The Senate ratified 45 of President Bola Tinubu’s 48 ministry candidates on Monday. It did, however, postpone the confirmation of three nominations, citing security clearance issues.
Nasir El-Rufai, the former governor of Kaduna State, Sani Danladi, a former senator from Taraba, and Stella Okotete, a Delta State contender, are among those impacted.
The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, announced the candidates’ confirmation after they were approved by voice vote by the senators in plenary.
When Mr Akpabio read out their names one after the other, the senators had cleared the nominees by voice vote in the Committee of the Whole. Following then, Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele moved for the Senate to revert to the plenary to report progress. The Minority Leader, Simon Mwadkwom, seconded the motion.
Earlier, the upper legislative chamber screened the last two nominees – Mariya Mahmoud (Kano) and Festus Keyamo (Delta) at the Committee of the Whole presided over by Mr Akpabio.
The president nominated both Mr Keyamo and Mrs Mahmoud on Friday. The Senate had previously screened 46 nominees between Monday and Saturday last week.
President Tinubu transmitted the names of the nominees in three separate correspondences to the upper house of the National Assembly on 28 July, 3 August and 4 August.
