The Senator representing Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Philip Adudua, has appealed to the Senate to prevail on the Presidency to consider a ministerial nominee from the FCT.
Adudua, who made the call under order 43 of the senate rule, said his constituency members were surprised that there was no nominee representing FCT on the list submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Buhari had on Tuesday released the long-awaited list of 43 ministerial nominees to the Senate for screening.
Unlike his first term when he appointed only 36 ministers, one per each state, Buhari made additional nomination of one person per geo-political zone which totalled the ministerial nominees to 43.
Adudua, therefore, urged the senate to prevail on the executive to nominate a representative from FCT.
Corroborating the need for a nominee from FCT, Senator Dino Melaye (PDP Kogi) said the request by Adudua was in line with section 297 of the constitution nothing that the matter was a constitutional issue.
Dino called on the senate to consider the request in the interest of equity and fairness to the people of FCT.
President of the Senate, Dr Ahmad Lawan, in his submission said the point of order raised was noted, saying that the executive would take the appropriate action.
Meanwhile, the senate has moved into the committee of the whole for the screening of the ministerial nominees sent by President Muhammadu Buhari
Meanwhile, the Senate, on Wednesday, commenced the screening of the 43 ministerial nominees appointed by Buhari.
The list of the nominees was sent to the Senate on Wednesday in accordance with section 147 (2) of the 1999 Constitution.
Lawan had announced that there would be two sessions for the exercise.
He said the morning session would commence by 10:00 a.m. daily and terminate at 1:00 p.m., while the second session would commence by 2:00 p.m. and end in the evening “depending on the mood of the Senate.”
Dr Uchechukwu Ogah, the nominee from Abia opened the floor by introducing himself to the lawmakers and requesting for questions.
Sen. Adamu Aliero (APC Kebbi) and Sen. George Sekibo (PDP Rivers) were the first to ask Ogah questions about the solutions to what they described as the slow economic growth and youth unemployment in the country.
Ogah, in his answer, identified building of critical infrastructure and agriculture as ways out of the current challenges.
He said: “We need to improve our critical infrastructure, that’s the only way we can create jobs.
“We do not need to also concentrate our industries in the urban areas; we need to create industries in the rural areas.
“We cannot put our economy purely on oil. Yes, agreed that oil is a cash cow but we can develop our agriculture.
“Nigeria has the capacity to feed the whole world. Nigeria economy is about N43 trillion and the private sector is expected to drive the nation’s economy.”
On deregulation, Ogah said the country needed a guided deregulation where everything is not dumped on the economy.
He also insisted that the current value of the naira was okay.
