The Senate, on Wednesday, resumed screening of the ministerial nominees of President Bola Tinubu for the third straight day.
Those to be screened today are presidential spokesman Dele Alake; Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Lateef Fagbemi; Muhammad Idris, Ali Pate, and Doris Uzoka.
The Senate had on Tuesday screened nine nominees and adjourned the exercise till Wednesday. Those screened on Tuesday are ex-governors Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna) and Dave Umahi (Ebonyi); Wale Edun, Uche Nnaji, Stella Okotete, Adebayo Adelabu, Ekperikpe Ekpo, Hannatu Musawa, and Musa Dangiwa.
The upper chamber had on Monday screened 14 of the 28-man list of ministerial nominees forwarded by the President last Thursday.
Those screened on Monday include former governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike; Abubakar Kyari from Borno State; Nkiruka Onyejeocha (Abia State); Bello Muhammad (Sokoto State); Sani Abubakar Danladi (Taraba State); and Badaru Abubakar (Jigawa State).
Others are Joseph Utsev (Benue State), Olubunmi Tunji Ojo (Ondo State), Betta Edu (Cross River State), Uju Kennedy Ohaneye (Anambra State), Abubakar Momoh (Edo State), John Enoh (Cross River State), Iman Suleiman Ibrahim (Nasarawa State), and Yusuf Maitama Tuggar (Bauchi State).
Section 147 (3) of the 1999 Constitution mandates the President to appoint at least one minister from each of the 36 states. However, 11 states – Adamawa, Bayelsa, Gombe, Kano, Kebbi, Kogi, Lagos, Osun, Yobe, Plateau and Zamfara — and the Federal Capital Territory don’t have ministerial nominees yet.
The President is expected to send a supplementary ministerial list to the red chamber anytime soon.
At Monday’s plenary session, Senate President Godswill Akpabio told ministerial nominees that taking a bow during their appearance before the Senate does not mean that they have been cleared or confirmed for any ministerial role.
“At the end of the day, we will go into the clearance and the confirmation; we will confirm whether the person is qualified or not but bowing before the hallowed chamber is a tradition all over the world,” Akpabio said.
