In this piece, JOHN AMEH of our Abuja Bureau brings to light the actions, missteps and controversies that have shaped Nigerian’s to the senate under the leadership of Senator Godswill Akpabio since 2023.
Anyone familiar with the workings of the Legislature, nay our National Assembly, would admit that the tenure of the current 10th Assembly (2023-2027) is as good as over. It has entered its winding down phase with the next elections just around five months away! And so is stock taking for our senators.
By the time they reconvene from their annual vacation on September 15, senators will merely breeze in and out of the National Assembly to focus more on re-election campaigns. That’s for those who have a return ticket. For many who don’t have, attention will shift to the plans for the next layer of their lives. Soon after the polls in January 2027, returning senators will also busy themselves more with the politics of choosing the presiding officers of the 11th Assembly, six clear months to voting in June 2027. Simply put, legislative business for the 10th Senate is in the real sense, over!
Meeting expectations?
How has the Senate fared in the last three years then? Under the leadership of Senator Godswill Akpabio, a former two-time governor, minister and principal officer of the Senate, much was expected after inauguration on June 13, 2023 around the core legislative mandate of lawmaking, oversight and constituency representation.
After his election, Akpabio told Nigerians, ‘To the Nigerian people, I say this: your dreams, your aspirations, and your well-being will be at the heart of everything we will do in this Senate. I urge you to remain hopeful, steadfast, and united.’
In one line, he said, ‘We will put members of the executive on their toes, especially the ministers when they are ready to work. We will follow project-by-project and ensure that there is no delay.’
In another breath, the Senate President stated, ‘I have an opportunity of serving as a Governor and I warned my people who worked with me that I didn’t steal to invest in politically motivated infrastructure. Therefore we shall carry out very serious oversight functions to ensure the protection of the resources of the country.’
Three years on, one can clap for the 10th Senate for the high volume of bills churned out, believably surpassing the efforts of previous assemblies. The latest compilation verified this August by the Clerk to the National Assembly, Mr Kamoru Ogunlana, indicates that the Senate passed 1,500 bills so far. On the other side of the aisle, the House of Representatives passed 2,000 bills, bringing the updated compilation for the two chambers to 3,500 bills.
The two chambers jointly successfully passed 373 of the bills for presidential assent. Of the number, President Bola Tinubu has assented to 72, leaving 301 awaiting his attention. By constitutional provision, only the bills jointly passed by the two chambers may make it to become laws. Talking numbers, its kudos to the Senate and the House.
Yet, observers say numbers don’t always mean relevance, which may explain the Presidency’s lethargy in appending signature to the 301 bills gathering dust at the Villa.
According to the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre CISLAC, such bills that turned out to be a ‘waste’, drain the resources of the country while ‘starving needed areas of development of funding.’
The Executive Director, Mr Auwal Rafsanjani, while analysing the issue, blamed it largely on the tendency of the lawmakers to ‘duplicate’ existing agencies or create new ones without considering the wider ‘implications of national interests.’
He said, ‘I don’t think that the National Assembly should see their work as just passing a large number of individual member bills. Bills must not be overlapping, nor duplication or establishing agencies that are already in existence.
‘That’s why the Executive sometimes does not attach the needed importance to these bills. There should have been collaboration between the two sides from the beginning so that they prioritise national interests above personal public relations. They are consuming resources and the time of the National Assembly.’
A Political Analyst, Dr Otu Matthew, shared the same view, saying that bills ‘should not be promoted for the sake of promotion, but must reflect the national goals of Nigerians.’
He criticised what he termed ‘a race for the highest number of bills by legislators’, adding that ‘we see a trend whereby every Senator, every Representative wants a federal institution to be sited in their village, even where such institutions or similar ones exist nearby.’
But, observers also note that this submission doesn’t diminish the importance of some of the bills. For instance, the State Police Bill, which the Senate passed expeditiously has been hailed across the country as a legislative response to mounting security challenges.
