Stop Turning the Senate Into a Retirement Home for Failed Governors – Otunba (DR) Babatunde Olushola Senbanjo to NASS

By Otunba (DR) Babatunde Olushola Senbanjo (BOS)

The Nigerian Senate is rapidly transforming into a luxury retirement home for failed state governors. Across the country, a deeply troubling political pattern has emerged: a governor spends eight years in office, leaves their state plagued by extreme poverty, decaying infrastructure, and unpaid pensions, and immediately purchases an expensive nomination form to contest for a seat in the National Assembly. This political tradition treats public office as a lifetime career for the ruling class rather than a vehicle for public service. It is an insult to the intelligence of the electorate, a drain on the nation’s economy, and a practice that must stop.

Eight Years of Nothing, Followed by Ambition
During their two terms in office, many of these executive governors enjoy absolute control over state resources. The state covers every aspect of their luxury lifestyles, from feeding and travel to inflated security votes. Despite these immense privileges, several state chief executives leave behind a legacy of abandoned projects, uncompleted schools, and broken healthcare systems.

Instead of hiding in shame or returning to the private sector to build tangible value, their immediate instinct is to migrate to the Red Chamber.

The Senate should be a sanctuary for rigorous lawmakers, seasoned technocrats, and visionary thinkers who understand the mechanics of federal legislation. Instead, it is being flooded by ex-governors seeking constitutional immunity, political relevance, and a continuous grasp on the public treasury.

A Senate of Silent Benchwarmers.
The consequences of this legislative migration are clear. Executive power is vastly different from legislative duty. Governors are used to giving absolute directives, not engaging in the collaborative debates, committee assignments, and meticulous lawmaking required in Abuja. As a result, many ex-governors become quiet benchwarmers in the Senate. They rarely sponsor impactful bills, hardly contribute to national debates, and frequently miss plenary sessions.

They do not go to the Senate to serve the people; they go to protect themselves. For many, the Red Chamber is a strategic shield against investigation by anti-graft agencies and a way to maintain local political godfatherism over their handpicked successors.

The Economic Drain of Political Greed
Nigeria remains a developing nation grappling with high inflation, a staggering debt profile, and severe infrastructural deficits. Yet, the country maintains one of the most expensive political systems in the world.

Double Dipping: Ex-governors in the Senate frequently draw massive pensions and life-and-death entitlements from their home states while simultaneously collecting the heavy salaries, allowances, and luxury SUVs allocated to federal lawmakers.

The Pension Disparity: In many states, the money used to fund the pension of a single ex-governor for one year can pay the combined retirement gratuities of hundreds of public school teachers and healthcare workers who served dedicatedly for 35 years.

This economic injustice concentrates wealth in the hands of a few career politicians while the rest of the citizenry bears the brunt of economic hardship.

The Power Belongs to the Voters.
This political cycle continues because the political party structures consistently reward desperation over competence. Parties continue to clear underperforming individuals for primary elections simply because of their financial muscle and control over the party machinery.

The ultimate power to break this cycle rests entirely with the Nigerian electorate. Voters must begin to demand strict accountability and evaluate politicians based on their actual track records rather than political party affiliations or empty rhetoric. If a governor could not fix basic state roads, improve local security, or revitalise primary healthcare centres in 2,920 days as an executive, they have no business representing a senatorial district in Abuja.

Public office must cease to be a perpetual meal ticket for the shameless. It is time for Nigerians to use their votes to retire-ban failed leaders, restore dignity to the legislature, and bring a definitive end to this senatorial madness.