For the first time in his 4-months absence from the country, Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu State yesterday opened up about his health status, saying he had recovered and would soon be back in the country.
This came on the backdrop of a visit by three state governors: Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State and Chairman, Nigeria Governors’ Forum; Gabriel Suswam of Benue State and Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State who visited him in London, United Kingdom on behalf of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum where Chime is recuperating from an illness.
”I am alive and well, I will be back very, very soon.I am great, very, very great. Tell Nigerians to discountenance all the rumours about my health,”Chime saidin a very strong, cheerful voice said in response to being asked how he felt.
His visiting colleagues also spoke on his health, all giving him pass marks of good health.
Amaechi said: “We saw him in an atmosphere of recovery. We were able to go out with him, he is in good shape and is getting ready to come back home very soon. We thank God for what He has done, how He has helped him to recover.”
Also speaking, Suswam said: “Chime has been discharged from the hospital. He has recovered fully and is physically okay. I was impressed with what I saw. We walked around together, ate together and he is going about on his own.”
Akpabio, while speaking, said Chime had recovered tremendously and gave thanks to God.
“This our visit to him and the fact that he was able to speak with you has put paid to all the rumours. Nigerians should learn how to pray for their leaders instead of ganging up through NGOs and groups and wishing them evil. We are all human beings. As humans, we can break down anytime which means we should be sympathetic with our leaders when they face challenges whether health wise or security wise. We should pray for them instead of wishing them bad,” he added.
The visit of the governors to Chime came in just as a group of prominent citizens in the state operating as Save Enugu Group (SEG) made a call on the House of Assembly to invoke the doctrine of necessity and appoint the Deputy Governor, Sunday Onyebuchi as the Acting Governor.
The SEG had in its letter to the speaker dated January 21, 2013, demanded an explanation regarding the letter purportedly sent to the lawmakers notifying them of his intention to embark on leave in September last year, stressing that the said letter, if any, ought to have been made public since it was not meant for the speaker’s private perusal.
“We demand to know from you if the said letter was tabled and read at an open session of the House? If so, may we be obliged with or referred to a copy of the Hansard where this is reflected. We are also interested to know the ground on which the Governor was departing. Was it for a ‘vacation’ or the second arm which is ‘for inability to discharge the functions of his office’? It cannot be for both we humbly submit, as we believe that the ‘or’ makes the clause disjunctive and with different consequences.
“We would wish to inquire from you, if you did write formally to the Deputy Governor intimating him of the said letter and attaching a copy of the letter to enable him immediately begin to function as Acting Governor? This would be the prescribed procedure since we have been advised by constitutional lawyers that a swearing in is not mandatory in this particular circumstance.
“Mr. Speaker Sir, our worry here is that there is more to it than meets the eye in the ‘acting governorship’ of Mr. Onyebuchi. We believe that without a formal communication from your office to him, no one in his shoes can take over a state administration on mere hearsay,” the SEG stated in the letter to the speaker signed by its Convener, Okwu.
However, the position of the group was faulted by the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Mr. Eugene Odo, who said the position of the Assembly Governor Chime’s prolonged absence was not in contravention of the Nigerian constitution, and as such, did not warrant any attack on it if it refused to invoke the Doctrine of Necessity to remove Chime from office.
Odo, who spoke on the floor of the House while resuming debates on the state’s 2013 proposal, continued by saying that the group had a flawed understanding of the situation and were making an unworthy comparison with the situation of late President Umaru Yar’adua. He pointed out that in the case of Governor Chime, he had written the House before travelling and empowered the Deputy to act in his stead.
“It beats my imagination when some people started to say that the House of Assembly should empower the deputy governor to act. Under our constitution, the power to act has been vested on the deputy governor and the constitution does not provide for double acting capacity as some people are clamouring for.”
“That is a mere moral issue. The constitution of Nigeria in Section 189 made it specifically clear that even when the governor is not feeling fine, the only statutory body that can generate a resolution to the House of Assembly is the State Executive Council and even in the House of Assembly, the Speaker has a duty to nominate five medical practitioners including the governor’s doctor for that purpose. In other words, those listed by the group did not meet the constitutional requirements; none of them is a medical practitioner,” he argued.
Governor Chime has been away from the country since September 19, 2012 on leave and had written to the House, informing them of his leave and handing over the government to his deputy, Onyebuchi.
The governor’s failure to return to office after six weeks sparked controversy, leading to speculations of ill-health and varied allegations of incapacity. Enugu Commissioner for Information Mr. Chuks Ugwoke, however, repeatedly asserted that due process was followed by the governor in proceeding on what he described as “accumulated vacation.”
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