About 90 serving senators, nine governors and one deputy governor are seeking seats in the 11th Senate through the All Progressives Congress, setting up a party contest that is already moving from Abuja screening rooms to state-level showdowns. The aspirants have been screened by the APC committee, and many are now headed for direct primaries after stakeholders rejected a consensus arrangement some governors had tried to broker.
That shift matters because the party leadership has already stopped governors from steering the nominations their own way. The Presidential Supervision Team backed direct primaries where consensus fails, citing Section 87 of the Electoral Act 2026, and identified Ogun, Oyo, Ondo, Kwara and Kano as flash points. In that scramble, Gombe governor Muhammad Inuwa Yahaya, Yobe governor Mai Mala Buni, Ogun governor Dapo Abiodun, Kwara governor Abdulrahman AbdulRazaq, Imo governor Hope Uzodinma, Adamawa governor Ahmadu Fintiri, Bauchi governor Bala Muhammed, Nasarawa governor Abdullahi Sule and Borno governor Baba Gana Zulum are all in the race, along with Ogun deputy governor Noimot Salako-Oyedele.
The stakes are immediate in places where incumbents and governors are colliding head-on. Abiodun will face Senator Gbenga Daniel for the Ogun East ticket, while Yahaya must contend with Senator Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, Hon. Usman Bayero Nafada and Mustapha Mohammed Aliyu in Gombe. Abdulrahman AbdulRazaq is in what the article describes as a straightforward race against the PDP candidate set up by Bukola Saraki, and Sule will meet Silas Agara in the APC primary for Nasarawa North, with Labaran Maku a possible opponent in the election proper.
Sule’s screening in Abuja on Saturday was held at the Plateau State Liaison Office by the APC National Screening Committee, alongside Deputy Governor Emmanuel A. Akabe, who is seeking the party’s ticket for Nasarawa South. Sule called the exercise smooth and said the party was appreciating what his administration had done. “From what you have seen, the screening was just a quick exercise. The party has seen what we have done, and they are appreciating it. We thank God,” he said, while also praising President Bola Tinubu’s removal of fuel subsidy and unification of the foreign exchange market.
The Nasarawa race is especially sensitive because Sule narrowly won reelection in 2023 and, according to a source, comes from a minority tribe in a district populated largely by Nasarawa-Eggon people who are mostly Christians. In Adamawa, Fintiri is facing ADC and NDC candidates, though Amos Yohanna has withdrawn from the Adamawa North race to back him after receiving nomination forms worth N20 million at a stakeholders’ event in Mubi. Yohanna said his decision was driven by personal conviction and loyalty to the people.
The larger picture is that governors finishing their second terms are trying to keep their political weight alive after 2027, either by moving toward the Senate or by backing successors. Sule said the APC had expanded from controlling about 21 states after the 2023 elections to aiming for far more by 2027, and that is exactly why these primaries now matter. For the party, the question is no longer whether the race will be crowded. It is whether its new rules can hold when the strongest people in the room all want the same seats.
