SENATE SHOULD SCREEN MINISTERS ON BASIS OF INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENTS

SENATE SHOULD SCREEN MINISTERS ON BASIS OF INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENTS

Now that the President has submitted a new list of Nigerians for appointment as Ministers, I hope the Senate would this time do the right thing. In 1999 the action of Senate in approving a list without proper screening as to the capability of individuals was unprecedented. As if that was not bad enough, the way the list of Ambassadors was approved by Senate without matching the nominees with the countries they were to serve was shameful.

I hope the President would lead his colleagues to do the right thing for Nigeria and for the African continent. The right thing to do is to request the President to name the nominees to specific portfolios. In furtherance of the practice of 'advice and consent', the President should allow the Senate and Nigerians to judge them as to their suitability for the assignment. This is the standard practice.

If the Senate in the past made blunders, now is the time to correct it. Can the Senate in Nigeria learn from what is going on in the US The Nigerian Vice President and other politicians were in the US during the swearing in ceremony of the new administration. They come to the US but they do not allow the US to go through them. The Nigerian President and the Senate President run to the US often for advice. They involve Nigeria in many secret pacts but they do not learn the rudimentary practice of forming and running government.

It will be unheard of for the US Senate to approve list of nominees with out a public hearing. This is what the Nigerian Senate should demand and this is what the public should demand from the President.

The President should be made to know that the practice is not a list but nominees to specific assignments. Nigerians at home and abroad want to join the Senate in the screening process. Anyone to be made the Minister of Labor for example must have the input of labor. Anyone to be made the Minister of Education must have the opinion of educationists. The President should appreciate that he is getting help in the composition of a competent team for his 2003 campaign.

There is no way one can gauge the competence of the nominees unless the President ab initio name them to specific assignments and allow them to be judged as such.

Professor Omo Omoruyi