The ministerial nominees of President Muhammadu Buhari, may not have a smooth-sailing experience when they face the senate for screening, as from October 13.

It was decided on Thursday, at the Senate that all ministerial nominees must be endorsed by at least two senators from their state.

The Senators had gone into a closed-door executive session shortly after plenary commenced, to discuss the ministerial screening.

This decision that two senators must endorse a nominee was arrived at during deliberations on the procedures for the screening process.

Chairman, ad-hoc Committee on Media and Publicity,  Senator Dino Melaye, briefed journalists on what was discussed after the meeting.

“We considered a number of issues that had to do with the approach, the procedure for the screening of the ministerial nominees. So, we developed two modalities for the screening of the ministerial nominees.

“The first criteria is using constitutional provisions as stipulated in the 1999 Constitution (as amended) as a fundamental procedure for the screening of ministerial nominees.

“Section 120 of the Standing Rules of the Senate states that the Senate shall not consider the nomination of any person, who has held any public office as contained in Part 2 of the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution prior to his nomination unless there is a written evidence that he has declared his assets and liabilities as required by Section 11(1) of Part 1 of the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“Such declaration shall be required for scrutiny by the senators.What this Section is saying is that every ministerial nominee must produce, actually proof of compliance as required by the Constitution and the Rules of the Senate.

“You must declare your assets, and you must have a certificate of proof that you have declared your assets, and that you are given a certificate of proof by the Code of Conduct Bureau.”

“We also, in line with our convention, agreed that for you to be cleared as a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, minimum of two senators from your state must, at least, show support for your nomination.

“It’s a convention by the Senate, and we have decided to uphold that convention in the sanctity of the integrity of the Senate. The era of take a bow and go is over. We are still going to maintain that, except with slight modification as regards former senators and former members of the National Assembly.

“They are not also just coming to take a bow and go; but we have modified that the condition for you to become a minister is minimum requirement for whoever wants to be a member of the House of Representatives.

“For those, who have been members of the House of Representatives and senators before, for them to become members of the House of Representatives and senators, they must have met those conditions before now.

“So, they would not be exposed to the same rigorous scrutiny that those, who were not members of the National Assembly will face.

“The Senate is also going to give priority to former members of the National Assembly in terms of the time for the screening. What I’m saying is that we may call up those, who are former members of the National Assembly before we begin to consider those, who are not members.

“We also, as a matter of modification for the take a bow and go, where it concerns only former members of the National Assembly, they may be questioned only by the chairman of that sitting, who is the President of the Senate.

“We maintain that the screening exercise will be rigorous, will be expeditious, and it will be thorough. And I repeat that the Senate is not going to politicise the screening exercise, there will be no considerations for region, for ethnic, for religion, for tribe, for friendship.

“The Federal Republic of Nigeria shall be our ultimate interest, and we are going to do all these things in public interest. We have received a number of petitions, and those petitions are going to be looked into, and the variety of those petitions will also guide our proceedings during the screening exercise”

Afterwards, Senate President, Bukola Saraki, directed the Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petition, to look into all public petitions against the nominees before the screening commences.

Kolapo Olapoju