Ministerial list ready for Senate screening

The list of nominees into the cabinet of President Muhammadu Buhari is ready, and this is authoritative.

Senate

President Buhari, it was learnt, ratified the list for transmission to the Senate shortly before his departure to the United States on Thursday.

The list, according to an authoritative presidency source, is a mixture of technocrats and politicians across all divides in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

The source added that the list would be transmitted to the Senate for confirmation “any time from now” ahead of the resumption of the National Assembly from recess next week.

However, the source told Saturday Tribune that the list may be sent to the Senate in batches “for reasons not yet disclosed.”

“The names were sent for screening and the screening was done. It is ready now. Everything you people (the media) have been writing is nonsense, government is not run like that,” the source said while referring to previous media reports on the conclusion of the screening of ministerial nominees.

It was gathered that all the former parties that coalesced into the APC are represented on the list. “Even there is at least one PDP person there,” the presidency source, who did not want his name mentioned, added.

“Some other interest groups and individuals were also considered by the president in order to ensure national and political balancing but it is a team of change,” the source said.

The National Assembly had been on recess since last month and there have been anxieties as to whether or not the president would transmit the list to the Senate under Senator Bukola Saraki because of the seeming crisis between the two arms of government.

Buhari had promised that he would get his cabinet ready by September 30 this year.

Ministerial list ready for Senate screening