Senate’s Midterm Legislative Record in Question as Akpabio and Bamidele Present Conflicting Bill Statistics.

Conflicting reports from two senior Nigerian Senate officials have raised questions about the accuracy of the Senate’s legislative record during its first two years in office. At the 2025 Democracy Day joint session of the National Assembly last Thursday, Senate President Godswill Akpabio announced that the Senate had introduced 844 bills and passed 96 between June 2023 and June 2025.

He described this legislative output as unprecedented and noted that 52 of the passed bills had been signed into law by the president. Akpabio also highlighted the Senate’s adoption of 18 out of 80 petitions received as part of its broader legislative impact.

However, just days later, Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele released a separate midterm performance statement that presented different figures. Bamidele claimed the Senate introduced 983 bills during the same period and passed 108 into law, including both executive and private members’ bills. His statement also reiterated that 844 bills had been introduced in the first two years but attributed the higher total to the full two-year span, emphasizing the 108 bills passed as fully enacted within that timeframe.

The discrepancy between Akpabio’s and Bamidele’s numbers—844 versus 983 bills introduced and 96 versus 108 bills passed—has created confusion over the official legislative achievements of the Nigerian Senate’s 10th assembly. This conflicting data underscores challenges in communicating a clear and consistent record of the Senate’s legislative activities during its midterm.