The Senate hurriedly went into an executive session on Thursday after a disagreement arose over the official sitting time of the Red Chamber.
Senate President, Sen. Godswill Akpabio, and his predecessor, Sen. Ahmed Lawan, disagreed over the issue.
The official time for commencement of plenary as captured in the Senate’s rules, is 10 am.
However, it has been almost impossible for sitting to start at 10 am, as lawmakers usually arrive in the chamber about 11 am or way past 11 am.
Oftentimes when the Senate adjourns its sitting for the day, it announced to reconvene at 11 am the next legislative day even though the official hour is 10 am.
On Thursday, the Senate moved to amend its rules to move the official sitting time from 10 am to 11 am following a motion moved by its Leader, Sen. Opeyemi Bamidele.
But, as the Senate moved to resolve into the Committee of the Whole to consider the amendment, Sen. Lawan rose to oppose the proposed bid to change the sitting time.
Lawan, directly addressing Akpabio, told him 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 10 am.
He also said lawmakers had more energy to work in the early hours compared to when the time was shifted to 11 am, as this could drag sitting till 3 pm.
Lawan noted that by 3 pm, committees ought to have been sitting already.
Akpabio, in a swift response, tried to remind Lawan that he even met the sitting time at 11 am, 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 11 am 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.
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