The tax reform bills, despite the earlier concerns raised over them, are still counted as a significant achievement of the Akpabio Senate. The four bills -Joint Revenue Board of Nigeria (Establishment) Bill, 2024; Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Bill, 2024; Nigeria Tax Administration Bill, 2024; and Nigeria Tax Bill, 2024 -introduced in October, 2024, aim to simplify tax administration, enhance revenue generation and redistribute tax proceeds in a manner that individuals business owners at the lower wrung of the ladder will have lesser burdens, according the government.
They have since become operational laws following presidential assent, no matter the misgivings.
Akpabio’s Senate has also passed the National Minimum Wage Bill (raising payment from N30,000 to N70,000); the South-East Development Commission Bill; the North-West Development Commission Bill; the South-West Development Commission Bill; North-Central Development Commission Bill; South-South Development Commission Bill; the North-West Development Commission Bill; the Bill on Enhanced Salaries and Allowances for Judicial Officers; the Administration of Criminal Justice Act and Retirement Age of Magistrates bills; Economic and Financial Crimes Commission; Code of Conduct Bureau; Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission; and the Fake Drugs and Unwholesome Processed Food (Miscellaneous Provisions) bills.
The 10th Senate has also given a boost to further constitutional amendments by introducing several new bills, including the much talked-about Special Seats Bill to create special legislative seats for women from the State Assemblies to the National Assembly. What is left is voting on the new proposals, which the 10th Senate has promised will be concluded within its lifespan.
Some bills naturally raised eyebrows as the sole aim of passing them might be to fulfill the desires of the executive. One that readily comes to mind is the New National Anthem Bill, which was passed to replace ‘Arise O Compatriots’ with Nigeria’s post-colonial anthem, ‘Nigeria We Hail Thee’, to become the country’s current anthem.
The Electoral Act (Amendment Bill) 2026 didn’t meet the expectations of the majority of stakeholders because of the exclusion of mandatory e-transmission of election results from the new law.
Security challenges
Insecurity remains a major worry for Nigeria. Following in the tradition of the 9th Assembly, the current Senate is paying attention to searches for solutions to banditry, kidnapping, farmer/herder clashes, murders and the constant threats posed to the safety of the citizenry by insurgency.
As of the last count, the 10th Senate has held a series of solution-seeking meetings with security chiefs to offer legislative interventions and passing countless motions/resolutions on insecurity.
It has proposed a national dialogue on herder/farmer conflict and interfaced with the executive on the current economic, food inflation, interest rate and exchange rate crises bedeviling the country to recommend solutions in a supportive role to the government. In addition, the Senate is set to play host to a National Security Summit from September 23 to September 26, 2026 to collate views for executive action against insecurity.
The ‘Carry Go’ era
One area Nigerians worry that the 10th Senate hasn’t given its best is in the core mandate of oversight. Much of the promise to interrogate executive decisions or actions hasn’t materialised beyond passing the majority of motions/resolutions that have failed to attract the desired positive response. While the Akpabio Senate may engage in self-adulation, the opinions of independent assessors see the senior legislative chamber as not doing much to ask questions or tackle the executive on some of its policies. This ‘unwilling disposition’ has earned the 10th Senate the description of ‘Carry Go Senate’; meaning just anything from the executive has passed without the much-expected scrutiny in the last three years.
Listed here will include policies such as the sudden removal of fuel subsidy, the intervention in the exchange rate market, national budgets (2024, 2025, 2026) riddled with insertions, probes like the NNPCL’s alleged N210trillion uncounted funds, among others.
A development economist, Dr Brian Dorgu, holds the view that the 10th Senate has hardly interrogated executive decisions, beginning from the ‘sudden removal of fuel subsidy.’
Dorgu, though admitting that subsidy is unsustainable, argued that in a monolithic, petrol-dollar dependent economy like Nigeria, a ‘subsidy removal policy must first undergo serious dissection by the government, working in collaboration with relevant stakeholders for parties to make the appropriate assessment and prepare for the consequences, including making adequate provisions to cushion the harsh effects on those at the lower rung of the ladder.’
He said this vital step wasn’t taken ahead of the policy, while the legislature too merely joined in ‘cheer-leading’ the decision without ‘making any determined commitment to suggest policy reviews.’
