Senate defers confirmation of ministers

The Nigerian senate has concluded the screening of all ministerial nominees of President Muhammadu Buhari.

The upper legislative chamber concluded the exercise on Wednesday and expectations were high that all the nominees would be confirmed but Senate President Bukola Saraki surprisingly adjourned plenary till Thursday, October 29.

The exercise commenced on October 13 and so far, 18 nominees have been confirmed as ministers.

Those confirmed to be ministers are Udoma Udo Udoma (Akwa Ibom), Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti), Audu Ogbe (Benue), Ogbonnaya Onu (Ebonyi), Osagie Ehanire (Edo), Abdulrahman Dambazau (Kano), Lai Mohammed (kwara), Amina Mohammed (Gombe), Suleiman Adamu (Jigawa), Ibrahim Jibril (Nasarawa) and Babatunde Fashola (Lagos).

Others are Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu (Delta), Abubakar Malami (Kebbi), Chris Ngige (Anambra), Aisha Alhassan (Taraba), Solomon Dalong (Plateau, Kemi Adeosun (Ogun) and Hadi Sirika (Katsina).

Those waiting to be confirmed are Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers), James Ocholi (Kogi), Isaac Adewole (Osun), Okechukwu Enelamah (Abia), Anwuka Anthony (Imo), Mohammed Bello (Adamawa), Adamu Adamu (Bauchi) and Aisha Abubakar (Sokoto).

Others are Usani Uguru (Cross River), Godfrey Onyeama (Enugu), Bawa Bwari (Niger), Zainab Ahmed (Kaduna), Cladius Daramola (Ondo), Dan Ali (Zamfara), Mustapha Shehuri (Borno), Heineken Lokpobiri (Bayelsa) and Khadija Bukar Ibrahim (Yobe).

Although the senate said the exercise was going to be rigorous, at some point threatening not to accord special privileges to former lawmakers, some Nigerians said the lawmakers lived below expectation.

“It was nothing but a charade and not even different from the past. What manner of questions did they even ask the nominees?” queried Deji Ladenobi, a public commentator.