Senate Explains ‘Bow And Go’ In Ministerial Screening

The Senate has explained the reason for not grilling former federal lawmakers who are ministerial nominees of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, who gave the explanation at the beginning of the screening on Friday, said since the serving lawmakers knew the antecedents and capacity of the nominees who are former parliamentarians, it would amount to a waste of time to subject them to thorough grilling.

According to him, “this practice of ‘bow and go’ privilege extended to legislators is a global practice, not limited to the Nigerian parliament.”

Bamidele said the explanation has become necessary so as to correct public impression that the Senate was not grilling the nominees as promised, but only allowing them to appear and leave the chamber after introducing themselves.

It would be recalled that the Red Chamber, through its spokesman, Senator Yemi Adaramodu (APC Ekiti South) promised to carry out thorough screening on all the nominees by abandoning the usual ‘bow and go’ tradition.

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 “The screening is going to be thorough. It is not going to be a situation where the screening will be anyhow. We are going to know the background of the nominees and we are not going to disappoint Nigerians.

“It is not going to be a shallow screening. You must have the character, you must have the face, you must have the behaviour to be among the cabin crew that is going to fly Nigeria.

 “This time around, Nigeria is going to be better. Whoever gets to the floor of the Senate will be screened. We will not manufacture any questions,” he told journalists during a press briefing.

 However, many Nigerians, who didn’t know the workings of the Parliament, wondered why the Red Chamber jettisoned its promise of thorough screening and sustained the ‘bow and go’ tradition.

Meanwhile, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has revoked the earlier nomination of Maryam Shetty from Kano and replaced her with Dr Mairiya Mahmud.

In another supplementary list that was read on the floor of the Senate, the president also nominated former Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Mr Festus Keyamo as 48th ministerial nominee.

The president had earlier sent a list of 28 ministerial nominees followed by a supplementary list of 19 nominees last Wednesday.

Tinubu announced this in a letter addressed to Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, and read during plenary on Friday.

Meanwhile, the screening of the ministerial nominees continued tomorrow, Saturday, August 5, 2023 at the Senate Chambers.

Those screened today are: The fresh ministerial nominees forwarded to the Senate for screening and confirmation, are Abdullahi Tijjani Gwarzo from Kano State 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 (Yobe State), Simon Lalong (Plateau State), and Shuaibu Abubakar Audu (Kogi State).

Also screened are: Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi (Niger State), Senator Alkali Ahmed Saidu (Gombe State), Senator Heineken Lokpobori (Bayelsa State), and Zaphaniah Bitrus Jisalo (from FCT).