Senate President Godswill Akpabio said on Monday at the ongoing screening of ministerial nominees in the Senate that taking a bow by some nominees before the lawmakers was not indicative that they have been cleared or confirmed for the ministerial positions.
Akpabio made the clarification during the screening of a nominee from Anambra State, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye.
Kennedy-Ohanenye, who was the first female ministerial nominee to be screened by the Red Chamber, is one of the seven female nominees that made President Bola Tinubu’s 28-men ministerial list unveiled last Thursday, July 27 by the Senate President.
Persecondnews reports that Kennedy-Ohanenye, a native of Anambra State, was the only female presidential aspirant in the All Progressives Congress (APC) May 2023 presidential primary.
After Kennedy-Ohanenye’s introductory comments, Sen.Ireti Kingibe, from the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), asked her colleagues to let the ex-APC presidential aspirant take a bow.
Kingibe said: “I would like to support distinguished Senator Ifeanyi Ubah that she (Kennedy-Ohanenye) also should take a bow. She deserves it, and everybody else has taken a bow, I think her CV requires that she takes a bow also.”
Responding, Akpabio said:“Distinguished Senator Ireti Kingibe, any nominee that comes before us will take a bow, whether the person is cleared or not.
“At the end of the day, we will go into the clearance and the confirmation; we will confirm whether the person is qualified or not but bowing before the hallowed chamber is a tradition all over the world.
“So, if you are saying others have taken a bow, they took a bow because they entered into the hallowed chamber.
“We have to amend our rules, we have to suspend our rules to allow strangers to come in. So, when they come, they take a bow; the bow does not mean they have been confirmed.
“So, even if she (Kennedy-Ohanenye) takes a bow, we will still go into the issue of confirmation later.”
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