The judiciary has been helpful in putting many things in order in Nigeria. There could have been several physical confrontations between people who felt offended, used or cheated by another if not for the help of the judiciary that helps to resolve issues. The judiciary has also been helpful in matters concerning elections, as many election petition tribunals have been able to annul the election of some politicians who have allegedly involved themselves in electoral malpractices....CONTINUE READING
There are many politicians in Nigeria whose elections have been at one time or another annulled by the court, and such a politician re-contested the election and lost, while there are also some that have won their re-run elections. Murtala Nyako is one of those lucky politicians whose governorship election has been annulled by the court but bounced back to win a re-run election with a significant margin over the runner-up.
Murtala Nyako, a former naval officer, joined politics in 2006 and was fortunate to be elected as the Adamawa State Governor in 2007. This makes it the first time to rule the the state as a governor. Unfortunately his ruling as the governor at this time was, however, short-lived as the Election Petition Appeal Tribunal nullified his election in February 2008 for electoral malpractices. The House Speaker, James Barka, was, however, sworn in as acting Governor.
In April 2008, there was a re-run of the governorship election and, interestingly, Murtala Nyako showed his popularity yet again amongst the contestants in Adamawa after pulling 361,729 votes, taking all 21 local government areas.
How Murtala Nyako rebounded and won the governorship election by a landslide shows that the failure of anyone in any race does not indicate that someone is not doing well or that one shouldn’t make an attempt to try again.