Ministerial List: 42 Nominees Risk Disqualification Over Asset Declaration

The Senate may have commenced moves to disqualify 42 out of the 43 ministerial nominees they are screening should they fail to submit their certificate of asset declarations before a stipulated date.

This is as the Senate yesterday screened seven additional ministerial nominees, bringing to 31 the total number of nominees assessed by the upper chamber since Wednesday. President Muhammadu Buhari had on Tuesday forwarded 43 names to the Senate for confirmation as Ministers of the Federal Republic with 10 nominees being screened on Wednesday and additional 14 nominees went through the same confirmation screening on Thursday.

This followed appoint of order raised by Senator Lawrence Ewrudjiakpo from Bayelsa State who relied on Order 121 of the Senate rule which provides that should one who had held public office fail to submit certificate of asset declaration, he shall not be eligible to hold public office.

On raising the point of Order, Senate President, Ahmed Lawan agreed with him and hinted that should the condition not be met by any of the ministerial nominees fail to comply with the extant provisions.

The Senate says some ministerial nominees may not scale through the screening if they fail to provide their certificate of asset declaration which is a condition for persons holding public office.

The Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, stated this while sustaining a point of order raised by Bayelsa West lawmaker, Lawrence Ewrudjiakpo, at the ministerial screening. This implies that 42 out of the 43 ministerial nominees who have once held public office risk being disqualified if they don’t provide evidence of asset declaration by next week. The Order 121 in reference provides that: “The Senate shall not consider the nomination of any person who has occupied any office contained in part 1 of the 5th Schedule of the constitution prior to his nomination unless there is written evidence that he has declared his assets and liabilities as required by Section13 of Part 1 of the 5th Schedule to the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Such declaration shall be required for scrutiny by the Senate.”

Ewrudjiakpo who raised the order explained that there was need for things to be properly done and rules complied with for transparency and accountability, adding, , “Mine is an appeal to say that all the nominees that have appeared before us, very few of them have provided evidence of declaration of assets. I move that the National Assembly liaison should facilitate their submission of such declaration because before we were sworn in, we declared our assets.

I want to suggest that the Senate takes this notice and asks them before we go into the confirmation stage to submit such requirement.” He later added that “It is a breach of the constitution. If we are fighting corruption, we must be seen to be doing so. We should know what they are worth before coming to office and what they are worth at the end of their tenure.”

Speaking at the end of yesterday’s session that lasted from 10.50am to 8.10pm with four hour break from Noon to 4pm, Senate President, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, announced that the remaining 12 nominees would be screened in the next two working days with nine being assessed on Monday and the remaining three would have their turns on the last day on Tuesday. He listed those scheduled for screening on Monday to include former minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (Lagos); Dr. Muhammad Mahmoud (Kaduna); Gbemisola Saraki (Kwara); former governor of Osun State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola (Osun) and Goddy Jedy-Agba (Cross River). Others are Sulaiman Adamu (Jigawa); Clement Agba (Edo), Maryam Katagum (Bauchi) and former Foreign Affairs Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama. The three nominees for Tuesday are Sabo Nanono, former Information Minister, Lai Mohammed(Kwara) and Saleh Mamman ( Taraba). The seven nominees screened yesterday include former Justice Minister, Abubakar Malami (Kebbi); former Aviation Minister

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