The National Assembly Service Commission (NASC) has announced Kamarodeen Ogunlana, to replace Alhaji Magaji Tambawal as Clerk to the National Assembly, effective February 2, 2025. Ogunlana who is currently the Deputy Clerk of the National Assembly is a lawyer and has until 2027 to attain retirement age of 60 years. The NASC is yet to announce a replacement for the position of Deputy Clerk to the National Assembly, which will become vacant when Ogunlana resumes as Clerk to the National Assembly.
At least 30 senior staff of the National Assembly bureaucracy will be retiring alongside the Clerk to the National Assembly. Some of these include the Clerk to the Senate, Chinedu Akabueze, the Deputy Clerk of to the Senate and the Deputy Clerk to the House of Representatives. Others are directors at various cadres in the National Assembly bureaucracy.
The retirement wave came after President Tinubu declined assent to a bill to increase the retirement age from 60 to 65 and years of service from 35 to 40, for staff of the National Assembly Civil Service. The bill was introduced in the House of representatives and passed in December 2023. It was passed in the Senate in March 2024 and transmitted for the President’s assent. The bill had failed to pass in the 7th, 8th and 9th Assemblies. With the President refusing to assent to the bill, the retirement age of 60 years and 35 years of service remain.