After weeks of legislative lull, the Senate will on Tuesday reconvene plenary with a packed agenda led by long-delayed security and electoral reform debates—issues Nigerians have anxiously awaited action on.
The upper chamber had earlier shifted its resumption from September 23 to October 7, 2025, extending its annual recess by two weeks and halting deliberations on several key national priorities.
Among the bills and motions now awaiting urgent attention are the proposed National Security Summit, Electoral Act amendments, Constitution Alteration Bill (2025), and the National Assembly Budget and Research Office Bill—a 20-year-old proposal aimed at strengthening fiscal oversight through independent budget analysis.
In an internal memo signed by Chinedu Akubueze, Chief of Staff to Senate President Godswill Akpabio, the leadership said, “This is to respectfully inform Distinguished Senators that the resumption of plenary sitting of the Senate, earlier scheduled for Tuesday, September 23, 2025, has been shifted to Tuesday, October 7, 2025. Any inconvenience this short notice may cause is deeply regretted.”
Although no formal reason was given, insiders told Newsmen the postponement was to allow lawmakers to participate fully in activities marking the October 1 Independence Day celebrations.
The delay, however, has fueled public unease as critical national debates remain stalled—particularly the Security Summit expected to chart a new strategy against rising insecurity nationwide.
Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele, who chairs the 20-member ad hoc committee on the summit, had earlier promised a new, grassroots-driven approach to security policymaking.
No amount of investment in infrastructure will yield meaningful results without peace and stability,” Bamidele said at the committee’s inaugural meeting in June.
Also pending is the Constitution Alteration Bill (SB. 855) sponsored by Senator Sunday Karimi (Kogi West), which seeks to amend sections of the 1999 Constitution widely criticised as inadequate for Nigeria’s evolving democracy.
Senate President Akpabio has often touted the chamber’s productivity, boasting in June that the 10th Senate had already considered 844 pieces of legislation—including 26 executive bills—with another 499 awaiting second reading.
“It is a record that has not been held by any Nigerian Senate in two years,” he said at the Democracy Day joint session attended by President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima.
Yet critics argue that frequent adjournments and prolonged recesses have stalled momentum on the most pressing national challenges—security breakdown, electoral credibility, and economic recovery—raising doubts about the Senate’s capacity to match its rhetoric with action.