Welcome home Suntai

That day you crashed at Namtari, right behind the NNPC Depot merely 12 km from the Yola Airport, which was less than a minute’s flight time to your destination. Many thought you would not survive that accident. It was even in the news that you had died. Surely not many people fall from 18000ft above […]

That day you crashed at Namtari, right behind the NNPC Depot merely 12 km from the Yola Airport, which was less than a minute’s flight time to your destination. Many thought you would not survive that accident. It was even in the news that you had died. Surely not many people fall from 18000ft above sea level and walk home smiling. It was therefore a miracle that you are still alive today.
That was exactly 299 days ago. Since you left Taraba State for Germany and later the US for medical treatment, indeed for a mere rehab, a lot has changed along the line. If you had built rehab centres you would have been nursed in Jalingo among your people, which would have accorded you the moral muscle to rule again. I am not about to speculate if things were better for your people in your absence, but whether anyone likes it or not, Taraba created a new form of polarities where people are seen across the social spectrum in a framework that makes them repel one another because of the distinctions, the hurdles and the clusters that the politics of your injury has infused on the state. Tarabans are now beings in binary opposition; once they were made in Nigeria, 100 per cent cotton, where none bothered about religion, tribe or creed, who now identify male/female, rich/poor, urban/rural, Christian/Muslim, extremist/moderate, pro-Suntai/anti-Suntai and even over-eating/starving. It is that bad.
The consequences of all of these, I will be the first to admit, is the perfect definition of a storm in a teacup, which is rather apt, since we are talking about a tea producing state. In the last few days, even people who do not know exactly where Taraba State sits on the map of Nigeria have had something to say about your return to office. Like most Nigerians, I have read my fair share of those articles bemoaning this country’s desecration of its constitution, its identity crisis, the corruption of its youth, the selfishness of its politicians and indeed, the erosion of its core values.
Selfish politicians have made mountains out of molehills on straight forward issues or an academic exercise of an amateur effort. Would you have wanted your job back if you were a security guard at a secondary school in Jalingo? States are not merely administrative entities but sometimes profit-driven councils which should be led by sane and healthy individuals. The hypothetical question is, therefore, were you a branch manager with any of the banks in Nigeria would you have been accepted back to head the branch?
While I welcome you home to Taraba, I think, it is better for you to slip out of the public glare and keep thanking God that you were governor and could use public resources to heal yourself from an injury that would have killed anyone who didn’t have public funds to pay for his treatment. From your sight that returned to Jalingo this week, the dissolution of the cabinet, the television broadcast and the rest of the shenanigans notwithstanding, you presented the picture of a man who is disqualified by Section 189 of the 1999 constitution from further running the affairs of the state. It states:
(1) The Governor or Deputy Governor of a State shall cease to hold office if: (a) By a resolution passed by two-thirds majority of all members of the executive council of the state, it is declared that the Governor or Deputy Governor is incapable of discharging the functions of his office.
(b) The declaration in para-graph (a) of this subsection is verified, after such medical examination as may be necessary by a medical panel established under subsection (4) of this section in its report to the Speaker of the House of Assembly
(2) Where the panel certifies in its report that in its opinion the Governor or Deputy Governor is suffering from such infirmity of body or mind as renders him permanently incapable of discharging the functions of his office, a notice thereof signed by the Speaker of the House of Assembly shall be published in the Official Gazette of the Government of the State.
But none of these will apply to you because Nigerians, especially those in positions of leadership, simply bastardize the constitution and circumvent its stipulations. The members of the legislature have also subjugated themselves to the executive thus making nonsense of the principles of separation of powers.
But my candid advice is that your life, which you fought so viciously to keep, is more precious than a fleet of cars or that pilot’s uniform that you always looked so proud to wear. The path of honour for you is to return to Suntai where you already have another government house and keep your cool. Of course the nation has seen that you are now ‘altophobic’ and may not or never want to fly again. So you should show moral responsibility by calling a press conference and thanking the people of the state for feeding your indulgence, thank them for their patience while you were away, beg for forgiveness and understanding because of the waste of their resources and plead with them to allow you recuperate in peace. I believe the people of Taraba State, both Christians and Muslims, are compassionate people who will understand your plight and let you heal slowly.
Save yourself further humi-liation because your handlers are only gold-diggers out for their own few minutes of fame and sips off the wells of the Taraba treasury. But we know that in Nigeria, the moral burden of leadership is the last thing on the people’s minds. What our leaders bother about is not how to solve the problems of their states but which positions their pictures stood on the front pages of newspapers. As a newspaper editor myself, I have been told by one governor of his nightmares which involved appearing in a newspaper picture but being captioned as someone else. “It is like a stab in the heart”, he had told me seriously. Any more pictures of you in the papers can only further embarrass you. Welcome home, Captain Suntai.
Bello Barkindo ([email protected]