The National Assembly has postponed the resumption of plenary by senators and members of the House of Representatives from September 15 to September 29, 2026.
The new date was announced by the Clerk to the National Assembly, Kamoru Ogunlana, in a statement issued on Wednesday.
According to the Clerk, the decision was taken to give the authorities more time to complete ongoing rehabilitation work in the Senate and House of Representatives chambers.
The postponement means federal lawmakers will now return to plenary two weeks later than earlier scheduled.
Ogunlana said the decision was made on the directives of Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas.
He asked lawmakers in both chambers to take note of the new date and make the necessary adjustments to their legislative engagements.
The statement reads: “The National Assembly has shifted its resumption of plenary session from Tuesday, 15th September to Tuesday, 29th September, 2026.
“This postponement, as directed by the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, is to allow for the completion of the ongoing rehabilitation work in the two chambers.
“Senators and members of the House of Representatives are advised to note the postponement and adjust their legislative engagements accordingly.”
Politics Nigeria gathered that the postponement comes as the National Assembly continues efforts to address problems associated with facilities in its permanent chambers.
The rehabilitation of the complex has remained a major issue since lawmakers returned to the refurbished chambers.
Several technical problems have been reported during proceedings, including faults with microphones, audio equipment and the electronic voting system.
The latest postponement will therefore allow work to continue while lawmakers remain away from regular plenary sittings.
In July, Akpabio had raised concerns over repeated failures in the Senate chamber during plenary.
The Senate President threatened legal action against the contractor responsible for the renovation if the problems persisted.
The issue became particularly noticeable when senators experienced difficulties with microphones during proceedings.
Akpabio said the situation had become embarrassing and called for the faults to be addressed.
The National Assembly had earlier spent a prolonged period using temporary chambers before lawmakers returned to the refurbished permanent chambers in 2024.
However, some of the facilities have continued to experience technical challenges since the return.
The fresh rehabilitation work is now expected to provide an opportunity for the authorities to address some of those outstanding problems before plenary resumes.
The Senate and the House of Representatives are central to Nigeria’s federal legislative process.
The two chambers consider and pass bills, scrutinise government policies, approve budgets and exercise oversight over ministries, departments and agencies.
The National Assembly has 109 senators and 360 members of the House of Representatives, making 469 federal lawmakers in total.
The 10th National Assembly has already handled a large volume of legislative work since its inauguration in June 2023.
The Clerk’s latest directive does not indicate that legislative activities have been suspended completely during the period before the new plenary date.
Committees and other administrative activities can continue as scheduled, while lawmakers are expected to prepare for the next sitting.
Ogunlana also did not announce any further changes to the September 29 date in the statement.
In a related development, POLITICS NIGERIA had reported that the APC, ADC and PDP were preparing to field candidates for all 469 National Assembly seats ahead of the 2027 elections.
This is coming as the Independent National Electoral Commission moved towards publishing the final list of candidates for the presidential and National Assembly polls.