Senate Confirms Tinubu’s 7 Ministerial Nominees

The Senate on Wednesday evening confirmed the nomination of seven ministerial nominees forwarded to it by President Bola Tinubu for appointment as Ministers and members of the Federal Executive Council (FEC). The Senate’s resolution followed hours of screening of the ministerial nominees by the Senators at the Committee of the Whole. The Ministers-designate include Dr Nentawe Yilwatda, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction; Muhammadu Maigari Dingyadi, Minister of Labour and Employment, and Amb. Bianca Odinaka Odumegu-Ojukwu, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. Others are Dr Jumoke Oduwole, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Idi Muktar Maiha, Minister of Livestock Development;Rt. Hon. Yusuf Abdullahi Ata, Minister of State, Housing, and Dr Suwaiba Said Ahmad, Minister of State, Education. Recall that President Tinubu had in a letter to the Senate last week sought for expeditious consideration of his request by the Senate.

Tinubu asks senate to confirm seven ministerial nominees

President Bola Tinubu on Thursday sent a letter, demanding the Senate to confirm seven new ministerial nominees. This was contained in a letter from the executive and read by Senate President Godswill Akpabio on the floor of the upper legislative chamber. President Tinubu on Wednesday sacked at least five ministers and scrapped two ministries.The president also assigned new portfolios to some Ministers in the Wednesday cabinet shake-ups.

Questions For Akpabio’s Senate Over Confirmation Of Ministerial Nominees

When the Senate announced on 9 August that it would commence a recess and resume on 26 September, it left a few questions unanswered. Its major assignment until that point was the screening of 48 ministerial nominees forwarded to it in batches by President Bola Tinubu. On 7 August, the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, announced that the Senate had confirmed 45 of the 48 ministerial nominees it screened over the previous week. Senator Akpabio blamed the non-confirmation of three nominees on security reports from the State Security Service. The nominees whose confirmations were withheld were Nasir El-Rufai, a former governor of Kaduna State; Stella Okotete, an executive director at NEXIM Bank and; Abubakar Danladi, a former senator. Mr Akpabio’s shocked many Nigerians, especially given Mr El-Rufai’s political standing. He is believed to have accepted El-Rufai’s nomination as minister only after considerable pressure from President Tinubu. His non-confirmation and those of his two colleagues, therefore raised questions about the entire screening process, who influenced it, the role of security agencies in it, and the options for redress by the persons of whom the purported security reports may have impugned. As the Senate resumed last week, it is yet to answer these questions or grapple with the implications of the constitutional provision, which deems a nominee to have been confirmed as minister, if no return is received from the Senate within 21 working days of receipt of his or her nomination. Who Confirms: The Senate or Akpabio? During the proceedings of 7 August, Mr Akpabio named the 45 confirmed ministerial nominees. And as mentioned, he announced the non-confirmation of the other three nominees, attributing the decision to security reports. There was no debate by the Senate on the content or merit of the security reports as it pertained to the nominees, neither was any vote taken on the matter. It felt more like diktat than a collegial or collective decision. Many senators were said to have been incensed that Mr Akpabio usurped their powers, and twisted what should be an institutional responsibility into an unprecedented exercise of personal power. That was believed to be one of the issues fuelling the grievance of some senators against Mr Akpabio, who recalled that despite its hostility to the executive, the Bukola Saraki Senate leadership did not embarrass President Muhammadu Buhari’s cabinet nominees in 2015. What Is the Status of the Three Nominees Yet To Be Cleared? While the Senate was on recess, President Tinubu nominated two more ministers. The Senate is likely to conduct their screening this week; an exercise that will remind everyone of the pending confirmations of Mr El-Rufai, et al. The expectation is that the Senate will be eager to clear up the issue once it resumes. But there are arguments by some people that Messrs El-Rufai, Okotete and Danladi are already deemed as confirmed ministers by virtue of Section 147 (6) of the Constitution, which states that “An appointment to any of the offices aforesaid shall be deemed to have been made where no return has been received from the Senate within twenty-one working days of the receipt of nomination by the Senate.” Whether or not this interpretation prevails, the Senate is expected to dispose of the hazard it hung on the neck of nominees like Mr El-Rufai, who was publicly courted, to join the Tinubu government and Mrs Okotete, who is serving in a senior role within a federal parastatal. Who Influences the Screening Process? Some aggrieved senators are alleging that external forces and personal interest influenced Mr Akpabio’s action. Influential figures from the executive branch are believed to have pressured Mr Akpabio to block the confirmation of certain persons. In persuading the Senate president to act as they desired, the figures from the executive branch recalled a similar event during the Buhari years, when security reports from the Lawal Daura-led DSS, a parastatal of the executive branch, was used to thwart the confirmation of Ibrahim Magu as EFCC chairman. But unlike Magu’s case, no security agency has owned up to issuing any adverse report on President Tinubu’s nominees. There is yet to be any valid security issue about the concerned nominees made known and neither have the so-called petitions nor security reports been brought to their knowledge. The Role of Security Agencies The creeping deployment of security reports as a tool for political intrigue, as seen in the latest ministerial confirmation saga and the past case of Ibrahim Magu risks making an issue of public trust in the integrity of security reports. Politicians are being accused of cloaking, as security reports, innuendos and angst arising from political differences, ruptured friendships, failed marriages and even ill-fated dalliances. For the health of the polity, politicians are advised to use other tools in their contestations, rather than imperil the objectivity of security reports and thereby devalue the hard work of the security agencies that compile them. Nigerians await Senator Akpabio-led Senate’s answers to these bewildering non-confirmation of President Tinubu’s nominees. *About the Author: Femi Falade is a teacher and public affairs analyst. He writes from Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State and can be reached via faladeolufemi2003@yahoo.com.

