Senate to Get New Batch of Ministerial Nominees Tuesday

Another batch of ministerial nominees will hit the Senate on Tuesday, October 6, the day chamber is expected to resume in plenary after the independence anniversary recess.

National Assembly source which made the disclosure also said the president does not intend to have 42 ministers.

According to the Sun, President Muhammadu Buhari had forwarded a list of 25 ministerial nominees to Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki on Wednesday evening through Abba Kyari , his Chief of Staff, who was accompanied by Senator Ita Enang, Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on National Assembly Matters. The list was submitted to Saraki in a sealed brown envelope at exactly 4:59pm, hours after plenary was adjourned for the week.

Initial reports indicated that a list of 41 ministerial nominees was drafted initially but was later pruned to 25, making the first batch.

Yusuph Olaniyonu, Saraki’s spokesman, disclosed that, “following the tradition of the Senate, the Senate President decided that the envelope will remain sealed till Tuesday October 6, when, during the plenary sitting of the Upper legislative chamber, it will be opened and the list read to Senators.”

Likely names on the list, according to sources include former Minister, Mr. Audu Ogbeh, South-east APC leader, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu and Director General of the Buhari campaign organization, former Rivers State governor, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi; former governors Babatunde Fashola (Lagos), Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti); former Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazzau and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Mr. Abubakar Malami.

So far, only three women- former Ogun State Commissioner for Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, Senator Aisha Jummai Alhassan and Mrs. Amina J. Mohammed, Special Assistant to UN Secretary General on Post-2015 Development Planning are touted to have made the list.

Unresolved, however, is the status and fate of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in the Federal Executive Council (FEC). In the event that the president sticks to appointing only 36 ministers, the FCT may have no representation in the cabinet.