Five former governors yesterday topped the 19 additional ministerial nominees President Bola Ahmed Tinubu presented to the Senate for screening and confirmation.
This brings to 47 the nominees for his upcoming cabinet as he had earlier forwarded 28 names for the Senate for screening.
Tinubu’s predecessor, President Muhammadu Buhari, had a cabinet of 44 members.
The fresh ministerial nominees forwarded to the Senate for screening and confirmation are Abdullahi Tijjani Gwarzo from Kano State, Dr Bosun Tijani from Ogun State, Dr Maryam Shetty from Borno State, Isiak Salako and Tunji Alausa (from Lagos State).
Others are Dr Yusuf Tanko Sununu (from Kebbi State) Adegboyega Oyetola (from Osun State) Atiku Bagudu (from Kebbi State), Bello Matawalle (Zamfara State), Ibrahim Geidam ( from Yobe State), Simon Lalong (from Plateau State), Lola Ade John and Shuaibu Abubakar Audu (from Kogi State).
Also on the list are Prof Tahir Mamman (from Adamawa State), Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi (from Niger State), Senator Alkali Ahmed Saidu (from Gombe State), Senator Heineken Lokpobori (from Bayelsa State), Uba Maigari Ahmadu (from Taraba State), and Zaphaniah Bitrus Jisalo (FCT).
President Tinubu, in his letter, which was read by the president of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, appealed to the lawmakers to ensure expeditious screening and confirmation of the nominees.
The Senate had earlier completed the screening of the first batch of twenty-eight ministerial nominees President Tinubu forwarded to the Chamber last week.
Tinubu is the first president since 1999 to appoint a nominee from the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as a minister.
Previous presidents had ignored the provisions of the constitution that the FCT should be treated as a state.
LEADERSHIP reports that even with a Supreme Court verdict on the status of the FCT regarding the appointment of ministers, it will be the first time the people of the Federal Capital Territory will have one of their own to be at the Federal Executive Council in the person of Zephaniah Jisalo, whose name was in the second batch of the list of ministers submitted to the Senate yesterday.
Meanwhile, presidential spokesman and ministerial nominee, Dele Alake, said that he won’t advocate for press freedom that won’t come without responsibility.
Alake, 67, practised as a journalist and is also a former commissioner for Information and Strategy in Lagos State from 1999–2007 when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was the governor of the State.
The Senate, which already screened 23 of the 28 ministerial nominees earlier forwarded to it by Tinubu, had resumed the exercise on Wednesday afternoon, to attend to the remaining five nominees.
However, a lawmaker from Plateau North Senatorial District and minority Leader of the Senate, Simon Mwadkwon, took Alake up on his alleged comment, labeling supporters of a certain presidential candidate as “wild dogs” during the last elections.
Alake, who hails from Ekiti State, was the Director of Strategic Communication of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council in the February 25, 2023 poll that brought in Tinubu as President.
The Senator from Plateau North said, “Mr Nominee, a lot of accolades have been showered on you and from your CV (curriculum vitae), you’ve done credibly well for Nigeria, especially the struggle for democracy. I’m convinced.
“My question is that: “I read a statement where you labelled supporters of a particular presidential candidate as ‘wild dogs’. Have you come across that statement? Are you aware of it? Did you say that?”
After Mwadkwon’s question, the president of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, urged his colleagues to avoid campaign issues, saying “campaigns are over” and “questions must be nationalistic and not partisan”.
Mwadkwon continued and insisted that Alake answer whether it is true or not that he labelled opponents of his principal as “wild dogs” during the electioneering process earlier this year.
However, Akpabio interjected and asked that his colleague move to his second question.
In the ensuing interruptions and murmurs from the floor, Senator Muhammed Adamu from Kebbi Central raised Order 55 that no senator is allowed to make a noise or interrupt a speaking senator.
The Senate President thereafter sustained the point of order by Adamu.
Again, still worried by the question fired at Alake by the minority leader, the Senate leader, Opeyemi Bamidele from Ekiti Central Senatorial District, differed with Adamu and raised Order 55(12), saying that ‘no senator will interrupt another senator unless to call attention to a point of order or privilege suddenly arising.’
“We are screening ministerial nominees and we are not supposed to bring in issues that have come and gone,” Bamidele said after which Akpabio upheld his point of order.
Mwadkwon later took to the floor and asked the nominee to recite the second stanza of the national anthem.
Bamidele again tackled Mwadkwon and said that he had brought politics into the screening by asking that Alake recite the National Anthem that other nominees were not asked to recite.
The Senate leader, who was visibly worried over the question, asked the Senate President not to allow the request to pass and Akpabio agreed immediately.
“We are here to do serious business on how to move this country forward and not necessarily to sing songs,” Akpabio said, adding that all lawmakers and nominees know the two stanzas of the National Anthem by heart.
Meanwhile, in the course of responding to questions from senators, Alake said there was a need for strengthening social media regulations in the country.
Alake said that even though social media has advantages, its downside has become highly detrimental to a decent society like Nigeria.
He said regulations must be strengthened and tested to ensure that social media is not used in a manner that threatens the internal security of Nigeria.
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