Nigeria Senate President Threatens Legal Action Over Faulty Renovation Microphones

Senate President Godswill Akpabio has threatened legal action against the contractor responsible for renovating the National Assembly's permanent chambers, citing ongoing technical faults with the microphones. The Senate president expressed his frustration during a plenary session on Wednesday, highlighting how the defective audio system had caused significant embarrassment.

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Distinguished colleagues, I hope you are taking note of the fact that our microphones are not working well, because we are going to take action.

Akpabio recounted an incident during the opening ceremony of the National Assembly Week held in the House chamber on Tuesday, where both he and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, were "thoroughly embarrassed" by the malfunctioning microphones. He noted that the same contractor handled both the House of Representatives' renovation and the current Senate chamber work.

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I was at the House of Representatives yesterday to represent you at the opening of their National Assembly Week, and in the course of it, myself and the speaker were thoroughly embarrassed.

"If this continues, we have steps we can take, legally, to ensure that a good job is done because this is an embarrassment to our nation," Akpabio stated, urging lawmakers to document the recurring faults. He suggested these observations would serve as justification for any future action taken against the contractor.

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If this continues, we have steps we can take, legally, to ensure that a good job is done because this is an embarrassment to our nation.

This is not the first time concerns have been raised about the renovation's quality since lawmakers returned to the permanent chambers in 2024. In May 2024, Senator Ali Ndume criticized the refurbishment despite the billions of naira spent. The contract for the rehabilitation of the National Assembly complex was awarded to Visible Construction Limited for N42 billion, an increase from the N37 billion approved by former President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019.

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I hope you are taking note of it, so that when they go to social media to start complaining after we have taken action, you will know why we took the action. We are all witnessing what is going on now.