Enugu State Governor Sullivan Chime spoke with reporters at the Government House, Enugu on his his health condition and long absence from the state. CHRIS OJI was there.
What was your experience like when you were abroad for medical treatment?
While I was away, I read so many embarrassing publications from the print media; most of them conflicting, almost all of them false and it was so embarrassing. You can write anything, provided it does not bother on defamation. I decided to call this meeting for me to clear the air. I noticed that that generated a lot of interest. Many people became interested and even, people who did not know about my existence. I came back. I got some texts messages from strange people, thanking God for my return. So, because of the interest, I felt there is need for us to come together in the hope that after today, we will put to to rest everything that bothered on rumour regarding my leave.
Why were you absent from the state for a long time?
In August or thereabout, I was privileged to be one of those nominated by the Nigeria Governors Forum to go to Germany to under study their federal system; a governor was picked from each of the six geo-political zones. I was nominated from the Southeast and we were led by our chairman, Rotimi Amaechi. I decided to go a little bit earlier through London to do my medicals because of what I will call lack of time. We don’t have time here. Got to London, did my medicals and was certified fit, was given a clean bill of health. I had a little growth on my neck that was not visible to anybody. I am a very observant person. I noticed it, showed it to my doctor. He touched it and said he did not think it was anything serious, but I should investigate it. I thought they would have seen it when they were doing the general scanning and screening, but nothing was found. So, I just singled it out and asked them to investigate it. I was referred to a doctor who after investigating it and asking me questions, of course, I told him, no pains, no symptoms, no disturbance from anywhere, said as far as he was concerned, there was nothing wrong with it, but he would also as a professional ask me to investigate it further, because I was almost running short of time. I made arrangements with them to help me get an appointment for closer examination of the growth. So, the following day, I left for Germany to join my colleagues. On that trip was my Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Dr Jude Akubuilo, and my SSA Investment; they were already in Germany waiting for me. So, I joined them.
After about a week, when they had set up the arrangement, I left Germany, went back to London and did the proper screening of that particular growth. They did biopsy and all that. So, in the process, it was discovered that the growth was cancerous. So, after further examination, it was discovered that the main tumour was behind my nose; it actually turned out to be what they called, nasopharyngeal cancer (cancer of the nose). At that stage, you know when people hear the word cancer, the first thing is to declare yourself dead before any assistance could come. They subjected me to further scanning to know if it had spread. Luckily, it hadn’t spread; it was just in those two areas – my nose and neck. They said the good news was that it was curable. That was when I became interested and they said, as soon as I was ready, they would commence treatment. Originally, we had planned to go from Germany to Lebanon on our way back to Nigeria, but I cancelled that trip, went back to Germany, informed my people I went with, came down to London with the commissioner. The SSA hadn’t the UK Visa then. He traveled back to Nigeria from Germany. In London, we made arrangement and agreed on when to come. So, we came back to Nigeria and within two weeks, I was able to make arrangements for transition. I wrote a letter to the Speaker of the House of Assembly, in accordance with the constitution, informing him of my decision to proceed on leave and, of course, sought his cooperation to work very well with the deputy governor, who would work as governor in my absence. Within the two weeks, we held two exco meetings; the last was held on Tuesday, the week I left. After the exco meeting, I told my exco members that I was proceeding on long vacation, which I wouldn’t know how long it would last to treat myself. That was the information they got and, of course, I told them to cooperate with the acting governor. The following day, I left for Abuja, which was a Wednesday and again attended the meeting of the governor’s forum, that night. Then ,Thursday morning, we had the National Economic Council meeting and the deputy governor was there to represent me. Got to London and settled in and the following day, Friday, I went to see the oncologist who had already made arrangements for treatments to begin and on Monday, I started treatment. I don’t think any of you has had such an experience.
