Tambuwal, Ambode, el-Rufai, Ribadu… winners and losers of the 2015 governorship election

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared the winners in all but three of the states where governorship election took place on Saturday.

As expected after its resounding victory at the March 28 presidential and national assembly election, the All Progressives Congress (APC) predictably went ahead to win in majority of the states.

Though the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which until recently was the largest party in Africa, targeted 24 states, the party has so far won only about a third of that.

Below are four winners and three losers of the election.

AKINWUNMI AMBODE

The APC candidate polled a total of 811,994 votes ahead of Jimmy Agbaje of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with 659,788.

APC’s overwhelming support in the lead-up to the election seemed punctured when, just a few days to the poll, Rilwan Akiolu, the Oba of Lagos threatened that Igbos who voted for Agbaje would “die in the Lagos Lagoon”. It certainly won Agbaje a few hundred thousand sympathy votes. But as events have now revealed, even the Oba’s gaffe was too little too late to alter the results!

AMINU TAMBUWAL

Tambuwal’s victory in Sokoto was far from surprising. So loved was he that even before he clinched APC’s governorship ticket, his friends and associates bought him the N27 million presidential nomination form of the party.

Tambuwal polled 647,609 votes ahead of Abdalla Wali of PDP candidate, who had 269,074.

As speaker of the federal house of representatives and with his solid relationship with Aliyu Wamakko, governor of the state and winner of the Sokoto centre senatorial district in the parliamentary election, nothing else was expected.

ABIOLA AJIMOBI

Ajimobi goes into history as the first governor to be re-elected in Oyo state. He polled 327,310 votes to beat ex-governor Rasheed Ladoja of Accord Party, who had 254,520.

Prior to the election, Adebayo Alao-Akala, the man who conquered Ajimobi in 2007, was seen as a threat to the governor’s re-election bid. Teslim Folarin of the PDP and Seyi Makinde of the SDP were also considered political heavyweights. As the result has now shown, the threat of the duo was overestimated.

IBIKUNLE AMOSUN

Gboyega Nasir Isiaka (GNI), who contested against Amosun under the platform of the Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN) in 2011, returned under the PDP in 2015 as the major threat to his second-term ambition. Amosun’s fallout with Segun Adesegun, his deputy, was also expected to reduce his chances. But all weapons fashioned against him failed to prosper. Result: Amosun 306,988, Isiaka 209440.

Akin Odunsi of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) was also expected to put up a stiff performance, but he surprisingly polled a miserly 25,826 votes.

RAMALAN YERO

After APC defeated PDP in Kaduna at the presidential election, analysts were already predicting defeat for Yero, incumbent governor of Kaduna state. They were right, after all.

He lost woefully to Nasir el-Rufai, former minister of the federal capital of territory and strong ally of Muhammadu Buhari, the president-elect. El-Rufai had 1, 117,635 votes ahead of Yero, who had 485,833.

NUHU RIBADU

Unarguably the biggest loser of the governorship election. Ribadu’s sojourn in politics has been anything but productive. The retired police officer, who gained international popularity during his time at the helm of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), took his first shot at politics in 2011, contesting for the presidency on the platform of the then Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). He won only in Osun!

Following the impeachment of Murtala Nyako as governor of Adamawa state in July 2014, Ribadu sought APC’s gubernatorial ticket to contest the by-election that would produce Nyako’s successor but lost it to Muhammad Jibrilla and defected to the PDP. Still, he could not win the PDP’s ticket at the time, as the party ruled that whoever contested the October 2014 by-election would abstain from the April 2015 election proper. He withdrew.

However, a court ruling nullifying the by-election directed the inauguration of Bala Ngilari, Nyako’s deputy, as governor since he resigned before the impeachment of his superior. That changed the entire political calculation, as Umaru Fintiri, acting governor and former speaker of the state, who was aspiring to govern till the conduct of the general election, had to vacate the seat.

Though stiff opposition mounted against Ribadu again, he eventually won the ticket and contested the election but lost woefully. With 98,970 votes, he came a distant third behind Markus Gundiri of SDP who had 181,806 and Jibrilla, who won with 362,329.

LABARAN MAKU

One of the closest ministers to Goodluck Jonathan, Maku defected to the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) when he could not win the PDP governorship ticket in Nasarawa. Despite losing the ticket to Yusuf Agabi, Maku believed that the support of his influential Eggon ethnic group could propel him to displace Governor Tanko Al-Makura, if he found a suitable party. But although Maku defeated Agabi at the election proper with 178,983 votes to 119,782, he had no answer for Al-Makura, who polled 309,746 votes.