The Senate has again amended its standing rules, a move that technically eliminates the eligibility of incoming senators-elect in the 11th National Assembly to contest principal and presiding offices. 

The move followed the presentation of a motion by the deputy leader of the Senate, Lola Ashiru (APC-Kwara), at plenary on Tuesday, after about three hours of closed-door session.

The amended rule includes orders four and five of the Senate standing rules.

The amended order four states: “Nomination of Senators to serve as presiding officers shall be in accordance with the ranking of senators and shall be strictly adhered to.

“The order of ranking is: (i) Former President of the Senate, (ii) Former Deputy President of the Senate, ( iii) Former Principal Officers of the Senate, ( iv) Senators who had served at least one term of four years.

“Senators who had been members of the House of Representatives  (vi). In the absence of i to v, Senators elected into the Senate for the first time.”

Aside from the ranking order used to reduce the window of eligibility among senators–elect vying for presiding positions, the Senate also inserted an additional provision in Order five to prevent new lawmakers from contesting for principal officers in the upcoming 11th Senate.

The order states: “A senator shall not be eligible to contest for any principal office of the Senate unless he has served as a senator for at least two consecutive terms immediately preceding nomination”.

This means that senators who were not in the ninth and current 10th Senates would not be eligible to contest presiding officer positions in the 11th Senate.

The presiding officers in the Senate are the president and the deputy president, while the principal officers are the Senate leader, deputy leader, chief whip, and deputy whip.

Others are the minority leader, deputy minority leader, minority whip, and deputy minority whip.

(NAN)