Balarabe Abbas, the Ministerial nominee from Kaduna State, collapsed during his screening process on Wednesday at the Senate.
President Bola Tinubu had submitted his name, along with two others, to the Senate for consideration on Tuesday.
There was no clear picture of what actually transpired or what led to the incident as the Senate immediately went into a closed-door session. But Balarabe was said to have fell to the floor after speaking for about 15 minutes.
The senate President Godswill Akpabio was heard rallying Senators and parliamentary workers in the red chamber to revive the nominee by shouting, “give him water and sugar.”
The nominee was resuscitated by medical personnel called in to the chamber after he slumped.
According to a source in the Senate, the nominee was suffering from exhaustion.
Lawal is one of the three new ministerial nominees being screened by the Senate, with others being Dr Jamila Bio Ibrahim from Kwara State and Mr Ayodele Olawande from Ondo State.
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Lawal was the second nominee to be screened after the Senate Leader, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, moved a motion to extend the sitting time beyond 2 pm to conclude all the items for the day.
While speaking, the nominee said he has been serving in government for a long time and intends to bring his experience to the cabinet of the President Bola Tinubu administration.
He had said, “I want to indicate clearly that, as part of my career, I was appointed secretary to the government three times from 2015 till today. I want to say that I am likely the longest-serving secretary to the government in Nigeria.
“I have been part of administration; I have been part of policy making. I have been part of trying to change things in the country based on what I did at the federal level and at the state level.
“I want to bring this experience to wherever I find myself in the new cabinet of the president. I want to express my gratitude to all of you for listening, and I also want to extend my sincere thanks to the President of the Senate for allowing me to stand before the chambers.”
