As the ministerial screening and confirmation moves towards conclusion, Senator Solomon Adeola representing Lagos West Senatorial district has rated the Senate high in the performance of the constitutional duty of confirmation of ministers for the federal executive council.
While taking stock of the exercise so far after the last screening involving Rt. Hon Rotimi Amaechi amongst others, Senator Adeola stated that considering that portfolios were not attached to the names of the nominees, senators had to ask questions based on the curriculum vitae of the nominees and speculated portfolios adding that on the basis of three broad categories of nominees, senators were able to screen and confirm nominees with dispatch and diligence.
“There are three categories of nominees as I discerned. We have former members of the National Assembly as nominees, there were those nominees who had served in high public offices in the past and there were those who have excelled in their professional calling that gave rise to their nomination by President Mohamed Buhari” he stated.
Senator Adeola said for the first categories of nominees that served or still serving in National Assembly, the tradition of the Senate has to be adhere to even after asking a few questions for nominees to bow and go adding that this tradition is supported by the constitutional requirement for nominees which requires them to have qualifications that qualifies them to contest for membership of the National Assembly.
“ If a nominee has contested election for House of Representative or the Senate and served or is serving as such, such nominee is ab initio qualify to be a minister and there is no need to waste much legislative time in such screening and confirmation without attachment of portfolio, provided there are no contrary issues against the nominee” he
stated.
For the two other categories of people like Mr. Babatunde Fashola, Kayode Fayemi, Ocholi James, Mrs. Amina Ibrahim and others the questions were more rigourous toward eliciting relevant information on the nominees’ world view and knowledge adding that in his own instance of questioning the Ogun state nominee Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, his questions were professional dealing with public finance and the speculated portfolio of the nominee.
He expressed hope that the remaining screening and confirmation will be done expeditiously on the basis of the template the Senate has adopted for the ministers to assume duty and contribute to the positive change that the President Mohamad Buhari and APC promised Nigeria.