Senate Leader Draws Flak over Rubber Stamp Tag on Red Chamber

Senate Leader Senator Opeyemi Bamidele has criticized key opposition parties for labeling the National Assembly as a “rubber-stamp” institution, saying such claims are baseless and unsupported by facts.

According to Bamidele, who represents Ekiti Central, the legislative body’s rigorous engagements with the executive arm of government, including over 39 meetings to resolve contentious areas in the 2024 Tax Reform Bills, clearly prove its independence and commitment to due process.

The statement, issued by the Directorate of Media and Public Affairs, Office of the Senate Leader, highlighted the various interventions made by the National Assembly in the public interest since its inauguration on June 13, 2023.

The National Assembly has adopted a strategy of constructive engagement and collaboration to resolve complex national challenges while safeguarding Nigeria’s core interests.

Despite its non-adversarial approach to legislative business, the parliament has faced sustained public criticism, with leading opposition parties, including the Peoples Democracy Party, Labour Party, and New Nigeria Peoples Party, describing it as a “rubber-stamp” legislative institution.

Bamidele disagreed with the opposition parties’ claims, citing the case of the Tax Reform Bills, 2024, which were initiated in November 2024 but took six months to pass through legislative scrutiny. He argued that if the National Assembly were truly a “rubber-stamp” institution, the bills would have been passed within one or two weeks after they were laid before the legislature.

“In the process of passing the bills, both the executive and legislative arms held over 39 engagements to trash grey areas in the Tax Reform Bills, 2024, before both chambers of the National Assembly eventually passed the bills.

“We extended our engagements to all captains of industries to enable us to pass the tax reform bills that will stand the test of time, meet the needs of our people, and ensure the overriding public interest in the exercise of our constitutional mandates,” Bamidele explained.

Bamidele also cited the case of the 2025 Appropriation Act, which was laid before the joint session of the National Assembly on December 18, 2024, but passed on February 13, 2025.

He explained that if the National Assembly were truly a “rubber-stamp” institution, it could have hastened the passage of the 2025 Appropriation Bills by the end of the 2024 fiscal year to sustain the January to December budget cycle.

“We did not give the budget back to the executive until February 2025. We did a lot of due diligence. Every committee of the National Assembly duly engaged heads of agencies to properly scrutinize the budget also in the overriding public interest,” Bamidele said.

The Senate Leader emphasized that the National Assembly is working in the interest of the people, taking into consideration the need to ensure good governance in all its undertakings and using legislative frameworks to promote good governance in the federation.