Senate President Godswill Akpabio has issued a firm declaration that the National Assembly will not permit any of its members to hold the institution “hostage,” asserting that discipline and respect for institutional rules are fundamental to the survival of Nigeria’s democracy.

In a statement delivered by his media aide, Eseme Eyiboh, on Saturday, Akpabio framed the Senate’s commitment to enforcing its standing orders not as an attempt to stifle dissent, but as a necessary measure to protect the integrity of democratic institutions.

“Without a doubt, Nigeria’s Senate belongs in that global fellowship of parliaments that recognise chaos as the heart of anarchy and order as the soul of democracy,” Akpabio stated. He emphasized that upholding internal discipline is “neither personal nor punitive,” but rather an act of “institutional self-preservation.”

Collective Responsibility Over Individual Grandstanding

The Senate President positioned the chamber’s stance as a reaffirmation of collective responsibility over what he termed “individual grandstanding.”

“When the chamber asserts that it will not be held hostage by the disruptive instincts of any single member, it is affirming the primacy of collective responsibility over individual grandstanding,” the statement read. “This is how strong legislatures endure: not by silencing dissent, but by ensuring that dissent respects the bounds of procedure.”

Parliamentary Discipline: A “Universal Marker”

To bolster his argument, Akpabio pointed to established democracies, describing parliamentary discipline as a “universal marker of political civilisation.” He cited the absolute authority of the Speaker in the UK House of Commons, the sacred nature of procedure in Canada’s Parliament, and the meticulous enforcement of rules in Australia’s Senate as global standards.

“The real measure of a democratic institution is how it handles internal turbulence,” Akpabio noted. He concluded that the Tenth Senate’s consistent enforcement of its rules demonstrates that Nigeria’s democracy is “strong enough to discipline itself,” choosing the path of principle over populism to ensure the nation’s legislative integrity remains intact.