Former governor of Cross River, Donald Duke, has called for the addition of portfolios for the effective screening of ministerial nominees.
Mr Duke told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday that the screening of ministerial nominees without portfolios shows the country’s unwillingness to ‘get things right’.
A former Minister of Works, Adeseye Ogunlewe, also called for enactment of a law to compel attachment of portfolios to ministerial nominees presented to the Senate for screening.
Ogunlewe, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), said that the law if enacted, would ensure that nominees were subjected to better screening by the Senate.
“As far as I am concerned, the Senate has done what it is supposed to do. We saw improvements on the Day Four and Day Five,” he said.
“They (senators) listened to complaints of the people and decided to ask questions, but the questions were of general applications; they were not about specific portfolios.
“There is the need for the country to have a law that will compel any administration to attach portfolios to ministerial nominees.”
Ogunlewe also said he had no grouse with the ‘take a bow’ privilege given to some nominees, adding that it is the tradition of the Senate to give special privileges to nominees who used to be lawmakers.
