My heart goes out to Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu State, who is reportedly cabined by an unnamed ailment in a foreign hospital. We have no alternative than to believe that Chime is highly indisposed, as he has left his seat as governor since September 19 last year, to embark on accumulated vacation, from which he has not returned almost four months later.
From the way the average Nigerian wields power, maximum, totalitarian, it’s a big deal to be away for about four months, and it can’t be without cause, a major cause.
Yes, Chime handed over to his deputy, Sunday Onyebuchi, who has been acting governor since September 19. But he did not say for how long he would be gone, and you know Onyebuchi can only act within certain bounds as had been determined by his principal and the kitchen cabinet. In Nigeria, most deputy governors are never members of such conclave.
Chime is not the only governor at large in Nigeria. Two others, Danbaba Suntai of Taraba and Liyel Imoke of Cross River, have also been away since last October and November, respectively. However, the difference is that the other two are admittedly away on medical grounds. Suntai suffered life-threatening injuries after being involved in an air crash in October, while the Cross River State government confirmed that Imoke had been hospitalised abroad.
A statement from Christian Ita, Imoke’s Chief Press Secretary had confirmed: “His Excellency took a short break after a long, hectic and eventful year… He used the opportunity to undergo medicals and in so doing, was advised by his doctors to undergo further medial examinations.” But with Chime, mum has been the word. No official of the Enugu State government has confirmed the health status, or the whereabouts of the governor since September, allowing the rumour mills to go into overdrive. Some say Chime has been in an Indian hospital, suffering from a terminal disease. Others say he’s in a London hospital, where he had surgery for a major ailment. At a point last month, others said he was even dead.
Yet, no definite word from the Enugu State government, except chimes and tintinnabulation: Chime will come today. He will come tomorrow. He will come next week. “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow.
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, to the last syllable of recorded time (William Shakespeare in Macbeth).” Yet, no sign of Chime. Enugu is in a state of suspended animation. Where is the governor? Didn’t we vote him into office? Don’t we have a right to know what is happening to him? Is he not accountable to us again? But not even a whisper from government, just as the wheel of governance trundles sluggishly.
A group, going by the name, Civil Society Initiative, has launched what it calls ‘Operation Locate Governor Chime,’ and Jude Agu, one of the promoters, says: “We want to search through all the nooks and crannies to fish him out.” How funny! You often have mirth accompanying untoward happenings. A whole governor is now lost, and has to be ‘fished’ out from wherever he is. Chime’s loyalists continue the chimes, however.
He will be home for Christmas. He will be home for New Year. He will be home within days in January. Yet, no Chime, and January is running fast. When rumours circulated in December that the governor was dead, his younger brother, Jideofor Chime, said, “in a matter of days, those merchants of fibs would eat their words.”
Well, it is running into a month later, and no Chime in sight. But those behind the chimes make one mistake. They think because you are a governor, you are super-human, and have no reason to be ill. So if you fall sick, it has to be kept away from the public as much as possible. Grave fallacy. Governors, just like all human beings, can fall ill, they can recover, and they can die.
Presidents too can fall ill, recover, and can die. We have seen it before in Nigeria, as President Umaru Yar’Adua died in office. In Venezuela now, President Hugo Chavez is battling for life in a Cuban hospital, suffering from cancer, even as he was due to be inaugurated for another term in office. Top public office holders are as human and mortal as the next man. In fact, all mortals are doomed to death, and governors or presidents are by no means immune. Nobody bears a charmed life. We all have our entrances and exits on this stage called life, where as a poor player, we often strut and fret, thinking we would live forever. It is “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing (Shakespeare).”
Chime’s handlers should have levelled with Enugu people on the state of the governor’s health. Happily, he was doing quite well, particularly in the area of public infrastructure. Enugu was really working under Chime, till the man dropped out of sight. So, if the government had levelled with the people, they would have risen as one man, and prayed passionately for their governor. And who knows, the heavens may just hearken to the supplications, and grant Chime sweet release in the area of his health. But this cultic silence? It does nobody any good. Not Chime, not members of his kitchen cabinet, not the acting governor who can’t take key decisions, not Enugu people as a whole.
When Umaru Yar’Adua was ill unto death, former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, said something instructive (never mind that you can’t trust the man farther than you can throw him). He said if you were given a job to do, and suddenly, along the way, you found that you could no longer deliver due to health challenges, then the fair thing was to throw in the towel. That is the same counsel I’ll give Chime, or his handlers, if the governor is no longer in a position to take independent decision. Heck, Chime was not born a governor. If he dies, Enugu State would continue. If he recovers, his tenure will lapse one day.
So, why bog down the wheels of progress of the state? You have my sympathy Chime, in fact, I empathize with you, as I don’t like to see people fall from elevated positions. But if your health prevents you from continuing as governor, quit. Quit, man, quit. It will be the honourable thing to do.
National Secretary of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, Willy Ezeugwu, has called on the State House of Assembly to act in accordance with the Nigerian Constitution, and remove Chime, or “I will personally lead 10,000 Enugu citizens to the streets for them to let us know where our governor is.” Mr Osita Okechukwu of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), has also urged the State’s Chief Judge to ensure that the acting governor replaces Chime without further delay. But must things get to this pass before the Chime camp admits defeat, if, indeed, the governor is sick unto death?
If Chime is well enough to run Enugu State, let him return home and get at it right now. But if not? Well, he swore to uphold the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and section 189 (1) of that document prescribes what should be done to a governor that becomes incapacitated, and can no longer continue in office. The constitution is greater than all of us, and no respecter of personality.
