Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio, insists federal lawmakers will combine campaigns with parliamentary duties as constitutional review, electoral reforms, state police, women’s representation and legislative backlog await September, 2026 resumption, Sunday Aborisade examines the issues at stake.
As the political temperature rises ahead of the 2027 general elections, the 10th National Assembly is approaching perhaps the most delicate phase of its tenure, a period in which lawmakers will be required to perform a difficult balancing act between the demands of electioneering and the constitutional responsibilities for which they were elected.
President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, has sought to settle concerns over the possible collision between politics and parliamentary business, assuring Nigerians that preparations for the 2027 elections will not derail the legislative calendar or diminish the commitment of
lawmakers to their constitutional duties.
His message is emphatic: the National Assembly will not shut down because politicians have begun campaigning.
Akpabio, while speaking with newsmen at the Presidential Wing of the Victor Attah International Airport, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, after attending a meeting of All Progressives Congress stakeholders in Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District, at the weekend said lawmakers were elected for four-year term and must work throughout the period of their mandates.
“We are elected for four years and we are going to work for four years. Anybody that is walking on the tiny rope must be able to do the balancing act,” he declared.
For the Senate President, the solution is relatively straightforward. Legislative duties can be performed during parliamentary hours, while political engagements can be scheduled around them.
“We are politicians and campaigns would start very soon. Campaigns can be fixed in the afternoons or evenings while we do our work in the mornings,” he said.
The assurance comes at a particularly consequential moment for the 10th National Assembly. The lawmakers are scheduled to return from their long annual recess in September, 2026 with a legislative portfolio that is arguably more demanding than at any other point in the life of the current Assembly.
The challenge before the Senate and the House of Representatives is therefore not merely whether they can sit while campaigns are going on. It is whether they can maintain the quality, intensity and consistency of legislative work while many of their members are simultaneously fighting to retain their seats, secure party nominations or pursue entirely new political ambitions.
The September resumption could consequently become a defining test of the capacity of the 10th National Assembly to separate governance from electoral politics.
Akpabio is confident that it can be done.
He insisted: “It is not everybody that will go for campaign at the same time because we belong to different political parties. Nothing will affect legislation.
“We will continue to make laws to take care of the needs of the people. It has never affected the work of the parliament.”
That position is politically significant because the approaching elections will inevitably alter the priorities and calculations of lawmakers.
Some senators and members of the House will seek re-election. Others may contest governorships, return to state politics or seek other elective positions. Political parties will also be preoccupied with primaries, alliances, mobilisation, campaign structures and the search for competitive candidates.
In such an environment, parliamentary attendance, committee meetings, public hearings and plenary debates could face increasing competition from political engagements.
Yet the legislative agenda awaiting the lawmakers in September leaves little room for distraction.
One of the most consequential assignments is the ongoing review of the 1999 Constitution.
The review has generated proposals touching virtually every major aspect of Nigeria’s political and administrative architecture, including devolution of powers, state creation, electoral reforms, judicial reforms, state police, local government administration and gender representation.
The constitutional alteration exercise has the potential to leave one of the most enduring legacies of the 10th National Assembly. But it also requires painstaking deliberation, extensive consultation and, in many instances, approval by the required number of state Houses of Assembly.
That makes the timetable critical.
Among the most politically sensitive proposals is the establishment of state police.
Supporters argue that Nigeria’s centralised policing structure has become inadequate for a country confronting complex and geographically dispersed security challenges. They contend that state police could improve intelligence gathering, shorten response times and provide security agencies with a better understanding of local peculiarities.
Opponents, however, remain worried about the possibility of governors turning state-controlled police formations into instruments of political intimidation.
The debate, therefore, goes beyond whether state police should be established. The more difficult question is what constitutional and institutional safeguards should accompany it.
For the National Assembly, this is precisely the kind of issue that demands substantial parliamentary time. It is the commodity most likely to come under pressure as the 2027 political calendar accelerates.
The proposed constitutional intervention on women’s representation is another potentially landmark issue.
The Reserved Seats for Women Bill seeks to create additional legislative seats to be contested exclusively by women, with proposals covering both the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly.
The measure has attracted strong support from women’s groups and development partners, who argue that Nigeria’s level of female representation remains too low to reflect the country’s demographic composition or democratic aspirations.
But the proposal is also politically sensitive because it involves altering the architecture of legislative representation.
Should the proposal secure approval from both chambers, it would still have to pass the constitutionally prescribed threshold among state Houses of Assembly before becoming law. That process alone could consume considerable political energy.
The same is true of several other constitutional proposals, making the September-to-2027 window increasingly important.
Ironically, the election that threatens to consume legislative attention is itself dependent on laws that the National Assembly is responsible for making and refining.
The lawmakers have already devoted considerable attention to the Electoral Act and related reforms. But as the country moves closer to 2027, implementation questions and possible legal gaps are expected to return to the agenda.
The controversy that accompanied previous attempts to amend electoral legislation demonstrated just how politically sensitive changes to the electoral framework can become.
Issues concerning electronic transmission of results, collation procedures, election technology, timelines and the responsibilities of electoral stakeholders have implications for every political party and candidate.
