Alternate presiding role with Speaker at joint sessions, Reps tell Senate President

The House of Representatives on Tuesday called for alternating presiding roles between the Senate President and the Speaker at joint sessions.

The House passed a resolution allowing the Speaker to open sessions while the Senate President delivers closing remarks, and vice versa.

This followed the consideration of the report by the ad-hoc committee on discrimination in National Honours Awards between the two chambers, presented by House Leader Prof. Julius Ihonvbere.

The House explained that alternating the presiding role would promote equality and correct the perception of one chamber’s superiority over the other.

The move may have been influenced by President Bola Tinubu’s decision to award Speaker Abbas Tajudeen the Grand Commander of the Order of Niger (GCON).

While commending the president for awarding the GCON to the Speaker, the House urged that similar recognition be extended to the Deputy Speaker, the Deputy Senate President, and other principal officers of both chambers to ensure equal status.

The House also recommended that former presiding and principal officers of the National Assembly be considered for the same honours.

To reshape public perception, the House stressed the need to actively promote its narrative, citing skewed media portrayals that have contributed to misunderstandings about the hierarchical distinction between the House and the Senate.

The committee also recommended eliminating terms suggesting superiority, such as referring to the Senate as the “Upper Chamber,” the House as the “Lower Chamber,” and the designation of a “Chairman of the National Assembly.”