Cancer is a deadly disease and the cure is also deadly. The cure for cancer is not Panadol. the cure for cancer are not these drugs you buy off the counter. By the time you go through chemotherapy and radiotherapy, you will be a changed person. So, I started treatment; the treatment altogether lasted for 12 weeks. Throughout the period of my treatment, I was an out patient. I was never admitted in any hospital. All my treatments, I took as an out patient. During the period of treatment, I personally had challenges with the treatment because, like I said, except you see somebody that has taken that kind of treatment, it is not easy to imagine. So, when I started reading in the papers, how I went to India, how I died at so- so place, to us it was a kind of entertainment. Anytime we felt like being entertained, we called up the Nigerian papers and we will be laughing. So, it was a lot of entertainment to us, but what became worrisome was the deliberate and sustained attempt to undermine the government of Enugu State. Over the years, if you people have been following events, especially when we addressed our people, yes, we have invested a lot of money in infrastructure and other spheres of life, but I have always said that one thing we would like to leave behind is a workable system. That has always been topmost on our agenda because when we came in, yes, I was part of the last administration, but unfortunately, when we came in, there was no system in place, not even a bad one. So, we felt there was this need to have a system in place because that is the only way you can encourage continuity because in this place, a governor comes and he will want to chart his own course. But if you have a system in place, if a governor comes in, he will build on what is existing. This was a kind of opportunity to put to test the system we have put in. Everything kept on happening as if the governor was not on leave, nobody talked about strike, nobody talked about non- payment of salaries, no contractor agitated over payment of fees, everything and life continued to be normal. It was like we had increased activities in my absence and I can say that I can beat my chest to thank the deputy governor who led the team and who ensured that the system worked in my absence. I am happy that we have almost attained that height and when we will be leaving in a few years time, we will be glad we have built a system and it is a good thing to notice that we didn’t have problems, inspite of all attempts made by our brothers and sisters to undermine us. The government of Enugu State has come to stay, the system put in place by us has come to stay. The treatment officially ended on December 10 and, of course, when treatment ends, that is when the real thing starts. When I had commenced treatment, what my doctors said was that I should stay off office for six months; that was their recommendation. But by the first week of January, when we went to review my state, they were shocked at the recovery rate, they were happy with the recovery. The scan they did showed that the tumour and nose fluid had disappeared completely, not even a scar was left behind and I won’t like to use the expression that they have declared me cancer free, but that was exactly what happened. Cancer is cancer and one will be required to go there from time to time for check up to make sure it does not raise its ugly head again. But as things are now, they have succeeded in curing that disease that was detected in September last year. Coming to my staff, all attacks on them that they were hoarding information and all that was an unfair attack on them. First and foremost, they didn’t have all the information. All they knew was that I was going on vacation and I didn’t know it was the business of people to know what my activities will be when I am going on vacation. So, I decide to use the period of my vacation to take care of myself. I don’t see how it should concern anybody, I don’t see why we should owe anybody any apology. The important thing is complying with the law, making sure that, as governor of the state, you ensured that the ship of governance remained on course and not abandoning your people. So, all those unfair attacks I found a little bit mischievous and actually exposed ignorance of some of our people. I was officially discharged; not on admission, and I am still in the process of recovering. You wont expect to see me tomorrow running, but I am fitter now to resume duties. I am fit enough to ensure that government is on course with the assistance of my co-pilots.
How come you did not let the people around you know you were traveling knowing that you are a public officer?
The truth was that these people actually knew. I don’t think there is any public officer who goes on leave abroad to take care of health challenges. You are trying to compare it with Yar’Adua situation. It is unfortunate and wrong. Yar’Adua traveled sick, I didn’t travel sick. Cancer is something that you may have, and you look normal and act normal. I wasn’t grounded because of the sickness. I was the person that decided on when to attack it. I actually choose the period because I looked at the time table between now and the end of my tenure and I said that was the only window I had because, at the end of this year, we will be talking about local government elections. I decided on when to attack it. It was not easy for me spending Christmas in London. I was telling somebody the other day that, since I was born, except during the Nigerian war when everybody was forced out, that was the first time that I was spending four months outside Enugu. It never happened. Even when I was in school, even when I did my service. So, it wasn’t an easy thing to be away for four and half months, but it was in the interest of the people of Enugu State and also myself as well as the system we are trying to put in place to seek treatment at a time that will not adversely affect that system. It would have been more challenging to the system, if I had been away at the time of the local government elections. You can imagine what it could have looked like. That was actually what informed my decision to seek medical attention immediately. It was not an emergency at all. I decided to do it and thank God it is now past.
The attacks against me started two weeks after I left. Some people had started writing nonsense; they were not interested in the truth. Going on vacation had nothing to do with my going to India and dying there. Why tell the nation that I was hurried into the plane and that I collapsed. I went to London as somebody fit and proper and unfortunately, they decided to handle the information the way they chose.
Based on your experience, do you have any plan of establishing a cancer clinic at the government hospital? What is your message to the people of the state?
Like I said earlier, this government is not about my person but what will be right and what will benefit Enugu people. Right from day one when we came in, I think it is in our four point agenda, we set out to build an ultra modern diagnostic centre. Unfortunately almost three years to the contract period, we were very badly disappointed by our contractor, I don’t like remembering that but happily we have been able to engage new contractors who are working day and night to ensure that we have such a diagnostic centre that will make provision for all these scanning machines. If we had it in place by the time I traveled, probably, I would have discovered the cancer in Enugu and not in London. So the important thing is to have this thing in place to know what your problem is. If you are properly diagnosed, you start looking for how to cure yourself. It is not just something Enugu state can do alone, but we want to provide the basic things. The entire infrastructure we are building is to attract investors and once they see a fertile ground they go there. We are praying that we will se an investor who can come here and establish a merger hospital. We will encourage such a venture. Enugu state as a government will not be ale to provide all that. For now we are providing Medicare, something that can sustain our people and we pray that someday we will get there.
