Chaos erupted in the Senate for over 15 minutes on Wednesday as Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Senator Adams Oshiomhole (Edo North) locked horns over Senate Standing Orders.
Persecondnews reports that the clash was triggered when Oshiomhole attempted to interrupt the reading of Tuesday’s proceedings with a point of order.
Akpabio stood his ground, maintaining that under the amended 2023 rules, points of order cannot be entertained at that time.
The Senate President eventually drafted in Senator Orji Kalu to settle the debate. Kalu echoed Akpabio’s position, confirming that Oshiomhole’s attempt to intervene was procedurally incorrect under the current Senate guidelines.
The standoff escalated when Senate Whip Tahir Monguno warned Oshiomhole that further defiance would lead to the invocation of disciplinary measures. Despite the warning,
Oshiomhole continued to challenge the proceedings by citing Order 20 of the Senate Rules.
In a sharp rebuke, Senate President Akpabio told the chamber that senators must understand the rules of the house before taking their seats.
He warned Oshiomhole directly, “If you become unruly, we will use the rules to take you out of the Senate.”
The session finally proceeded with Senator Adamu Aliero moving for the adoption of the day’s records, seconded by Senator Abba Moro.
The friction is widely believed to be a fallout from the controversial rule amendments passed just 24 hours earlier.
Persecondnews recalls that ahead of the 2027 presidential and general elections, the Senate on Tuesday put in place moves to scheme out incoming senators for the 11th National Assembly from contesting for the position of President of the Senate and amended its standing rule, limiting the eligibility of candidates for the Senate presidency to only candidates in the 9th and 10th assemblies.
According to the new amendment of the Senate standing order, the Senate has narrowed the scope of eligibility for senators-elect for principal and presiding positions to only two-term senators who will be eligible to vie for any principal office.
With this development, it appears that it has shut the door of eligibility against would-be senators in the 11th National Assembly in June 2027, like Senators Hope Uzodimma, Imo; Kabiru Marafa, Zamfara Central; Adams Oshiomhole, Edo North; among others.
The Senate, after about three hours of a closed-door session, amended orders 4 and 5 of its standing rules to edge out those who were not in the 9th and current 10th Senate.
The new amendment went further to state that one of the two consecutive terms must immediately precede such nomination.
The immediate implication of this is that only members of the 10th Assembly who are re-elected in the 11th Senate will be eligible to contest for the positions.
The Senate explains that the new standing rule is to engender strict compliance with the parliamentary tradition of ranking.
The amended order 4 states: “Nomination of Senators to serve as Presiding Officers shall be in accordance with the ranking of Senators and shall be strictly adhered to.
“The order of ranking are (i) Former President of the Senate , (ii) Former Deputy President of the Senate , ( iii) Former Principal Officers of the Senate , ( iv) Senators who had served at least one term of four years , ( v) Senators who had been members of the House of Representatives , ( vi) In the absence of i to v, Senators elected into the Senate for the first time ” .
Aside from the order of ranking used to narrow the window of eligibility among senators-elect for the presiding positions, the 10th Senate went further with an additional provision in Order 5 to knock off freshers in the contest.
The order states, “Any Senator shall not be eligible to contest for any Principal Office of the Senate unless he has served as a Senator for at least two consecutive terms immediately preceding nomination”, which means that Senators who were not in the 9th and current 10th Senate are not eligible to vie for presiding officers’ positions in the 11th Senate.
Presiding officers’ positions in the Senate are President of the Senate and Deputy President of the Senate.
Principal officer positions are Senate Leader, Deputy Senate Leader, Chief Whip and Deputy Whip of the Senate.
Others are minority leader, deputy minority leader, minority whip and deputy minority whip.
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