President Bola Tinubu will today send a new batch of ministerial nominees to the Senate for screening, The PUNCH has learnt.
According to a very reliable source in the Senate, the names would either come on Tuesday night or very early on Wednesday morning.
The source exclusively told our correspondent that the names of the new batch of ministerial nominees would be read at the plenary today.
The lawmaker added that the screening of the 28 nominees will be concluded today so that the next batch can be screened thereafter.
“By Wednesday, the new set of nominees will be unveiled, so that by Monday, we will be through with their screening.
“We want to conclude with the screening before we go on our recess. We wouldn’t want a situation where we would go on recess and we would now start calling lawmakers to back to come for screening,” the lawmaker said.
The Senate had on Monday screened 14 out of the 28 ministerial nominees earlier submitted by the President.
On Tuesday, nine out of the remaining 14 were screened. Those screened on Tuesday were Senator David Umahi (Ebonyi), Olawale Edun (Ogun State), Nasir el-Rufai (Kaduna State), Ahmed Dangiwa(Katsina State), Uche Nnaji (Enugu State), Stella Okotete (Delta State), Adebayo Adelabu (Oyo State), Ekperikpe Ekpo (CrossRiver State) and Hannatu Musawa(Katsina State).
During his screening, Edun, who is a finance expert, offered views on the nation’s exchange rate.
On palliative sharing, Edun noted that Nigeria could achieve India’s feat, through the collection of Biometrics.
Adelabu, a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, decried the lack of supervision and oversight of activities of the CBN by economic management ministries of the Federal Government.
El Rufai, during his screening, said, “The President’s vision is that within seven years, we’ll not have power outages in this country.
“The president is saddened by the fact that countries like Benin Republic, Niger, Cameroon, our neighbours have reliable electricity yet with all our resources and capabilities, and the quality of people we have as a nation, we are unable to provide electricity to our households and businesses”, he added.
Earlier, the lawmaker representing Kogi West, Senator Sunday Karimi, during the ministerial screening moved against El-Rufai.
Karimi, after El-Rufai’s presentations, stood up and told the chamber that he had a petition written against the former governor over the issue of insecurity in Southern Kaduna.
He said, “Your performance in any office you find yourself in the country has been outstanding. In the Bureau of Public Enterprises, your record is there, in FCT as a minister, your record is there, and as two-time governor of Kaduna state, you did well.”
Raising up a brown envelope, Karimi further stated, “But, I have a very strong petition against you that borders on security, unity and cohesiveness of the Nigerian nation.
“And I think that the petition has to be considered in this screening exercise.”
Karimi then proceeded to lay the petition before Jibrin Barau, the Deputy Senate President, who was presiding over the screening exercise at the time.
Barau, in response, said, “I don’t know if you followed the normal process, but this is the opportunity for nominees to explain and showcase themselves, later we will come to confirmation and approval.”
Other senators commended El-Rufai, noting that the former governor was competent enough to be a minister.
The Senate thereafter, postponed the screening of the ministerial nominees till Wednesday.
