Twenty four of the 43 ministerial nominees of President Muhammadu Buhari have now been screened, on the second day of the exercise.
There has been no rejection yet.
All the nominees that have passed through the senate grill have all had an easy touch, with only Sunday Dare, from Oyo, arguably the only one that went through screening in the proper sense of the word.
He was bombarded with a host of questions about the telecom industry, about broadband, drop calls, and how to make the industry serve Nigerians better.
He spoke about how registered SIMS can be used to track kidnappers and what NCC has been doing to collaborate with the security agencies.
Dare, who is at present executive commissioner with the Nigerian Communications Commission confidently and brilliantly answered the questions and delivered a most stellar performance so far.
On Wednesday, the senators screened 10 of the nominees. They were:
Uchechukwu Ogah, Ogbonnaya Onu, former science and technology minister, Olamilekan Adegbite, a former works commissioner in Ogun, Adamu Adamu, former education minister, Rotimi Amaechi, a former Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, former governor and former transport minister; former senators George Akume, Godswill Akpabio, Adeleke Olorunnimbe Mamora, Emeka Nwajiuba, a member of the House of Representatives.
Also screened was Sharon Ikeazor, a lawyer, who now heads the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate(PTAD).
Ogah was grilled on the state of the nation’s oil sector, diversification of the economy and the nation’s fiscal policies.
All the Nominees who have previously served in the upper and lower legislative chambers of the National Assembly as well as in a State House of Assembly were not questioned by senators. They were simply asked to ‘take a bow’ and leave after they were introduced.
The trend continued on Thursday with Senator Tayo Alasodura, a former Senator representing Ondo Central. He was also asked to take a bow.
Other nominees screened on Thursday apart from Sunday Dare were: Mustafa Baba Shehuri, a former minister of state from Borno, Abubakar Aliyu, an engineer and former deputy governor of Yobe state, Major General Bashir Salihi Magashi, a former ECOMOG commander from Kano, Timipre Sylva, former governor of Bayelsa, Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu, from Kogi, Niyi Adebayo, former governor of Ekiti state.
Others are Zubair Dada from Niger, Chris Ngige, former governor of Anambra and former minister of Labour, Abdullahi Hassan the youngest nominee from Nasarawa State, Mohammed Bello, former FCT minister from Adamawa state, Sadiya Farouq from Zamfara State.
Sadiya cracked the joke that her political career started in the Fourth Senate with her office ‘upstairs.’
Senate president Ahmad Lawan said that the screening will continue on Friday, with eight more nominees.
Lawan said those scheduled for Friday included- Goody Jeddy-Agba (Cross River), Dr Osagie Ehanire (Edo), Suleiman Adamu (Jigawa), Hadi Sirika (Kaduna), Abubakar Malami (Kebbi), Gbemisola Saraki (Kwara), Mrs Paulen Talen (Plateau) and Muhammdu Dingyadi (Sokoto).
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