Where is Governor Sullivan
Iheanacho Chime? Is he
dead? Is he alive? There is
clear indication that in Enugu
state, a cabal of state officials
has taken government
hostage by their complicity
to stage what might be the
most scandalous and most
elaborate cover-ups in
Nigeria’s public
administration.
There have been indication
that Governor Sullivan Chime
is not in good health; the
grapevine, usually more
reliable in these matter than
the more established media
is rife with the rumour that
Mr. Chime is in harrowing
and terminal ill-health. The
word thrown-about is
“terminally ill” and it has
gained momentum in the last
month when the governor’s
absence became quite stark.
The administration in Enugu
has repeatedly doused the
chatter with its own talk that
the governor is in fine and
dandy health; he is merely
vacationing; taking an
extended vacation from a
backlog of unspent leave.
The only problem with this is
that Mr. Chime, a Lawyer
before he became a
governor, knows well the
constitutional limits or
requirements incumbent on
a governor who is deemed
no longer capable of carrying
out his sworn responsibility
to the people as a result
either of physical or mental
debility.
Gov Sullivan Chime
Gov Sullivan Chime
A governor who runs mad in
office is a danger to that
office; as much indeed as a
governor who develops full-
blown AIDS in office, or who
in the course of driving to
the office one day gets into a
freak accident that renders
him permanently, physically
incapable of carrying on with
the tasks of the rather
demanding office of
governor.
The evidence of Chime’s real
health situation is hard to
come by; there is no medical
records – particularly since
state officials travel now to
India or Germany or some
such places to receive
treatment – more so because
the sheer weight of
executive power makes their
actions unaccountable and
their Medical history
indisclosable.
As a result, far too little is
available to the media which
have either been gated from
the facts, or have remained
in a convenient fog of
impotent but complicit
distrust, and who have
chosen to swallow fully and
with a satisfied belch, the
hook, the line, and the sinker
thrown by our friend, Mr.
Chuks Ugwuoke, Enugu’s
commissioner for
information, that there is no
“vacuum” in Enugu.
No one knows the true state
of Chime’s health because it
has become “a security risk”
to know such detail. The
governor is a god, his
powers are sublime and
limitless, and as a result the
people on whose mandate
he purportedly remains in
office must be kept in the
dark of convenient
ignorance. But what is very
clear is that Sullivan Chime
has been serially absent from
his duties.
This is troubling. He has been
away from his job since
September, over ninety days;
well past the statutory period
allowed for the governor of a
state to be constitutionally
away from office. The
constitution is not silent on
this. In fact, the constitution
makes a provision for
dealing with a governor
whose duties are impaired
by a continuous and
sustained absence from
office as a result of ill-health.
But the executive council in
Enugu has not deemed it
necessary to make full
disclosure to the people of
Enugu State. The absence of
the governor from the public
in the last ninety days has
also not compelled the Enugu
State House of Assembly, to
raise the question on behalf
of the people and to take
appropriate action as the
demands of the constitution
warrants.
This is irresponsible. The
Enugu state executive Council
has, by law under the current
supervision of the acting
governor of the state, Mr.
Sunday Onyebuchi, the
responsibility to call for votes
to replace the governor of
the state in the face of his
continued absence from his
public duties outside of the
specified number of days
allowable for such an
absence.
At this stage, it is imperative
for all who are committed to
good governance to say
without ambiguity that
Governor Sullivan Chime
seems permanently impaired
and therefore incapable of
continuing in the office of
the governor of Enugu state
and that the Deputy
Governor of the state has the
constitutional right and
obligation to assume full
duties as governor forthwith.
Even if the governor appears
publicly on Monday morning
hale and hearty, he has
demonstrated with his long
absence from office, a lack of
interest and a lack of
judgment.
Staying away for so long
from his job makes his
tenure in that office
untenable. There is no public
officer who overstays his or
her leave without
consequence and Governor
Chime has broken a cardinal
rule of his obligation as Chief
Executive of the
administration of Enugu
State.
We, the people, who
recruited him to that job and
the State Assembly, as the
key trustees of the people’s
interest must either
commence impeachment
moves against the governor
or nudge him gently into
dignified rest if indeed it is
true, as the rumors go, that
the Governor is in no
physical or mental state to
continue in office.
He should also come out
publicly in a press
conference to dispel these
rumors of his ill-health for
both his sake and the sake of
the administration, already
compelled to make
interminable excuses for an
inexplicably absent governor.
We need full disclosure. We
must move away from the
tradition of silencing and
cover-ups long associated
with such offices in Nigeria.
The governor’s health is no
security matter. It is, or
ought to be against the law,
for government officials to
feed false information to the
public about the state of
affairs in any administration.
Information sent out to the
public, if found to be false,
even if to protect an
administration or the
government should be fully
prosecuted. It ought to earn
such an official a long term
in jail who retails false
information to the public.
So the question again: where
is Governor Sullivan
Iheanacho Chime? Is he dead
or alive? Can he continue as
the governor of Enugu? We
ask because it is long past
time to tell the truth.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/12/governor-not-on-seat/

umar musa yar'adua part 2.
Time will tell!