Apkabio Says Every Minister Nominee Screened will take a Bow

Ministerial nominees have been informed by Senate President Godswill Akpabio that taking a bow during their appearance before the Senate does not imply that they have been approved or confirmed for any ministerial job.

Akpabio stated this on Monday during the screening of a nominee from Anambra State, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye.

Kennedy-Ohanenye, the only female presidential candidate for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2023 presidential election had resigned in favor of Bola Tinubu. 

She was the first female ministerial nominee to be approved by the red chamber on the first day of the screening. She was one of the seven women who were selected for the 28-person list of ministers that the Senate President presented last Thursday.

Senator Ireti Kingibe of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) encouraged her colleagues to allow the former APC presidential candidate to take a bow after Kennedy-Ohanenye’s opening remarks.

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 (Curriculum Vitae) requires that she takes a bow also.”

In his response 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.”