By Dan Onwukwe
Chief Timipre Marlin Sylva, a former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and one-time Governor of Bayelsa state is currently facing a sad, dim, darkening moment with little or no likelihood of light at the end of the tunnel of realising his ambition to become the Governor of the oil-rich state for a second time. And time is fast running short. Last Thursday, he looked crestfallen as if the whole world had collapsed on him. The Court of Appeal, Abuja Division dealt him a heavy blow when it dismissed his petition asking the Appellate court to overturn the verdict of the Bayelsa Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal which affirmed the election of incumbent Governor, Douye Diri for a second term in office. Sylva’s ashen face could not betray the tumult deep in his soul.
This is why: All his political life – from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to his present sojourn in the All Progressives Congress (APC) – Sylva has always held before himself the image of a ‘daring cowboy’, the man with the perceived political capacity to outrun the wild herd, and as Americans will put it, ‘riding at the dead end in the dark of the night, knowing there are no prairie dog holes around’. This formula is not the definition of manly courage. It’s make-believe because politics is neither a flat grassland nor given to simple theorising. But, it’s all part of Sylva’s current futile litigations. Yes! It’s part of his self-inflicted injury and apparent lack of understanding of the lessons in power, especially when one is up against a sitting Governor adjudged to have delivered on most of his campaign promises to the people. Besides, the overriding need for an aggrieved petitioner to present irrefutable evidence to upturn the verdict of the electorate seems overwhelming not in Sylva’s favour.
The Court of Appeal judgment last Thursday, unmistakably says it all. The 3-member panel in its unanimous decision affirming the election of Gov Diri and his Deputy, Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, noted that the judgment of the State Governorship Petition Tribunal was sound in law in dismissing Sylva’s petition in the election held on November 11, 2023. The appellate court also held that Sylva and the APC failed woefully in their duty to call key witnesses relevant to prove their case beyond every reasonable doubt. And beyond that, the appellants failed to bring the Biomodal Voter Accreditation System( BVAS) machine or extracts to prove their allegations of electoral malpractice in the three affected local government councils that Sylva complained about- Southern Ijaw, Ogbia and Nembe. These areas, Sylva argued in his petition, were his strongholds that would have given him victory had the results been added.
That’s not all. The Court of Appeal stated that Sylva and the APC provided no cogent proof that would quash the earlier judgement of the Bayelsa Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal. Accordingly, the court dismissed his claims and that of the APC as “incompetent and abuse of court processes and lacking in merit”. In affirming the election of Gov Diri and Ewhrudjakpo, the Court awarded a cost of N500,000 in favour of the respondents( Diri and Ewhrudjakpo) to be paid by the appellants( Sylva and APC). It may be recalled that Diri polled a total of 175,196 votes in the election to defeat Sylva who scored 110,108 votes. Expectedly, Gov Diri was excited but humble at the judgment of the Court of Appeal and assured the continued commitment of his administration in delivering dividends of democracy to the people of Bayelsa state.
But in a defiant response, Sylva said he did not agree with the judgment and will appeal to the Supreme Court for final determination of the matter. That, of course, is his right to do so. In a statement addressed to his supporters last Thursday, he said, “Today is merely another step in the long and arduous journey to salvation. No march to a better society has come easy. Patriots and people have always fought for the birthing of a better world”. He said his decision to go to the Supreme Court in the days ahead was arrived at after an “extended meeting” with his lawyers, elders and stakeholders of APC, claiming that the “judgment of the Court of Appeal is in many ways, not in alignment with the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”, and therefore, “every legal means will be exhausted to retrieve our stolen mandate”.
In what some legal experts have interpreted as an aberrational and veiled attempt to seek undue favour, Sylva claimed that the judgment of the Appellate court, “sadly reflects some of the concerns expressed by the Chief Justice of Nigeria(CJN) Olukayode Ariwoola”. Could this be a subtle appeal to the emotions of the CJN who is retiring from the apex court next month? Or a subterranean tactic by Sylva to arm-twist the honourable justices of the Supreme Court, especially at this time, according to a legal scholar, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu that the Nigerian judiciary is seen by many to be at the “top of the grease pole”? Time will tell. But it’s all part of the political ammunition by Sylva in his present litigations. For instance, in March this year, he petitioned the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem, requesting the disbandment of the Bayelsa Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal over allegations of bias. He said he no longer has ‘confidence’ in the ability of the 3-member Tribunal chaired by Justice Adekunle Adeleye to deliver justice in the electoral dispute.