With the Independent National Electoral Commission preparing for the 2027 polls, the National Assembly cannot afford to leave important electoral legislation until the final moments before the election.
The closer the country moves towards the polls, the greater the pressure on lawmakers to ensure that the legal framework is clear, workable and capable of addressing emerging challenges.
Beyond the headline constitutional and electoral reforms lies another less glamorous but equally important challenge. The enormous volume of unfinished legislative business.
Over the years, hundreds of bills introduced into the National Assembly have remained at various stages of the legislative process, including second reading, committee consideration and final passage. For a parliament entering the final stretch of its tenure, the question is no longer how many new bills can be introduced. It is how many meaningful bills can actually be completed.
Akpabio had earlier urged senators to approach the final phase of the Assembly as a period of “house-cleaning”, an appeal that effectively places completion above accumulation.
That approach could prove critical.
The passage of legislation requires multiple stages, from first reading and second reading to committee consideration, public hearings where necessary, report consideration and third reading. Where a bill originates in one chamber, concurrence by the other chamber may also be required before presidential assent.
Consequently, a bill introduced late in the life of an Assembly may have little chance of becoming law unless it commands sufficient political and legislative attention.
The September resumption provides an opportunity to identify those proposals that have genuine national importance and move them towards completion.
Economic and fiscal matters will also remain central to the Assembly’s work. Lawmakers will have to scrutinise implementation of the 2026 budget while preparing to engage with the fiscal proposals and appropriation process for 2027. Revenue performance, borrowing, expenditure, capital projects and compliance with appropriation laws are areas where legislative oversight will be crucial.
Senate and House committees are also expected to continue examining the finances and operations of ministries, departments and agencies of government.
Recent investigations into revenue remittances, operating surpluses, internally generated revenue and other financial obligations have underscored the importance of parliamentary oversight in a period when government finances remain under intense pressure.
But oversight will mean little if investigations end with public hearings and reports that are never implemented.
The real test will be whether agencies correct identified weaknesses, recover funds where necessary and comply with recommendations and existing laws.
Despite Akpabio’s confidence, the political realities cannot be ignored.
The 2027 election cycle is already influencing political calculations across the country. Parties are consolidating structures, politicians are negotiating alliances and aspirants are positioning themselves for primaries.
The National Assembly is not insulated from these pressures. Indeed, it is one of the institutions most directly exposed to them. The constitutional requirement for lawmakers to maintain a minimum number of sitting days adds another dimension to the challenge. Concerns have previously been raised over the amount of time lawmakers spend away from plenary and the consequences of prolonged adjournments.
If the political calendar produces more frequent absences, shorter sittings or prolonged recesses, the Assembly could find itself under pressure to complete an unusually large workload within a shrinking parliamentary window.
That is where Akpabio’s “balancing act” becomes more than a political sound bite. It becomes a testable proposition. Can lawmakers attend plenary in the morning, participate in committee work, scrutinise legislation and conduct oversight, and then move into campaign activities in the afternoon and evening? Technically, yes.
Politically, however, the situation could be more complicated. Campaigns are rarely confined to convenient hours. Political meetings, rallies, consultations, party negotiations and constituency mobilisation frequently require extensive travel. As the election approaches, such demands are likely to intensify.
There is also the question of priorities. A lawmaker facing a fiercely contested primary may understandably devote substantial political attention to securing a party ticket. Another who has already secured a ticket may be focused on the general election.
The danger, therefore, is not necessarily that the National Assembly will formally suspend legislative business. It is that the quality and intensity of that business could gradually diminish.
The Senate President’s intervention in Uyo also carried a distinctly political undertone. At the APC stakeholders’ meeting in Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District, President Bola Tinubu, Governor Umo Eno and Akpabio received unanimous endorsements for their respective 2027 bids. The gathering demonstrated that the political mobilisation for 2027 is already moving beyond Abuja and into the constituencies.
For Akpabio, the dual message is clear: the APC is preparing for the election, but the National Assembly will continue working. The challenge for him and the leadership of both chambers will be to ensure that the political activities of lawmakers do not undermine public confidence in the institution.
Nigerians will ultimately judge the 10th National Assembly not by the number of promises made about balancing campaigns with legislative duties, but by the laws it passes, the reforms it completes and the effectiveness of its oversight.
The September resumption therefore represents more than the return of lawmakers from recess. It marks the beginning of the final legislative sprint before the 2027 elections.
The Senate and House have several potentially transformative assignments before them, including the constitutional amendments, state police, electoral reforms, women’s representation, outstanding bills, economic legislation and oversight.
At the same time, the political clock is ticking.
Akpabio’s assurance that “nothing will affect legislation” is therefore both a promise and a challenge.
The 10th National Assembly has an opportunity to demonstrate that political ambition and constitutional responsibility need not be mutually exclusive.
If lawmakers succeed, the final chapter of the Assembly could produce reforms with consequences far beyond the 2027 elections. If they fail, the political contest may overshadow the legislative agenda, leaving the next National Assembly with the familiar inheritance of unfinished bills, unresolved reforms and institutional questions.
For now, Akpabio insists the lawmakers can walk the “tiny rope”. The months ahead will determine whether they can truly maintain their balance.