- We understand the governor’s compassion and understanding, but his deputy cannot be on sick leave forever
It is a road we have travelled several times, especially since the return to democracy in May, 1999. Yet, whenever we get there, it becomes like a crossroads at which we seem to get lost and unable to navigate our way forward.
We are here talking about how to deal with ailments, especially as they affect our elected chief executives, whether at the state or federal level.
The latest example of such a crossroads is the deputy governor of Taraba State, Alhaji Aminu Abdullahi Alkali, who has been out of his seat since January because he is indisposed.
The Taraba incident is of a peculiar nature in that it is the governor, Agbu Kefas, his boss, that seems to be shielding his deputy. He is so protective of him unlike what happens in many other states where the governor and deputy governor do not see eye to eye. In fact, the animosity is such that people would start wondering whether the two of them were strange bedfellows or they were elected on a joint ticket.
From the comments of both the Taraba State Commissioner for Information, Zainab Jalingo, and special adviser to the governor on politics, Professor Josiah Sabo Kente, it is clear the state governor is not in any way ready to initiate any process towards the deputy governor’s replacement. Although the government admitted that the deputy governor was ill, it said he was not incapacitated, adding that he was responding to treatment. According to Jalingo, the deputy governor was only away on sick leave and would be back.
Kente said the deputy governor had not committed any offence to warrant his replacement. “This issue is very simple. It is very explicit in Section 89, Sub-section B on the procedures for the removal of a governor or the deputy governor. For the avoidance of doubt, it stipulates clearly that it is either the governor or the deputy governor is incapacitated or by death or impeachment.
“In this case, the deputy governor has not been removed from office. His ailment does not place him within the category of incapacitation. No medical team has been set up to ascertain if he is incapacitated or not. So, what is the essence of all the clamour?
We commend the camaraderie between the governor and his deputy. It is not usually so in our clime.
However, beyond the demonstration of compassion and understanding on the part of the governor and the state government is the overarching issue of governance in the state.
Interestingly, this would not be the first time we would be having this kind of experience in Taraba State. The state witnessed an almost similar experience with the ailment of the then Governor Danbaba Suntai who, for more than two years after injuries he sustained in a private plane crash in 2012, could no longer function in office. Yet, some of the governor’s relations and associates were presenting the picture of a governor that was fit to govern. It even got to the ridiculous extent of the governor being shown in a minute video which, rather than affirm the position of the associates, clearly showed the governor was not fit to continue in office.
At a point the governor issued an immediate notification to the house of assembly signalling his preparedness to resume work. But the house members insisted he had to address them before they would accede to his request. He never did because that would expose what his associates were covering. The governor did not recover from the ailment until the 2015 elections were held and he was succeeded by Darius Ishaku of the same Peoples Democratic Party, like him, who was elected and sworn in as governor.
Before Suntai’s case was President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua who was flown to a hospital in Saudi Arabia on November 23, 2009, due to an ailment. On November 26, presidential doctors said he had pericarditis – inflammation of the heart lining. He was away for three months and the cabinet then issued a statement saying Yar’Adua was “not incapable” of running the country. Some even said he could run the country’s affairs from anywhere, while a federal high court said in January 2010 that there was no need for formal transfer of power.
The then Minister of Information, Dora Akunyili, would appear the odd cabinet member as she insisted the president was no longer capable to rule and that power should be transferred to the then Vice President Goodluck Jonathan. As with other such mischiefs, Yar’Adua was even made to address a press conference in Saudi Arabia as part of proof that he was healthy. To resolve the impasse, the National Assembly invoked the doctrine of necessity on February 9, 2010, appointing Jonathan as Acting President. About three months later, precisely on May 5, 2010, Yar’Adua died.
We also have the case of the immediate past governor of Ondo State, Arakunrin Rotimi Akeredolu. Akeredolu had been undergoing treatment for leukemia and prostate cancer since January 2023 and had taken medical leave of absence. He eventually died on December 27, 2023, barely 15 days after transferring power to his deputy, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, now the incumbent governor of the state. Needless to say we had all kinds of shenanigans too trying to demonstrate that Akeredolu was fit to continue in government until death brought a closure to the matter.
In the case of the former President Yar’Adua, it took only three months for the National Assembly to put an end to the shenanigans of his handlers who wanted to continue ruling the country by proxy, hence the pretensions that he was able to govern even when it was obvious he wasn’t. Suntai never returned to power more than two years after his hospitalisation. In the instant case of the deputy governor, he has been off duty for about seven months.
In our view, this is long enough period to effect a change. We acknowledge that we are all human beings and can fall sick at any time. But then, the affairs of state cannot wait forever for a sick man to recover because we are talking of the lives of millions of people to be impacted by governance.
Even if we do not have a court pronouncement on such issues yet, common sense and morality should inform our reasoning. This is much more so in a situation where we do not know the diagnosis of the deputy governor’s ailment. How can we determine its prognosis? It is unfortunate that in our country, people value position more than service. Otherwise, why should people be compelled to carry things that are beyond their capacity?
Section 189 of the 1999 constitution (as amended) is clear on the matter: “The Governor or Deputy Governor of a state shall cease to hold office if: 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”.
So, let Governor Kefas and the state house of assembly trigger the necessary processes to replace Alkali. Deputy governors might have been turned to ‘spare tyres’ in our clime, spare tyres, nonetheless, like a bad child, have their good days.