Sylva also claimed in the petition that he was only allowed to call 49 witnesses out of 224 he had proposed to the tribunal, and contended that would deny him a fair hearing. He also accused the tribunal of “distorting its record of proceedings to favour Governor Diri. Consequently, he urged the Court of Appeal president to disband the tribunal and reconstitute a new one “early enough” so that his petition could be heard before the 180 days deadline allowed for disputes elapsed on May 28, 2024. However, his petition was thrown out via a Hearing Notice dated March 11. The Tribunal was directed to continue under the same leadership. Chief Sylva would have seen the futility of his litigations if he had listened to the complaints of friends early on in the campaign, especially as it relates to his running mate, Joshua Maciver, who was alleged to have a lot of baggage going into the election. One of such immediate concerns was the allegation of a criminal case against Maciver who reportedly escaped from the Kaduna prison in 2006 after allegedly being convicted of the case he was charged with.
Sylva was said to have rebuffed the pleas to drop Maciver who denied all the allegations against him. But the controversy lingered all through the electioneering campaign and during the election proper. The excuse given by the Sylva campaign organisation was that late President Umaru Yar’adua had absolved Maciver of all wrongdoings and granted him full pardon through the Presidential Amnesty Programme(PAP) in 2009. But that had since been proved as false, according to a letter from PAP, Ref.No: OIA/PAP/IAO/Vol/417, signed by Maj.Gen Barry Ndiomu(retd). When this news broke in the heat of the political campaigns, the fear was that APC might not have a candidate in the November 11, 2023, Governorship Election in Bayelsa following the disqualification of Sylva himself by a Federal High Court presided over by Justice Donatus Okorowo on October 11, 2023, exactly one month to the election. But, it did after the Court quashed the lower court decision that Sylva would breach the constitution having been elected before. The controversy surrounding Maciver many believed, may have contributed to the defeat of Sylva. Beyond that, Sylva was up against an incumbent Governor who had done very well in his first term in office. Besides, a few months before the election, Gov Diri gave an assurance other candidates were urged to emulate. “I won’t spill blood to retain my seat”, Diri told stakeholders at Ogbolomabiri after assessing the security situation in the troubled Bassabiri, in Nembe Local Government. Like former President, Goodluck Jonathan, Diri maintains that he believes politics should not be a ‘do-or-die’ affair as is the case with some of our present politicians. Diri has also proved by his own conduct that he suffers no affliction of hysteria that often leads some politicians to indulge in various electoral malpractice.
Nigerian politicians need reminding that conventional wisdom demands that success in politics depends largely on the dividends a political officeholder is able to deliver to his constituents. This means that performance is a key factor that can infuse any elected leader with a genuine sense of self-confidence to seek a renewal of his mandate, provided voters are allowed to choose wisely. For Gov Diri, success has a pattern. You can glean it from the vision that a leader has for his people and his state. That’s why no leader can lead successfully without first acquiring power. At the same time, no leader can be great who does not know how to use the power so acquired for greater purposes that will benefit his people. At the moment, Bayelsa state has become somewhat of a massive construction site, with quality roads that connect the three senatorial zones. In the last 4 years, over 50 internal roads, with solar systems have been constructed, and many have already been commissioned.
The latest of such high-quality roads is phase 2, a 10.2km Glory Drive dual Carriageway that was commissioned last year by the Sultan of Sokoto, his Eminence, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III. The royal father said he was proud to be associated with the success story of the governor. He told the governor, “God has put you in this position to serve your people. Always see yourself as their “servant”. Altogether, from the beginning of his administration, Gov Diri has shown that he’s like an apple on a tree, nothing is hidden. He has proved a disciplined, clear-headed, caring, and listening leader, always ready to focus on issues concerning the people. It reflects the vision of a forward-looking man, not distracted by politicians who are driven by political vaulting ambition. That’s why, from the very beginning when the Supreme Court declared him a winner in 2019, he told reporters in Abuja, “I am a miracle Governor, poise to do miracles in Bayelsa”. By this, he meant, delivering dividends of democracy that will impact the lives of the people. Bayelsa, he said, “will not go back to Egypt where Chief Sylva left it”. How far Sylva will go in his appeal to the Supreme Court is uncertain. It’s his last-ditch attempt to become Governor again after he left that post in 2012 in circumstances he didn’t wish for himself. But the proof of evidence and another prospect of being the occupant of the Government House in Yenagoa is not on his side.
Culled from the Sun Newspaper
