The Nigerian Senate on Tuesday revealed that President Bola Tinubu would make available the much-expected list of ministerial nominees to it within the next 48 hours.
Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, APC, Ekiti Central, who is the leader of the Senate made this disclosure yesterday at his 60th birthday anniversary lecture and presentation of two books on leadership, and communication at the Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja.
In Bamidele’s words: ‘President Bola Tinubu told me this morning (yesterday) when he called to greet me for my birthday lecture around 10:03 am that he will not be able to come to the birthday lecture because of the communication he needed to submit to the Senate in the next 48 hours.’
Africa Today News, New York recalls that Tinubu who was inaugurated on the 29th of May, 2023, has up till July 28 to send his ministerial nominees to the Senate for screening and subsequent confirmation, in line with the 1999 Constitution as amended.
Following the amendment by the last parliament, the constitution stipulates that the President and Governors have, from the date they were sworn in, a 60-day window within which to appoint ministers and commissioners.
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Section 42 of the constitution states that ‘(a) the nomination of any person to the office of a Minister for confirmation by the Senate shall be done within sixty days after the date the President has taken the oath of office; (b) not less than ten per cent of persons appointed as Ministers shall be women: Provided that the President may appoint a Minister at any other time during his tenure and such appointment shall be subject to confirmation by the Senate.’
According to the Constitution, the President shall also appoint at least a minister from each of the 36 states of the federation.
Meanwhile, the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, lamented that governors in Nigeria always fight their successors immediately after they assume office.
Akpabio, who spoke at the 60th birthday anniversary lecture and book presentation, applauded the celebrant for his loyalty to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for over 30 years when he served as aide to him in the National Assembly in 1992.
Akpabio, who expressed displeasure with the attitude of governors to their successors, said there was no former governor that had not had issues with his successor, citing issue of Senator Adams Oshiomole , Senator Adamu Aliero, aside from that of Ekiti State, Abiodun Oyebamiji.