Ndume berates Senate over diminishing role, labels It an ‘Approving Institution’

Senator Ali Ndume, representing Borno South, has berated the Senate of the Nigerian National Assembly over what he considered the diminishing role of the National Assembly, decrying that the Senate has shifted from being a chamber of robust deliberations to merely rubber-stamping executive decisions.

Ndume, in a media interaction on Arise Television, expressed deep concern over what he called the Senate’s growing passivity and lack of independence.

“It has become less democratic, and it’s very unfortunate,” he said. “Historically, the National Assembly, especially the Senate, was established as a house of deliberation, where issues of policy, governance, and public spending are thoroughly debated. But that is no longer the case. We’re now more of an approving institution, offering both necessary and unnecessary support to the executive.”

Ndume further decried the erosion of the traditional separation of powers, alleging that the lines between the executive, legislature, and judiciary have become increasingly blurred.

“Government, to an extent, has been personalised and privatised,” he added.

The senator also revealed his own frustrations with being left out of key legislative developments, admitting that even as a sitting member, he often lacks information on proceedings within the chamber.

In a related diplomatic critique, Ndume described the recent withdrawal of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) as a significant diplomatic setback for Nigeria.

He disclose that the development marked a failure of regional diplomacy under President Bola Tinubu’s leadership, noting that Tinubu had just handed over the ECOWAS chairmanship to President Julius Maada Bio of Sierra Leone.

Ndume suggested that the involvement of elder statesmen—including former Presidents Muhammadu Buhari, Olusegun Obasanjo, Ibrahim Babangida, Yakubu Gowon, and General Abdulsalami Abubakar, might have helped prevent the exit of the three West African nations.