Senate drops demand for ministerial list with portfolios

Posted by admin Legislature, Ministries, Senate Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011

NOW, President Goodluck Jonathan is at liberty to attach portfolios or refrain when he sends the ministerial list to the Senate, hopefully next week.

This follows the Senate decision to shift ground on earlier insistence that the President’s attachment of portfolios to the list was mandatory.

Senate President David Mark confirmed the new position yesterday in Abuja when he said the Upper House would not insist that portfolios be attached to the ministerial list being expected from the President.

At an interaction with foreign journalists in his office in the National Assembly, Mark cleared that the provision of the 1999 Constitution is clear on that matter and the President would only do that which is permitted by law. He noted that such method might be all right so that specific questions could be asked nominees but that is not the position of the constitution.

“That may be the preferred option so that specific questions could be asked but that is not the constitutional requirement. The constitution wants Mr. President to forward the names of the nominees to us and once he does that, he has fulfilled the constitutional requirement

“The 1999 Constitution provides that Mr. President forward names of ministerial nominees, one per state to the Senate for screening and confirmation as minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and nothing more,” he said.

Mark re-assured Nigerians that the seventh Senate would make laws that would ensure good governance at all levels. “We will continue to pass laws that will ensure good governance and once we do that, it is a bold step towards stabilising democracy in Nigeria. It is a collective responsibility of all senators,” he assured.

On his unchallenged return as Senate President by his colleagues, Mark submitted that the confidence and consensus of opinion did not come by chance. “We worked hard for it and our colleagues saw reasons to vote for me.

“I campaigned to be re-elected; I spoke to every senator-elect. I spoke to them in their caucuses. Some of them expressed reservations and I explained my position to them and they understood.

“One thing that I maintained is that I will not make a promise to individual senator but I will be just, fair, transparent and do things I can defend before my God when there will be no witness but only David Mark,” he pledged.

He expressed delight that the poor image of the National Assembly had improved.

“We know most Nigerians have wrong mindsets about the National Assembly. I think with time and as we do things more positively in the interest of all Nigerians, they will come to realise that the legislators are not the devils Nigerians think they are.”

In Edo State, mass defection looms in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over information that former Minister of State for Defence, Mike Onolhemenmen, has made the new ministerial list

This came barely 24 hours after a parallel letter written by the faction led by Dr. Samuel Ogbemudia/Admiral Mike Akhigbe to the state House of Assembly denouncing the appointment of the Minority Leader and Minority Whip.

The Guardian learnt that some prominent members of the party in Edo South and North are set for a showdown over the choice of Onolhemenmen.

It was gathered that the former Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees, Chief Tony Anenih, had persuaded Jonathan to appoint Onolhemenmen as the minister from the state as he was said to have argued that it was only Edo Central (his constituency) that was able to give the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) a fight during the just-concluded election but the others are said to have argued that the President won in the three senatorial districts of the state and should not discriminate in his appointment of ministers.

But some top leaders of the party in the three senatorial districts, including those from Ogbemudia’s faction met yesterday with a view to informing the Presidency that they would ensure the final collapse of the PDP if the appointment come to fruition.

One of the leaders said: “Apart from the fact that he disappeared from the PDP, we have better qualified persons in the list sent to the Presidency. The PDP in the state did not benefit anything while he was a minister and it will be sad for the President to reappoint him. This party belongs to all of us. One person cannot continue to impose unqualified people on us. The President must not make that mistake because that will rubbish his assurance that capable hands will be appointed as ministers.”

Meanwhile, former member of the National Assembly, Nick Agbo, has alleged a campaign of calumny against the Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Power (PTFP), Prof. Bart Nnaji, to prevent him from being made a minister.

Electricity workers had on Monday protested against the Nnaji’s nomination and appealed to the President to review the move. They accused him of frustrating the power sector reforms of the Federal Government.

In a statement in Abuja yesterday, Agbo said the sole objective of the campaign was to discredit Nnaji, who until last May 29 was the Special Adviser to President on Power, so as to stop him from becoming a minister in the new cabinet.

-Guardianwp_posts