.. vows to conduct thorough screening
The Nigerian Senate has fixed next week Monday to commence the screening of the ministerial nominees forwarded to it by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. It should be recalled that President Bola Tinubu on Thursday sent the list of 28 ministerial nominees to the red chamber for screening and confirmation.
Prominent names on the nominees list includes the immediate past governor of Kaduna State, Nasiru El-Rufai; former governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike; Wale Edun, Adebayo Adelabu, Betta Edu, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) who is the lead counsel to President Tinubu in the ongoing Presidential Election Petition Tribunal; former governor of Jigawa State, Muhammed Badaru; Special Adviser to the President on Communication and Strategies, Dele Alake; Blueprint publisher, Muhammed Idris, among others.
The ministerial list was brought into the chamber by the Chief of Staff to President Tinubu, Femi Gbajabiamila and was presented to the Senate President Godswill Akpabio in plenary.
Among the 28 ministerial nominees submitted six are women while four are former governors. President Tinubu in the letter read by the Senate President, assured the red chamber that the remaining 16 nominees would be sent to the Senate later in the month.
While briefing journalists after the plenary, the Senate Spokesman, Senator Yemi Adaramodu said the Senate has suspended its annual recess to attend to the ministerial nominees screening exercise.
He said the screening exercise, this time around will be thorough and it will not be just ‘bow and go’.
According to him “the 10th senate will “scrutinize the character, personality and the ability of every nominee.
“Thorough screening for anybody who will be minster entails he/she must have ideas about everything, but in core specialties like health, judiciary, yes the minister must be a professional”.
“The character of the nominees must carry the resume, but we will not manufacture questions and allegations against anyone”.
He advised that now that the names of the nominees have been read out, anyone who has anything against them like petitions can channel such to the right quarters in the Senate.
