By Mercy Gadia
The 10th Senate on Tuesday amended its rules to narrow the eligibility criteria for senators-elect seeking principal and presiding offices in the 11th Senate scheduled for June 2027.
In what looks like shutting the door of eligibility against would be Senators in the 11th National Assembly in June 2027 like Senators Hope Uzodimma , Kabiru Marafa, Adams Oshiomhole etc , the Senate after about three hours closed door session , amended orders 4 and 5 of its standing rules to edge out those who were not in the 9th and current 10th Senate .
The amended order 4 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 are (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 , ( v) 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 the order of ranking used to narrow the window of eligibility among Senators – elect for the Presiding Positions , the 10th Senate went further with additional provision in Order 5 to knock off freshers in the contest .
The order states : ” Any 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 proceeding nomination ” , which means that Senators who were not in the 9th and current 10th Senate , are not eligible to vie for presiding officers ‘s positions in the 11th Senate .
Presiding officers positions in the Senate are President of the Senate and Deputy President of the Senate while Principal officers positions are Senate Leader , Deputy Senate Leader , Chief Whip and Deputy Whip of the Senate .
Others are Minority Leader , Deputy Minority Leader , Minority Whip and DeputyMinority Whip.