What Balarabe Said To The Senate Before He Collapsed
By PHC Telegraph
Balarabe Lawal talking to the media after emerging from the Senate chamber.
Balarabe Lawal from Kaduna State who collasped on the floor of the Senate may hold the record as the longest serving Secretary to Government in the country. Now, he has added another record.
Wednesday, before TV cameras, Lawal became the first ministerial nominee in contemporary times to slump in the Senate while undergoing screening.
Before he fell to the floor, the nominee had spoken about his experience as an administrator and how he hoped to leverage on it in his new “environment.”
“I want to indicate clearly that, as part of my career, I was appointed secretary to the government three times from 2015 till today. I want to say that I am likely the longest-serving secretary to the government in Nigeria.
“I have been part of administration; I have been part of policy making. I have been part of trying to change things in the country based on what I did at the federal level and at the state level.
“I want to bring this experience to wherever I find myself in the new cabinet of the president.
“I want to express my gratitude to all of you for listening, and I also want to extend my sincere thanks to the President of the Senate for allowing me to stand before the chambers”, Balarabe remarked.
He described the Senate in glowing terms as a house of democracy.
“This is a house of splendor, a house of integrity. A house of democracy, and I feel highly honoured because, to me, this is the highest point of my career — to stand before this hollowed chamber and say things about myself. I feel very happy; today is maybe my happiest day to be here and be addressing this chamber.
“I want to end here by saying that the environment, which I think I may be going is a very important issue, and we know that we have been going through a lot of issues in that environment.”
Then it happened. He slumped to the ground. Moments later, men ran helter-skelter to rescue the 65-year-old from the greasy hands of death.
A female staff of the Senate looks on as a Senator rushes forward to see what he could do to help.
Death may have lost, but Nigerians who heard him speak eloquently about himself and his dreams heaved sighs of relief.
President Bola Tinubu had on Tuesday forwarded a list of three to the Senate for confirmation.
The list included the names of Balarabe Lawal, Dr Jamila Bio Ibrahim and Mr Olawande Ayodele.
Ibrahim had appeared first before Senators, thus setting the tone for the day’s business. The Senate listened as the nominee spoke.
After Ibrahim acknowledged senators with a graceful bow, Balarabe took to the podium and set out to interface with the nation’s senators.
He slumped afterwards, forcing the Senate to shut its doors while doctors fought inside, behind those giant doors, to save a soul.
Balarabe Lawal, longest serving Secretary to Government in Kaduna State and former Governor Nasir El-Rufai whom he replaced as a ministerial nominee.
When he re-emerged from the chamber, he told anxious reporters, “I’m alright now. I’ve been treated and I’m alright now. It was basically exhaustion.”
It may be so.
The fact that the man who left his family as a father, husband and breadwinner was able to return to his loved ones after an ugly experience that he did not dream to have is all that matters.
Balarabe Lawal was eventually cleared, on a day he had dubbed his happiest without the Senate grilling him.