Senator Dino Melaye has said future presidents must attach portfolios to the names of ministerial nominees before sending them to the Senate for confirmation screening.
Speaking in a recent interview on Channels TV, Dino said the habit of not attaching portfolios makes it difficult for lawmakers to question nominees and he sees that as a beautiful nonsense.
He added that Buhari’s refusal to adhere to the request of some lawmakers to attach portfolios to his nominees compelled them to shoot from the dark during the screening exercise.
His words, “It’ll be better if the president is submitting the names of his ministers with portfolios so that we know their area of competence and can ask them questions within the jurisdictions where they’re going to serve.
“But if a man is going to be the Minister of Labour and Productivity and you’re asking him questions that have to do with health or law reforms, then automatically, that exercise is a beautiful nonsense.
“So, I want to advise and insist that for us to have quality screenings, presidents should submit the names of ministers with portfolios. Then we can now properly screen them.”
“And my advise to the National Assembly, is that we should screen these ministers in committees so that this will not delay other activities of plenary.
“If their names were submitted with portfolios, it’s just to refer these ministers to committees and the committees will now do due diligence to carry out proper screening and use proper methodology and approach to find out if any one of them is competent for the office for which the president has suggested his nomination.”
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