Babatunde Fashola, former governor of Lagos state and Lai Mohammed, national publicity secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), have received the endorsement of all the senators from their states ahead of Tuesday’s senate screening of ministerial nominees.
Last week, the senate announced the endorsement of nominees by at least two senators from their states was one of the procedures that would be used for the screening.
But for the support of the Lagos lawmakers, Fashola, who is not thought to be a nominee of Bola Tinubu, whom the three APC senators from the state are loyal to, will have found it difficult to scale through.
On the part of Mohammed, his closeness to Tinubu, who at the moment is at daggers drawn with Senate President Bukola Saraki, would ordinarily have counted against him.
However, both nominees have cleared the major hurdle that would have prevented them from joining the cabinet of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Gbenga Ashafa, representative of Lagos east senatorial district, hinted journalists in Abuja late Monday that Fashola had received the support of all the senators of his state.
He said Oluremi Tinubu and Solomon Adeola, his other colleagues, had unanimously agreed to back the former governor.
“We considered the good work Tunde Fashola did in the eight years he led our dear state and we believe he would be a worthy ambassador of Lagos state in the federal executive council,” he said.
“We trust his judgement and his intelligence. He put Lagos on the world map and we are proud to call him our own. We believe he will do very well in whatever role he is assigned by our fearless and visionary leader, President Muhammadu Buhari.”
The endorsement of Mohammed was made known through a message posted on the Twitter handle of the senate.
“#MinisterialScreening Alhaji #LaiMuhammed today received endorsement of all Senators from Kwara @bukolasaraki @rafiuibrahim #ShabaLafiagi,” the message read.
However, all the senators from Rivers are yet to back down on their opposition to the nomination of Rotimi Amaechi, former governor of the state.
They are insisting that Amaechi, who has allegations of corruption against him, has to clear his name before being given any appointment.
On Monday, Amaechi appeared before the senate committee on ethics to defend himself and the hearing on the petition was suspended on the ground that the allegations against him were being challenged in court.
But his opponents in the red chamber have not revealed their next line of action, leading to suspicion that except there is last-minute realignment of forces, Amaechi, who worked hard for the victory of the APC in the last election, may not end up a member of Buhari’s cabinet.
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