Nigeria's Upper House Begins Screening of Ministerial Nominees

by Benson Agoha | Politics

Nigeria's President, Mohammadu Buhari has moved to appoint Ministers to various positions, four months after taking over the reigns of office.

* Nigeria's Senate President, Bukola Saraki receives
President Muhammadu Buhari's ministerial list on September 30, 2015
(Credit: via Pulse).

According to Pulse, President Buhari has submitted a list of 35 nominees he intends to assign to various portfolios.

But today, the Nigerian Senate announced it would begin screening the nominees today, with only ten expected to be screened.

Former Senator Udo Udoma was to be screened first, followed by former Governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi, Audu Ogbe, former Chairman of the People's Democratic Party between 2001 and Jan 2005 and former Abia State Governor Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu.

Others to be screened are Osagie Ehanire, an outstanding surgeon; Abdulrahman Dambazau, retired Army Lt General who served as Chief of Army Staff between 2008 and 2010; Lai Mohammed, a Lawyer and the National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress; Amina Mohammed, Special Adviser to UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon; Suleiman Hussaini Adamu, a civil engineer; and Ibrahim U. Jibril, a Geographer who worked and taught map reading to soldiers.

According to a series of tweets by the Office of the Senate President, the screening would be done in the following order: 

The nominees are:

1. Udo Udoma
2. Kayode Fayemi
3. Audu Ogbeh
4. Ogbonnaya Onu.
5. Osagie Ehanire
6. Abdulrahman Dambazau
7. Lai Mohammed
8. Amina Mohammed
9. Suleiman Hussaini Adamu
10. Ibrahim U. Jibril

Since he assumed power, President Buhari has delayed the appointment of Minister as he sought to have get a grip on the scale of corruption among the departing Ministers, in furtherance of his drive to eradicate corruption.