The Senate sought to formally amend its rules to shift the official sitting time from 10 am to 11 am via a motion raised by Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele,
By Deborah Hassan
365Daily – The Senate on Thursday entered into an emergency executive meeting following a heated argument between the immediate past President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, and his successor, Godswill Akpabio, over the correct time for commencement of plenary.
According to the Senate’s rules, the official plenary commencement time is 10 am, but recently, beginning of sessions have become deferred due to lateness of lawmakers.

However, the lawmakers can decide to adjourn plenary with plans to reconvene at an earlier or later time than the official time with prior notice of the change in time.

On Thursday, the Senate sought to formally amend its rules to shift the official sitting time from 10 am to 11 am via a motion raised by Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, which Sen. Lawan opposed.

Giving reason for his opposition, he argued that the reason adduced by Sen. Bamidele for changing the sitting time, which is to synchronise with the House of Representatives’ timing, was not convincing or “scientific” enough.

He insisted that there were no substantial reasons to shift the sitting time and highlighted that lawmakers were more energetic in the early hours, making a 10 am start more productive.

“The explanation that the change was to enable the Senate to synchronise its sitting time with that of the House of Representatives is not saleable to senators,” Lawan stated.

He also noted that that moving the sitting time to 11 am would extend the sessions till 3 pm when committees should be meeting.

But countering his argument, Akpabio informed Lawan that the 11 am sitting time started from the 9th Senate which he led. He also added that starting at 11 am did not necessarily mean sessions would last until 3 pm, as they could sit for only two hours, from 11am to 1 pm.

Lawan, however, objected, saying, “That is not correct!”

At this point, Senator Bamidele intervened, explaining that senators often had late engagements, including oversight duties and committee assignments, which make resuming at 10 am difficult for them.

Akpabio thereafter called for an executive session to address the issues privately.