President Bola Ahmad has finally submitted a list of his ministerial nominees to the Senate, THE QUEST TIMES confirmed.
The list came hours after the Senate adjourned for the day, fueling concerns the president may default on the 60 days deadline he imposed by the constitution.
The Senate President, Goodwill Akpabio is expected to read the names at today’s session.
Tinubu who resumed office on 29th May 2023, has up till July 28th (today) to send his ministerial nominees to the Senate for screening and subsequent confirmation in line with the 1999 Constitution as amended.
Following the amendment by the 9th parliament, the constitution stipulates that the President and governors have, from the date they are sworn in, a 60-day window within which to appoint ministers and commissioners.
Section 42 of the constitution states that “(a) the nomination of any person to the office of a Minister for confirmation by the Senate shall be done within sixty days after the date the President has taken the oath of office; (b) not less than ten per cent of persons appointed as Ministers shall be women: Provided that the President may appoint a Minister at any other time during his tenure and such appointment shall be subject to confirmation by the Senate.”
A few days ago, The Senate Leader, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele (APC, Ekiti Central) at his 60th birthday anniversary lecture and presentation of two books on Leadership, Communication at the Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja confessed on Tuesday “let me tell you, and you must encourage me; I need to make myself unavailable for the next 48 hours because a correspondence must come to the Senate, a very crucial correspondence. So Mr President prayed for me. We should tell the rest of Nigerians to pray for me to be able to make the right decision within the next 24 hours so that when Nigerians hear the list of his ministers, they will say ‘yes…this is uncommon’, and join us to pray for Mr President.
A reliable source at the National Assembly told The Quest Times on Wednesday that there’s no specific date for the summer holiday yet. Still, the lawmakers will surely screen the Ministerial Nominees and submit them to Mr. President before commencing on the break in early August 2023.
Nigerians have been waiting endlessly for the names of the Ministerial Nominees to be read and screened by the National Assembly, the Quest Times gathered.