15th day of March, 2017, Usani was decorated with an Award of Excellence for National Development by the Association of Nigerian Geographers and appointed Adjunct Lecturer in the Department of Geography in the Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Nasarawa State, Nigeria. In September 2018, Usani obtained a PhD in Geography.
He is a Member of many ad hoc committees including the Governing Council on the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP), and Vice-Chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Niger Delta, which is Chaired by the Vice President.
With all these known achievements I can now see why he was screened within the click of the fingers.
Samuel Ibor
Public Affairs Analyst.