Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, has said that the ongoing screening of ministerial nominees will last for seven weeks, he made the disclosure while
fielding questions from reporters, also clarified the constitutional provision
on the non-screening of a nominee within 21 days, saying the provision
stipulates 21 working days and not 21 days,
following which if the person is
not confirmed or rejected by the Senate, he or she would automatically become a
minister.
He said the constitution bears in mind that the Senate sits
three times a week which he said implied that it had the luxury of seven weeks
to conclude the screening.
Ndume also defended the closure of the chamber for plenary
on Wednesday, saying this is an “extraordinary” time and the All Progressives
Congress (APC)-controlled state could not afford to take chances.
He said:
“The Senate president had to be in court at 10.00 a.m. He is the presiding officer. And this is an extraordinary time because we are screening ministers who are predominantly APC members. So, that was why we said this screening should continue under the Senate president presiding, and we are continuing tomorrow (today) by God’s grace...
“The Senate is an institution, an independent arm of government and should be respected and strengthened. Besides, if the president uses his discretion to take his time to submit the (ministerial) list which Nigerians patiently waited for, why are Nigerians not patient with the Senate to wait for its conclusion? And why don’t you take us up on issues other than these trivialities?
“Supposing we said let’s take it off till next week, we have the right to do that. But the constitution is guiding us that we have to do this within 21 working days. And we are still within the 21 working days. It is not 21 days. It is 21 working days. And our working days in the Senate plenary is three days in a week.
“So, if you are talking about 21 working days, (it means) that the Senate will do this within seven weeks because we sit for plenary Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. That is three working days. It means that logically, we can do this up to seven weeks."
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