Senate: Buhari must face screening to be petroleum minister

Unlike in the case of former President Olusegun Obasanjo who appropriated the portfolio of petroleum minister to himself witout approval from any quarters, the Senate yesterday said that for President Muhammadu Buhari to head that ministry he would have to undergo screening like every other ministerial nominee.
Speaking with journalists, Senator Mao Ohuabunwa (PDP, Abia North) said President Buhari must appear before the Senate if he wants to be Petroleum minister.
Ohuabunwa said, “The constitution is clear and we will follow the constitution and the laid down rule. I don’t think the President’s name will be on the list and I also don’t think that the President will say he is a minister.
“If you are a minister one of the conditions is that you must be subjected to screening and approval of the Senate. He, as the chief minister, can be there to supervise any ministry but he cannot be a minister. Whoever is advising him to be a minister is not advising him rightly.”
Ohuabunwa added that the Senate might reject the presentation of the ministerial list in batches because “it is unconstitutional.”
He said, “I expect that the list will be complete for us to move on because the constitution never said in batches and the constitution has said one minister from every state, so if you are screening and the other states are not being represented, how can you explain that because nothing says that the President must submit list in batches.
“The list will be unveiled tomorrow (today) if the Senate President (Bukola Saraki) keeps to his word that the envelope will remain sealed until tomorrow (today). We know that all we have been reading could be speculations until it is opened. It will be read on the floor of the House and we will know.

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“Even the 21 names that people are speculating will be ascertained tomorrow on the floor.”
He added that it would be against the Senate and indeed against the President and Nigerians for the upper chamber to see a very strong allegation of petition on corruption and throw it away.
He said, “Definitely we will not ignore allegation of corruption against any nominee. If we see a strong petition, definitely we will look into it and follow it to a logical conclusion.
“If it requires writing to the anti-graft agencies such as the ICPC or EFCC to give us a report on such a person, we will do that because that is what screening is all about. Screening is not a tea party.
“Integrity is very important. If you have in one way or the other soiled your hands, it will be unfortunate because the Senate will not just say carry go.”

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