Over two years into its mandate, the 10th Senate stands at a crossroads that will define its legacy. Will it be remembered as a serious reforming chamber or as a spectacle of scandal and stagnation? If the current trajectory holds, Nigerians will settle for the latter.
Take the case of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan (PDP, Kogi Central), whose allegations against Senate President Godswill Akpabio exposed the chamber’s deep contradictions around ethics, gender justice, and institutional accountability. Her claims of sexual harassment and abuse of power touched on questions of procedural fairness and respect for due process. Yet, instead of instituting an independent ethics review or ensuring transparency, the Senate responded by suspending her for six months for “misconduct.” A decision many saw as punitive and dismissive. It sparked nationwide outrage, with protests under the banner “We Are All Natasha.” That saga did not merely distract from governance; it exposed how the Senate deals with internal accountability, gender equity, and abuse of power. When women claim harassment and are then silenced rather than heard, what does that say to the Nigerian electorate?
Yet scandals are only part of the story. Behind the noise lies a more subtle failure: the widening gap between promise and performance. The Senate made bold commitments across policy areas, from electoral reform to health financing and gender inclusion, but delivery has been slow, inconsistent, and often cosmetic.
Lawmakers pledged to review how members of the Independent National Electoral Commission are appointed to reduce presidential influence and strengthen independence. Nearly halfway through their term, no significant reform has emerged. On health, both chambers promised to allocate at least 15 percent of the national budget to health in line with the Abuja Declaration and to amend the Basic Health Care Provision Fund Act, health financing continues to hover between 4 and 6 percent of the budget. As preventable deaths rise. Nigeria still accounts for 13 percent of global maternal deaths, according to the World Health Organization, and one in eight Nigerian children dies before age five. Over 70 percent of health spending remains out-of-pocket, pushing millions further into poverty. Instead, health financing remains below target, and proposed amendments are still crawling through committee stages.
The Special Seats Bill for Women, a landmark effort to improve representation, has been discussed, deferred, and debated for months without conclusion. Despite evidence from Rwanda, Senegal, and Tanzania, which achieved over 40 percent female representation through similar measures. Nigeria’s upper chamber still treats women’s inclusion as a matter for rhetoric rather than resolve.
Electoral reform has also stalled. The Senate promised to strengthen the 2022 Electoral Act and ensure that election petitions are resolved before swearing in. The idea has not advanced beyond committee rooms and public statements. Each election cycle repeats the same pattern: disputes drag into office terms and nothing changes.
On environmental responsibility, the Gas Flaring (Prohibition and Punishment) Bill, designed to curb routine gas flaring and impose penalties on violators, remains in legislative limbo. Nigeria loses an estimated $2.5 billion annually to flared gas, while citizens in the Niger Delta breathe poisoned air and farm scorched land. Every legislative delay translates to environmental and economic loss, while global energy transition efforts pass Nigeria by.
Citizen engagement, another key promise, was meant to bring the legislature closer to Nigerians through an e-petition or digital feedback system. Two years later, the National Assembly still demands paper submissions for most petitions. This analog system undermines accessibility and transparency in a country where more than 122 million Nigerians are now active online. In a digital century, a “people’s parliament” cannot continue to operate as a paper bureaucracy.
Even the low-hanging fruit, the Audit Bill, has yet to pass. Strengthening accountability should have been the easiest of all promises to fulfil, yet the bill continues to languish amid committee shuffles and unclear priorities. The failure to pass the Audit Bill has resulted in devastating financial and governance consequences for Nigeria, with over ₦103.8 billion and $950,912.05 misappropriated across just 31 ministries, departments, and agencies according to the 2019 and 2020 auditor-general’s reports . This systemic failure is compounded by a 26-year pattern of ignoring audit reports since Nigeria's return to democratic governance in 1999, creating a culture of impunity that has undermined public trust. Nigeria's poor performance on global indicators reflects this crisis, ranking 140 out of 180 countries on the Corruption Perceptions Index with a score of merely 26/100, and scoring below the global average of 45 on the Open Budget Index . The audit system's structural weaknesses, including the absence of enforcement mechanisms and financial autonomy, have enabled continued revenue leakages, with critical audit reports like those for the FCT (2020-2023) remaining inaccessible despite Freedom of Information requests . Passing the Audit Bill would deliver transformative benefits and significantly strengthen fiscal transparency. Over five years, comprehensive audit reform could generate ₦720 billion in economic benefits through recovered revenues, prevented misappropriation, and improved tax compliance . Beyond financial gains, the bill would enhance Nigeria's international standing, improve donor confidence by up to 25%, and restore public trust in democratic institutions. By failing to institutionalise accountability, the Senate sustains the very opacity it claims to challenge.
Our Legislative Agenda Meter on our Promise Tracker NG platform paints the picture clearly: the Senate is performing without progress. Bills are introduced, referred, and discussed, but few become law. The chamber appears active, but its impact is minimal. It is as if the Senate works too hard to be seen working but not hard enough to change anything.
When a legislature is more scandal rich than reform driven, it becomes what Nigerians now see: reform proof. Not because reform is impossible, but because there is no political will to match words with action. It legislates without urgency, debates without conviction, and deflects criticism with ceremony.
In the Advokc's senate legislative agenda on promisetracker a tracker that track promises from the Senate Legislative agenda, of the 28 promises being tracked currently only one, the promise to live streaming and online access to Senate proceedings and committee hearings has been kept, 4 promises are in the works, and 23 promises are currently not yet rated, that is 82% of the promise in the tracked promises from the senate agenda are not yet tabled, discussed or sent to the committee.
But there is still time to course correct. The Senate can reclaim its relevance by setting real deadlines, tabling and voting on the Special Seats Bill, increasing the allocation to the health budget, and passing the Audit Bill before the year ends. It can open its proceedings to citizens through digital participation and reestablish trust by addressing ethical breaches transparently.
If it fails to do these, the story of the 10th Senate will be written not in laws passed but in controversies remembered. History will recall a chamber that promised reform but delivered theatre, a Senate that worked tirelessly at everything except the change Nigerians truly needed.