Senate Showdown: How ‘Social Media Senator’ Became the Week’s Political Phrase

It started as a technical debate. It ended as a personal drama.

On Tuesday, tension rose in the Senate during discussions on the Electoral Act (Repeal and Re-enactment) Bill 2026. The issue on the table was Clause 60, which deals with how election results are transmitted.

Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, representing Abia South, pushed for electronic transmission of results to be the only method used. He argued there should be no manual backup. His position was simple: remove room for manipulation.

Senate President Godswill Akpabio presided over the session. When the debate opened, the chamber quickly split along party lines. Abaribe demanded a division, meaning senators would vote physically so everyone could see where each person stood.

That was when the exchange turned sharp.

Akpabio reminded Abaribe that he had withdrawn a similar motion in the past and suggested he did so after facing criticism online. Then came the line that drew laughter and noise: he called Abaribe a “social media senator,” implying he was speaking to impress online audiences.

Abaribe objected immediately. He said he was speaking for Nigerians, not for social media. He described the remark as unparliamentary and unbecoming of the Senate President.

After several minutes of tension, order was restored. A division vote was conducted. In the end, 55 senators voted to retain a manual backup alongside electronic transmission. Fifteen voted against it. The clause passed, and the bill was approved with the fallback provision intact.

For many Nigerians, the drama may seem like theatre. But the underlying issue matters. Electronic transmission is seen by some as a way to improve transparency in elections. Others argue that a manual backup protects against network failures.

The clash is only the latest in a long queue of rivalry episodes. Akpabio, now Senate President under the APC, and Abaribe, a former Minority Leader now in the ADC, once served in the same party but now sit on opposing sides.

In the end, the phrase “social media senator” may trend for a few days. The bigger takeaway is that decisions about how votes are counted are still deeply contested, even inside the red chamber.