Senate Announces Date For Confirmation Of Tinubu’s Ministerial Nominees

The Senate on Saturday continued with the screening of Ministerial Nominees as it screened 5 nominees out of the 7 listed for screening for the day.

Those who scaled the screening hurdles are Dr. Isiak Salako from Ogun, Dr. Bosun Tijani from Ogun and Mrs Lola Ade-John from Lagos.

Others are Prof. Tahir Mamma from Adamawa and Mr Uba Maigari Ahmadu from Taraba.

A nominee whose screening took a lot of debates and drama is Dr Bosun Tijani from Ogun who was accused that he tweeted negative remarks about Nigeria nation and the Nigerian Senate.

After his brief introduction, Dr. Bosun Tijani was confronted with his Tweet in 2021 where he referred to Senators as “morons”.

Tijani equally had earlier in July 2019- tweet described Nigeria as a “bloody expensive tag” allegedly portraying the country in bad light.

Senate is appalled by the Tweet and demands explanation from Tijani who incidentally holds a British nationality.

At this point, the nominee from Ogun looks completely pinned down and at the mercy of the lawmakers.

When the floor was finally yielded to Tijani to defend himself, he managed to wriggle out of trouble after explaining that the Tweet in question was taken out of context and does not reflect what he stands for and his love for his country Nigeria.

He said it was a tweet in the heat of anger over how he was shabbily treated as a Nigerian citizen at the Chinese embassy in the United Kingdom

But Tijani’s respite was momentary. Senate Minority Leader had dug up the Tweet where he called the lawmakers “morons”. By this time, most of the sympathy for Tijani had evaporated – with many senators raising their hands in the background to wreak even more havoc on a ministerial nomination that now looks shaky.

Help came help eventually came from the Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, asking the Senate to allow Tijani apologise for his misguided youthful exuberance.

Sober about his posts he later tendered an unreserved apology before he was allowed to take a bow and leave the chamber.

Also, Another nominee, Dr. Isiak Salako from Ogun who is a medical doctor by profession answered questions that relate to health sector in Nigeria.

Dr Salako called for improved funding in the health sector and pledged that if he is saddled with the responsibility to oversee the health ministry, he will be an advocate of infrastructural development in health sector in Nigeria.

The nominee also described the issue of brain drain in the health sector as a very big problem in Nigeria. He lamented that about fifty percent of his colleagues who graduated from the same university are now practicing abroad.

He noted that only way to reduce the menace is to give priority to the welfare of health workers in the country.

He lauded the federal government for the efforts made to increase the coverage of immunisation in the country but called on the National Orientation Agency to increase the campaign that immunisation has no negative effect on the youth as well as on the culture.

Lola Ade-John is another nominee who answered questions on how to curb the menace of Yahoo boys and fraud in the banking sector, she said the menace is not peculiar to Nigeria alone but a global challenge.

She said the only way to keep the activities of yahoo boys under control is to have advanced technology to be able to be ahead of them as well as the support of security agencies to put their activities under check.

The Senate after screening 5 nominees out of the 7 listed on the order paper, while adjourning the remaining two to Monday, 7th August 2023.

The remaining 2 nominees to face the screening hurdle are Dr Mariya Mahmood Bunkutre from Kano and Mr. Festus Keyamo (SAN) who the Senate President said are in the process of filling their documentation.

The total number of nominees screened so far by the Senate stands at 46 out of 48 nominees forwarded to the red chamber by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for screening and confirmation.

The confirmation of all the nominees is expected to take place on Monday.

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