The Senate will confirm ministerial nominees of President Muhammadu Buhari today, Senate President Ahmad Lawan has said.

Lawan, who spoke at the end of plenary around 7:20pm yesterday, also said three nominees – Sabo Nanono (Kano), Lai Mohammed (Kwara) and Saleh Mamman (Taraba) – would be screened today. “Tomorrow (today) by the grace of God, we will be taking three nominees. We will do the approval and confirmation of all the screened nominees tomorrow (today),” he said.

Nine nominees including Gbemisola Saraki (Kwara), Goddy Jedy-Agba (Cross River), Sulaiman Adamu (Jigawa), Maryam Katagun (Bauchi), Clement Agba (Edo), Geoffrey Onyeama (Enugu), Muhammad Mahmoud (Kaduna) Babatunde Raji Fashola (Lagos) and Rauf Aregbesola (Osun) were screened yesterday. Three of the nominees – Dr. Muhammad Mahmoud, Gbemisola Saraki and Maryam Katagum – were accorded the ‘take a bow and go’ privilege during the exercise. Out of the 40 nominees so far screened, 21 of them took a bow and go.

Fashola advocates N10tr infrastructure bond Speaking during the screening exercise, Fashola advocated for the introduction of N10tr infrastructure bond. He said the only way to address the infrastructural challenges facing the country was the introduction of infrastructure bond. He said the bond should be backed by legislative instrument and that people should be able to invest as low as N1,000. “There is need for us to expand instrument like the Sukuk. We should consider something like N10tr infrastructure bond issued in tranches. People can invest to address infrastructural challenges,” he said.

Fashola also said state governments can generate power and invest in the sector, citing the third schedule, article, 13,14 and 15, of the 1999 constitution. He said at the moment, the federal government has road projects at least one in each state of the federation. I’ll push for ‘just tax regime’ – Aregbesola Aregbesola said he is going to push for a new tax regime to raise the country’s revenue. He said he would recommend a serious tax against wealthy Nigerians, adding that he would pioneer “privilege taxes” for those who have huge resources.

If confirmed, Aregbesola said, “I will advocate for a just taxation system that will bridge the inequality in the system.” No need to import petroleum products – Agba For his part, Goddy Jedy-Agba said there was no need for the country to be importing petroleum products. Agba, a former Group General Manager, Crude Oil Marketing Division of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), said he would recommend the establishment of control room for monitoring of crude oil loading. “We don’t need to import petroleum products. What we need to do is to strengthen the various agencies to checkmate the actual crude being loaded and write report.

“We do not have the technology to monitor the process of loading up to the point of export. For now, it is the International Oil Companies that determine the quantity of crude they export because we don’t have control over their operations. “If I am in that ministry, I will push for the establishment of a control room where we will monitor the process of crude loading up to the point of export. We can do that Nigeria,” he said.

Also speaking, a former minister of Foreign Affairs, Onyeama, lamented how paucity of fund has been hindering the country’s foreign missions. “One of the ways to address the challenges facing the foreign missions is to further reduce the number of missions,” he said.

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