There are lawmakers who count their years in office, and then there is Ali Ndume, who seems to count the number of motions he has moved. The senator from Borno South has just been ranked Nigeria’s third most productive legislator, an outcome that surprised almost no one who has followed his long, restless career.
The ranking, unveiled in Abuja by the Erudite Growth and Advancement Foundation (ERGAF-Africa), tracked every intervention made in the National Assembly between June 2023 and June 2024. The result is something of a digital scoreboard for democracy: who spoke, how often, and on what. Ndume, alongside his Borno colleague Tahir Monguno, recorded thirty-seven substantive contributions, trailing only Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele and Deputy Senate President Barau Jibrin.
For Ndume, 65 and still ferociously active, this is another line in a crowded résumé. Since 2003, when he first entered the House of Representatives, he has rarely blended into the background. He has served as minority leader, majority leader, and briefly as chief whip before another of those political thunderstorms swept him out. Through it all, his voice, serious and insistent, has remained a fixture in Abuja’s chambers.
The data behind this new ranking gives structure to what many Nigerians already knew by instinct: that Ndume is one of the few senators who still treats the red chamber as a workplace. His legislative record is a sprawl of bills, from the North East Development Commission Act to the Constituency Development Fund Bill, and dozens more that would intimidate even the clerks who file them.
Supporters in Borno call him “the voice that never sleeps.” Critics say he talks too much. Both are probably right. But in an era when parliamentary seats often serve as quiet rewards, Ndume’s persistence feels oddly refreshing, truly filling out the shoes the old lecturer from Gwoza still scribbling on the nation’s blackboard, refusing to pack up his chalk.
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