ABUJA, Federal Republic of Nigeria. There are mounting tensions and anxiety in Abuja as Senate is due to open today the envelope containing the ministerial list sent by President Muhammadu Buhari to the National Assembly for screening and confirmation.
Strong indications emerged that plenary may be stormy between the two opposing factions in the Senate.
The senators may clash as some are already insisting that Buhari must submit himself before the Senate if he is desirous of holding the office of the Minister of Petroleum.
The president had declared during his trip to United Nations last week that he had appointed himself as the oil minister.
It was also gathered that the senators had vowed to reject an incomplete list, saying the constitution provides for a nominee from each state of the federation and that any list that did not cover the 36 states would suffer serious opposition on the floor of the Senate.
Over the past weeks, chieftains of ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and other Nigerians had been engaged in serious horse-trading and lobbying over who gets what in the Buhari government, while ordinary Nigerians were kept in suspense over the constitution of the federal executive council.
Already, the bad blood generated by the emergence of Senator Bukola Saraki as Senate President had drastically altered the initial posts allocation in the party.
Daily Independent learnt yesterday in Abuja that the emergence of Bukola Saraki, Hon. Yakubu Dogara and Senator Ike Ekweremadu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the Deputy Senate President had upset the initial arrangements from the zones.
The suspense may, however, end today, if the Senate goes ahead with the screening process for the first batch of ministers whose names were submitted last week.
The senators have also vowed that they would not be cowed by the trial of Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), just as they promised to adopt stringent measures in line with the provisions of the Constitution during the screening of ministerial nominees.
The Senate had earlier declared that the tradition of take-a-bow for ex-senators appearing for screening as ministers would not apply during the current dispensation, adding that they were prepared to send names of nominees to the sender of such a list.
Senate President, Dr Saraki, is currently facing trial at CCT, following a 13-count charge leveled against him by the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) bordering on alleged corruption and false declaration of assets in 2003 when he served as Governor of Kwara state.
Credit: Daily Independent (Nigeria)
