Femi Gbajabiamila, Chief of Staff to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, says it would have been better to attach portfolios to the ministerial list sent to the Nigerian Senate on Thursday.
28 names were sent to the Senate yesterday for confirmation by the president.
Not a few Nigerians were however disappointed after President Tinubu failed to attach portfolios to the nominees in line with the belief that doing so would assist the lawmakers to grill the would-be-ministers in their respective areas of assignment.
The constitution does not require the president to do so, but his critics insist that the country is at a critical juncture when the round peg needs to be put in a round hole.
Speaking on the issue after submitted the list to the Senate yesterday, Gbajabiamila said that was the right thing to do, but that the president does not want to box himself into a corner.
According to him, the president would like to look at the ministers again after they have been screened by the Senate before finally determining who to man which ministry.
The president is trying to avoid a complicated situation when the senate will have to screen ministers over and over, he said.
Besides, Gbajabiamila stated that the ministers are fit to be posted to any ministry.
He said, “For me (attaching portfolios) would have been one way to go about it. It would have been a welcome development. As good as that sounds it straightjackets the President to pigeonhole one person in an office or the other.
“What happens then if you change your mind? Do you then bring the person back for screening again, because the President is at liberty to change his mind?
“And meanwhile, the Senate has screened that person for that particular initial portfolio. What happens then? Do you rescreen the person? So, a lot of these things have their merits and demerits.
“I like the idea of attaching portfolios because it makes it necessary for the Senate to know exactly what you’re asking and what you’re looking for.
“But for now, it’s been thought wise that we stick to the tradition of sending the names and then whilst the screening processes are going on, allow the Mr. President and his team to look at the portfolios and the characters and see how they fit.
“The first step that he has done is that these are people that can work wherever you put them, except this specialised fields like Attorney-General and what have you.
“For most of the portfolios, he believes most of them can fit in anywhere and what’s important is also that Mr. President intends to separate portfolios or restructure the ministries in such a way you might be hearing of new ministries that were not standalone ministries before. So, the process continues,” he said.
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