A former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Reno Omokri, has criticised the ‘take a bow’ tradition of the Senate as the upper legislative chambers screens the ministerial nominees.
The immediate past Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, on Friday joined 16 other ministerial nominees out of 22 who have been endorsed by the Senate without questioning.
Sirika was asked to ‘take a bow’ and leave for being a former senator from Katsina State.
The term ‘take a bow’ is reserved for nominees who are former members of the National Assembly, allowing them to simply bow before the lawmakers and leave without being questioned.
Mr Omokri, in a tweet on Friday, described the exercise as ‘ministerial toasting’.
“What is going on at the @NGRSenate is NOT ministerial SCREENING. It is ministerial TOASTING. It is an insult to RUBBER STAMPS to call the LAWAN led National Assembly a RUBBER STAMP. A RUBBER STAMP at least leaves an IMPRESSION. All this Senate leaves is a DEPRESSION,” he said.
Senate President Ahmad Lawan has also extended the ‘take a bow’ privilege to former members of state assemblies and women.
Since the screening began on Wednesday, only five ministerial nominees have been questioned – Abubakar Malami, Ogbonnaya Onu, Uche Ogah, Niyi Adebayo, and Sunday Dare.
