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Before its commencement today, the Senate will establish the procedure for ministerial screening.
No fewer than 15 out of 28 nominees have completed their documentation ahead of screening, a National Assembly source said.
The list of the nominees were sent to the Senate on Thursday by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Abdullahi Gumel, told reporters that a “substantial number of ministerial nominees have completed their documentations.
He added: “Others are at various levels in the process of documentation and would complete theirs tomorrow (Monday). They have filled their Code of Conduct Bureau (Asset Declaration) Forms while others have done their finger printing. For those who are yet to conclude the process will have opportunity to do so before the screening commences at plenary.”
On screening modalities, Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Yemi Adaramodu said there was no special, technical or political modality to be adopted.
Adaramodu said: “There is no technical or political modality. The only modality we are adopting is that the nominees will come out. They will introduce themselves then the members will ask questions.
“If there are petitions against them we will raise it. If there are questions either for or against them, we will raise them. Then, we will ask about the competence, especially character, and what do they have to offer for the growth of Nigeria.
“So, it is basically about character and competence and then, the personality content of the nominees. There is not going to be a kind of stereotyped technical pattern. It is not going to be stereotype. Senators would ask questions. They will drill and grill them. We call it screening.”
Adaramodu said all nominees would be treated equally, irrespective of status in society.
He added: “When we get to the floor of the Senate, Senate will decide whether it is going to be according to alphabetical order or according to states. It is not about status.
“They are all ministerial nominees, and they are coming to the National Assembly and the National Assembly is the conscience of the people.
“It is the bastion of Nigeria’s democracy and we are seeing everybody as equal. We are going to screen everybody as equal.
“There is going to be an order and that order will be determined on the floor of the Senate. We expect all of them to be available.
“Those we cannot take tomorrow, we will take the following day and so on for as long as it takes the Senate to conclude the screening. The Senate is suspending all relevant rules and recess to ensure that we do the needful.”
On the tradition of “take a bow and go” accorded ex-National Assembly members nominated as ministers, he said: “The issue of ‘take a bow and go,’ I have said it and I have reiterated it. When a nominee comes out, if there is no question for him and there is no allegation against him, senators will not manufacture allegations against anybody. That person will take a bow and go.
“But we dignify senators, either current or former, because they are honourable members from the House of Representatives and Distinguished Senators of the Senate.
“So, because you are distinguished and you are honourable, we take it as a first line charge that that is who you are.
“If peradventure there is any reason and there is anybody raising any allegation against anybody, then, we will allow senators to feel free to ask questions and to grill such a person before taking a bow.
But either they ask you 1,000 questions, you will still take a bow before you go. If you are asked no question, you will take a bow before you go. We should not dwell seriously on the issue of take a bow and go.”
Peoplesmind
