Law to compel Presidency to attach ministerial portfolio underway

By Tordue Salem

ABUJA—THE House of Representatives Committee on Governmental Affairs said, yesterday, it would hold a public hearing soon on a Bill that seeks to compel the President to submit names of ministerial nominees to the Senate with the
ministries he intends to deploy them attached.
The Bill, sponsored by Rep. Friday Itulah, PDP, Edo, is entitled: An Act to Make Provisions That Will Enable the National Assembly to Be More Effective in Screening Ministers of the Federal Government of the Federation Pursuant to The
Provisions of Section 147 of 1999 Constitution.”

Chairman of the House Committee on Governmental Affairs,  Rep. Leo Ogor, PDP, Delta, told Vanguard that stakeholders would converge at National Assembly in few days for a public hearing on the Bill.
He noted that the piece of legislation, reiterated the provision of section 147 of the 1999 Constitution which states: “The President shall in submitting the names of ministerial nominees to the Senate for confirmation clearly indicate
the portfolio for which he intends the nominees to occupy.”

In its explanatory note, the sponsor stated that the “Bill seeks to make provisions that will enable the National Assembly to be more effective in screening Ministers of the Federal Republic, pursuant to the provisions of
section 147 of the 1999 Constitution.”

The sponsor of the Bill in an earlier interview with Vanguard said “majority of the members of the National Assembly can’t wait to see when the President would send names of ministerial nominees to the Senate before confirmation, as it is
done in other civilised countries.”