Senate majority leader reveals that its ministerial screening exercise will take seven weeks

SENATE majority leader Senator Ali Ndume has revealed that the ongoing screening of President Muhammadu Buhari's ministerial nominees will not be over quickly and is likely to last for as long as seven weeks.

 

At the moment, the senate is screening the president's nominees but it has resolved to do it gradually with the maximum of three nominees being grilled per day compared with the 10 per day it did last week. According to Senator Ndume, the constitutional provision on the non-screening of a nominee stipulates that it must be done within 21 working days and not 21 days, following which if the person is not confirmed or rejected by the Senate, he or she would automatically become a minister.

 

He added that the constitution bears in mind that the senate sits three times a week which he said implied that it had the luxury of seven weeks to conclude the screening. Senator Ndume also defended the closure of the chamber for plenary yesterday, saying this is an extraordinary time and the All Progressives Congress (APC)-controlled senate could not afford to take chances.

 

Senator Ndume added: “The senate president had to be in court at 10.00 am and he is the presiding officer. This is an extraordinary time because we are screening ministers who are predominantly APC members, so that was why we said this screening should continue under the senate president presiding and we are continuing today by God’s grace.

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“The senate is an institution, an independent arm of government and should be respected and strengthened. Besides, if the president uses his discretion to take his time to submit the ministerial list which Nigerians patiently waited for, why are Nigerians not patient with the senate to wait for its conclusion?"

 

He added that in the US, they screen one minister over two weeks, so the Nigerian senate screening three nominees a day is reasonable. According to Senator Ndume, by their calculations, the whole process should be over in six weeks time, which will still be within the constitutional provision of 21 working days.

 

Meanwhile, the ministerial nominee from Imo State Professor Anthony Anwukah, has admitted that he was indeed indicted by a panel of inquiry which probed his administration as the vice chancellor of Imo State University between 2000 and 2005. He made this disclosure while appearing before the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions to defend petitions against his nomination.

 

However, he added that his indictment was borne out of bias and hence, the white paper on the indictment was eventually declared null and void by a Federal High Court. Professor Anwukah, said that a panel headed by Professor Anyanwu who was among the 25 candidates that sat for the interview of the vice chancellorship position with him submitted its report and could not find anything against him.