Ministerial Nominees: Senate screens Keyamo, Salako, Mamman, four others (LIVE UPDATES)
The Senate had previously screened 41 out of 48 ministers-designate transmitted to it by President Bola Tinubu.
The Senate will today continue with the screening of the ministerial nominees of President Bola Tinubu.
Altogether, seven nominees will appear before the upper legislative chamber of the National Assembly in a session which begins at 11 a.m.
Those that will appear before the lawmakers today are Tahir Mamman (Adamawa), Uba Ahmadu (Taraba), Lola John (Lagos), Ishak Salako (Ogun), Bosun Tijani (Ogun), Festus Keyamo (Delta) and Mairiga Mahmud (Kano).
Mr Keyamo, a senior lawyer and minister of state for labour and employment in the preceding Buhari administration, and Mrs Mahmud were not originally part of the two lists earlier transmitted to the Senate by Mr Tinubu. Their nomination was announced by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, at the plenary on Friday.
Midway into the proceedings on Friday, the senate president read a letter from Mr Tinubu replacing one of the two nominees from Kano, Maryam Shetty with Mrs Mahmud. The president did not state the reason for the action in his correspondence to the Senate.
The president had on 27 July sent the first list of 28 nominees to the Senate for confirmation and dispatched the second list of 19 nominees on 3 August.
With the inclusion of Mr Keyamo in the list, the number of the ministers-designate sent to the legislature by the president rose from 47 to 48, a development some Nigerians have criticised. The critics say the number is weird for a country rooting for cut in the cost of governance.
In all, the senators have screened 41 nominees in extended sessions which began on Monday, 31 July.
As the rules demand, the screening will be held at the Committee of the Whole presided over by the senate president as chairman.
It is expected that the lawmakers will conclude the exercise today and announce the confirmation or rejection of any of the ministers as the case may be before proceeding on recess, which it had deferred to undertake this critical legislative responsibility.
