Pandemonium broke out at the National Assembly on Wednesday as a ministerial nominee, Balarabe Abbas, slumped during screening by the Nigerian Senate.
Lawmakers, upon resumption of plenary today, had began screening three new ministerial candidates nominated by President Bola Tinubu.
Perhaps a thorough background check on the nominee’s health condition among other issues would have saved the country from the national embarrassment which the incident have become in the few minutes of its occurrence.
The ministerial nominee had read out his profile before the incident happened.
The development forced the Senate to go into a close session.
The Nominees
The nominees to be screened today included:
1. Balarabe Abbas Lawal from Kaduna State
2. Dr Jamila Bio Ibrahim from Kwara State
3. Ayodele Olawande from Ondo State
Did You Miss? Senate To Screen Three New Ministerial Nominees
The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, had on Tuesday, read a letter from President Tinubu and requested the confirmation of three additional ministerial nominees.
El-Rufai’s Rejection
The Senate President said the president nominated Abbas to replace the former Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai who was not screened and cleared by the Senate due to security reasons.
Recall that, the Senate in August 2023 screened and confirmed 45 ministerial nominees who have been sworn in as ministers and rejected three of them.
