Having forwarded the first ministerial nominees to the Senate, President Bola Tinubu is expected to send the second batch and as well the last for the screening exercise today.
According to a report from a senate member via the Punch, the list will either come in the late hours of Tuesday or the early hours of Wednesday.
The report also claims that the screening of the initial 28 nominees will be concluded today and thenceforth the new batch will be presented and screened immediately before the Senate.
The report said “By Wednesday, the new set of nominees will be unveiled, so that by Monday, we will be through with their screening.
“We want to conclude with the screening before we go on our recess. We wouldn’t want a situation where we would go on recess and we would now start calling lawmakers to back to come for screening,” the lawmaker said.
Initially, on Monday the Senate screened half of the 28 nominees and on Tuesday had screened 9 out of the other 14.
The screened members on Tuesday were Senator David Umahi (Ebonyi), Olawale Edun (Ogun State), Nasir el-Rufai (Kaduna State), Ahmed Dangiwa(Katsina State), Uche Nnaji (Enugu State), Stella Okotete (Delta State), Adebayo Adelabu (Oyo State), Ekperikpe Ekpo (CrossRiver State) and Hannatu Musawa(Katsina State).
However, Sunday Karimi, the lawmaker representing Kogi West moved against Nasir El-Rufa’i during his presentation. Karimi stood up in the chamber, firstly acknowledging his achievements in every office he held, then with a petition in his hand, written against the former governor, challenging him over the insecurity challenges in Southern Kaduna.
Karimi said “Your performance in any office you find yourself in the country has been outstanding. In the Bureau of Public Enterprises, your record is there, in FCT as a minister, your record is there, and as a two-time governor of Kaduna state, you did well.
But, I have a very strong petition against you that borders on the security, unity and cohesiveness of the Nigerian nation.
“And I think that the petition has to be considered in this screening exercise,” Karimi added.
In response to the petition, Deputy Senate President Jibrin Barau who was in charge of the screening exercise disregard it, notifying his fellow colleague that this is not the right process to do so.
“I don’t know if you followed the normal process, but this is the opportunity for nominees to explain and showcase themselves, later we will come to confirmation and approval.”
Thereafter the lawmaker asked El-Rufa’i to take a bow and leave.