• To approach court on legality of piecemeal submission

Labour Party (LP) has described President Bola Tinubu’s list of ministers, submitted last Thursday to the Senate, as an assemblage of spent forces and anti-democratic elements.

The party also queried piecemeal submission of the list, saying it runs afoul of constitutional provisions and the Electoral Act, which stipulate submission of a list not later than 60 days from the date of inauguration.

“Labour Party will, therefore in the days ahead seek proper legal counsel on the legality or otherwise of piecemeal submission of ministerial list, as against submission of the ‘full’ list, as envisaged by the Electoral Act,” it said.

National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, said: “Nigerians expected more quality, character, dynamic and results-oriented persons to be on that list, but what we saw is a recycling of some failed and clueless politicians who have contributed to bringing Nigeria to its parlous condition. Some of these nominees played prominent anti-democratic roles in the previous administration, particularly since 2015, which saw the All Progressives Congress (APC) government fail in all its promises to Nigerians.”

The spokesman said LP saw ‘prebendal’ politics in full swing, with mainly cronies and lackeys of the party’s national leadership being selected in reward for servitude and blind discipleship.

According to him, the list does not reflect the “enormous reservoir of talents, potentials and resources Nigeria is known for”.

He said: “It still baffles us as to why this government ignored the youthful and technocratic potentials that abound but rather chose to appoint spent forces that have failed Nigeria in the past. A glance at the list exposes the absence of technocrats who usually form the nucleus of core policy implementers in any given government.

“Unfortunately, in their place are fawning politicians who may not be of any help in the needed efforts to salvage and reposition the country for effective delivery, given the socio-economic condition of the people, given challenges we have with the economy and in all other facets of life, including security, health, education, and poverty reduction.

“Assembling transactional and traditional politicians to man the government at this critical point would not give expected results. The political class has failed Nigerians in the past. And as the saying goes, we desire square pegs in square holes but that is far from what we are being served.”

He added: “We earnestly hoped that there would have been more young people who would be part of the government. At this point in our history, we need people with a track record, young people with energy who can traverse the country, think out of the box, and think all through the night without sleeping, to provide solutions to numerous challenges confronting the nation.

“Again, we are worried that the ministerial list is being presented piecemeal. The constitution of Nigeria clearly states that, at least, a minister must be appointed from each of the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory.

“The Electoral Act as amended also stipulates that a list containing the ministerial nominees must be sent to the Senate within 60 days from the day of commencement of a government for screening and confirmation. But what we witnessed was a hurriedly prepared list that excluded nominations from about 10 states, in clear violation of the laws of the land.”