Nigeria’s ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has moved closer to securing the parliamentary numbers required to amend the country’s constitution with limited reliance on opposition support, consolidating a commanding majority in the National Assembly.
With 84 senators and about 231 seats in the House of Representatives, the party has effectively crossed the critical two-thirds threshold required to push constitutional amendments through the Senate, placing considerable legislative power in the hands of the governing party, which also controls 31 state governorships.
The development marks one of the most significant shifts in Nigeria’s parliamentary balance in recent years, giving the APC the numerical strength to influence the direction of constitutional reforms within the legislature.
The consolidation of power became more pronounced in the Senate after three additional lawmakers defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), further shrinking the opposition’s caucus to 14 senators.
The defecting senators are Amos Yohanna representing Adamawa North, Aminu Iya Abbas representing Adamawa Central, and Ikra Aliyu Bilbis representing Zamfara Central.
Their movement to the ruling party came barely 24 hours after Ipalibo Banigo, representing Rivers West, also defected from the PDP to the APC.
Following the defections, the APC increased its strength in the Senate from 81 to 84 members, while the PDP’s representation dropped from 17 to 14 senators, widening the gap between the ruling party and the opposition in the upper legislative chamber.
The Senate currently has 106 serving members instead of the constitutionally required 109 following the deaths of three lawmakers. Despite the vacancies, analysts say the APC’s numerical advantage gives it significant leverage on bills requiring special majority votes.
To make major constitutional decisions, the Senate requires the support of two-thirds of its members, which translates to 73 senators. With 84 senators, the APC now holds more than enough votes to push through constitutional alterations without relying heavily on opposition lawmakers.
In the House of Representatives, the ruling party has also strengthened its position following months of defections by lawmakers from opposition parties.
Current records indicate that the APC now controls about 231 seats in the 360-member chamber, representing more than 64 per cent of the total membership. The House requires the support of 240 lawmakers to achieve a two-thirds majority.
The PDP currently holds about 83 seats, while the Labour Party has 22 lawmakers in the House.
Other parties represented in the chamber include the New Nigeria Peoples Party with 15 members, the All Progressives Grand Alliance with five seats, the Social Democratic Party with two seats, and the African Democratic Congress and the Young Progressives Party with one seat each.
At the inauguration of the 10th National Assembly in June 2023, the political balance in the House was far more fragmented. The APC had 162 seats at the time, while the PDP controlled 102 seats.
The Labour Party had 34 lawmakers, the New Nigeria Peoples Party held 18 seats, the All Progressives Grand Alliance had four members, while the African Democratic Congress and Social Democratic Party each had two seats, and the Young Progressives Party had one.
However, sustained cross-carpeting by lawmakers, mostly from the PDP, Labour Party and NNPP, has significantly strengthened the APC’s dominance in the chamber.
In the Senate, the shift in political alignment has also been dramatic. While the APC now holds 84 seats, the PDP has fallen sharply from its initial 36 senators at the inauguration of the 10th Assembly to just 14 members.
Other parties have also experienced changes in representation. The Labour Party, which began the assembly with eight senators, currently has no representation in the chamber, while the NNPP retains one seat, down from two.
Similarly, the Social Democratic Party has lost its two Senate seats, while the African Democratic Congress now holds five seats despite starting the 10th Assembly without any representation.
A newly registered political platform, the Nigeria Democratic Congress, has one senator in the person of Seriake Dickson representing Bayelsa West, while the All Progressives Grand Alliance retains one seat in the chamber.
The President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, announced the latest defections during plenary after reading the letters submitted by the lawmakers.
Speaking on the development, Akpabio described the wave of defections as unprecedented since Nigeria gained independence in 1960.
He said the current political realignment represented a reversal of what occurred during the 8th Senate in 2018 when the APC lost several lawmakers to the PDP, including the then Senate President, Bukola Saraki.
Akpabio said what is happening now between PDP and APC senators resembles a political balancing of events, noting that during the 8th National Assembly about 30 senators defected from the APC to the PDP in a single day.
He added that the trend could be linked to the reforms introduced by President Bola Tinubu, which he said had stabilised the country’s economic direction.
Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele also said the influx of lawmakers into the ruling party reflected growing confidence in the administration.
According to him, the defecting lawmakers believe the policies of the government are producing positive results and want to align themselves with the governing party.
Political observers say the current party configuration in the National Assembly has significantly strengthened the ruling party’s legislative leverage.
However, analysts have also raised concerns that the continued wave of defections could weaken the influence of opposition parties in the legislature and reduce the level of parliamentary scrutiny of government policies as the country gradually approaches the 2027 general election.
