Borno Ministerial Nominee screened without uttering a word

The Ministerial Nominee; Senator Abubakar Kyari is a former Member of the Borno State House of Assembly, the House of Representatives as well as the Senate and is the current Acting National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC)

The Senate has screened Senator Abubakar Kyari; a nominee from Borno State for possible confirmation as a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Following the commencement of Ministerial screening by the Tenth Senate on Monday, no less than four of the twenty-eight (28) nominees of President Bola Tinubu have so far been screened. As contained in the Senate order paper for Monday’s special plenary session, sixteen (16) nominees were outlined for screening by the Committee of the Whole.

Parliamentary observers were however stunned when Senator Kyari was ushered into the Chamber with a surprise option to present his resume and give a brief of himself before taking a bow in line with the tradition of the Senate for nominees with a federal legislative background.

Deputy President of the Senate, Barau Jibrin, who chaired the Committee on the Whole at the time, introduced Senator Kyari who had served in the Eighth and Ninth National Assembly as the lawmaker representing Borno North Senatorial District. He further presented the nominee with the option of saying anything before he takes a bow and leave the Red Chamber.

The Ministerial nominee thus chose the option not to say anything before his former colleagues; after which he took a bow without uttering a word.

It is noteworthy that Senator Kyari resigned from the Senate in July 2022 following his election as Deputy National Chairman (North) of the All Progressive Congress (APC). With the governing party faced with the sudden resignation of its National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, on 17th July 2023, Senator Kyari was empowered by the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) to take over as Acting National Chairman.

Following the submission of the 28-nominee list by President Bola Tinubu to the Senate last Thursday, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Yemi Adaramodu (APC, Ekiti South) had assured Nigerians that the screening will be very thorough one.

“This time around, the Senate will examine character, background, and achievement from all nominees, and Nigerians will not be disappointed with the 10th Senate.”

“It is until they come forward with their resume because it won’t be a shadow screening where you have a good resume and you don’t have a good character. They must have good character and have the mobility,” he said.

“A leader must know something about everything, so when we ask them questions, they must have answer. We are looking for ministers that must know everything. We will not manufacture questions or allegations, but whoever has anything from his constituency will forward their question.

On Monday we are not supposed to have parliamentary sittings and we are suppsed to go on break but we have suspended it all because this is a crucial matter. Monday we are starting the screening at 11 am and we are not giving ourselves a limited time, no time frame will be allocated to any nominee. If it will take 3 hours, let it take 3 hours. If it will take days, let it take days.

There will be thorough screening, and if we find any red flag, we will deal with that issue,” he added.

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