The economic expert also observed that there had been no bold move by the Senate to oversight the ministers as it promised, beyond the ‘routine budget defence question and answer sessions, the outcome of which produced no remarkable difference in the livelihood of Nigerians.’
Critics point to loan requests approved under Akpabio’s watch since 2023 without blinking an eye, ballooning the country’s debts to N160trillion (or $114.95billion) as of March 31, 2026, according to the Debt Management Office (DMO). In June 2023, the total debt stock was N87trn.
Below is a timeline of loans approved by the Senate/National Assembly led by Akpabio in the last three years, according to available data:
July 2023 -$800 million World Bank loan. The Senate approved a World Bank loan request that had originally been initiated under Muhammadu Buhari for the National Safety Net Programme.
November 2023 – $7.8 billion and pound 100 million. The Senate approved Tinubu’s request for external borrowing of $7.8 billion and pound 100 million, following a report by its debt committee.
July 2024 -additional loan approvals tied to sector support. Reports in 2026 summarising prior approvals say the Tinubu administration secured about $1.57 billion in 2024 for healthcare, irrigation, flood management, education, and power.
May 2025 – request for $21.5 billion, $2 billion bond, and ?757.98 billion pension bond. Tinubu sent a large borrowing package to the National Assembly in May 2025, which was later reflected in approval reporting in 2025.
July 2025 -major borrowing package approved. The National Assembly approved about $21 billion in foreign loans, pound 4 billion, ¥15 billion, a $65 million grant, and $2 billion in domestic dollar-denominated borrowing; an additional $347 million under the 2025-2026 borrowing plan.
March 2026 -$6.9 billion foreign loan approved. This foreign loan facility was approved, with 40% to be used for capital projects in the 2025/2026 budgets.
Critics have queried the burgeoning loans amid the officially-acknowledged N15.8trn fuel subsidy savings and improved revenues.
Of 10th Senate and harvest of controversies
It’s considered to be perhaps the most theatrical Senate since 1999. It is not lacking in frequent dozes of comedy and controversies.
One of the earliest episodes was the ‘prayers’ the Senate President sent to the mailboxes of his colleagues in August, 2023, barely two months into the life of the 10th Senate. Money was sent to the bank accounts of senators, probably sitting allowances for the screening of ministerial nominees. At the end of the exercise, Akpabio, momentarily forgetting that he was on live recording, told senators that a ‘token’ had been sent to them.
He announced, ‘In order to enable all of us to enjoy our holidays, a token has been sent to our various accounts by the clerk of the National Assembly.’ Suddenly realising his gaffe, he tried to modify it by saying, ‘I withdraw that statement. In order to allow you to enjoy your holiday, the Senate President has sent prayers to your mail boxes to assist you to go on a safe journey and return.’
Nigerians, in reacting to the development, expressed disbelief, asking how much public funds was regularly shared among their lawmakers and whether such money was budgeted or legitimately earned.
In March, 2024, the Senate suspended one of its own for three months -Sen. Abdul Ningi -for accusing the legislature of ‘padding’ the 2024 budget by N3.7tn.
He was quickly suspended after the Senate dismissed his allegation on the grounds that he used the wrong figures in his computations.
The episode that is evergreen was the bitter ‘war’ between the Senate/Akpabio and Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, the Kogi-Central lawmaker. Although her March 6, 2025 six-month suspension was the escalation of matters, tension had been building up several months earlier since July, 2024. On July 18, Akpoti-Uduaghan, during the plenary of the Senate, got up abruptly and started contributing to a debate without the presiding officer (Akpabio) yielding the floor to her. Akpabio, in a bid to caution her, compared her behaviour to people who go to nightclubs, saying that the Red Chamber isn’t a nightclub where people enjoy the freedom to speak without observing protocols!
‘Senator Natasha, you cannot speak without being asked or invited to speak in the Senate. This is not a nightclub’, Akpabio remarked, disapprovingly. It was a bad shot. Yet, the impact was not immediately felt on the floor, not even on Akpoti-Uduaghan, as the plenary went on smoothly till the adjournment.
