The Nigerian Senate on Tuesday cleared 10 of the 21 ministerial nominees for appointment as minsters by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Udoma Udo-Udoma, Kayode Fayemi, Audu Ogbe, Ogbonnaya Onu, Osagie Ehanire, Abdulrahman Danbazzau, Lai Mohammed, Amina Mohammed, Suleiman Adamu, and Ibrahim Usman Jibril all came out unscathed as senators cheered, joked, questioned and asked nominees to take a bow and go.
First to face the senators was Udo Udoma, a two-time senator. Having answered questions from Senate President Bukola Saraki, other senators began to shout that he took a bow and go, which he duly did after a motion to that effect was moved and seconded.
Fayemi, Ehanire, Danbazzau, Adamu, and Jibril spent more time as a result of several questions put to them, while Onu, Amina and Ogbe were given soft landings by the senators who felt the information on their CVs completed the few questions they were asked.
The highlight of the screening came with the entrance into the Chamber by Lai Mohammed, spokesperson for the All Progressives Congress, APC.
From the moment he stepped into the chamber, there were loud cheers from senators, mostly from the APC. The Senate President, who is from the same state as Mohammed, also chipped in by jokingly asking the nominee to tell the Senate what he thought they should know, if at all there was need for him to speak.
By then, the shouts of “take a bow and go” were very loud and Saraki had to take control of the situation by asking the nominee to at least tell the Senate a few things about himself as was done by other candidates.
Mohammed, who no doubt enjoyed the cheers and obvious lack of it from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, senators, said while he was only doing his job as mouthpiece of the then opposition, he enjoyed every bit of it, drawing even more cheers and laughter from the senators.
While assuring the PDP that the new government would not be as hard on it as it was on the opposition, he said he would bring the same zeal he exhibited as spokesman of the APC in those days to his new job.
“I will be as passionate in government as I was in opposition,” he said.
With that, the Senate Leader, Ali Ndume moved a motion for Mohammed to take a bow and go.
In seconding the motion, Minority Leader and immediate past governor of Akwa Ibom State, Godswill Akpabio, a member of the PDP, joked that if the nominee was allowed to speak further, he might resort to propaganda.
The screening continues on Wednesday with the likes of former governors of Anambra, Lagos and Rivers states, Chris Ngige, Babatunde Fashola and Rotimi Amaechi respectively, expected to appear before the Senate.