The presidency has also declined to comment on the status of the list even as the chief spokesman to the President, Dele Alake, had told THE WHISTLER that “there’s a new 60 day law” guiding the formation of the cabinet without further clarification.
On Tuesday at press time, there was no correspondence from the president even as no confirmation came from the Senate that the list had been received.
Sources however said the list had not been sent “at least not by 10:30am, this morning as we speak.”
The office of the clerk to the Senate has also kept mum on the issue.
On the lips of almost everyone is what could be holding the list with 4 days to go.
By law the president has 60 days to present his ministerial list to the Senate. That expires on Saturday when the office mandated by law to receive and screen the list would be shut down.
The president has between the rest of the working day of Tuesday (today), Wednesday and Thursday, which are legislative days to send in the list.
It was gathered that the president had retrieved the list to make an amendment but a reliable source denied it saying “ministerial list was never sent to the Senate. The information from the clerk to the Senate was false.”
The Senate had broken into a closed-door on Thursday in the past week with expectation that it was to smoothen rough edges in order to allow a smooth consideration of the ministerial nominees.
What transpired during the closed-door was never revealed even as the ministerial list was not unveiled afterwards.
If the president indeed made adjustments to his list, the mood in the Senate is that the president would send in the ministerial list for consideration before the end of the week’s legislative sitting.