There was mild drama on the floor of the Senate on the grounds of the amendment.
This was a sequel to the consideration of a motion sponsored by the Leader of the Senate, Opeyemi Bamidele, APC, Ekiti Central on the need for the Senate to amend its Standing Orders to adjust its sitting time as well as to establish an additional Committee which will have its functions and jurisdictions reflected in the Standing Orders.
Senator Bamidele who noted that the Senate Standing Orders were amended in 2023 to accommodate issues that will make the Orders dynamic to facilitate an effective legislative process, also stressed the importance to further amend the Standing Orders of the Senate, 2023 (as amended) to establish an additional committee on patriation amd repatriation as well as to amend Order 8(2) to reflect the current realities.
The Senate Leader also said that the amendment of the sitting time would synchronise with that of the House of Representatives, adding that the amendment means that Committees or Public Hearings would either sit between 9am – 11 am before plenary or from 3pm – 6pm.
Following the presentation of this motion, Senator Yahaya Abdullahi, PDP, Kebbi North who argued that the Committee on Foreign Affairs could be expanded to handle the issues rather than creating additional committees, said, “The Committee on Foreign Affairs should be expanded to Foreign Affairs and International Affairs and all the other jobs be transferred to the committee instead of creating a new committee.”
At this point, the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio who emphasised the suggestions of Abdullahi said that the Senate has a committee on Foreign Affairs, of which the scope of their activities could be expanded. “But if we can’t, then we can bring it up again,” he urged. He however agreed that the sitting time of the Senate be amended to synchronise with the House of Representatives.
Kicking against the motion, the former President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, APC, Yobe North who noted that it was unreasonable to shift the sitting time only on grounds for synchronisation with the House of Representatives, urged his colleagues to reconsider the move before taking a hasty decision.
Lawan said, “I don’t know the basics of why we want to shift our sitting from 10 to 11 to finish by 3 pm. To me, we have more energy, our heads are clearer in the morning, and when we are into the day, probably we would have lost some energy and I feel, Mr. President, if we sit plenary, between 10 and 2, our committees would do better. The noon window committee would have to go and sit between four, probably, and six or seven or eight. So if we don’t have anything, except that we have to synchronise with the House, perhaps, i think we need to look at it again, but if we have other reasons that we must change, that will be fine.”
Responding to Lawan, Akpabio said, “I think that the idea of the Senate sitting by 11 o’clock was started by you in the 9th Senate and the past. We came and met the tradition, but now we have changed it because, during that COVID, we were sitting twice a week. I said no, there is no more COVID. We should sit three times a week.
Lawan on the other hand was seen repeatedly saying, “no, that is not true.”
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