Senate Scrambles to Reverse Primary Losses as 40 Senators Miss Tickets

ABUJA — The Nigerian Senate leadership is working to address a significant political crisis following the primary election season. The Nigerian Observer confirmed on Wednesday that approximately 40 serving senators failed to secure re-election tickets in party primaries. The Senate leadership is seeking ways to reverse or mitigate these losses.

The 40 senators who lost their primary bids come from multiple parties, but predominantly from the APC, which held the most contested primaries. In many states, incumbent senators were defeated by candidates backed by state governors who used their control of party delegate structures to push preferred successors.

Senate President Godswill Akpabio described the scale of incumbent primary losses as unprecedented. He said the Senate as an institution needs continuity and experience. He called on the APC national leadership to review cases where sitting senators were knocked out through what he described as heavily manipulated delegate processes.

A Constitutional Question

The Senate leadership’s attempt to reverse or mitigate the primary losses faces a significant constitutional challenge. Under Nigerian law, party primaries are internal matters and their results are generally not subject to reversal by party leadership alone without specific legal grounds. Courts are the proper avenue for primary disputes.

Several of the affected senators have already filed petitions with their parties’ appeal committees. A smaller number have indicated they will pursue court challenges. However, with INEC’s May 30 filing deadline already passed, the window for reversals that would affect the 2027 ballot has narrowed significantly.

Political analysts said the mass loss of incumbent senate tickets reveals a fundamental truth about Nigerian legislative politics: individual senators have less power than they appear when governors use their control of party structures to deploy it against incumbents. The crisis is likely to reshape how senators relate to executive power in their home states.