Long-Serving Lawmakers Who’ll Return To 10th National Assembly

Following the conduct of the National Assembly elections on February 25, ANAYO EZUGWU examines some ranking lawmakers who have been re-elected to the Senate and House of Representatives

The February 25 elections have seen the return of some longserving senators and members of the House of Representatives to the 10th National Assembly. Some of these lawmakers have been in both the Red and Green Chambers of the National Assembly for more than a decade. The ranking members of both the Senate and the House of Representatives usually emerge as the presiding and principal officers of the two houses. The presiding officers are the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House, the Deputy President of the Senate and the Deputy Speaker of the House. The principal officers are leaders of the majority and minority caucuses, who, together with the presiding officers, form the leadership of the two chambers. They include the Majority Leader, Deputy Majority Leader, Majority or Chief Whip, Deputy Whip, Minority Leader, Deputy Minority Leader, Minority Whip and Deputy Minority Whip. These 10 persons steer affairs of the Senate and House of Representatives. Due to the ranking nature of members in the National Assembly, these veteran lawmakers, who have literally become the landlords and kingmakers of the chambers, will wield their influence in the selection of leaders and chairmen of committees in the 10th Assembly.

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Ahmad Lawan
The incumbent President of the Senate has been in the National Assembly since 1999. He was first elected a member of the House, where he spent two terms as member representing Bade/Jakusko federal constituency of Yobe State. In 2007, he was elected into the Senate to represent Yobe North Senatorial District and was re-elected in 2011, 2015 and 2019. Lawan became President of the 9th Senate in 2019. His return to the Senate came with some drama. He contested the presidential primary of the governing All Progressives Congress but lost. By then, another aspirant, Bashir Machina, had won the party’s senatorial ticket for the Senate seat Lawan is occupying. However, the APC substituted Machina with Lawan, which led to a legal battle. The Supreme Court eventually validated Lawan’s candidacy and the President of the Senate won the election, making it his seventh term at the National Assembly.

Femi Gbajabiamila
The current Speaker of the House of Representatives has also been re-elected to serve his sixth term in the Green Chamber. Gbajabiamila has been in the House since 2003. He was the Minority Leader of the House in the 7th National Assembly and later Majority Leader in the 8th Assembly after his hope of becoming Speaker was dashed. In his 20-year journey in the House of Representatives, Gbajabiamila served as Minority Whip, Minority Leader, Opposition Leader, and Majority Leader before getting elected as the Speaker in 2019. Ali Ndume The lawmaker representing Borno South Senatorial District is also joining the 10th Assembly as a sixth-timer. Ndume has been in the National Assembly since 2003, first to represent Chibok/ Damboa/Gwoza federal constituency of Borno State for two terms (2003 to 2011) and later in 2011 elected to represent Borno South Senatorial District, a seat he has kept till date. Ndume had attempted to be President of the Senate at different times. He was the Majority Leader of the House in the eighth Assembly but was removed from the position over his political stance against that of the then President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki. He was replaced by Ahmad Lawan, who succeeded Saraki in 2019.

Alhassan Ado-Doguwa
Hon. Ado-Doguwa represents Doguwa/ Tudun Wada federal constituency of Kano State. He is one of the two lawmakers who had a stint with the aborted Third Republic presently in the National Assembly. He has so far spent 16 years in the lower chamber. Doguwa was first elected to the House under the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP) in 1992. He returned to the House of Representatives in 2007 and became the deputy chairman of the House Committee on Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). Since returning to the House in 2007, he has been consistently re-elected, serving a total of 17 years.

Mohammed Monguno
Monguno presently represent Marte/ Monguno/Nganzai federal constituency of Borno State but has been elected to represent Borno North Senatorial District in the 10th Assembly. He will be succeeding Senator Abubakar Kyari, who occupied the seat until he became the Deputy National Chairman (North) of the ruling APC. Monguno was first elected member of the House in the Third Republic (1992/93) and returned to the House in 2007 in the present Fourth Republic.

Enyinnaya Abaribe
Abaribe became the lawmaker representing Abia South Senatorial District in the Senate in 2007 on the platform of the PDP. He was Minority Leader of the Senate between 2019 2022, when he quit the position after failing to secure a return ticket and falling out with the governor of his state, Okezie Ikpeazu. He defected to the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), picked the party’s senatorial ticket and defeated Governor Ikpeazu.

Khadijat Bukar Abba-Ibrahim
Abba-Ibrahim has been in the House since 2007, representing Damaturu/ Gujba/Gulani/Tarmuwa federal constituency in Yobe State and has been re-elected for another term. She was in her fourth term in 2016, when President Muhammadu Buhari appointed her as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. On January 9, 2019, she resigned from Buhari’s cabinet to contest for a fresh fourth term in the House and won.

Muktar Aliyu Betara
Betara, who is the chairman of House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation, represents Biu/Bayo/Kwaya Kusara/Shani federal constituency of Borno State under the platform of the APC. He was first elected in 2007 on the platform of the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP). Since then, he has been re-elected three times, emerging as one of the few members to have served in the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth assemblies.

Nicholas Mutu
Mutu has been in the House since 1999, representing Bomadi/Patani federal constituency of Delta State. He was the Chairman of the House Committee on Niger Delta Development Commission between 2009 and 2019 – arguably the longest time that a member would head a committee.

Solomon Adeola
Adeola has recorded another milestone in his lawmaking career by successfully switching from Lagos West Senatorial District to Ogun West Senatorial District. He has been at the National Assembly since 2011. From 2011 to 2015, he was the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts. He was elected to the Senate in 2015 to represent Lagos West and was re-elected in the 2019 general election. The moved to Ogun State ahead of the 2023 elections and won the Ogun West senatorial poll and would be in the Senate for a third term.

Ahmed Idris Wase
The deputy speaker of the 9th House of Representatives represents the Wase Federal Constituency of Plateau State. He was first elected to the House in 2003 and has been re-elected four times. Before becoming deputy speaker in 2019, he had served as the chairman of the House Committee on Federal Character and deputy leader of the House in the 8th Assembly.

Beni La
r Daughter of the late former National Chairman of the PDP, Chief Solomon Lar, Beni represents Langtang North/ Langtang South federal constituency of Plateau State. She was first elected to the House in 2007 after serving as Special Assistant on Women Affairs to President Olusegun Obasanjo. In 2008, she served as the House of Representatives chair on Women’s Affairs. Between 2011 and 2015, she served as chairperson of the House Committee on Human Rights. She is currently the chairman of the House Committee on Science and Technology.