President Bola Tinubu has forwarded additional nineteen names of Ministerial Nominees to the Senate for screening and subsequent confirmation.
The list read by the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio has five former governors, former Senators, former member, House of Representatives.
The former Governors who made the list are the immediate past Governor of Plateau State and the Director- General, All Progressives Congress, APC Presidential Campaign Council, Simon Lalong; former Governor of Yobe State and a Senator in the 9th and present Senator Ibrahim Gaidam; former Governor of Osun State, Adegboyega Oyetola; former Governor of Kebbi State, Atiku Bagudu and former Governor of Zamfara State, Bello Matawalle.
The former Senators are the immediate past Deputy Chief Whip of the Senate, Senator Sabi Abdullahi from Niger State; Senator Heineken Lokpobori from Bayelsa State; Senator Alkali Ahmed Saidu who was in the 9th Senate from Gombe State, Senator Uba Maigari Ahmadu, former Deputy Governor of Taraba State and former Deputy Governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Tijjani Gwarzo.
Others Bosun Tijani, Ogun State; Dr Maryam Shetty from Borno State; Isiak Salako, Lagos State; Tunji Alausa, Lagos State ; former Chairman, Federal House of Representatives on Health, Dr Yusuf Tanko Sununu from Kebbi State; Lola Ade John; son of late Abubakar Audu of Kogi State, Shuaibu Abubakar Audu; former Director General of Nigeria Law School from 2005 to 2013 hails from Adamawa State, Prof. Tahir Mamman, SAN and former member, House of Representatives, Zaphaniah Bitrus Jisalo from the Federal Capital Territory, making it the first time an original inhabitant of the FCT would be named a Minister.
With the present nineteen Ministerial Nominees which is a completion of the remaining eleven states that were not alloted a ministerial slot, the names have risen to forty seven all together.
The President of the Senate, Senator Akpabio then announced that the new ministerial nominees would be screened on Friday, just as he urged them to complete their documentation today, Thursday ahead of next day's screening.
Recall that President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio had on Thursday last week received the long awaited Ministerial list from President Tinubu, just as former Governors, Senators and House of Representatives dominated the list.
The list was delivered by the former Speaker, House of Representatives and Chief of Staff to President Tinubu, Femi Gbajiabiamila who entered the hallowed Chamber at 1.18pm and delivered the letter at 1.19pm
The letter addressed to the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio.
The 28 Ministerial Nominees were Abubakar Momoh; Amb. Yusuf Maitama Tuggar; Architect Hammad Dangiwa; Hanatu Musawa; Chief Uche Nnaji; Beta Edu; Doris Aniche;; David Umahi ; Nyesom Wike; Mohamed Badaru Abubakar and Nasir El- Rufai.
Others were Ekperikpe Ekpo; Nkiru onyejiocha; Olubumi Ojo; Stella Okotekpe; Uju Kennedy; Bello Mohammed Goroyo; Dele Alake; Lateef Fagbemi and Mohammed Idris; Edu Muhi; Waheed Adebayo; Imma Suleiman; Ali Pate; Joseph Utsev from Benue; Abubaka kyari; John Eno and Sani Abubakar Damladi.
Before the announcement of the names yesterday, former Speaker, House of Representatives and the Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu, Honourable Femi Gbajiabiamila had entered the hallowed where he forwarded the list to the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, the remaining list of Ministerial Nominees.
To allow Gbajiabiamila to present the list, the Senate invoked its Order 12(i) to allow the former speaker enter the chamber at 3.15pm.
Before the Chief of Staff came in to the Chamber, a ministerial nominee, Lateef Fagbemi, Kwara was standing before the Senators for screening.
Prior to the presentation of the additional nominees, the Senate yesterday entered the third day of the screening of the Ministerial Nominees submitted to it last week Thursday by President Bola Tinubu for subsequent confirmation.
President Tinubu had last week forwarded twenty eight nominees to the Senate for screening.
The Senate had on monday screened fourteen out of the twenty- eight, just as it screened five nominees that were not attended to on Tuesday.
According to the Order Paper of yesterday, the five nominees were Dele Alake (Ekiti); Muhammad Idris (Niger); Professor Ali Pate Bauchi; Doris Anite Uzoka (Imo); and Lateef Fagbemi SAN (Kwara) as they were all screened by the Senators.