Ministerial Nominees: Tinubu withdraws Shetty, lists Keyamo, Mahmoud

President Bola Tinubu on Friday made an alteration to his list of ministerial nominees by replacing Maryam Shetty with two new candidates, Festus Keyamo (SAN) and Dr. Mariya Mahmoud. The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, read the President’s letter containing this update during Friday’s plenary session. The announcement came just before the commencement of the fourth round of screening, which saw former Governor Adegboyega Oyetola take the podium at 12:14 pm. Among those waiting to be screened were former Governors Simon Lalong (Plateau), Bello Matawalle (Zamfara), and Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi), as well as Abdullahi Gwarzo, Bosun Tijani, Isiak Salako, Tunji Alausa, Yusuf Sununu, Ibrahim Geidam, Lola John, Shuaibu Audu, Tahir Mamman, Aliyu Abdullahi, Alkali Saidu, Heineken Lokpobori, Maigari Ahmadu, and Zaphaniah Jisalo. However, the name of Maryam Shetty was withdrawn from the supplementary list of ministerial nominees. This development followed three earlier screening sessions, beginning with the examination of 14 nominees from the first batch forwarded by the President the previous Thursday. The initial screening included individuals such as former Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, Abubakar Kyari from Borno State, Nkiruka Onyejeocha (Abia State), Bello Muhammad (Sokoto State), Sani Abubakar Danladi (Taraba State), and Badaru Abubakar (Jigawa State), among others. On Tuesday, the Senate screened nine additional nominees, including former Governors Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna) and Dave Umahi (Ebonyi), as well as Wale Edun, Uche Nnaji, Stella Okotete, Adebayo Adelabu, Ekperikpe Ekpo, Hannatu Musawa, and Musa Dangiwa. The screening process resumed on Wednesday with Dele Alake, presidential spokesman, Senior Advocate of Nigeria Lateef Fagbemi, Muhammad Idris, Ali Pate, and Doris Uzoka facing scrutiny. Moreover, Femi Gbajabiamila, Chief of Staff to the President, presented Tinubu’s supplementary ministerial list containing 19 additional nominees to the Senate. It is worth noting that Section 147 (3) of the 1999 Constitution mandates the President to appoint at least one minister from each of the 36 states. However, 11 states, including Adamawa, Bayelsa, Gombe, Kano, Kebbi, Kogi, Lagos, Osun, Yobe, Plateau, and Zamfara, are still without ministerial nominees as of now.

Stella Oketete not under our investigation- Code of Conduct Bureau

The Code of Conduct Bureau has denied reports making the rounds in some online media platforms that the Executive Director of NEXIM Bank, Stella Erhuvwu Oketete is under investigation by the Bureau. In a statement signed by the Director Investigation and Monitoring, Gwimi S.P. on behalf of the Chairman of the Bureau, and made available to the media, he noted that the information did not in any way emanate from their office, and as such, advised the general public to disregard the information. “The attention of the Code of Conduct Bureau, (CCB) has been drawn to the nefarious and deceptive letter with Ref No. CCB/HQ/11&M/NB/099 dated 21st March 2023 purported to have emanated from the Bureau on the above-named Public Officer being investigated by the Bureau in an online media, particularly published by the Sahara Reporters on the 29th July 2023. “The Code of Conduct Bureau wishes to state clearly that it has no hand in the information in circulation, as such the general public should disregard the letter and it’s content,” the statement said. NIGERIAN ANCHOR had reported that an Abuja-based human rights lawyer, Oladotun Hassan, asked the Nigerian Senate to disqualify one of the ministerial nominees, Stella Okotete, over allegations of corruption. Read more.. Similarly, the Nigeria Police Force also ordered a discreet investigation of Okotete over alleged falsification of documents and monumental fraud. The human rights lawyer ordered a proper investigation over the alleged use of various front companies as proxies to defraud banks of billions of naira and dollars. The petition called for a reversal of Okotete’s appointment, stating that she was not qualified to hold such a position. “Predicated upon our demand for the independent and conscientious thorough background investigation and profiling of the culprit’s academic credentials and sequence of events as stated in her unsubstantiated and ridiculously padded CV as follows: “To investigate her academic profile as regards her school’s records of exams, school fees payments and NYSC certificate, as well allowance payments during years of service. “To investigate her disqualification by the Senate and her noncompliance to Senate resolution and ruling is highly contemptuous and disobedience to the constituted authority of Senate,” the petition partly read. The Nigeria Police Force investigation order followed a petition by Barrister Aare Oladotun Hassan Esq of Juryman Associate Chambers against the ministerial nominee to the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, over alleged falsification of documents, fraudulent misrepresentation of qualification to hold Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN’s) statutory position, corrupt practice, monumental fraud and misappropriation. The lawyer in had in April, written a petition to the National Assembly through Akinyelure, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petition to look into the issue of the Executive Director of Nexim Bank.