The survival and growth of our democracy must be paramount at all times, no matter the narrow interest of any person or group of persons. Enugu is today facing an absurdity, an embarrassment, which need not continue for one day longer. The clock is ticking, and it is either chiming Chime back into office, or forever out of it. The state cannot afford this lingering impasse anymore. Definitely.
I cannot believe this. Chime left office since September. You see, Yar’Adua has shown people how to do it. Politicians always borrow a leaf from each other about how not to govern properly. Governance is none of their business. If they tar a few roads, you should all thank your stars! Politicians learn from each other, but not about good governance. One politician leaves a bad example behind, and another one picks it up. One president stole the nation dry, another one repeats the same process. It is the Enugu people who are now suffering. It is Nigerians who are now suffering as these politicians disappear every now and then into foreign hospitals, with the tax payers money. Point of correction. Chavez is in Cuba, not Germany, London or USA. Black people wake up!
Life is funny and complex to comprehend. My the Good God provide the way out!
Niger is too sweet 4 nonsense 2b done unquestionble,chime’s off seat of power conuting 6 months nw,the state under acting capercity,millions going side ways unquestionable too.9ja is too sweet anything goes without opsition.thank 4 cryout loud own 2 dis situation.
This writer, if you are ever a journalist, you should be ashamed of yourself. Why make so much noise about Chime’s whereabout when you should be out there investigating and looking for him? That’s the stuff journalists are made off. Like the rest of us, you are keyed into the rumor mill. Go out there and do some fishing: do what journalists do, being some investigating for this governor. Is he in a London Hospital? Is he in an Indian Hospital? Does he have AIDS? What kind of sickness is he afflicted with? These are the questios you guys are supposed to be answering for us. Abi?
They should all know that nobody is indispensable. It is a matter of time and the truth will be out.
I love my country.’Proudly Nigeria.’
Mr Anonymous, you sound as if what you are proposing is an easy thing to do. Uncle Femi is a fine journalist who has paid and is still paying his dues. Don’t you know it is journalistic of him to write on issues of public interest? Must everyone be an investigative reporter? It is a general failure on our journalists that they don’t do much of investigative reportage these days, not just that of Uncle Femi. Please let him be, for many like me are just comfortable with the good write-ups he churns out for us.
Recycling stories is not journalism. Follow the paper trail to wherever it leads you. The last I heard is that Chime is in India. Can’t this reporter travel to India? What’s the reason for the long fought FOI legislation? Can’t this reporter request for related information via this authority? Why is this such a rocket science? Why is it even an herculean task? Why are our reporters so lazy and cheap? Where are the investigative reporters of our land? Why can’t someone break the news about where Chime’s handlers have or are hiding him? Isn’t there a stool pigeon or a Judas in his kitchen cabinet who might sell his soul for a fist full of Naira? C’mon guys! Greatness is made of stuff such as this. Who has the gull and/or smarts to hunt down juicy leads that will blow the Chime mystery right out of the water? That’s what will and should make news. Enough of this repackaging of old and boring news! Give the people “Breaking News.”
I read the article because of the dignity of the write.Otherwise there is nothing enthusiatic about chime story that should elicit my interest.Why are they hidding their human frailty.It is sheer hypocrazy to play god by pretending not to fall sick.Where has that happened not even the apostles of our Lord Jesus could be immuned from flesh limitations.Just last December, Ugo chavez of venezuela addressed his nation to inform that that he was handing power to his deputy to enable him go for long medical check up in cuba for his cancer ailment. I even empathize for him even though he is not much of my ldeal person due to his pro -Iran stance and anti Israeli/America policy. The Chime drama is playing out only because when Yar’dua suffered same thing the entire Nigerian system watched with hands folded while his wife was playing hocky game with on the syche of many us and after his death nobody has been brought to question for traeting public office with scum and alter contempt.
This is country where anything can happen, it will happen and nothing will happen.
The onus surely lies on the entire media community to trace the whereabouts of these governors; from the moment they left their states, the flight they joined, the airport where they landed overseas, the house or hospital they entered therefter, the man or woman that recieved them, the reason for their visit to such a place or places, why they have remained in such a place or places up till now and if possible when they are to depart the place. Back it up with pictures and this intrigue will be laid to rest once and for all. Are we saying that no Nigerian media house can handle this very simple assignment? Well, the truth is that most journalists dwell on rumour to “educate, inform and entertain Nigerians, reason being that literacy level is ridiculously low. Unless this is done, no story on this subject will make any meaning to the reading public in Nigeria.
Chime should have arranged for press releases on his illness and kept the people who by omission or comission elected him into office. Even a dictator like Chavez in Venezuela keeps his minions informed, because that is the right thing to do. Nigerians should rise up and resist a criminal cabal from stealing the state blind in the name of a brain dead elected official who for all we know could be as dead as a Yar Adua or better still died weeks ago and is never returning to the state. No one is wishing ill on Chine, but his handlers and inner circle must come clean. This is where a TRULY separate Judiciary with an attorney general should intervene and interprete the law of the land as concerns an absentee governor or elected official.
This article is a rehash. It baffles me that up till now,no journalist and/or a group of journalists is/are able to unearth the whereabout of these governors. Jeez! All they do is repackaging. U guys are lazy and do not worth ur rating! QED.
This article is a rehash. It baffles me that up till now,no journalist and/or a group of journalists is able to unearth the whereabout of these governors. Jeez! All they do is repackaging. U guys are lazy and do not worth ur rating! QED.