Senators bidding goodbye to Senate

In this piece, JOHN AMEH of our Abuja Bureau, takes a look at the emerging list of senators who may not return to the upper legislative chamber in the 11th Senate, in the light of the outcome of the ongoing primaries by political parties.

IN the next few days, the fate of all of the 106 remaining of the 10th Senate would have known which of them would proceed to the final leg of elections that would usher in the 11th Senate, as the results of the primaries of the various political parties’ trickle in. In the months ahead, the full list of those who would not be seated on the floor of the 11th Senate would effectively unravel after the January 2027 national election. As far as things are concerned at the moment, however, the results of the party primaries have started showing us insights as some of the lawmakers are gradually winding down activities.

The story is however not the same for all the senators. Why some opted not to seek re-election, some opted to seek election as governors of their respective states, while someone like the former Speaker of the House of Representatives and former governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal decided to stay away. There were also factors such as ‘consensus endorsement’; zoning/rotation; disqualification from the race; and outright loss to new contenders at the primaries.

From Ogun State to Oyo State, Kwara to Bauchi, Nasarawa, and many other states, a number of senators are aiming to become the next governor. It simply means they never bothered to obtain the expression of interest forms for the senate positions. Consensus or endorsement has been key in determining the fate of the government house seekers, though controversially in one or two cases.

It’s described by observers as a ‘double-edged sword’ which could bring smiles to the faces of some and agony to others. Ogun State presents an interesting scenario in this case.

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriations, Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola, has been in a celebratory mood since April 13, 2026 when he was pronounced the consensus governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for 2027.

Popularly known as “Yayi”, he was endorsed during a Strategic Caucus Meeting of the Ogun State chapter of the APC held at the party’s secretariat in Abeokuta with the full backing of the current Governor, Dapo Abiodun, and other state power brokers.

Yayi has come a long way. He served as the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts when he was a member from 2011-2015, representing Alimosho Federal Constituency; twice, he represented Lagos-West Senatorial District from 2015 to 2023 and currently serves as the lawmaker representing Ogun-West Senatorial District (till June 2027). He is all set to contest the governorship election of Ogun State in February 2027.

While the option brought smiles to Senator Adeola, the same can’t be said for the lawmaker representing Ogun-East Senatorial District, Senator Gbenga Daniel. A man of rich resume. He was former two-time governor of Ogun State, who has been representing Ogun East senatorial district since 2023. He will be bidding the senate farewell in 2027, no thanks to consensus endorsement. The state governor, Dapo Abiodun, emerged as the consensus candidate to replace Daniel in Ogun-East in 2027. The former governor, having loudly protested against the decision, also days before the primaries (considered a mere formality), withdrew from the race and directed his supporters to stay away from participation.

Thus, in Ogun, consensus became a double-edged sword in the camps of Adeola and Senator Daniel. The bottom line, however, remains that neither of the two would be taking the oath in the Senate in June next year.

In Oyo State, senators Abdulafatai Buhari and Sarafadeen Ali are eying the governorship seat in a race to succeed Governor Seyi Makinde in 2027. Ali is believed to be the adopted candidate of some powerful forces in the party, while Buhari is pushing to secure the ticket as well.

In Nasarawa State, a former Chairman, Senate Committee on Public Accounts, Senator Aliyu Wadada, weeks back was guaranteed the APC’s consensus governorship ticket with the support of sitting governor, Abdullahi Sule. Senator Wadada, a former member of the Social Democratic Party (SP), had defected to the APC in a bid to actualise his dream of going to the Lafia Government House.

However, he has lately faced opposition from internal stakeholders, including former governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura, who seem to dispute the choice of the famous horse rider from Keffi. Analysts see the Nasarawa disagreement as a battle between the power of incumbency and other power brokers, likely to go the way of the governor.

In Kwara State, all three senators — Senator Lola Ashiru (Kwara South); Umar Sadiq Suleiman (Kwara-North); and Senator Saliu Mustapha (Kwara-Central) — all filed up to be the next governor of the state at some point.

However, there were twists forcing Ashiru, the Senate’s Deputy Leader, to do a detour to seek a return to the Senate, a bid which hit the rocks during the primaries. Mustapha too lost in his bid to make a U-turn to face Governor Abdu Rahman AbdulRazaq, who had decided to contest the senate seat for Kwara Central.

For Mustapha, however, it appears the ends are not about to meet as the governor has already anointed a successor for the governorship seat, while almost appropriating the senate seat for himself.

Several senators either lost their return bid outright through a crushing defeat or were allegedly ‘manipulated’ out of the race to 2027.

