Senate Adjourns Plenary Till September 23, Directs Committees To Conduct Oversight During Break

Sunday Aborisade in Abuja 

The Senate on Thursday adjourned its plenary sessions until Tuesday, September 23, 2025, to allow lawmakers engage in oversight responsibilities across Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government.

The resolution followed the adoption of a motion sponsored by the Leader of the Senate, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele (APC, Ekiti Central), which was carried without objection during the session.

The motion, a procedural one that often precedes parliamentary recesses, was adopted shortly after the chamber stepped down the consideration of a number of reports and legislative items on its order paper. 

Bamidele, while moving the motion, urged his colleagues to use the break productively, particularly in performing their constitutionally assigned oversight functions.

In his closing remarks following the adoption of the motion, the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio (APC, Akwa Ibom North-West), emphasized the importance of the oversight mandate of lawmakers.

He stated that the recess was not intended for leisure but for work that strengthens the legislature’s role in governance.

Akpabio, addressing his colleagues from the presiding chair, urged each of the Senate standing and ad hoc committees to deploy the break period to engage robustly with relevant agencies under their purview. 

According to him, the oversight functions are a critical component of legislative accountability and essential to the effective functioning of Nigeria’s democracy.

He further stressed that the Senate, upon resumption, expects comprehensive reports from all committees detailing their findings and recommendations based on their engagements during the recess. 

The reports, he said, would form the basis for subsequent debates, resolutions and possible policy interventions by the upper chamber.

He said: “The recess is not just a time for rest, it is a constitutional period set aside to enable us to perform our oversight functions.

“Each committee is hereby mandated to carry out comprehensive oversight of the ministries, departments, and agencies relevant to their mandates, and we expect detailed reports to be submitted to the plenary when we reconvene.”

The Senate President reiterated the legislature’s commitment to upholding transparency, effectiveness and accountability in governance.

He noted that the oversight reports would also help the Senate make more informed decisions during subsequent budget considerations and in its evaluation of policy implementation.

The timing of the recess also comes as the National Assembly gears up for the 2026 budget cycle. 

While no official communication on the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) has been confirmed by the Senate leadership, sources within the National Assembly bureaucracy suggest that lawmakers are expected to use the oversight window to assess the performance of the 2025 budget so far.

This, in turn, will inform legislative input into the preparation and passage of the 2026 appropriation bill when it is eventually presented by the executive arm later in the year.

Legislative analysts said the recess offers an opportunity for committees, particularly the Appropriations and Finance Committees, to hold preliminary discussions with MDAs and evaluate capital project implementation across sectors such as infrastructure, education, health and defence.