I will like to thank the people of Enugu state for their patient, their prayers and belief in the system and for being able to rebuff all attempts by enemies to drag the state down and cause trouble. I have to thank the people for being there for us. We will try to provide as much goodies as we are able to afford, we will continue to serve our people to the best of our ability, we will continue to use our resources the best way we can the best way it can serve our people, so that no matter where you are, you will feel the impact of governance. We will not like to leave this place and we will hear that community A or B did not benefit. By the time we leave government we will like to be having testimonies from even the remotest village in the state that it was this government that gave us light, it was this government that gave us road, it was this government that gave us water, there must be something you must be thankful to government for. That is our aim. So we are here to serve our people. We have two years to round off and the two years, we will use fully. We will work until 29th of May 2015 and we expect that whoever is coming in will be part of the PDP family.
There were stories making the round like you said, people confused here and there. People expected you to speak when you came back. So why did you not speak on the day you came back, was it deliberate or part of the strategy?
If you were at the airport you would not have asked the question. When the aircraft stopped, looking out through the window, I saw the acting governor with his wife, I saw our own local service chiefs, the commander Garrison, the police commissioner and all that. Everything looked orderly, immediately I alighted from the plane, those people disappeared. I had to stop that I won’t move an inch here until I see the acting governor and they made way for him, every where was chaos. That was how I saw him. So you expected me in that madness to start addressing press? Of course I entered my car and we came here and relaxed. There is no urgency. I am just doing this in the interest of people who have been misled. There was no opportunity to address the press.
Now that you are back, have you written to the House of Assembly to tell them your back and when are you resuming duties?
The problem we have is that it is like you prying into the affairs of your neighbour’s family. That was exactly what happened. It was a case of people trying to come into Enugu to find out how we run our domestic affairs. We were watching NTA from Uk, there was one person who felt agitated and doubted if the letter was written. He said if the letter was written, there will be record of it in the record of proceedings of the House of Assembly and how the approval was given and I laughed my head. Read your constitution, I don’t need the approval of the House of Assembly to go on leave. You are not required to write to the House of Assembly, you are required to write to the Speaker for his information, that you are proceeding on leave and once you are on leave, the Deputy automatically starts acting so that when he approaches the House of Assembly for the budget presentation, they don’t turn him back to say we don’t know you. That is the essence of the letter and I am expected that once I came back, I will write to him [speaker] for his information. The constitution is so clear. I am not seeking his approval to resume duties, the constitution is clear. And that is to say, I am back, incase anybody comes to you to ask of the governor. The simple answer to your question is yes, I have transmitted a letter to the House of Assembly, that I am back so that you wont have a situation where you will say we have two captains in one ship. So like you just come here now, you will notice that I did not address the deputy governor as acting governor. So we don’t have two captains in one ship so that my orderly will know whom to take instructions from. It is one ticket and once one person is away, the other person takes over. When the Deputy governor is away, I take over his duties, if he comes back, he resumes. To again answer part of your question, it is not true that governors don’t stay away for two weeks. The governor of Abia state stays at least one month every year outside. Infact under Obasanjo, there was one governor who was ruling from abroad. Some even ascribed the period to say I have stayed over 140 days and where this is from, I do not know. Some even said I have over stayed a time limit, it was not so in my letter. There was no question of time frame. I am back and I am back. But I will tell you frankly, may be not for any ailment or cancer but if I have the opportunity of doing this again, I will like to repeat it. I have no regret whatsoever, I believe I did the right thing and the comments you people dished out were based on either ignorance or people being just mischievous. I have no business telling you my story; it is not your business. The first colleague of ours that we lost in our first term, the governor of Yobe state, he died in the USA. Who knew about his problem until he died? You don’t make it so unattractive, the office of the governor. They are human beings who are entitled to some level of privacy. When I traveled to London in September, I did not travel with anybody, I went alone at least to tell you how stable and fit I was. I didn’t go even with my three year old son. My SSA on Investment joined me one week later. I didn’t travel with any human being; I was able to take care of myself. I don’t need security abroad. What you people did, I am sure will scare a lot of people who would want to be governor in the future. What ailment was not ascribed to me? There was a time they left ailment and said my son was arrested for money laundry and that when I went to bail him, I was arrested in place of my son.. so it is really sad but thank God all that is over.
