ON January 27, the nation's apex court momentarily reconfigured the polities of five states across the country. The governors of five states; Adamawa, Bayelsa, Cross River, Kogi and Sokoto, were suddenly thrown into the wilderness.The issues that led to the latest round of sacking of states helmsmen date back to the notoriously chaotic and disorderly elections of 2007. They affected governors had their elections nullified at various times in 2008, but they subsequently won re-election. The major issue became whether they would begin with a fresh mandate or continue from the time they took the first oath of office on May 29, 2007.However, with the Supreme Court judgment, a deadly blow seems to have been dealt on the notion that beneficiaries of electoral impunity would get a reward of longer terms. Below are the affected governors and their fortunes, especially in the light of the apex court's landmark judgment.Liyel ImokeFORMER governor of Cross River State, Liyel Imoke is a veritable chip of an old political block. His father, Dr. Samuel Imoke was a medical doctor who became a cabinet minister and leader of Parliament in the former Eastern Region.In 1992, Liyel Imoke was elected senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria at the age of 30, during the Ibrahim Babangida transition government. His term ended with the dissolution of the government in November 1993 by the military regime headed by General Sani Abacha.In 1999, President Olusegun Obasanjo appointed him a special adviser on Public Utilities. He was executive chairman of the Special Board charged with winding down the Oil Minerals Producing Areas Development Commission. He was also chairman of Technical Board of the National Electric Power Authority.Imoke's rise to the national stage was complete in July 2003, when he was appointed Federal Minister of Power and Steel. For a while, he was also Federal Minister of Education. Imoke implemented reforms laid out in the Nigerian Power Sector Reform Act of 2005, leading to establishment of the Nigerian Energy Regulatory Commission (NERC), the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) and the unbundling of the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) now Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).In 2008, the House of Representatives set up a panel to look into how $16 billion for the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) was disbursed, asking for testimony by Liyel Imoke and Olusegun Agagu, who had also served as Minister of Power and Steel.The panel cleared Imoke of wrongdoing. In April 2007, Liyel Imoke successfully ran for governor of Cross River State on the platform of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) platform.The road to the governorship of Cross River saw Imoke taking over from the highly rated Donald Duke on 29 May 2007. But an Election Appeal Tribunal annulled the election that brought him to power in July 2008. He was elected again in a re-run on August 23 2008.Since the January 27 judgment by the apex court, Imoke is said to be enjoying the loyalty of the Acting Governor Hon. Larry Odey, who reportedly declined to sit in the governor's chair, after he was sworn in as Acting Governor.Political watchers believe Imoke and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are temporarily out of power. They would soon return.Ibrahim IdrisIBRAHIM Idris was elected governor of Kogi State on the platform of the PDP in April 2003, taking office on 29 May 2003.Idris was re-elected in April 2007, but later in the year, his re-election was nullified on grounds that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had wrongly excluded the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) candidate Abubakar Audu from the April 14, 2007 governorship poll.On February 6, 2008, the Court of Appeal upheld this ruling and ordered a new election to be held within three months.In a repeat election held on March 29, 2008, Idris was returned as the Governor of Kogi State. His opponent, Abubakar Audu, challenged the result of the by-election on the basis of massive electoral fraud, including violence and theft of ballot boxes.Since it was his second term, Idris was looking forward to completing it and handing over in March this year.In fact, Idris Wada of the PDP had been elected, waiting to be sworn in before the Supreme Court dropped the bombshell.For Ibrahim Idris, the task would be how to cope with an abrupt retirement from the government house in Lokoja. He also has responsibility to ensure that the PDP recovers from its many troubles to become a unified, strong party.Murtala NyakoMURTALA Nyako, a former naval officer entered politics in 2006. A favourite of former President Obasanjo, he successfully contested and was elected Governor of Adamawa State in April 2007.In February 2008 the Election Petition Appeal Tribunal upheld the nullification of the election that brought him to power, and the House Speaker James Barka was sworn in as Acting Governor on 26 February 2008.A fresh election was run, and Nyako was re-elected with a landslide victory, taking all 21 Local Government Areas, resuming office on 29 April 2008. Soon after, the House initiated moves to impeach Nyako, but was dissuaded after the personal intervention of the late President Umaru Yar'Adua.The relationship improved, and in March 2010 the Adamawa State House of Assembly passed a vote of confidence in Governor Nyako, describing him as a 'messiah' to the people of the state.However, since the January 27 landmark judgment of the Supreme Court, the Acting Governor Alhaji Ahmadu Fintiri has not demonstrated the sort of loyalty that his Cross River counterpart has been showing the ex-governor. Fintiri seems bent on running his own show as he immediately Sent packing commissioners, special advisers, principal special assistants, senior special assistants and special assistants Nyako had appointed.This was a major upset to Nyako's second term election, as the hands of his old time opponents were seen in the actions of the Acting Governor.Timipre SylvaSYLVA became governor of Bayelsa State by accident; he was a beneficiary of the elevation of Goodluck Jonathan to be on the joint ticket with the then Presidential candidate of the PDP, Umaru Musa Yar'Adua.Sylva was a member of the Rivers State House of Assembly in the 1990s. He won the Bayelsan gubernatorial election on May 29, 2007.During his inauguration he said that Bayelsa was 'the least developed industrially and commercially' of all 36 states.Sylva's opponent in the 2007 election, Ebitimi Amgbare of the Action Congress, legally challenged his victory. Although the Bayelsa State Election Petitions Tribunal upheld Sylva's election, Amgbare took the matter to the Appeal Court in Port Harcourt, which overturned the Tribunal's decision and nullified Sylva's election on April 15, 2008.A new election was held on May 24, 2008, and Sylva, again running as the PDP candidate, was overwhelmingly elected with 588,204 out of about 598,000 votes. He was sworn in again on May 27, saying on this occasion that he would form a broadly inclusive unity government.But that unity was not to be as Sylva opened battlefronts against critical stakeholders in the state. Specifically, there were talks of a fractious relationship with President Jonathan. Shortly before the 2011 elections, Sylva was faced with an embarrassing situation, when a crowd he was addressing angrily hurled objects at him. This happened during an official visit to the state by President Jonathan. Things unraveled fast for Sylva; he was bundled out of the PDP primaries, as the presidentially anointed Seriake Dickson began to look more like the man to fly the PDP flag.The Supreme Court judgment seems to have sounded the death knell on Sylva's topsy-turvy political career as he no longer commands the leverage from Creek Haven that would have enabled him push effectively for a second term.Aliyu Magatakarda WamakkoWAMAKKO was elected governor of Sokoto State, in April 2007, representing the PDP. He was previously Deputy Governor to Governor Attahiru Bafarawa in 1999, on the platform of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP). He was re-elected Deputy Governor for a second term in April 2003. He resigned as Deputy on March 15, 2006.Wamakko jumped ship and ran successfully for governor in April 2007 on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) platform, and assumed office on May 29, 2007. Following an appeal, his election was annulled in April 2008 on the basis that he had still been a member of the ANPP when he won the PDP nomination. Wamakko regained his seat in the May 2008 re-run.Since the Supreme Court judgment of January 27, Alhaji Lawal Mohammed Zayyana has been sworn in. From his initial rhetoric, the Acting Governor is presenting himself as an ardent supporter of the second term bid of Wamakko.'I look forward to a successful outing for Alhaji Aliyu Wamako and his eventual return as the Executive Governor of Sokoto State and indeed for the continuation of his laudable and people oriented programme,' Zayyana said at his swearing-in as acting governor. With such support, Wamakko's return should not be too rough.
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