The Senate on Thursday escalated its confrontation with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and scores of other Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), signalling its readiness to invoke constitutional powers, including arrest warrants, against officials who continue to ignore legislative summons.
The tougher stance came a day after the upper chamber accused more than 40 federal agencies of frustrating parliamentary oversight by refusing to appear before the Senate Committee on Finance to account for internally generated revenue, statutory remittances and compliance with the Fiscal Responsibility Act.
Leading the charge during debate on a substantive motion, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Sani Musa, warned that persistent non-compliance by government agencies amounted to a direct challenge to the constitutional authority of the National Assembly.
He said the committee’s inquiries were backed by Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution, which empower the legislature to investigate the finances and operations of government institutions.
According to Musa, the refusal of several agencies to honour invitations has gone beyond routine administrative lapses and now threatens the principles of accountability, transparency and separation of powers.
The debate took a decisive turn when Senate Chief Whip, Senator Mohammed Tahir Monguno, reminded lawmakers that the Constitution already provides the Senate with coercive powers to compel attendance.
Quoting Section 89(1)(d) of the Constitution, Monguno argued that where any person or agency refuses to honour a legislative summons without satisfactory explanation, the Senate is empowered to issue a warrant compelling attendance.
He urged the upper chamber to move beyond repeated invitations by directing the Clerk of the National Assembly to notify the defaulting agencies and, where necessary, initiate constitutional enforcement measures against persistent offenders.
“We are not exercising these powers as individuals. We are exercising powers conferred on us by the Constitution on behalf of the Nigerian people,” he said.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio endorsed the position, saying the Constitution had already equipped the legislature with adequate powers to enforce compliance.
He disclosed that some Senate committees had been informed by heads of agencies that they had received ministerial approval not to honour legislative invitations, describing such claims as disturbing and unacceptable.
Akpabio said any agency found to have persistently ignored parliamentary summons could be invited before the full Senate, where appropriate constitutional measures would be considered.
“We cannot continue lamenting while agencies disregard the authority of Parliament. The Constitution has provided the necessary powers for the Senate to act,” he said.
Former Senate Chief Whip, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, also backed the move, insisting that lawmakers should stop referring such matters to the Presidency.
He argued that if the Minister of Finance and the Governor of the Central Bank could honour Senate invitations, no other public official should consider himself above legislative oversight.
“We should do our constitutional work and leave the President out of it,” Kalu said.
Senator Adams Oshiomhole similarly urged lawmakers not to politicise the matter by attributing the actions of non-compliant agencies to President Bola Tinubu, noting that there was no evidence the President had directed any agency to ignore the Senate.
He described oversight as one of Parliament’s strongest constitutional tools for exposing waste, enforcing fiscal discipline and ensuring compliance with financial laws.
According to Oshiomhole, Senate investigations had uncovered cases of excessive spending on questionable training programmes, unnecessary travel, inflated welfare costs and violations of statutory revenue remittance obligations.
Senator Mohammed Onawo, however, argued that the Senate had itself contributed to the growing disregard for its authority by failing to enforce previous resolutions against defaulting agencies.
He recalled earlier instances where lawmakers threatened sanctions but did not follow through, saying the pattern had emboldened some public institutions to ignore legislative invitations.
Responding, Akpabio cautioned against bypassing due process, stressing that Senate committees lacked the authority to issue arrest warrants independently.
He explained that any enforcement action must be authorised by the Senate in plenary and carried out strictly within the limits of the Constitution.
Following the debate, the Senate unanimously reaffirmed its investigative powers under Sections 88 and 89 of the Constitution, directed all MDAs to honour invitations from the National Assembly, instructed the Clerk to communicate the resolutions to the affected agencies and mandated ministries, departments and agencies to regularly submit their audited financial statements to the relevant Senate committees.
The resolutions mark one of the Senate’s strongest assertions yet of its constitutional oversight powers amid growing concern over compliance by key government institutions with legislative accountability mechanisms.