[LIVE UPDATES] Ministerial List: Akpabio Arrives Senate Chamber
Senate President Godswill Akpabio has arrived at the upper chamber and plenary has commenced.
He arrived at exactly 12:10pm.
The Senate thereafter entered an executive session.
Akpabio is expected to read the ministerial list of President Bola Tinubu today (Thursday) during plenary session.
There are indications that the list is now in the National Assembly.
Tinubu, who assumed office as Nigeria’s President on May 29, 2023, constitutionally has 60 days to form his cabinet.
Wait For Ministerial List
At the Eagle Square, venue of Tinubu’s inauguration, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and one of the President’s righthand men, James Faleke, said the former Lagos State governor would unveil members of his cabinet within 60 days.
Faleke was the APC Presidential Campaign Council Secretary and lawmaker representing Ikeja Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives for the 10th National Assembly.
Many analysts had attributed the slow take-off of the Muhammadu Buhari administration to his late announcement of ministers. Buhari, who handed over to Tinubu after eight years, unveiled his cabinet six months after his inauguration in 2015 but Tinubu is expected to do things differently.
Moreover, the Fifth Amendment to the 1999 Constitution mandates the President to transmit the names of his ministerial-nominees to the National Assembly within 60 days upon assumption of office.
Tinubu’s 60-day constitutional deadline to submit his ministerial list to the National Assembly ends on July 28, 2023 and there have been rumours on the subject.
On July 6, 2023, the Special Adviser to the President on Special Duties, Communications and Strategy,Dele Alake, debunked the rumours, saying the President knows when it is fit and proper for him to make his cabinet list.
“About the ministerial list, there is no iota of truth in all of those things,” Alake said. “When the President is good and ready, you will be the first to know about his intentions.”
“I can tell you all of those things you’ve been reading in the media are mere fabrications. This is an executive presidency; we’re not running a parliamentary system. So, the President, the bucks stops on his table, and he decides when it’s fit and proper for him to make his cabinet list.”
