Amid growing tension between the House of Representatives and the Senate over alleged delayed consideration of concurrence bills at the Red chamber, Senate President Godswill Akpabio has doused the tension, describing the two chambers of the National Assembly as two brothers who could hardly make much progress without the support of each other.

The Senate, therefore, passed (concurred) two House bills on Tuesday.

The bills are: African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons (Domestication and Enforcement) Bill, 2025; and Food Vendors Registration Council of Nigeria (Establishment) Bill 2024.

Under Nigeria’s bi-camera legislature, a bill originating from either of the chambers must secure the concurrence of the other before it is considered passed as a law of the National Assembly.

Tribune Online reports that angry members of the House of Representatives drew battle lines with the Senate last week, resolving to step down two bills sponsored by the Leader of the Senate, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, and forwarded for concurrence by the Green Chamber.

They had complained that the Senate was not reciprocating the gesture of giving equal attention to bills the House forwarded for the Senate’s concurrence.

As a result of the development, the lawmakers alleged that about 146 House bills were gathering dust at the Senate.

They threatened to shut down any bills from the Senate henceforth until such a time when the later treated them fairly.

The Speaker, Hon. Abbas Tajudeen, summed up the concerns of his colleagues thus, “Honourable colleagues, I think what you are saying is very worrisome. From what the Clerk told me, we have 146 bills that are with the Senate.

“And I, as a person, have more than 10 bills. Some have been there for more than six months. No attention.

“We don’t know what is really happening. We don’t know what is happening. Let me allow one or two people to speak, and then we will make a decision concerning that.”

But during the plenary on Tuesday, Senate Leader, Bamidele, before presenting the bills for concurrence, drew attention to the complaints made by the House members as reported in the media last week.

He said the situation was not correctly presented, defending the Senate, which he argued, had lately accorded enough time to treating House bills.

But he insisted that what was worth doing, was worth doing well, adding that the Senate would not “garbage in, garbage out.”

Bamidele stated, “Only last week, this senate concurred to six bills from the House of Representatives, and Yes, while we have the principle of chamber reciprocity Mr. President, the principle of chamber reciprocity does not necessarily mean for us to garbage-in-garbage-out.

“We will continue to consider concurrent bills sent from the House of Representatives the same way they also consider our own, and we will ensure that every bill is given attention in overriding public interest. I just wanted to say this.

“We are attending to those concurrent bills and we will continue to do what we are supposed to do.”

As he spoke, Akpabio interjected to douse tension, assuring members of the House that the Senate would not deliberately sit on their bills.

According to Akpabio, the two arms are like brothers, who must cooperate with each other all the time in the interest of one family.

The Senate President spoke more, “Last week, we attended to about six of those bills, and this week, I don’t know how many but at least I know we are going to do two today, and we will continue to do so.

“So, please, let our brothers in the House of Representatives know that we cannot joke with anything that comes from there.

“It takes two hands to clap, and we will continue to work together. (Tribune)