There are very strong indications that the much-awaited names of those being considered as ministers by President Bola Tinubu will be known as Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, is likely to unveil the list at plenary this week. Plenaries at both chambers of the National Assembly are held on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Although there has been some disquiet over President Tinubu’s delay in constituting his cabinet two months after inauguration given a new amendment to the 1999 Constitution which requires the President and governors to submit names of persons nominated as ministers or commissioners within 60 days of taking the oath of office for confirmation by the Senate or respective state Houses of Assembly.
This means that Tinubu and 28 governors must submit the lists of nominees before the end of this month, being the deadline. According to informed sources the letter containing ing the names of the nominees got to the Senate president last week. “The Senate president got the ministerial list last week but it was not yet time for him to unveil it. Most importantly, there were some last-minute adjustments.
He had a meeting with President Tinubu over the list last week,” a source explained. The source noted that the names would likely be read out this week, but could not tell when exactly. Another source noted that the delay was deliberate because of intense lobbying, but the details of the list would shock a lot of Nigerians.
Concerning how the screening of the nominees will go, a ranking senator said: “There is no big deal about the screening of ministers. The ministers can be screened in three days or one week. “Even if we have to call special or emergency sessions after the plenary has closed for this session, we will.”
