Expectations were high when senators and members of the House of Representatives returned to their renovated chambers in April 2024 after spending nearly two years conducting plenary sessions from temporary committee rooms.
The refurbishment of the National Assembly Complex was intended to modernise legislative facilities, improve efficiency and provide lawmakers with an environment suited to contemporary parliamentary practice.
However, more than two years after lawmakers resumed in the upgraded chambers, concerns persist over malfunctioning microphones, an inactive electronic voting system and recurring technical challenges that have affected legislative proceedings.
The issues have raised questions about the effectiveness of a renovation project that reportedly consumed about N37bn in public funds.
The rehabilitation project traces its roots to 2019 when former President Muhammadu Buhari approved N37bn for the overhaul of the National Assembly Complex.
The proposal generated widespread public debate at the time, with many Nigerians questioning the scale of expenditure earmarked for the project.
Amid the economic pressures associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Government revised the renovation cost to N9bn in 2020 and announced that the work would be implemented in phases.
Subsequent reports, however, indicated that approximately N37bn was eventually spent on the project, which was executed by Visible Construction Limited.
Renovation activities commenced around April 2022, compelling lawmakers to relocate plenary sittings to makeshift chambers located within committee rooms.
After almost two years of operating from temporary facilities, both chambers resumed legislative business in the renovated complex in April 2024.
Early signs of dissatisfaction emerged shortly after lawmakers returned to the chambers.
The Senator Representing Borno South Senatorial District, Ali Ndume, openly criticised the state of the Senate chamber during plenary on May 7, 2024.
“This is not a chamber; it is like a conference room. You will not even know that it is me, Ndume, that is speaking, so also when the leader is speaking,” he said.
“We need to correct this. We need to change so many things. As with the sitting row, if you want to stand up, you will have to use tactics or a strategy.”
“There is no voting device here. If we are to vote electronically, the facilities are not there, but we had that previously.”
Responding to the concerns, The President Of The Senate, Godswill Akpabio, noted that the contract had been awarded during the Ninth Senate under his predecessor, Ahmad Lawan.
“This is not our contract; it was a contract that was awarded in the ninth senate,” Akpabio said.
Although the House of Representatives initially appeared to have a functioning electronic voting system, challenges soon became evident.
On December 17, 2025, lawmakers received a briefing on the operation of the voting technology ahead of deliberations on constitutional amendment bills.
As members struggled to understand the system, The Deputy Speaker Of The House Of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, suggested that lawmakers required additional time to familiarise themselves with the technology.
“We can’t use one day to learn this; maybe we need to dedicate one day to it. We may not be voting tomorrow; the leadership has not decided,” Kalu said.
Despite that orientation, the electronic voting system has not become a regular feature of legislative proceedings.
Reports from the chambers indicate that some lawmakers frequently abandon their designated seats to use colleagues’ microphones because equipment attached to their desks no longer functions properly.
The difficulties are also evident in the public gallery, where journalists and visitors often struggle to hear debates because of poor audio output.
The limitations became particularly noticeable during deliberations on constitutional amendment bills, including the state police proposal, on June 11, 2026.
During the session, presiding officers reportedly grappled with faulty microphones while efforts were made to conduct voting on the amendment.
The Speaker Of The House Of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, informed lawmakers that the electronic voting system was not operational and that manual procedures would be adopted.
“The electronic voting system is right now not working, so we are going to do a head count, one after the other, to ascertain that we have the number to actually pass this amendment,” Abbas said.
The House subsequently relied on physical counting by sergeants-at-arms rather than electronic voting.
The Senate also adopted manual voting when considering the state police bill on June 24 after its electronic voting device reportedly developed a technical fault.
The development sparked debate among governance experts and constitutional observers over whether manual counting provided the transparency required for votes involving constitutional amendments.
Governance expert and policy strategist Chibuzo Okereke argued that constitutional alterations require procedures capable of clearly establishing the level of support for proposed changes.
“The parliament is supposed to be guided by the constitution, its rules and its precedents,” The Senator Representing Sokoto South Senatorial District, Aminu Tambuwal, said while commenting on broader concerns surrounding legislative voting procedures.
As questions continue over the quality of the renovation and the functionality of critical equipment, the experience has drawn attention to the challenge of ensuring that major public infrastructure investments translate into measurable improvements in institutional performance.
For many observers, the recurring technical failures have shifted the conversation from the scale of the renovation budget to whether the project ultimately delivered the modern legislative environment it was expected to provide.
