By Goodluck Ikiebe
The Chief of Staff to President, Femi Gbajabiamila, has submitted President Bola Tinubu’s supplementary ministerial list to the Senate.
The immediate past Speaker of the House of Representatives submitted the second list with the second batch of ministerial nominees to Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, at exactly 03:19pm.
Akpabio is expected to unveil the additional nominees of the President after the screening of the 28 nominees in the first batch.
Already, the Senate has screened 25 nominees in the first batch as of the time of filing this report and there are three more nominees to go.
Gbajabiamila had last Thursday submitted the first list with 28 nominees to the Red Chamber and said more names would be forwarded to the Upper Chamber.
Those screened on Wednesday are Dele Alake, Lateef Fagbemi and Muhammad Idris with Ali Pate and Doris Uzoka to go,
The Senate had on Tuesday screened nine nominees and adjourned the exercise till Wednesday. Those screened on Tuesday were ex-governors Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna) and Dave Umahi (Ebonyi); Wale Edun, Uche Nnaji, Stella Okotete, Adebayo Adelabu, Ekperikpe Ekpo, Hannatu Musawa, and Musa Dangiwa.
The Upper Chamber had on Monday screened 14 of the 28-man list of Ministerial Nominees forwarded by the President last Thursday.
Those screened on Monday include former governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike; Abubakar Kyari from Borno State; Nkiruka Onyejeocha (Abia State); Bello Muhammad (Sokoto State); Sani Abubakar Danladi (Taraba State); and Badaru Abubakar (Jigawa State).
Others are Joseph Utsev (Benue State), Olubunmi Tunji Ojo (Ondo State), Betta Edu (Cross River State), Uju Kennedy Ohaneye (Anambra State), Abubakar Momoh (Edo State), John Enoh (Cross River State), Iman Suleiman Ibrahim (Nasarawa State), and Yusuf Maitama Tuggar (Bauchi State).
Section 147 (3) of the 1999 Constitution mandates the President to appoint at least one Minister from each of the 36 States.
However, 11 states – Adamawa, Bayelsa, Gombe, Kano, Kebbi, Kogi, Lagos, Osun, Yobe, Plateau and Zamfara — and the Federal Capital Territory don’t have ministerial nominees yet.
