Nigeria’s ministerial screening process has been criticized by legislative governance specialist and policy analyst Chibuzo Okereke, who calls it a parley instead of the legally mandated confirmatory process.
It was during an interview on Arise Television on Wednesday when Okereke made this claim.
He voiced concerns about the legitimacy of the ministerial screening process in view of the recent certificate incident involving Uche Nnaji, the former minister of Innovation, Science, and Technology, who resigned due to accusations of falsification.
The procedures for ministerial confirmation are outlined in detail in the Nigerian Constitution and Senate Standing Orders, but they are rarely followed, Okereke explained.
The ministerial procedure we have been observing has, in my opinion, been a parley rather than the necessary confirmation process.
Section 147 (1) creates the position of minister and gives the president the authority to nominate people, whereas Section 147 (2) gives the Senate the authority to approve those nominations. The procedure we’ve witnessed is not at all what the Constitution called for,” he stated.
He also said that the situation was extremely upsetting and that it was possible for a minister to be in office for two years before these disparities were noticed.
