News Editor
By our correspondent
There are strong indications that the planned screening of ministerial nominees sent to the Senate last week by President Bola Tinubu may be disrupted as lawmakers from the South-East geo-political Zone of the country are said to be angry over what they described as neglect of the zone.
Impeccable Sources told TMSNEWS that the South-East caucus in the National Assembly have continually expressed their anger over the marginalisation of the zone as manifested in the ministerial appointments.
The federal Lawmakers from the zone TMSNEWS gathered authoritatively have been meeting ever since President Bola Ahmed Tinubu unveiled the list of the nominees and have been marshalling out plans to disrupt or stop the screening in the Senate slated for Tuesday.
A source close to the National Assembly equally informed our correspondent that lawmakers from the South-East claimed that President Tinubu has continued to relegate the zone in all it’s appointments despite repeated complaints, especially the last ministerial nominations, when it became obvious that the South-East only have chances of having an average of 10.4 per cent of the 48 ministers in the president cabinet.
TMSNEWS learnt that the Senate hierarchy is was in the know of the lawmakers from the South-East region’s that the entire caucus in the National Assembly has mandated the Senate Caucus to take up the matter.
“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,” a source stated.
The South-East is particularly angered that while Ogun State, with the nomination of Dr Jumoke Oduwole would have four ministers in the cabinet if confirmed, the South-East has only five ministers as required by the 1999 Constitution, which provides that each state shall have a ministerial nominee.
The South-East caucus is angry that while 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. Of the six geopolitical zones in the country, only South-East has five ministers, without the additional zonal representatives.
