Michael Orodare: Like Yar’adua like Suntai – We’ve been here before (Y! Politico)

by Michael Orodare

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…if Governor Suntai thinks his state of health is more important to him, than the politics, accolades and benefits the office of a State Governor commands, he should just step aside for those who are mentally and physically balanced…

Its no longer news that Governor Danbaba Suntai of Taraba state is back in the country. Thanks be to God for his life as not so many people had survived a road accident, let alone a plane crash, especially a fatal one like the Governor had some months ago which is why His survival is worth celebrating. A senior reporter with The Nation Newspaper, Joke Kujenya (Aunty Joke as she prefers to be called) broke all barriers last weekend when she visited the New York hospital in the United States, where Governor Suntai was being treated. According to the account of Aunty Joke, Suntai sat on a wheel chair and could not even utter a word and a confirmation of this came to the fore when the número uno citizen of Taraba State was being carried off the aircraft in Abuja on Sunday, on his arrival from the U.S.

When I heard of his letter to the House of Assembly and his dissolution of his cabinet, it was then I knew Governor Suntai also has the likes of Mike Aondoakaa and the Turai Yar’adua around him, who will continue to conspire to shield him from the public and tell him he can rule from anywhere in the world and under any condition, because they think Government House is too sweet to vacate so cheaply. They are too used to the sirens and the many aides, such that they view life difficult outside their present office.

I was with a friend when I heard the news of Suntai’s dissolution of the State Executive Council and he asked; Why do they want to kill this man? They should just allow him to step down, and face his life, I told him I was also expecting a resignation letter from Suntai to the Taraba State House of Assembly after his return to the country.

Government business and politics is no child’s play, its a serious business that even a healthy individual sometimes find difficult to manage, let alone a sick man, because those who are healthy, get to the office and start looking far older than their age. Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos clocked 50 years old recently and my Dad who is close to 60 looks so much younger than him.

The Suntai I saw on the front page of newspapers does not look sound mentally, physically and medically to run a Student Union Government of a Nigerian University, let alone Taraba State with over two million people. The man I saw in the news on Sunday looks dull, tired, worn out and incapacitated, he does not seem to recognise any of his associates or friends and one can begin to guess that with his present state, of not being able to recognise anybody, he might have lost his memory.

In the interest of the over two million Taraba state citizens and if Governor Suntai thinks his state of health is more important to him, than the politics, accolades and benefits the office of a State Governor commands, he should just step aside for those who are mentally and physically balanced to run the affairs of the state. Tax payers money meant to provide basic amenities for the people cannot continue to be expended on the Governor’s medical bill. Suntai’s associate and those pushing him to his early grave should think about this, because I believe the man himself does not know what is happening.

Governor Danbaba Suntai, please run for your life, and don’t let them push you to early grave, those kids are too young to be rendered fatherless, that woman is too young to become a widow, and if you still have parents, it’s a taboo in the part of the country where I hail from, for a child to go before his parents. Ponder on this, as you were not a toddler when political leaders and associates pushed late President Umar Yar’adua to his grave. Perhaps Yar’adua would have lived longer if he had not worn himself out during the 2007 Presidential Campaigns, running the 36 states of the country to garner the supports of the electorates. I believe he would have lived longer if he had no state affairs to bother him and think about, if he had no FEC and NEC meetings, AU, UN and Commonwealth meetings to attend, other than attending to his life and that of his immediate family.

Of course I do not wish Governor Danbaba Suntai death so soon, I wish him long life in sound health, but we must learn to let go whenever the occasion demands, I think it’s time Suntai let go the Governor’s Office and bow out to save himself the stress of running a state from the sick bed and also save the state of having to cope with a Governor by proxy, which might be used as an excuse for under performance, while thieves and opportunist used the playing scenario to siphon the state.

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Michael Olanrewaju Orodare has worked in the Office of the Chief Press Secretary to the Ondo State Governor as a Media Assistant. He has garnered experience writing in the The Nation Newspaper working with the paper’s Sunday Desk. He leans towards the Labour Party. He blogs at www.michaelorodare.blogspot.com and tweets from @MichaelOrodare

 

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

 

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