By Kolawole Ojebisi
The planned screening of ministerial nominees may experience a hitch or be completely scuttled if alleged threats by legislators of South-Eastern extraction are anything to go by.
This stems from an evident displeasure being expressed by these lawmakers over what they described as apparent neglect or marginalization of the South East geopolitical zone.
It was gathered by The New Diplomat that legislators from the southeast are not favourably disposed to what they see as lopsidedness in the ministerial nomination.
At least, a sizable number of lawmakers from the Southeast are believed to have publicly expressed their grievances over the list of ministerial nominees.
These legislators is said be led by the Labour Party (LP) Senator representing Anambra North senatorial district in the National Assembly, Dr. Tony Nwoye.
The lawmakers allegedly described the development as “marginalization” and may move a motion on the floor of the Senate over the alleged marginalization of the zone
It was learnt that the lawmakers have been meeting since the list was unveiled and that they might likely seek a request to halt the screening in the Senate on Tuesday.
According to the lawmakers’, their displeasure is based on the fact that the South-East only has 10.4 per cent of the 48 ministers appointed by president Bola Tinubu.
It is believed that the Senate President and other principal officers are aware of the lawmakers’ displeasure and have made a move to douse the situation.
“There is a strong plot against the screening of the ministerial nominees sent to the Senate by the president last week. It is a constitutional matter and we have to deal with it before we can make further progress,” Nwoye was quoted to have said.
“No Nigerian leader, living or dead, has explained the continued marginalization of the South-East since the inception of this democratic dispensation in 1999. Nobody has convincingly explained why the South-East zone is being marginalized and treated as an outsider in a country dubbed one Nigeria and probably with one fabled destiny, which some politicians say and believe is indivisible even in the face of inherent divisions, dichotomies, differences, and internal contradictions”, Nwoye was quoted to have added.
Another grouse of the Southeast lawmakers is that Ogun State, with the nomination of Dr Jumoke Oduwole, would have four ministers in the cabinet if confirmed while the whole of SouthEast, comprising of five states, has only five ministers.
For clarification, the 1999 Constitution stipulates that each state shall have a ministerial nominee.
But currently the North-West has 10 ministers, the South-West has nine, the trio of South-South, North-Central and North-East have eight ministers each.
The southeast lamakers feel shortchanged that of the six geopolitical zones in the country, only their region has five ministers, without the additional zonal representatives.
It was learnt that the South-East caucus in the Senate are said to be relying on Section 14(3) of the 1999 Constitution in making their case.
Section 14 (3) of the 1999 Constitution reads: “The composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few State or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that Government or any of its agencies.”
