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The 10th Senate under the leadership of Senator Godswill Akpabio hardly disappoints. From its inception on June 13 2023, the upper legislative arm of the National Assembly wasted no time in defining its profile in aloofness to whatever the dominant interest of Nigerians was. Almost three years down the road, the Red Chamber, so called, faithfully stands on its established protocol.
If Nigerians expected a senate that will stand up for them at any critical juncture, especially in matters of citizens welfare, rights and protection, the 10th Senate left no one in doubt from the onset about its unreadiness to be that bulwark. What bothers majority of Nigerians is often not what bothers the senate, personified by its leadership.
The 10th senate as led, has increasingly been seen by analytical Nigerians as a mere contrivance, a gimmick mounted for the pursuit of a purpose that is located outside the hollow rituals in the chambers of the assembly. Unlike what obtains in various other legislatures in other climes where the views and interest of constituencies directly determine the votes by legislators, majority within the 10th senate appear to have their minds made up for them somewhere.
Two years and eight months into its tenure, the most identifiable landmark of the 10th senate has been, without doubt, Natashagate, the unnecessary, avoidable and misguided expression of maschismo inside the Red Chamber. Featuring a besotted Senate president and an alluring but tough and focused Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, with the rest of the senators watching virtually helplessly, Natashagate personified the wayward spirit that has prevailed at the 10th Senate.
Natashagate was still raging on, with the country looking askance at its upper legislative house, when President Bola Tinubu arbitrarily declared a state of emergency in River State on March 18 2025, alluding to a non-existent threat to the national economy arising from a personality squabble he could easily have resolved, if he so wished.
The declaration of state of emergence in River State was a constitutional overreach by the President. There was neither a breakdown of law and order in Rivers State, nor a threat to social and economic order to justify the action. Nothing that the police could not handle. Much more importantly, the approval of the National Assembly was required to declare a state of emergence in the country.
So attention was turned to the National Assembly. Again, the Senate did not disappoint. With the leadership of the lower chamber in tow, the Senate President simply decorated the constitutional breach by Tinubu with a procedural breach of his own and moved on. The provision for voting in such a major constitutional issue on the floor of the legislature is for every legislator to clearly vote and be on record for his decision. The leadership of the National Assembly did not do that. They resorted to a Kangaroo closure of sorts.
They took a voice vote on the matter and proceeded to declare a result, an outcome that was glaringly different from what the public heard. Thus was the declaration of State of emergency in River approved by the National Assembly, two days after the President formally made the declaration.
Almost one year later, the 10th Senate under Senator Akpabio is on the march, again, very much living up to its profile of doing mostly that which runs counter to what Nigerians want or expect. The image of the Senate President announcing a decision of the Senate on the Electoral Bill which ran counter to what majority of the Senators appear to have voted for, and then struggling to explain that what he did was not what he did, was not just absurd, it was gross.
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The clear attempt to sabotage the provision on electronic transmission of election result in the Electoral Bill, leaves no one in doubt about where the problems of elections are located in Nigeria. Those who are suggesting that the Election Management Body should be left to decide how to transmit election results are neither honest nor noble in their intent. That is a line of argument by those who look forward to undermining and exploiting the Election Management Body.
To go that route is to remain with the extant scenario that renders the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) guideline subject to conflicting judicial interpretations. The courts have no common agreement today on whether the INEC guideline should be accepted as a law or not. So, why does anyone, except someone with ulterior motive, want the confusion to subsist?
INEC has, over the last 20 years, consistently advocated for electronic transmission of results to be backed by law. The Commission has established a strong collaboration mechanism with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and service providers, for strengthening platforms to facilitate seamless transmission of election results all over the country.
At every critical turn in efforts to amend the Electoral Act and enhance the electoral process through including electronic transmission of results to drastically reduce human influence on election results, politicians will become experts in tele-density and network configurations, arguing on how villages have poor telecommunication network. Nobody is deceived.
The emergency plenary session of the Senate which the Senate President summoned on the electoral bill should ordinarily not be necessary if the Senate leadership is on the side of history and the popular will. Senators have publicly declared their stand.
The common perception of the 10th Senate is that of a dancer responding faithfully to some drum beaters tucked away somewhere. Since the dancer cannot help itself as it were, the drum beaters owe it a duty to themselves to save the country avoidable crisis which is building up over the issue of electronic transmission of election result. Nigerians demand to breath.
The reality that a tribe of politicians exist who can only thrive in a system that is susceptible to manipulation and subversion of the will of the populace makes elections appear to be a rogue enterprise. This reign of roguery needs to end. Majority of the senators have already cast their vote on the matter
Hopefully, the emergency plenary called by the Senate President will not translate to a similar kangaroo closure that saw voice voting and a strange result during the senate session on State of Emergency in River State.
It is at once disgusting and interesting watching the discomfort and manoeuvre of politicians who are uncomfortable with credible elections.
