CHANGE OF PROCEDURE FOR SCREENING OF MINISTERIAL NOMINEES ADVOCATED

A cross section of people in the South East has advocated change of methodology on the procedure of screening of ministerial nominees by the National Assembly to make it more result oriented.

This was the opinion of guests on Political Watch, a Radio Nigeria Enugu Zonal Network Programme.

One of them, a Legal practitioner, Mr Godwin Onwusi stated that the process of screening was a constitutional matter pointing out that the Senate operated within the ambit of the law in carrying out the exercise.

Mr Onwusi explained that attaching a portfolio to the nominee was not necessary as the constitution only specified that it was only the Attorney General of the Federation that must be a lawyer.

Another guest and lecturer at the Renaissance University Ugbawka, Enugu State, Mr Maxwell Ngene pointed out that attaching portfolio to the nominee was a vital ingredient that should not be ignored.

He faulted the process and procedure of the screening, stating that it fell short of standard.

For the Secretary South East Nigeria Union of Journalists, Mr Kenneth Ofoma, the list was a recycling of old politicians whom he claimed had nothing to offer to the country.

Callers in the programme including Mr Chima Okorafor, Cypril Ene, Cyprian Okeke expressed mixed reaction on the process.

Some of them said that the president should be given a benefit of doubt while others described the process as analogue.

OBINNA OGBUKA