The ninth Senate will today hold a valedictory session to mark the end of its four-year tenure.
Senate President Ahmad Lawan disclosed this on Wednesday in Abuja.
He said the session was earlier scheduled for Thursday but was postponed because of the request from President Bola Tinubu to hold a meeting with all the lawmakers–elect.
“By the grace of God, we will still hold plenary tomorrow (Thursday) and then our valedictory session will be on Saturday, ” Mr Lawan said.
“We believe that a session as significant, important, historical and memorable as a valedictory session of the Senate requires a whole day, not one, two, three hours. Therefore we pushed it to Saturday.”
He also scored the outgoing Senate high, saying it performed well in three core areas of lawmaking, representation and oversight.
He added that he was not bothered that the upper chamber was tagged “rubber stamp.” According to him, the ninth Senate passed many laws out of which former President Muhammadu Buhari assented to about 112.
Many Nigerians labelled the outgoing Senate as a ‘rubber stamp’ because it seldom went against the interest of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
The valedictory session will witness farewell remarks from the senate president, his deputy, principal officers and some senators.
The 109-member Senate was inaugurated on 11 June 2019. On the same day, it elected Mr Lawan from Borno as its president and Ovie Omo-Agege as his deputy.
Today’s event will mark the end of the ninth session of the Senate and is a step before the inauguration of the 10th Senate on 13 June.
The ninth House of Representatives, which was also inaugurated on 11 June 2019 held its valedictory session on Wednesday.