Strong indication has emerged that the 11th Senate like the previous ones before it will suffer high turnover of members who would not return into the red chamber after the Presidential and National Assembly Election slated for January 16 , 2027 by the Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC) .
Signaling the high turnover even before commencement of party primaries fixed for April 23 to May 30, 2026 by INEC are 13 out of the 106 serving senators that have opted to go for governorship tickets of their parties.
The 13 out of the 106 serving senators that have opted out of return race into the Senate in 2027 but going for that of governorship seats of their various states are the three senators from Kwara state namely: Saliu Mustapha (Central), Suleiman Umar Sadiq (North) and Lola Ashiru (South ).
Others are Senators Solomon Olamilekan Adeola ( Ogun West) rooting for Ogun state governorship seat, Adetokunbo Abiru (Lagos East) eyeing the number one seat in Lagos state and former President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan (Yobe North) rooting for the governorship seat of Yobe state.
Also rooting for governorship seats of their states are: Senators Tahir Monguno and Kaka Shehu Lawan in Borno state, Senators Sarafadeen Alli and Abdulfatah Buhari in Oyo state.
Senator Aliyu Wadada Ahmed from Nasarawa West is also eyeing the governorship seat of Nasarawa state just as Senator Buba Umar Shehu (Bauchi South ) is nursing governorship ambition.
Aside the 13 senators that have opted out of return race into the Senate due to higher political ambition, Senator Jimoh Ibrahim (Ondo South), has also done so , with his appointment as Permanent Representative to the United Nations by President Bola Tinubu, making the list of serving senators already out to return bids into the Senate in 2027 to be 14 before conduct of primary election by the various political parties .
Many of the remaining occupiers of the 92 out of the existing 106 seats in the Senate are likely to fail in securing return tickets as the ruling party (APC) they defected to is not buying into automatic ticket they requested for.
