The Senate on Thursday, October 8, 2015 reeled out conditions for the screening of the ministerial nominees sent by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Making the criteria for the screening known to newsmen, the Chairman, Senate ad hoc Committee on Media and Publicity, Dino Melaye availed that asides the submission of 115 copies of their resumes, the ministerial nominees are to produce evidence of declaration of assets, a condition that was not used during the 2011 ministerial screening exercise.
Eleven ministerial nominees have so far submitted copies of their resume as at Thursday, October 8, 2015.
Melaye said: “We considered a number of issues that had to do with the approach and the procedure for the screening of the ministerial nominees. So, we developed two modalities for the screening of the ministerial nominees.
“The first criterion is using constitutional provisions as stipulated in the 1999 Constitution (as amended) as a fundamental procedure for the screening of ministerial nominees.
“Section 120 of the Standing Rules of the Senate states that the Senate shall not consider the nomination of any person, who has held any public office as contained in Part 2 of the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution prior to his nomination unless there is a written evidence that he has declared his assets and liabilities as required by Section 11(1) of Part 1 of the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“Such declaration shall be required for scrutiny by the senators. What this Section is saying is that every ministerial nominee must produce proof of compliance as required by the Constitution and the Rules of the Senate.
“You must declare your assets, and you must have a certificate of proof that you have declared your assets, and that you are given a certificate of proof by the Code of Conduct Bureau.
“We also, in line with our convention, agreed that for you to be cleared as a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, minimum of two senators from your state must, at least, show support for your nomination.
“It’s a convention by the Senate, and we have decided to uphold that convention in the sanctity of the integrity of the Senate. The era of take-a-bow-and-go is over. We are still going to maintain that, except with slight modification as regards former senators and former members of the National Assembly.
“For those who have been members of the House of Representatives and senators before, for them to become members of the House of Representatives and senators, they must have met those conditions before now.
“So, they would not be exposed to the same rigorous scrutiny that those who were not members of the National Assembly will face.”
“The Senate is also going to give priority to former members of the National Assembly in terms of the time for the screening. What I’m saying is that we may call up those, who are former members of the National Assembly before we begin to consider those, who are not members.
“We also, as a matter of modification for the take-a-bow-and-go, where it concerns only former members of the National Assembly, they may be questioned only by the chairman of that sitting, who is the President of the Senate.’’
Already 25 petitions have been so far submitted against the 21 ministerial nominees, including one against former Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi brought by Senators from his state and another brought against the Kaduna State nominee, Amina Mohammed by the senator representing Kaduna South Senatorial District, Danjuma La’ah.
