Senators resume with just 96 days to 2027 polls to tackle pending work

Senators will return to their chamber in Abuja on Tuesday in what may be the last serious sitting period before the 2027 polls, Nigerian Tribune reports.

With the presidential and National Assembly polls just 96 days away, lawmakers will have only three to four weeks to attend to legislative duties as campaigns dominate the period ahead.

Critical pending assignments include the further review of the 1999 Constitution and the unresolved probe into the alleged “unaccounted” ₦210 trillion NNPCL fund, with over 70 new constitutional amendment bills, 55 state creation requests, two boundary adjustment proposals and 278 local government creation demands still before the legislature.

While the state police proposal was separated out and forwarded to state assemblies in September, the bulk of the amendments, including the Special Seats Bill for women, remain unattended. Senate Committee Chairman on Media and Public Affairs, Yemi Adaramodu, had earlier promised the bills would be passed before the legislative year closed, but has yet to explain the delay.

Any amendment requires at least 240 votes in the House of Representatives and 72 in the Senate to pass. Beyond constitutional review, the 2027 budget looms as a major task, though as of October 12, the Executive had yet to transmit the 2027–2029 Medium Term Expenditure Framework to the National Assembly, a development that would breach the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007, given the law’s four-month submission requirement ahead of the new fiscal year.