Senate
President, Bukola Saraki, receiving
the ministerial
nominees on Wednesday
|
Senate President, Bukola Saraki, on Wednesday received
the ministerial nominees list at about 4:56pm from the Presidency but said the
content of the presidential communication would be read on Tuesday.
The Senate had adjourned plenary at 2:00pm on Wednesday till Tuesday,
October 6.
Sources said 21 names were contained in the list.
The Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, in company with the
Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters
(Senate), Ita Enang, delivered the list in a sealed envelope to the
Senate President in his office.
Saraki, who left the office around 5:30pm, later spoke to journalists
through his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Alhaji Yusuph Olaniyonu,
explaining that the list would be read on the floor during plenary Tuesday next
week.
“The Senate president received the ministerial list around 5:00pm this
evening but no action would be taken on it until next week Tuesday. The
envelope is still sealed,” Olaniyonu told journalists.
But the national daily, The PUNCH learnt that a former Lagos
State Governor, Babatunde Fashola; and a former Rivers State Governor, Rotimi
Amaechi, made the list.
Also said to be on the list are Kayode Fayemi, a former governor of
Ekiti State; a former Governor of Anambra State, Chris Ngige; and a one-time
Governor of Abia State, Ogbonnaya Onu.
Malami Abubakar, SAN, a former National Legal Adviser to the defunct
Congress for Progressives Change; Aisha Alhassan, a former governorship
candidate of the APC in Taraba State; and Amina Mohammed, a special adviser to
the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon, also made the
ministerial list. Same for a former finance commissioner in Ogun State, Kunle
Adeosun.
Curiously, the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation, Ibe Kachikwu, is said to be on the list.
The President had pledged that his ministerial nominees would be
submitted to the Senate for screening and approval before the end of September
thus raising fears on Wednesday that Buhari had failed to keep his promise to
Nigerians.
"We are going to properly screen all nominees and only those
who meet the constitutional and moral requirements shall be cleared,” he had
added.
Melaye explained that the Senate would as from next week start the
consideration of all the communication earlier presented to it by the President
concerning some appointments made while the Senate was on recess.
Buhari had on Tuesday sent a letter to the Senate, seeking the
confirmation of the appointment of Prof. Umaru Garba Danbatta as the Executive
Vice-Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, for a first term of
five years.
Buhari in another letter sought the confirmation of the appointment of
Dr. William Babatunde Fowler as Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland
Revenue Board for a four-year term while in another letter, the President
sought the confirmation of the appointment of the Managing Director and three executive
directors for the Assets Management Company of Nigeria.
The nominees are Kuru as Managing Director; Kola Ayeye, Eberechukwu
Uneze and Aminu Ismail as executive directors.
Meanwhile, the Senator representing Osun Central Senatorial District,
Prof. Olusola Adeyeye, was on Wednesday announced as the Senate Chief Whip by
Saraki.
Adeyeye was unanimously endorsed by the South-West caucus of the All
Progressives Congress in the red chamber on June 24.
His name was on the list of principal officers approved by the APC
leadership as contained in a letter addressed to the Senate President by the
National Chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, on June 23.
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