The Senate went on break in June, some days after it elected its presiding officers, Godswill Akpabio and Barau Jibrin, as president and deputy senate president
The Nigerian Senate will resume sitting Tuesday after observing about 19 days of break.
The senators were inaugurated into the 10th Senate on 13 June after the election of the presiding officers was conducted.
Godswill Akpabio (APC, Akwa Ibom North-west ) emerged as the senate president, while Barau Jibrin (APC, Kano North) emerged as the deputy senate president.
Since the inauguration of the 10th Assembly, the plenary has only been held two times.
The first was on inauguration day, while the second was held on 14 June when a 15-member Welfare Committee was constituted to allocate offices and seats to the new senators.
The committee is chaired by Isah Jibrin (Kogi East), to be assisted by Darlington Nwokocha.
Other members are Ekpenyong Asuquo; Saliu Mustapha; Dandutse Mohammed; Francis Fadahunsi; Shuaibu Salisu; Aminu Abass; and Ibrahim Dankwambo.
Others are Ireti Kingibe; Idiat Adebule; Ipalibo Banigo; Dave Umahi; Barinnada Degi-Ereminyo, and Bomoi Ibrahim Mohammed.
Battle for principal officers' positions
Apart from the allocation of seats to the senators, a major expectation today is the appointment of its principal officers.
The positions are the senate leader and the deputy senate leader, chief Whip and deputy Whip, all of whom will be picked from the APC, which has the majority members of the senators.
The opposition senators will also determine a consensus candidate for the position of the minority leader, deputy minority leader, minority Whip and deputy minority whip.
Their political parties are expected to send the names of their preferred occupants of the positions except where there is disagreement. It was unclear who the parties had picked for the eight positions at the time of this report.
Senate leader
The senator representing Borno South, Ali Ndume, and his colleague from Ekiti Central, Opeyemi Bamidele, both APC members, are the major contenders for the position of senate leader.
The two senators have not publicly declared their interest in the position, but sources in the upper chamber said either of them may be appointed as compensation for their sacrifices during the campaign of Mr Akpabio as senate president.
The Borno senator was the coordinator of the Akpabio/Barau campaign team, while Mr Bamidele and Solomon Olamilekan (APC, Ogun West) were top members of the team.
Mr Ndume was the senate leader under Bukola Saraki-led Senate President before being unceremoniously removed in 2017. He once served as a minority leader in the House of Representatives.
He comes from the same state as Vice President Kashim Shettima.
Mr Bamidele is from the South-west, President Bola Tinubu's home region. He also served as Commissioner for Youths, Sports and Development under Mr Tinubu as governor of Lagos.
Minority leader
Former Governor of Sokoto, Aminu Tambuwal, and former Bayelsa Governor, Seriake Dickson, are the top opposition senators contending for the position of minority leader.
Other senators jostling for the position are Abdul Ningi (PDP, Bauchi) and Abba Moro (PDP, Benue South).
However, Mr Tambuwal, a former speaker of the House of Representatives, is reportedly favoured by the PDP presidential candidate in the February election, Atiku Abubakar, for the position. The former governor was the director-general of Atiku's campaign.
Some opposition senators had earlier raised concern over an alleged plan to impose a minority leader on members of the 10th Senate to weaken the strength of the opposition parties in the Senate.
In the 10th Senate, the APC has 59 senators, while the six opposition parties have the other 50 members altogether.
The PDP has 36 members, while the Labour Party (LP) has seven.
The New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and the Social Democratic Party have two each, while the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and Young Progressive Party (YPP) complete the 109-member Senate with one member each.
Group opposes Tambuwal
Meanwhile, a group, Network for Peace and Development in Nigeria (CNPDN), has appealed to opposition senators not to elect Mr Tambuwal as minority leader of the upper legislative chamber.
The group made the appeal at a press briefing on Sunday.
National Secretary of the group, Francis Wainwei, who addressed the press on behalf of his colleagues, said the former Sokoto governor is coercing other minority senators to become the minority leader for "selfish and destructive reasons".
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"We totally reject the scheming of Tambuwal and co, geared towards high-jacking the leadership of the minority parties in the Senate for selfish and destructive purposes," he said.
"Tambuwal should not be allowed to emerge as the minority leader of the Senate because of his antecedents of selfish and acrimonious politics."
But, Muhammad Bello, the special adviser to the former Sokoto governor on media, described the allegation of coercing other minority senators as false.
Mr Bello said his principal is a democrat who understands the essence of democracy and will not force himself as a leader on anybody.
"When you are coercing people, you don't come out openly to say that you are coercing people in this democracy era. He is a democrat; he has been a democrat throughout his life.
"Perhaps, it is the figment of imagination of these people. How can you coerce somebody to vote for you? It is even the party caucus that determines the position. All you can do is to lobby and try to cajole them to support you," he said.
