The Senate will resume screening of President Bola Tinubu’s 48 ministerial nominees.
Altogether, seven nominees will appear before the upper legislative chamber of the National Assembly in a session which begins at 11 a.m.
Those that will appear before the lawmakers today are Tahir Mamman (Adamawa), Uba Ahmadu (Taraba), Lola John (Lagos), Ishak Salako (Ogun), Bosun Tijani (Ogun), Festus Keyamo (Delta) and Mairiga Mahmud (Kano).
On July 27, 2023, the President transmitted a 28-man list to the red chamber for confirmation. He subsequently sent a supplementary list of 19 nominees to the Senate on August 2, 2023.
Keyamo, a senior lawyer and minister of state for labour and employment in the preceding Buhari administration, and Mahmud were not originally part of the two lists earlier transmitted to the Senate by Mr Tinubu.
Their nomination was announced by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, at the plenary on Friday.
Midway into the proceedings on Friday, the senate president read a letter from Mr Tinubu replacing one of the two nominees from Kano, Maryam Shetty with Mahmud.
The president did not state the reason for the action in his correspondence to the Senate.
In all, the senators have screened 41 nominees in extended sessions which began on Monday, 31 July.
As the rules demand, the screening will be held at the Committee of the Whole presided over by the senate president as chairman.
It is expected that the lawmakers will conclude the exercise today and announce the confirmation or rejection of any of the ministers as the case may be before proceeding on recess, which it had deferred to undertake this critical legislative responsibility.
