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Ahmed Suleiman, spokesperson for the Grassroots Initiative Concept, said the group had petitioned both President Tinubu and Senate President Godswill Akpabio. \u201cWe are here to defend merit and integrity,\u201d Suleiman said. \u201cRamat is qualified, experienced, and committed to reforming Nigeria\u2019s power sector. Blocking his confirmation sends the wrong message.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reactions from the public reflected growing frustration over political interference and poor electricity service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know Ramat personally, but if he passed the screening, why the delay?\u201d said Maryam Danjuma, a trader in Abuja. \u201cWe need people who can fix the power problem, not more politics.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Others expressed concern about transparency in the confirmation process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf there are genuine concerns, let them be addressed openly,\u201d said Chinedu Okeke, a policy analyst. \u201cBut if this is about power plays and lobbying, it undermines public trust.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The protest comes days after former presidential aide Alwan Hassan alleged that lawmakers received a $10 million bribe to block Ramat\u2019s confirmation. The Senate denied the claim and threatened legal action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Senate spokesperson Yemi Adaramodu said the confirmation was paused due to \u201cpublic and private complaints\u201d and insisted the Senate would not be pressured into confirming any nominee \u201cunder a cloud of public concern.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ramat\u2019s nomination remains suspended pending further review, as Nigerians continue to grapple with rising electricity tariffs and unreliable power supply.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ABUJA, Nigeria (FN) \u2014 Protesters gathered at the National Assembly on Tuesday to demand the Senate confirm President Bola Tinubu\u2019s nominee for Chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Engr. Abdullahi Ramat, whose appointment has stalled amid controversy. Supporters of Ramat, along with civil society groups and rights activists, marched around the parliamentary complex, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":24016,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[1062,1060,1052,1059,1050,1056,1058,1051,1054,1061],"class_list":["post-24014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-naija-news","tag-abdullahi-ramat","tag-alwan-hassan","tag-energy-policy-nigeria","tag-legislative-transparency","tag-nerc-nigeria","tag-political-activism","tag-political-interference","tag-power-sector-reform","tag-protest-at-national-assembly","tag-senate-bribery-allegation"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Leader-of-the-protesters-Ahmed-I.-Suleiman-addressing-journalists-in-front-of-the-National-Assembly-gates-on-Tuesday.jpeg?fit=1080%2C632&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24014"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24020,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24014\/revisions\/24020"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}