By KINGSLEY OKOYE

The Senate again amended its standing rules, technically eliminating the chances of eligibility for fresh Senators – elect in the upcoming 11th National Assembly to aspire for principal and presiding positions.

This followed the presentation of a motion by Deputy Leader of Senate Sen. Lola Ashiru (APC-Kwara) at plenary on Tuesday after about three hours closed door session.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the amended rule includes order 4 and 5 of Senate standing rules.

NAN reports that the amended order 4 states: “Nomination of Senators to serve as Presiding Officers shall be in accordance with the ranking of Senators and shall be strictly adhered to .

"The order of ranking are (i) Former President of the Senate, (ii) Former Deputy President of the Senate, (iii) Former Principal Officers of the Senate, (iv) Senators who had served at least one term of four years.

“Senators who had been members of the House of Representatives (vi). In the absence of i to v, Senators elected into the Senate for the first time.”

Aside from the order of ranking used to reduce the window of eligibility among senators – elect for vying for the presiding positions, Senate also inserted an additional provision in Order 5 to prevent new lawmakers from contesting for principal officers in the upcoming 11th Senate.

The order states: “A senator shall not be eligible to contest for any principal office of the senate unless he has served as a senator for at least two consecutive terms immediately proceeding nomination”.

This means that senators who were not in the 9th and current 10th Senate would not be eligible to contest for presiding officers ' positions in the 11th Senate.

The presiding officers in the Senate are President of the Senate and Deputy President of the Senate while Principal officers are Senate Leader, Deputy Senate Leader, Chief Whip and Deputy Whip of the Senate.

Others are Minority Leader, Deputy Minority Leader, Minority Whip and Deputy Minority Whip. (NAN)

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