Peter Nwaoboshi, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lawmaker representing Delta north senatorial district in the national assembly is unimpressed by the ministerial nominees of President Muhammadu Buhari. Speaking to Channels Television shortly after Senate President Bukola Saraki reeled of the names on the list at plenary, Nwaoboshi said the screening would be thorough.
“We have taken so long to have ministers and when the list came out, we found nothing special. These are names known to Nigerians,” he said.
“We have seen the names. I don’t know what to say because we were expecting saints.” He added that the era of according special privilege to former senators was over, saying Nigerians were expecting a lot from the screening.
“It’s not going to be practice as usual for our former colleagues. When we start with the list, Nigerians will know where we are going to,” he said. “There is not going to be ‘take a bow and go’. We will take time to look at them and we would have a good screening. We are going to do a thorough job.” When asked about his impression over the naming of 21 rather than 36 nominees, Nwaoboshi said: “That’s APC for you; that’s APC, Nigerians will judge. I won’t say more than that.”
But Ajayi Boroffice, an APC lawmaker, disagreed with his PDP counterpart, describing the nominees as “the best 11 of the country”. He said the president took time to select those with the technical know-how to drive the growth of the country.
“We don’t have to look for surprises in a situation like this. We should know that Mr. President has had a previous experience in governance and what he has done is to identify those who have track records in terms of productivity,” he said.
“The president doesn’t want to bring in people for trial because this is time for real work; so he chose those with experience.” Borrofice also disagreed with Nwaoboshi on the tradition of according special privileges to former senators.
“We tried changing it in the 7th assembly when Senator Obanikoro was brought before us but they insisted that he should take a bow and go,” he said.
“So, I think we should adopt this tradition but if the senate decides to change it, so be it.”
