Senate adjusts sitting time to 11am after closed-door debate

The Senate on Thursday officially changed its plenary sitting time to 11am from 10am.

 

The adjustment came following a motion moved by the Senate Leader, Sen. Opeyemi Bamidele, pursuant to Order 109 of the Senate Standing Orders.

 

The change also took place after an executive session presided over by the President of the Senate, Sen. Godswill Akpabio, where the issue was discussed behind closed doors in a bid to douse tension and quell the disagreement it generated.

 

The official time for commencement of plenary as captured in the Senate’s rules, is 10am.

 

However, it has been almost impossible for sitting to start at 10am, as lawmakers usually arrive in the chamber about 11am or way past 11am.

 

Oftentimes when the Senate adjourns its sitting for the day, it announced to reconvene at 11am the next legislative day even though the official hour is 10am.

 

But, on Thursday, the Senate changed  the sitting time to make 11am the official commencement time for plenaries and to last till 3pm.

 

Clearly, Akpabio and his predecessor, Sen. Ahmed Lawan, disagreed over the issue shortly before the former hurriedly called for the executive session.

 

As  the Senate moved to resolve into the Committee of the Whole to consider the amendment, Sen. Lawan rose to oppose the proposal to change the sitting time.

 

Lawan, directly addressing Akpabio, told him that his reason for seeking to amend the sitting time was not convincing or “scientific” enough.

 

He said the explanation that the change was to enable the Senate to synchronise its sitting time with that of the House of Representatives was not saleable to senators.

 

Lawan insisted that “Mr President, unless there are other scientific reasons other than that we should synchronise with the House”, the sitting time should be left at 10am.

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He also said lawmakers had more energy to work in the early hours compared to when the time was shifted to 11am, as this could drag sitting till 3pm.

 

Lawan noted that by 3pm, committees ought to have been sitting already.

 

Akpabio, in a swift response, tried to remind Lawan that he even met the sitting time at 11am, a practice he said was inherited from Lawan’s 9th Senate, to which Lawan replied, “no, that is not correct!”

 

Akpabio also tried to explain that making 11am the official time did not mean that the plenary would drag on forever.

 

“It doesn’t mean that we must be here till 3pm. It can be by 1pm”, he maintained.

 

Bamidele intervened to say that because senators often had other several engagements, including oversight duties and committee assignments, they worked late into the night, a development making resumption at 10m a huge challenge.

 

Apparently to douse the tension creeping into the chamber, Akpabio quickly called for an executive session.

 

The Senate reconvened plenary after the closed-door debate and senators unanimously endorsed the change in sitting time to 11am.

 

Akpabio said committees with urgent matters could sit either from 9am to 11am or 10am to 11am and round off before the commencement of plenary by 11am.