Politics
Senate Begins Screening Of Ministerial Nominees, Today
The Upper Chambers of the National Assembly will today commence the screening of 31 ministerial nominees submitted to it by the Acting President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.
Last Tuesday, the Acting President sent to the Senate list of nominees that will form the crop of the new cabinet. This development came about a week after he announced the dissolution of the Federal Executive Council constituted by the ailing president Musa Yar;Adua.
Out of the 31 ministerial nominees, eight of the dissolved cabinet made the new list while 23 are fresh hands. The eight returning ministerial nominees include Odein Ajumogobia, Adetokunbo Kayode, Mrs Diezani Allison-Madueke, Nuhu Sumo Wya, Senator Akinlabi Olasunkanmi, Godsday Orubebe, Prof. Dora Akunyili, and Fidelia Njeze.
The 23 others that made the ministerial list are Mrs Josephine Anenih, Prof. M.K. Abubakar, Navy Captain N.S. Olubolade (rtd), Dr. Chris Ogiemwonyi, Ndanusa Alao, Umaru Aliyu and Murtala Yar’Adua. The remaining lucky ones are Nduese Essien, Abubakar Mohammed, Olusegun Aganga, Labaran Maku, Sanusi Daggash, Emeke Nwogu, Bello Adokiye, Josephine Tapgun, Adamu Maina Waziri, Ernest Odebola and Suleiman Bello.
The ministerial nominees list which attracted mixed reactions soon after it was made public in the Senate, however laid to rest days of lobbying by interest groups and political heavy weights to have their candidates included in the list.
Even when critics accused Jonathan of assembling what they called “greenhorns and lacking political experiences “sources from his office disagreed, saying that the crop of the new ministerial nominees are experienced technocrats and professionals that are assembled to give a fresh breath to good governance towards a better Nigerian society.
Thought the Senate has promised a fair screening exercise for all the nominees, it may not be out of place to see anti-Jonathan senators being difficult during the screening in order to frustrate the nominees efforts to scale though.
Meanwhile, the Senate President, David Mark, is skipping this year’s International Parliamentary Union (IPU) conference in Bangkok, Thailand to enable him to preside over the screening of the ministerial nominees.
Mr. Paul Mumeh, the Chief Press Secretary to the Senate president, made the announcement in a statement on Friday in Abuja.
The world parliamentarians are expected to discuss issues on threat to security and peace, democracy and human rights, sustainable development as well as finance and trade across the globe.
On Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed, through a second reading, a bill seeking to retain immunity for the Office of the President and remove immunity from the Vice President, the Governors and the Deputy Governors.
The bill was one of the 42 considered and passed through the second reading stage during plenary presided over by the Deputy Speaker, Mr Benjamin Kalu, in Abuja.
Sponsored by Hon. Solomon Bob (Rivers PDP), the bill is seeking the amendment of Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution to guard against abuse of office and to ensure transparency in governance.
The long title of the proposed legislation read: “A Bill for an Act to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, to qualify the immunity conferred on the President, remove the immunity conferred on the Vice President, the Governors and their deputies, in order to curb corruption, eradicate impunity and enhance accountability in public office and for related matters.”
Key amendments include changes to Section 308 of the Constitution, which currently grants immunity to the president, vice president, governors, and deputy governors while in office.
The proposed bill will amend subsection 3 to ensure that immunity only applies to the President and the vice president when acting as President under Section 145 of the Constitution.
Additionally, a new subsection 4 will be introduced to make the immunity clause inapplicable if the office holder is acting in an unofficial capacity, engaging in actions beyond the powers of the office, or involved in criminal conduct.
“The bill seeks to foster transparency and strengthen the fight against corruption by making public officials more accountable for their actions, both in and out of office.”
“Section 308 of the principal Act is amended by:(a) substituting a new subsection (3) as follows: “(3) This section applies to a person holding the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Vice President only when acting as President, in line with Section 145 of this Constitution.
Creating sub section (4) thereto as follows:”(4) The foregoing provisions of this section shall be inapplicable where the person to whom this section applies is acting in an unofficial capacity or where the conduct of the person is beyond the powers of his office or the conduct is criminal in nature.
“This Bill may be cited as the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Alteration) Act 2024.
The bill is currently awaiting further debate and consideration by the National Assembly.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has written to notify Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, the senator representing Kogi Central, about the petition by constituents seeking her recall from the national assembly.
INEC said it has also received the contact details of the petitioners.
“Pursuant to section 69 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, as amended, I write to notify you of the receipt of a petition from representatives of registered voters in your constituency seeking your recall from the senate.
“The notification is in line with the provisions of clause 2 (a) of the Commission’s Regulations and Guidelines for Recall 2024.
“This letter is also copied to the presiding officer of the senate and simultaneously published on the commission’s website. Thank you”, the letter read.
The letter was signed by Ruth Oriaran Anthony, secretary to the commission.
Meanwhile, in a statement issued on Wednesday, INEC said it has now received the updated contact details from representatives of petitioners seeking to recall the senator.
In the statement, Sam Olumekun, INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman of Information and Voter Education, said a letter notifying the senator of the petition has been delivered to her official address, copied to the senate presiding officer, and published on the commission’s website.
“The next step is to scrutinise the list of signatories submitted by the petitioners to ascertain that the petition is signed by more than one half (over 50%) of the registered voters in the constituency. This will be done in the coming days.
“The outcome, which will be made public, shall determine the next step to be taken by the Commission. We once again reassure Nigerians that the process will be open and transparent”, Mr Olumekun said.
Sen. Akpoti-Uduaghan had recently accused Senate President Godswill Akpabio of sexually harassing her.
The allegation came in the wake of seating arrangement related altercation between Senator. Akpabio and the Kogi Central senator at the red chamber
She was subsequently suspended from the senate for six months for “gross misconduct” over the incident.
The constituents behind the recall move also accused her of “gross misconduct, abuse of office, and deceitful behaviour”.
The senator has denied wrongdoing and called the recall effort a “coordinated suppression” of her voice.
The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed the second reading of a bill to upgrade the Lagos State 37 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) to full-fledged Local Government Areas (LGAs ).
The bill, was sponsored by James Faleke, Babajimi Benson, Enitan Badru, and 19 other lawmakers.
The bill is titled “A Bill for an Act to Alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) to Accommodate the Thirty-Seven (37) Development Area Councils of Lagos State as Full-Fledged Local Government Areas, Increasing the Total Number of Local Government Areas in the Federation to Eight Hundred and Eleven (811), and for Related Matters (HB. 1498),”
Once fully enacted, Nigeria’s total number of LGAs will rise from 774 to 811, with Lagos overtaking Kano and Katsina, which currently have 44 and 34 LGAs, respectively.
Proponents of the bill argue that granting full LGA status to the LCDAs would bring governance closer to the people. The 37 LCDAs were created by President Bola Tinubu in 2003 when he was governor of Lagos State.
However, it’s worth noting that the Lagos State House of Assembly has been working on a bill to replace the 37 LCDAs with newly designated administrative areas.