Senate doing thorough screening of ministerial nominees – Yari

Sen. Abdulaziz Yari (APC-Zamfara) says the Senate is doing its best to ensure thorough screening of President Bola Tinubu’s ministerial nominees.

Yari stated this when he answered questions from newsmen shortly after he paid a private visit to Vice President Kashim Shettima at the Presidential Villa on Tuesday in Abuja.

He said that President Bola Tinubu hasn’t made a mistake in the ministerial nominations.

“The Senate believes strongly that Tinubu has done a thorough and deep investigation about the credibility of each and every person brought on board.

”Take a bow and go, as you saw yesterday (Monday), is a tradition in the National Assembly. Anybody that is seen to take a bow and go is either one of the prominent people who served Nigeria for a long time or his track record is known to every Nigerian.

”And the National Assembly has a tradition that if you served as a Senator or an honourable member of the House of Representatives, it is an honour to read your Curriculum Vitae and maybe explain yourself, which they all have the record to ask you to take a bow and go.

”But where we need to do a thorough job for Nigerians, we used to do it, and you can see, but whatever we did as leaders, the Nigerian people will look as if we are not doing enough. A leader doesn’t dig deep enough, but he does his best.

”So we are doing our best to ensure that we thoroughly interrogate the nominees to the satisfaction of Nigerians,” Yari said.

He called on Nigerians to bear with the lawmakers and assured them that the National Assembly would continue to do its best to satisfy the yearnings of the people.

”As the President said yesterday (Monday), we are also saying the same thing: Nigerians should bear with us; we are there for them on their behalf, and we are going to do our best. What we only need from them is patience.

For Each and every person brought on board, we believe strongly that the President has done a thorough and deep investigation about the credibility of each and every one of them.

”We at the National Assembly are doing our best through what has been presented to us, and we ask you questions according to your discipline and what we are expecting from you,” he said.

Yari said that the nominees were expected to have a deep knowledge of Information about water resources, finances, education, and health.

”We centred our questions on what your profession is. And so far, those that we went through have answered our questions satisfactorily, and we are going to do our best to ensure that we put them on for the job.

”And you see, it's not about only having a credential, not only having credibility, and not only having experience; sometimes it's about the office you are holding.”

On his private visit to Shettima, Yari said he was in the presidential villa to congratulate the VP and to assure him of his unwavering support.

”By seeing me here, you came to visit a friend with whom we have a long-time relationship that dates back to the days of the defunct All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP).

”We were only three ANPP governor’s then: Kashim, Gaidam, and Yari, and since the time he assumed office, I have not been here, so I came here to once again congratulate him and pray for him for almighty Allah’s guidance.

”And to give him all assurance that we are together as we started together from day one, that is why I’m here specifically,” he said.