Expectations of millions of Nigerians that President Muhammadu Buhari will hit the ground of his second term in office running with the appointment of his cabinet ministers was dashed on Thursday as the Senate denied receiving the ministerial list.
The Senate revealed on Thursday that it is not in custody of names of nominees for ministerial appointment by the President.
This is contrary to the hope raised by the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan on the floor of the Senate on Wednesday that President Buhari may forward ministerial list to the Senate before the end of this week.
Senate Ad – hoc Committee Chairman on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Adedayo Adeyeye disclosed during a chat with the Senate press corps that the chamber is not in possession of any ministerial list.
Adeyeye said senators are anxious to work on the ministerial nominee list and screen all nominees immediately names of nominees were presented by the President who has the constitutional duty to do so.
Adeyeye said: “We cannot keep the list, if the list is transmitted to the President of the Senate, it will be read immediately. We are too eager; like I have told you we want to hit the ground running.
“This is an activity that is not within our control and there is nothing we can do about it. Like I said here two or three days ago, this matter is not within the control of the Senate.
“We cannot generate the list on our own; the constitution does not permit us to do that.
“The constitution has assigned responsibility to various part of government, and it is the prerogative of the executive to nominate ministers which will then be confirmed by the Senate.
“Until that duty is undertaken by the executive there is nothing we can do about that. Whether we are hopeful or not is neither here nor there.”
