The Senate on Monday confirmed the nominations of former Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike; global Nigerian physician, Dr Ali Pate; Nigeria’s Ambassador to Germany, Yusuf Tuggar; former Minister of State, Labour and Employment, Mr Festus Keyamo (SAN); the All Progressives Women Leader, Dr Betta Edu and 40 others as ministers.
The Upper Chamber of the National Assembly had confirmed the 45 nominees out of the 48 ministerial nominees sent to it by President Bola Tinubu.
But the senators have deferred the confirmation of three nominees, pending the outcome of what it called ‘security clearance’.
The affected nominees are the former Kaduna State Governor Nasir el-Rufai, a former senator from Taraba, Sani Danladi, and a nominee from Delta State, Stella Okotete.
The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, announced the confirmation of the ministerial nominees after they were cleared by a voice vote by the senators during the plenary session.
The senators had cleared the nominees by voice vote at the Committee of the Whole when Akpabio read out their names one after the other.
The Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, thereafter moved a motion for the Senate to revert to the plenary to report progress.
The motion was seconded by the Minority Leader, Simon Mwadkwom.
The Senate had earlier screened the last two nominees – Mariya Mahmoud (Kano) and Festus Keyamo (Delta) at the Committee of the Whole presided over by Akpabio.
Tinubu had nominated both Keyamo and Mrs Mahmoud on Friday.
The federal lawmakers had previously screened 46 nominees between Monday and Saturday last week while Tinubu transmitted the names of the nominees in three separate correspondences to Senate on 28 July, 3 August and 4 August.
In the 4 August letter, Tinubu informed the Senate that he had withdrawn one of the nominees from Kano, Maryam Shetty, and replaced her with Mrs Mahmoud, who was screened on Monday.
But in spite of the rowdy session over Keyamo’s screening and the stepping down of his confirmation process for a couple of hours, the Senate later screened the Senior Advocate after he tendered unreserved apology to the Senate over his conduct before the 9th Assembly.
Here is the list of confirmed ministerial nominees and their geo-political zones:
South-South Zone
1. Ekperikpe Ekpo (Akwa Ibom)
2. Heineken Lokpobiri (Bayelsa)
3. Betta Edu (Cross River)
4. John Enoh (Cross River)
5. Festus Keyamo (Delta)
6. Abubakar Momoh (Edo)
7. Nyesom Wike (Rivers)
South East Zone
8. Nkiru Onyejiocha (Abia)
9. Uju Ohaneye (Anambra)
10. David Umahi (Ebonyi)
11. Uche Nnaji (Enugu)
12. Doris Uzoka (Imo)
South West Zone
13. Dele Alake (Ekiti)
14. Tunji Alausa (Lagos)
15. Lola Ade John (Lagos)
16. Ishak Salako (Ogun)
17. Bosun Tijjani (Ogun)
18. Olawale Edun (Ogun)
19. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo (Ondo)
20. Adegboyega Oyetola (Osun)
21. Adebayo Adelabu (Oyo)
North East Zone
22. Tahir Mamman (Adamawa)
23. Yusuf M Tuggar (Bauchi)
24. Ali Pate (Bauchi)
25. Abubakar Kyari (Borno)
26. Alkali Ahmed Saidu (Gombe)
27. Uba Maigari Ahmadu (Taraba)
28. Ibrahim Geidam (Yobe)
North West Zone
29. Mohammed Badaru (Jigawa)
30. Maryam Mairiga Mahmoud (Kano)
31. Abdullahi T Gwarzo (Kano)
32. Ahmad Dangiwa (Katsina)
33. Hanatu Musawa (Katsina)
34. Yusuf Tanko Sununu (Kebbi)
35. Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi)
36. Bello M Goronyo (Sokoto)
37. Bello Matawalle (Zamfara)
North Central Zone
38. Joseph Utsev (Benue)
39. Zephaniah Bitrus Jisalo (FCT)
40. Shuaibu A Audu (Kogi)
41. Lateef Fagbemi (Kwara)
42. Imaan S-Ibrahim (Nasarawa)
43. Mohammed Idris (Niger)
44. Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi (Niger)
45. Simon Lalong (Plateau)
