Ex-Minister Tasks Lawmakers On Ministerial Nominees’ Portfolios

A former Minister of Works, Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe, yesterday called for enactment of a law to compel  attachment of portfolios to ministerial nominees presented to the Senate for screening.
Ogunlewe, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), made the call in an interview with newsmen in Lagos.
He said that the law, if enacted, would ensure that nominees were subjected to better screening by the senate, based on attached portfolios.
Ogunlewe commended the Senate for the way it was handling the screening, but said that senators would have done better if portfolios were attached to nominees.
“There is no opportunity for thorough screening based on portfolios that will be assigned to the nominees eventually.
“As far as I am concerned, the Senate has done what it is supposed to do. We saw improvements on the Day Four and Day Five.
“They (senators) listened to complaints of the people and decided to ask questions, but the questions were of general applications; they were not about specific portfolios.
“There is the need for the country to have a law that will compel any administration to attach portfolios to ministerial nominees,” he said.
The former minister said that with the law, nominees might not need to be screened at the plenary, as they might need to go to the different senate committees for thorough screening.
On the decision of the Senate to give soft landing to some nominees by asking them take a bow, Ogunlewe said there was nothing wrong with it.
He said  that it was the tradition of the senate to give privileges to nominees who were former lawmakers by not asking them many questions.
According to him, criticisms trailing the decision are not necessary.
Ogunlewe said that it was in the powers  of the president to assign portfolios, adding that he believed that the president would put the right people in the right places.