Sylva graduated from the University of Port Harcourt with distinction in English in 1986. At the time, he was the best graduating student from his department and departmental valedictorian. He was subsequently awarded a Doctor in International Relations by the UBIS University in 2011.
Political career
Sylva's political career started in 1992 when he won a seat in the House of Assembly election representing Brass constituency in old Rivers State. At the time, he was the youngest of all the members in the house of Assembly. His political career continued when he was appointed as the Special Assistant to the Minister of State for Petroleum in 2004 under the auspices of Dr. Edmund Dakouru. He continued in that position until he resigned to join the PDP gubernatorial primaries in 2006 in Bayelsa State, in which he placed, second behind Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. After the PDP presidential primaries election and Dr. Jonathan was appointed as a running mate to HE Umaru Musa Yar’adua of blessed memory, the gubernatorial candidacy for PDP became vacant, and conventional wisdom took the better of the political actors and Sylva was elevated to occupy the position of PDP gubernatorial candidate. As a candidate of the People's Democratic Party Sylva won the Bayelsan gubernatorial election on May 29, 2007 and succeeded Goodluck Jonathan who went on to the position of Vice President. 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. The Appeal Court's five justices were unanimous in their decision and ordered that Speaker Werinipre Seibarugo be sworn in to replace Sylva as acting Governor, with a new election to be held within three months. 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. On January 27, 2012, his tenure was terminated by the Supreme Court with an acting governor appointed to oversee the state until the election of February 2012. Sylva was appointed by President Buhari on Wednesday, August 21, 2019, as the Nigerian Cabinet Minister of State for Petroleum Resources.
