By Collins Opurozor
Good sense has prevailed, but only barely. The Senate has reportedly jettisoned its controversial amendment restricting the Senate Presidency to returning 10th Assembly members. That retreat is welcome. But a failed coup is still a coup. It must be named, condemned, and punished. Those who hatched this plot and boldly announced it to the Nigerian people have demonstrated a breathtaking contempt for constitutional order. Remorse is not enough. Accountability must follow.
The Constitution spoke clearly on this matter long before these senators were elected. Section 50(1)(a) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, states: “There shall be a President and a Deputy President of the Senate, who shall be elected by the members of that House from among themselves.” That is the full constitutional prescription. It ends there. There is no clause requiring prior membership of any specific Assembly. There is no condition of consecutive tenure. Any rule that adds what the Constitution deliberately omitted is not a rule; it is a usurpation.
Those who defended the amendment hid behind Section 60. That section states: “Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, the Senate or the House of Representatives shall have power to regulate its own procedure, including the procedure for summoning and recess of the House.” Note those crucial opening words: “subject to the provisions of this Constitution.” The power to regulate procedure is administrative. It governs timetables, debates, and recesses. It does not confer the authority to rewrite eligibility criteria that the Constitution itself has fixed. A sword sheathed is still a sword. A constitutional limit, however quietly phrased, remains a limit.
Section 1(3) of the Constitution is unambiguous: if any other law is inconsistent with the provisions of this Constitution, the Constitution shall prevail, and that other law shall, to the extent of the inconsistency, be void. This is the iron rule of constitutional supremacy. No standing order, however cleverly drafted, survives a collision with the grundnorm. The senators who voted for this amendment either did not know this, which is alarming for lawmakers, or knew it and proceeded regardless; which is far worse. Ignorance in a legislature is scandalous. Deliberate illegality in a legislature is an abomination.
The paradox is painful. The Senate is the chamber entrusted with defending Nigerians against bad laws. It scrutinises executive bills. It holds the executive to constitutional account. Yet here it attempted to pass, within its own walls, a rule that would have disenfranchised qualified Nigerians and suppressed competition for principal offices. The motive is transparent. Some incumbents fear brighter minds arriving in the 11th Assembly. They fear the Southeast’s legitimate aspirations to the Senate Presidency. Fear has never been a constitutional argument. It has no standing in any court, and it has no standing before the Nigerian people.
The Senate must now go further than retreat. It must identify and sanction those who sponsored this plot. It must reaffirm, in writing, its total fidelity to Section 50 of the Constitution. Every Nigerian, regardless of zone, tribe, or political affiliation, deserves a Senate that is a cathedral of democratic principle, not a cartel of incumbents. The bad eggs in that chamber have shown themselves. The institution must choose: purge them or be defined by them. History, and the 11th Assembly, are watching.
