The Senate has retained the newly introduced two-term eligibility requirement for senators seeking election as presiding officers, while reversing only a procedural amendment that would have required senators-elect to take their oaths before voting for principal officers.
Adeniyi Adegbomire, chairman of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, said the upper chamber rescinded the change to oath‑taking and voting procedures after legal concerns and media reports, but did not withdraw the substantive eligibility rule.
“One of the Orders that was considered was about whether you should take your oath of allegiance and membership before elections. The proposal that was passed was that you be sworn in before you can vote. It was just a procedural change,” Adegbomire said. “Members were of the opinion that the constitution says ‘you may’, so that there won’t be any controversy thereafter, we decided to revert to the old Order. The issue of eligibility stays and it is different from what we rescinded.”
The retained Rule 3(3) requires that a senator must have been elected and served for at least two full terms — eight years, with one term immediately preceding the election — to be eligible to contest for a presiding officer position. Rule 3(4) likewise requires four years’ service immediately preceding an appointment to be eligible as a principal officer.
Earlier, Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele warned that enforcing the oath‑first voting procedure adopted on 5 May could create constitutional inconsistencies, citing Section 52 of the 1999 Constitution. He argued the Constitution permits senators‑elect to participate in the election of presiding officers before taking their oaths.
The provision that was rescinded, Order 3(1), had stated that a senator‑elect could not participate in Senate proceedings, including voting for the Senate President and Deputy Senate President, until after taking the oaths set out in the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution. That change would have departed from long established practice in which senators‑elect elect presiding officers under the Clerk of the National Assembly’s supervision before being sworn in.
Other amendments earlier approved by the Senate include adjustments to sitting hours, committee representation across geopolitical zones, suspension procedures, and the creation of new committees on Livestock Development, Reparations and Repatriations, and regional development commissions.