Some command influence in the 10th Senate, such as the Chairman, Senate Committee on Customs, Senator Isa Jibrin (Kogi-East), who fell to a challenger. Jibrin won’t be around in 2027. Jibrin, popularly known as ‘Exhocho’, holds Kogi State Governor, Usman Ododo, responsible for his shocking defeat. He expectedly declared an all-out ‘war’ against Ododo for allegedly plotting his exit from the Senate.

“What have I done to him? I have supported you, supported your government. I have been very loyal to you. It is now going to be a fight to the finish,” Echocho fumed soon after the results of the primaries knocked him out.

Senator Danjuma Goje is a big name both in the Senate and across Nigeria. The former two-time PDP governor of Gombe State came to the Senate in 2011. He, however, joined the APC in 2014 and has sat on the Gombe-Central Senatorial Seat for four consecutive terms from 2011 to date (15 years). Goje’s bid for a 5th term to represent Gombe-Central failed this time round, as he lost his 2027 return ticket at the primaries.

A retired Deputy Commissioner of Police, floored Goje according to the results of the primaries, which showed that the winner scored 21,793 votes as against Goje’s 2,620 votes.

A similar fate befell the former Chairman, Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges, Code of Conduct and Public Petitions, Senator Neda Imaseun (Edo-South), and Senator Ned Nwoko (Delta-North), with the latter losing in the primaries to former Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential running mate in the 2023 election.

Interestingly, both Imaseun and Nwoko were defectors to the APC in the hope that the platform would win them automatic qualification for 2027. While Imaseun came to the Senate in 2023 on the ticket of the Labour Party (LP), Nwoko was a member of the PDP, who defected to the APC ahead of the mass defection of the state’s PDP structure.

He was said to have left the party because of the perceived overbearing nature of the powers in the ruling party in the state but got cornered when the entire PDP structure in the state poured into the APC. Okowa, a former one-term senator, floored Nwoko during the primaries on Monday.

The examples of Nwoko and Imaseun are proof that defection to the ruling party doesn’t necessarily guarantee a ticket or a return to the Senate. The two are out and will bid the Senate farewell next year.

At least three senators are bidding farewell to the Senate owing to disqualification. One of them, viewed by analysts as “unexpected”, is Senator Ipalibo Harry Banigo (Rivers-West), an ally of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Mr Nyesom Wike. Banigo, who chairs the Senate Committee on Health Institutions, was disqualified on grounds of not being a financial member of the APC.

Insiders alleged that there might have been a fallout between her and Wike. The minister, who heads the ‘Rainbow Coalition’ of political stakeholders in Rivers State, is said to largely determine the fate of office holders in the state for now.

In nearby Bayelsa State, Senator Benson Agadaga (Bayelsa-East) was also disqualified, the same treatment that Senator Garba Musa Maidoki (Kebbi-South) also received, effectively edging them out of the Senate in 2027. Maidoki, getting wind of his disqualification, resigned from the APC before the primaries, citing “persistent internal crises” in the party in his locality as the reason for his action. Ban-igo, Agadaga and Maidoki, were all defectors from the PDP to the APC in the 10th Senate, confirming again that joining the ruling party does not automatically guarantee a return ticket as erroneously believed by many such defectors. They are to realise, soon after their defection that the dynamics had changed or were simply victims of political interplays.

A former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Senator Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, determined his own trajectory by voluntarily withdrawing from the race. The former governor of Sokoto State and member of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), withdrew from his return bid to support a younger aspirant and former Commissioner for Finance, Faruk Malami-Yabo. His reason was primarily to safeguard the unity of the ADC in Sokoto, further dousing the tension arising from the sharing of political positions in the party.

A political analyst, Dr Sebastian Dukur, spoke of the “uncertainties” in the Nigerian political terrain and the anxieties leading politicians to pursue actions tailored at meeting self-ambition first.

“In all of this, securing a return ticket is the ultimate goal for our lawmakers. No one thinks about development now, no one thinks about the welfare of the people,” he said.

While reviewing the scenario, a Development Economist, Chief Aboyi Udeh, suggested that Nigeria must thoroughly rethink its leadership recruitment process to “get quality” and not “necessarily quantity” into positions of leadership.

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Analysts agree that the country’s leadership selection process should by now have grown beyond consensus or a manipulative process that ends up not throwing up the very best hands to take charge of governance. Ultimately, it appears like a process that largely isolates the majority of the people while the elite continue to oil their self interests.

As one cohort of senators prepare to exit the Red Chamber, whether by design or defeat, their departures reflect deeper issues about the leadership recruitment process in Nigeria. It also reveals strains in party structures and candidate selection that, if left unaddressed, risk prioritising patronage over competence.