Addressing the Senators, Alake, the current Special Adviser to the President on Special Duties, Communication, Strategy who was the first to appear, said that regulation of Social Media should be strengthened, just as he urged the National Assembly to amend its existing laws towards the regulating social media to curb fake and inaccurate information.
Alake who raised serious concerns over the misapplication of social media in Nigeria, bitterly complained about the misuse of the platform while fielding questions from Senators during his screening exercise on Wednesday in Abuja.
While acknowledging its advantages in information dissemination, Alake who warned that the disadvantages of social media could throw the country into confusion if not checked, said that the bad side of social media can be detrimental to any good and decent society.
Alake urged victims of libel and defamation not to hesitate in applying the full weight of the law on culprits when there are infractions by any medium be it broadcast or print, just as he stressed the need to test the laws of the federation to ascertain its efficacy and proficiency.
There was a mild drama during the questioning of Alake
when the Senate shielded him by overruling the Minority Leader, Senator Simon Devou Nwadkwon, PDP, Plateau North who asked the ministerial nominee from Ekiti State to recite the second stanza of the National Anthem.
When the Senate Minority Leader also asked Alake tp defend when he referred to some opposition members as “Wild Dogs “ on his Social media handles, the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio quickly stopped the Minority leader, shielding Alake from responding to the allegation raised.
According to Akpabio, the issue was during electioneering campaigns and in the past.
Sensing crisis, the leadership of the Senate also rose in strong defence of the right hand man of President Bola Tinubu, thereby shielding him from responding to allegations that he at some points referred to some opposition members as “Wild dogs” on his social media handle.
Alake also enjoyed even a stronger defence from Senate Majority Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, APC, Ekiti who accused the Minority leader of injecting partisan politics into the affairs of the senate for asking the ministerial nominee to recite the second stanza of the National Assembly.
An accomplished Journalist with some of the highest badge of honours in his chosen profession- Alake was at ease taking familiar questions within his domain thrown at him by lawmakers, just as he told the lawmakers that without internal National Security, road and electricity infrastructure- not much can be done to boost investments in tourism, adding that there was the need to work on values and mindset of citizens and that he will alway push for press freedom-but not without a measure of responsibility.
Alake who noted that information is power and when misused or misdirected- the consequences could be catastrophic, said that it was about time Nigeria applied checks on the reckless use of the Social Media.
All of this was as the upper legislative chamber grilled 4 other ministerial nominees to complete the screening and confirmation of all 28 ministers-designate forwarded last Thursday President Tinubu.
Next was the ministerial nominee from Niger State, Mohammed Idris, the Publisher of Blueprints Newspapers who was asked why he was still parading a statement of result many years after leaving secondary school.
While he responded to other questions about media practice in Nigeria, Idris skipped the one on the status of his secondary school certificate where it was raised that after forty one years after, he was still showing his statement of result and not his certificates
Also yesterday, for over one hour, the Senate grilled the ministerial nominee from Kwara State, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN who is one of the lead counsel to President Tinubu at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria backed the idea of merging the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,EFCC and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offices Commission(ICPC), saying that the anti-graft agencies should be limited to investigation while another body should be charged with the arrest and prosecution of offenders.
Fagbemi an accomplished lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) who responded to questions bordering on corruption, advocated that the EFCC and ICPC should be unbundled
He said: "Truth be told, you fight corruption but at the same time the way it's fought in Nigeria leaves much to be desired. That is the truth.
"If I have my way, I will advise the President to unbundle, first of all, bring out ICPC, and EFCC together and unbundle them."
Fagbemi who noted that investigation of criminal offences should not be handled by the same body adding that there must be a supervisory authority within the same system, said, "If there is investigation, it is another body, prosecution is another body. It doesn't augur well to ask the same authority to do investigation and come and do prosecution. That is when we have a problem.
"Investigation takes time especially in serious corruption cases. Are we prepared to wait. My take is that a situation should be created such as the one that happened when Hushpuppi was arrested.
"They had been trailing him for years, he didn't know and nobody will talk to him. But the day they said the time was up, he also knew that the time was up."
The Kwara nominee who noted that investigation should be thorough, said, "It shouldn't be that when a given governor leaves office, let's go, EFCC is investigating you. That is not the way to investigate criminal matters."
"You can take your time to prosecute but when you not, and it should be like the way an average American will react when the FBI knocks at the door."
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