Africa Focus: Four months on, Nigerian senate still awaiting president's cabinet list

The Nigerian senate said Tuesday it is still awaiting the list of nominees to make the cabinet of Nigerian leader Muhammadu Buhari who took office late May.

Buhari had promised to transmit the list of ministerial nominees to the Senate on or before Sept. 30 for proper screening by the upper legislative arm in the country.

Nigeria's senate leader Abubakar Bukola Saraki said the legislative body had not received the prized document when it resumed from a recess on Tuesday morning.

He urged his colleagues to unite in treating the awaited document with dispatch when it is finally received.

"As we await the list of ministerial nominees this week, I believe the presence of ministers will create the space for greater policy engagement with the executive arm of government and enable us to begin to respond in a more systematic manner to the various economic and social challenges before us, especially through our various (senate) committees that will also be constituted soon," the Nigerian senate president said.

Nigerians seem to be patiently waiting to see the caliber of people to make President Buhari's cabinet, exactly four months after he took office, with hope that "it will not be business as usual".

Many had thought the president, who promised to hit the ground running immediately after taking oath of office, would make no delay in appointing his cabinet members. But the reverse was the case.

"On this note, I want to urge you all my colleagues to ensure that what is uppermost in our minds as we begin the constitutional task of screening of ministerial nominees is the overall interest of our country, informed by the enormity and the urgency of the challenges before us," said the senate leader, adding once the list is submitted, the senators must not be held down by unnecessary politicking.

Buhari had assured citizens of the West African country that he would nominate technocrats and some best hands from all 36 states in Nigeria to work with him.

Last weekend, the president's spokesman, Femi Adesina, said his principal would not renege his promise of transmitting the cabinet list to the senate for proper ratification latest by Wednesday.

The delay, by the Nigerian president, in appointing ministers of the African most populous country, four months after assuming office, has been heavily criticized by the nation's major opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which accused Buhari of slowing down economic development in the country.

Nigeria's ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) party swiftly countered the claim by the opposition, attributing the delay by the president largely on the transfer of power from one party to another. Endit