Here’s something that trips people up: the National Assembly isn’t one big room of lawmakers shouting over each other. It’s actually two separate chambers, working almost like two different teams that both have to agree before a law happens nationally.
The Senate is the “upper chamber.” It has 109 Senators, 3 from every state (36 states × 3 = 108), plus 1 from the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. Every state gets exactly 3, whether it’s Lagos or the smallest state by population. That’s deliberate, it means no state can be steamrolled just because it has more people.
The House of Representatives is the “lower chamber.” It has 360 members, and unlike the Senate, seats here are shared out based on population and local government spread, so more populous states get more Representatives.
Why two chambers for one country? Think of it like a second opinion built into the system. A bill (a proposed law) generally has to pass through both the Senate and the House, in similar form, before it can become law. It’s slower, yes, but it’s slower on purpose, so that no single group of lawmakers can rush something through unchecked.
Both chambers are led by a Senate President and a Speaker of the House of Representatives, respectively, the people who run proceedings and represent each chamber publicly.
Want to know who your Senator or Representative actually is? We’ll show you exactly how to find out in a later post, but for now, here’s a shortcut: the official National Assembly website (nass.gov.ng) publishes a directory of every sitting Senator and Representative, searchable by state.