The Senate approved their confirmation at the end of the screening exercise in Abuja on Wednesday where the ministerial nominees answered questions on topical national issues.
We recall that President Goodluck Jonathan in a letter to the Senate on Jan. 16, forwarded a request for the confirmation of Turaki and Nebo as ministers.
Turaki while responding to a question, called for stronger inter-agency collaboration among the security agencies to tackle the activities of terrorists in various parts of the country.
``The government has been doing a lot in recent time. What it needs to do more is to strengthen inter-agency collaboration and reduce rivalry among security agencies,’’ he said.
He also said that Nigeria’s deployment of troops to Mali was a demonstration of the country’s leading role in the peace and development of the African continent.
``Nigeria is a leading light in Africa and cannot take a passive view of the threat posed by the Malian rebels.
``There is no reason why Nigeria will not cooperate with other nations to bring down the centre of terror in Mali,’’ Turaki said.
Nebo on his part, expressed optimism for the revival of the steel industry, saying that ``we can still solve the problem of the steel industry’’.
``We need the political will to do so the National Assembly could assist the Executive by harping on the need to ensure that the steel industry is revived,’’ he said.
Nebo said that if assigned to the Ministry of Power, he would encourage the training of youths, who would be employed to go round to certify the electricity worthiness of every house connected to the national grid.
He said that this approach would help to reduce the volume of power losses experienced between the point of generation and final consumption as well as generate employment.
``There is no reason why anybody should be hooked up to the national grid without his house being certified as “electricity ready” by usage of standard cables.
``This will generate jobs for young people, who will go round to certify the electricity worthiness of houses,’’ Nebo said.
He said that if the electricity road map was followed, Nigeria would be able to generate 40,000 megawatts by the year 2020.
Nebo called on more independent power producers to key into the unbundling of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) and provide electricity for Nigerians.
Senate President, David Mark, urged the confirmed nominees to ensure that they applied their wealth of knowledge and experience to enhance the transformation agenda of the government.
The nominees are expected to fill the vacant positions created in the Federal Executive Council following the resignation of Prof. Barth Nnaji and Mr Haliru Bello, former ministers of Power, and Defence respectively.
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