#TrackNigeria The Senate has began screening of the 43 ministerial nominees sent to it by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Beginning the screening on Wednesday, Senate President, Ahmad Lawan announced that two sessions would conduct the exercise.
According to him, there would morning session that would commence by 10:00am and terminate at 1:00pm while the afternoon session would commence by 2:00pm and end in the evening “depending on the mood of the Senate.”
The screening commenced with Dr Uchechukwu Ogah, the nominee from Abia who introduced himself and waited for questions.
Senators Adamu Aliero and George Sekibo asked Ogah questions about the solutions to what they described as the slow economic growth and youth unemployment in the country.
Ogah identified building of critical infrastructure and agriculture as ways out of the current challenges.
“We need to improve our critical infrastructure, that’s the only way we can create jobs.
“We do not need to also concentrate our industries in the urban areas; we need to create industries in the rural areas.
“We cannot put our economy purely on oil. Yes, agreed that oil is a cash cow but we can develop our agriculture.
“Nigeria has the capacity to feed the whole world. Nigeria economy is about N43 trillion and the private sector is expected to drive the nation’s economy.”
On deregulation, Ogah said the country needed a guided deregulation where everything is not dumped on the economy.
He also insisted that the current value of the naira was okay.
On his part, Sen. Philip Aduda raised a point of order on the non-inclusion of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on the list.
Sen. Dino Melaye supported Aduda, referring to Sections 297 and 299 of the 1999 Constitution, which mandates that the FCT be treated like other 36 states of the federation.
The debate on the FCT inclusion delayed the commencement of the screening till 11:09am when Lawan finally put the issue to rest.
The Senate Leader, Sen. Abdullahi Yahaya, moved a motion for the Senate to receive the nominees, seconded by Minority Leader, Sen. Enyinnaya Abaribe.
