Automatic ticket: Tinubu leaves govs to decide lawmakers’ fate

President Bola Tinubu has rebuffed lobbying efforts by the leadership of the Senate to secure automatic return tickets for the ruling party’s sitting legislators ahead of the 2027 general elections.

The President, instead reaffirming the authority of state governors over the selection of candidates in their respective states.

The President made the decision at a closed-door meeting with the extended leadership of the Senate at the Presidential Villa on Wednesday evening.

This was as he formally empowered governors to drive the primaries process after a meeting with the state executives on Thursday evening.

The President’s position has deepened anxiety among federal lawmakers, including several senators whose relationships with their governors have been strained.

Tinubu had earlier suggested that he would “do everything within the party’s power” to ensure the return of serving legislators, a promise that raised expectations in the National Assembly.

Multiple senior National Assembly sources familiar with the meeting said the senators had gone to the Villa specifically to press for Tinubu’s assurances.

A source said, “The meeting was to plead for automatic tickets for senators but President Tinubu insisted that the governor of each state has the influence over candidates.

“They made a case for continuity and stability and argued for automatic tickets, but the President was very clear in his response.

“He told them plainly that governors were the leaders of the party in their states and must have a say on who gets the ticket.”

Senate Majority Leader Michael Opeyemi Bamidele, in a post on his verified X account in the early hours of Thursday, confirmed the gathering, describing it as a session that deliberated on “matters of urgent national importance” following a resolution passed at a closed executive session of the Senate earlier that day.

“Far-reaching decisions were taken at this strategic meeting,” Bamidele wrote.

Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga separately confirmed the meeting, describing it as a consultation between Tinubu and “the extended leadership of the Senate.”

Less than 24 hours later on Thursday, President Tinubu convened a second meeting, this time with APC governors.

The governors’ meeting, initially scheduled for 4pm at the Council Chamber, began at approximately 5pm after the venue was moved to the Conference Room of the President’s Office.

Present were Prof. Babagana Zulum of Borno State, Hope Uzodimma of Imo State, Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe State, Hyacinth Alia of Benue State, Biodun Oyebanji of Ekiti State, Peter Mbah of Enugu State, and AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara State, among others.

Some states were represented by their deputy governors.

Niger State Governor, Mohammed Bago, who spoke to State House correspondents said that Tinubu had formally empowered governors to drive the primaries process.

Bago said, “We came to thank the President for his magnanimity and his support to the governors and for our party, the APC. He (Tinubu) gave us a matching order on what to do for him, he has given and ceded his executive power to the governors to go ahead and conduct primaries based on the Electoral Act, either a consensus or direct primaries. So, he has reiterated his support for our decision, and he has given us a go ahead.”

Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq confirmed the development saying, “The timetable for the primaries has been released. We’ve discussed the process moving forward so that there will be free and fair elections, no rancour, at the end of the process, so the party comes out stronger, stronger than ever, heading towards the election.”

Tinubu’s stance on the automatic came days after the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, said granting automatic tickets is not part of the party’s ethos.

At a media chat in Abuja on April 17, Nentawe said, “There is no automatic ticket in our constitution. The party cannot promise an automatic ticket. The constitution of the party does not provide for automatic tickets, and the party cannot wishfully promise automatic ticket to anyone.

“The Electoral Act also does not provide for automatic ticket. It says all primaries must be either by consensus or by direct primaries.”

He added that performance, not incumbency, would be the deciding factor for those seeking re-election.

Tinubu’s position may jinx the re-election bid of several lawmakers in several states.

Among them is Senator Gbenga Daniel of Ogun East, who is facing a concerted effort by Governor Dapo Abiodun to reclaim the senate seat for himself.

Daniel was reportedly shut out of a stakeholders’ meeting of the Ogun East senatorial district, a gathering that Governor Abiodun presided over.

Abiodun himself, who cannot seek a third term as governor, has been picked as the preferred senatorial candidate in Ogun East, with the Senate Committee on Appropriations chairman, Senator Adeola Olamilekan, positioned as the governorship candidate.

In Nasarawa State, Senator Aliyu Wadada, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Accounts, has secured a consensus endorsement for the governorship, which would see him exit the Senate.

In Oyo, Senator Sharafadeen Alli received the APC’s backing on April 15 to succeed Governor Makinde.

These departures, alongside the growing list of senators whose governors are actively working against their return, may see a high turnover rate in the red chamber.

A North-East senator who spoke on condition of anonymity warned that the APC is walking a constitutional tightrope.

“There is no provision for an automatic ticket in the APC Constitution. The Electoral Act recognises the consensus and direct primaries option. Whatever they discuss in their meeting cannot upstage the law.

“We should either go by consensus or adopt the primary election model,” the lawmaker said, adding that he was not privy to what was decided at the Senate leadership’s meeting with the President.

In Benue State, the fallout between Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), George Akume, and Governor Hyacinth Alia over control of the APC structure in the state has pushed 10 of the state’s 11 federal lawmakers into Akume’s camp.

However, Tinubu on Thursday at the meeting, which Alia attended, gave governors the green light to determine the direction of the states primaries.

In March, Deputy Spokesman of the House of Representatives Philip Agbese defected from the APC to the Labour Party, after his return prospects under the APC collapsed.