“Experience Matters”: Akpabio spokesperson defends rule change requiring legislative experience for top posts

The Presidency of the Senate has fired back at critics of the new Senate Standing Rules, insisting the amendment is about protecting the institution — not protecting individuals.

Eseme Eyiboh, Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to Senate President Godswill Akpabio, said Sunday that the uproar over the rule change had been heavy on emotion and light on facts.

The amendment now requires senators vying for presiding and principal offices to have a minimum level of legislative experience.

“The real issue before the Senate is neither about Senator Godswill Akpabio nor Senator Adams Oshiomhole,” Eyiboh said. “It is about whether legislative institutions should evolve, strengthen themselves, and create continuity mechanisms that deepen parliamentary stability.”

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He argued that parliaments worldwide routinely update their rules to match changing governance realities.

The Senate President’s office, he said, was too sensitive for on-the-job training.

“Experience matters,” Eyiboh declared. “The office demands deep understanding of legislative procedure, constitutional interpretation, parliamentary tradition, and intergovernmental relations.”

Eyiboh pointed to mature democracies that rely on both written and unwritten traditions to preserve institutional memory and avoid chaos.

But he cautioned that experience thresholds must not become tools for political entrenchment.

“Experience without openness becomes arrogance; openness without experience becomes amateurism,” he warned.

He rejected claims that the amendment was crafted to shield the current leadership or lock out rivals. On calls for Akpabio to resign because the rule wasn’t in place when he was elected, Eyiboh was blunt: laws don’t work backward.

“A law or rule takes effect from the point of enactment forward unless expressly stated otherwise,” he said. “Applying new standards retroactively would create instability and undermine democratic governance.”

For Eyiboh, the debate should be about strengthening the Senate, not settling personal scores.

“When a legislature decides that a Senate President should have served a minimum period as a legislator, it is making a quiet but profound statement about the nature of political authority,” he said.

He urged lawmakers and Nigerians to debate the issue with statesmanship, not partisanship.

“Institutions ultimately outlive individuals,” he concluded. “The rules and traditions we set today will shape legislative stability for years to come.