Adams Oshiomhole on Tuesday lamented that senators had not been given copies of a proposed amendment to the National Senior Secondary Education Commission Act, 2023, despite the importance of the legislation, which seeks to strengthen funding and delivery of secondary education in Nigeria.
Oshiomhole, who represents Edo North Senatorial District, said lawmakers needed access to the details of the bill to determine whether it adequately addressed loopholes in existing education laws, particularly provisions relating to funding, enforcement and sanctions for non-compliance.
He spoke during plenary as the National Senior Secondary Education Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2026, sponsored by Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele, representing Ekiti Central Senatorial District, passed second reading.
Although Oshiomhole expressed support for the bill’s objectives, he questioned the decision to proceed with its consideration without circulating copies to senators for proper scrutiny.
“The weakness in this bill, as articulated by the senior leader, is that we do not have its details before us,” he said.
“If we had the details beforehand, we should be able to go clause by clause to determine whether the loopholes in the existing Universal Basic Education framework have been addressed.”
The senator, a former governor of Edo State, said Nigeria had enough laws on education but often failed to enforce them, arguing that the effectiveness of any legislation depended on appropriate incentives and penalties for those who failed to comply.
“We have enough laws, and sometimes we are comprehensive in designing them. However, where there are no sanctions, the responsibility of government is to establish an appropriate mix of incentives and sanctions: incentives to reward those who comply with the law and sanctions against those who ignore it,” he said.
Oshiomhole called on Bamidele to provide every senator with a copy of the bill, insisting that lawmakers should not have to wait until a public hearing to understand the provisions of legislation before them.
“My advice, therefore, Mr President, is that while I support the intention behind this bill, it would not be too much to ask the senior leader to give every senator a copy of the draft,” he said.
“We should not have to wait until the public hearing to know the details. As senators, we should have the opportunity to study the bill ourselves, given its importance.”
Responding, Barau Jibrin, the Deputy Senate President explained that the Senate was following its established legislative procedure, under which lawmakers consider the general principles and merits of a bill at second reading before examining its specific provisions at a subsequent stage.
“We do not want to be misunderstood. We want to know the nitty-gritty of the entire bill, but this is not the time for that,” Barau said.
He explained that the detailed scrutiny demanded by Oshiomhole would take place when the bill progressed to the next stage of consideration.
“I just want to draw his attention to the fact that, at the second-reading stage, we deal with the merits of the bill at a general level, not its nitty-gritty. By the time we move to the next stage, what he is talking about will come into play,” he said.
“For now, we are discussing the merits of the bill. What we are doing is in conformity with the procedure and tradition of this Senate.”
Oshiomhole’s concerns came amid discussions on how to strengthen education funding and ensure that existing laws translate into improved access to quality education.
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Earlier, Bamidele said the proposed amendments were designed to strengthen the coordination, funding and oversight of senior secondary education across the country.
He said the reforms would cover schools under state and federal authorities, including federal unity colleges, Armed Forces senior secondary schools and institutions in the Federal Capital Territory.
Bamidele identified inadequate infrastructure, insufficient instructional materials, poorly equipped laboratories and disparities in educational facilities across states and institutions as major challenges facing the sector.
He said the bill would strengthen the institutional framework for addressing these problems through coordinated interventions, transparent resource allocation and collaboration among federal and state governments and relevant education authorities.
The proposed amendments also seek to provide for state and FCT education boards to bring intervention programmes closer to the institutions and communities they are intended to serve, while enabling direct interventions in federal unity colleges and Armed Forces senior secondary schools.
Supporting the bill, Senator Tahir Monguno, representing Borno North Senatorial District, said the proposal would improve access to secondary education through better coordination and funding.
“What this bill essentially seeks to achieve is to bring senior secondary education to the doorsteps of the people by way of well-coordinated, well-funded and effective secondary education,” Monguno said.
Senator Diket Plang, representing Plateau Central Senatorial District, also backed the proposal, saying stronger institutional powers and funding could improve standards in school infrastructure, teacher requirements, curricula and the delivery of education.
Ahmad Lawan, the immediate past Senate President representing Yobe North Senatorial District, described the proposal as a fundamental reform of Nigeria’s education system, arguing that improvements in basic and secondary education were necessary to produce better graduates from universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.
Lawan called for a review of the curriculum to reflect changing global demands, including developments in artificial intelligence.
“This is the 21st century. We cannot expect to be teaching what was taught 100 years ago and expect that we will compete in the world,” he said.
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The bill passed second reading after Senate President Godswill Akpabio put the question to a vote and no senator responded in support or opposition of the bill.
Akpabio subsequently referred the bill to the Senate Committee on Education (Basic and Secondary), directing it to report back to the chamber within four weeks for further legislative consideration.
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