Tag: 10th NASS

Out of 108 elected Senators (excluding the late Senator Ifeanyi Uba), only four are women. The remaining 104 Senators in Nigeria are men. 

Female Senators constitute approximately four percent of the entire 10th Senate.

Political watchers have lamented the gross under representation of women in parliament. 

In the 9th National Assembly, there were eight female Senators (7.3%) and 13 female Members of the House of Representatives (3.6%), which represents 4.5% of the entire Assembly.

The 10th Assembly has women occupying four out of 109 seats (2.7%) in the Senate and 17 out of 360 seats in the House of Representatives (4.7%), which represents 4.2% of the 469-member Assembly.

Therefore, after seven general election cycles since 1999, the number of women in the Senate has been under represented. 

Here’s a full list of female senators in the 10th Senate:

Ireti Heebah Kingibe (Senator, FCT, LP)

Kingibe was elected on the platform of the Labour Party (LP) representing the federal Capital Territory (FCT).

She studied at the University of Minnesota, United States where she acquired her Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) degree in Civil Engineering in the 1970s.

She first contested the FCT senatorial election in 2003 under the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP). She joined the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and, later, the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2014.

She is a younger sister of Ajoke Mohammed, wife of former Head of State Murtala Mohammed.

Born 2 June, 1954 (69 years), she was married to a former Secretary-General of the Federation (SGF) Babagana Kingibe.

Ipalibo Banigo (Senator, Rivers West, PDP)

Banigo, representing Rivers West on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), served as the first female Rivers Deputy Governor from 2015-2023, in the administration of Nyesom Wike.

She studied at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Oyo State where she got her MBBS degree (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery).

She obtained a Masters (M.Sc.) degree from Harvard University School of Public Health.

She had earlier held various important offices at the Rivers State Ministry of Health, during her service; she assumed the position of director of public health service, acting commissioner, director and permanent secretary.

Idiat Oluranti Adebule (Senator, Lagos West, APC)

Adebule, representing Lagos West, under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), served as Lagos Deputy Governor from 2015 to 2019.

Adebule, an educationist, holds a Doctorate degree from Lagos State University in Curriculum Studies.

Early in her career, she had worked as a junior lecturer at the Michael Otedola College of Primary Education in Lagos and Lagos State University.

She also served as a Commissioner in the Lagos State Post Primary Teaching Service Commission (PP-TESCOM), now Teachers’ Establishment and Pensions Office.

She was appointed and sworn in as Secretary to the State Government under former Governor Raji Fashola in July, 2011.

Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan (Senator, Kogi Central)

She is a barrister and politician who is a member of the 10th Nigeria National Assembly representing Kogi Central Senatorial District since 2023.

Read Also: Former APC chieftain Lukman rates the 10th NASS in legislative practice 

Born to a Nigerian father and Ukrainian mother, Akpoti attended the University of Abuja (2000–2004) and graduated with a Bachelor of Laws. She proceeded to the Nigerian Law School and was called to the Nigerian bar in 2005. In 2011, she obtained her MBA in Oil and Gas management from the University of Dundee in 2012.

Before joining politics and campaigning for senate during the 2019 Kogi State gubernatorial election under the Social Democratic Party, she founded the Builders Hub Impact Investment Program (BHIIP).

In February 2025, Akpoti-Uduaghan accused Senate President Godswill Akpabio of sexual assault on Arise News. 

Following her allegations, the Senate’s ethics committee headed by the Senate President rejected her accusations, citing procedural rule violations, and recommended her suspension.

Consequently, on March 6, 2025, she was suspended for six months, during which she will be barred from her office and have her allowances and security withdrawn. Akpoti-Uduaghan has filed a lawsuit against the Senate President, seeking ₦100 billion in damages.

…says courageous voices fading away

Former member of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Salihu Moh Lukman, has decried what he described as an “abysmally low level of legislative practice” of the 10th National Assembly.

He alleged that the courageous voices of individual lawmakers are fading away under the leadership of Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Speaker Tajudeen Abbas.

Lukman, the immediate-past APC national vice chairman (North-west) in a statement titled “Importance of Legislature to a Democracy” in Abuja on Tuesday, July 2, lamented the situation whereby the leadership of both chambers has been downgraded to the status of appointees of the executive arm of government.

He acknowledged the courageous stand of the 5th and 6th Assembly in the case of the alleged third-term agenda and the doctrine of necessity.

He however noted: “There is deep feeling of concerns among Nigerians that courageous voices of individual legislators in both the Senate and the House of Representatives is fading away and both chambers are becoming more like rubber stamps. Partly because of the faint or almost complete absence of courageous voices in the National Assembly, the President and the members of the Executive body of Government are practically getting away with virtually every wrong decision that is injurious to the well-being of Nigerian citizens.

“How did we get to this abysmally low level of legislative practice whereby it can almost be said that in Nigeria, democracy equates to darkness? Without going into details, combinations of many factors, which have taken place over the last 25 years are responsible. Some of the factors include the reality whereby systematically the leadership of both chambers of the National Assembly have been downgraded to the status of appointees of the President.

The former director general of the Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF) added: “The perception of the majority of Nigerians is that the Nigerian government is uncaring, wasteful and has turned its back on citizens. It is a painful reality, which unfortunately doesn’t elicit the kind of debate expected in the two chambers of the National Assembly.

Read Also: 10th NASS: Kaduna lawmaker assures constituents of quality representation

“In other words, there is a complete failing on the part of the two chambers of the National Assembly and its members to serve as a check on the President and members of the Executive.

“Part of the challenge of our democracy is that the two chambers of the National Assembly are only accountable to themselves. The Public Accounts Committees in both chambers are expected to oversight the management of funds allocated to the National Assembly. Somehow, these are issues that contribute to the current reality whereby the National Assembly, its leadership, and its members lost the moral authority to regulate the conduct of the Executive Arm of government.

“With that, they function practically at the mercy of the President and members of the Executive Arm, almost as if they are employees of the Executive. Using all these incentives, the President and members of the Executive arm seamlessly turned on the ‘gaslight’, which leaves members with no option but to believe and approve every proposal submitted even when they are injurious to public interests. Having served as the machinery that hurt the people, they become liabilities and therefore eventually got discarded.”