However, the social media was soon agog with the news of the encounter as various platforms took over the ‘war’ on behalf of the female senator, some bashing Akpabio for allegedly denigrating women. This issue was so hot that for close to one week, the media feasted on it, unsettling the Senate President, especially when his wife, Unoma, also drew his attention to its seriousness.
Eventually, a humbled Akpabio had to eat the pie on July 23, ‘I will not intentionally denigrate any woman and I always pray that God will uplift women. Distinguished Senator Natasha, I want to apologise to you.’
Fast track to early 2026 when Akpabio reshuffled some standing committees, removing Akpoti-Uduaghan from the more fancied Senate Committee on Local Contents and reassigning her to the Committee on NGOs and Donor Agencies. While the Kogi lawmaker seemed to publicly accept the new development without qualms, she boiled within and kept seeking out opportunities to tackle Akpabio. The chance finally came in early March when the Senate did some rearrangement of seat allocations, displacing Akpoti-Uduaghan from where she considered a vantage location to an ‘obscure’ position. Protesting the rearrangement, she personally pulled off name tags and vehemently refused to resume her new seat, raining abuses in the process.
In a bid to rein her in, the Senate on March 6, suspended her for six months for violating its rules on sitting arrangement. Amid the drama, Akpoti-Uduaghan targeted Akpabio, accusing him of being responsible for her travails. The lawmaker went around media houses granting interviews, making sexual harassment allegations against the Senate President. A Senate panel, which investigated her claim, couldn’t establish it owing to lack of evidence.
The case also went through a number of court processes without Akpoti-Uduaghan clearly winning any of the layers. She ultimately served out her six months without fulfilling the attached condition of tendering an apology. Till date, Akpabio and Akpoti-Uduaghan are believed to barely tolerate each other in the Senate, waiting maybe for the next stage to throw ‘punches’ again.
Just before senators went on their summer recess, another controversy raged -the amending of Senate Standing Orders to set the tone for the election of the leadership of the 11th Senate. The new rules bar some categories of senators from vying for leadership seats while conferring advantage or order of seniority on certain senators like Akpabio himself.
The development pitted Akpabio against some of his colleagues, seen to be the likely victims, including Senator Adams Oshiomhole. Akpabio and the same Oshiomhole also engaged in another spat over the N210trn NNPCL probe by the Senate, wherein the former President of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) described the oil firm as being a home of ‘thieves.’
In three years, Akpabio is said to have survived a number of impeachment threats, both real and imagined, over some of his behaviour disapproved of by colleagues. His ill-timed humour on the floor that wastes legislative hours and late-coming to work, keeping senators endlessly waiting, the foisting of certain decisions on senators, budget and zonal intervention issues, committee appointments and more, are listed among his offences.
However, the Senate President scores his performance in the last three years highly, suggesting it also speaks to favourable approval ratings both within and outside the walls of the National Assembly.
According to his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Hon. Eseme Eyiboh, in three years, Akpabio has not only stabilised legislative governance but also made the Senate to be strengthened as an institution.
‘Three years into his tenure, the Senate under Akpabio has increasingly sought to position itself as a stable, proactive, and policy-driven legislative institution.
Through a combination of legislative initiatives, institutional reforms, parliamentary diplomacy, and engagement with critical national issues, the Senate has played a visible role in shaping the country’s governance landscape’, he said.
‘While critics have raised concerns on certain matters, an inevitable feature of democratic leadership, the overall record presents a legislature that has remained active, cohesive, and focused on its constitutional responsibilities during a period of significant national transition.’
In three years, the Akpabio-led 10th Senate has opened a mixed ledger: an energetic lawmaking record and high-profile bills that address pressing issues, set against persistent questions about oversight rigour, bill quality, and political theatre that have at times undermined public confidence. As senators return to campaign trails and the Assembly winds down, the true measure of this tenure will be whether its enacted laws translate into tangible improvements for Nigerians and whether the next Assembly learns from both its legislative gains and its governance lapses, prioritising meaningful oversight, coherence in lawmaking, and a renewed focus on national interest over spectacle, or even ‘eye-service.’