26th August, 2013
With yesterday’s arrival of ailing Governor Danbaba Suntai of Taraba State in the country after 10 months of medical treatment in hospitals in Germany and the United States, the nation is about to witness another sordid replay of the President Umaru Yar’Adua saga during which the nation was treated to a drama of the absurd for seven months.
The drama ended on 5 May, 2010 when the then President Yar’ Adua died in Aso Rock and Goodluck Jonathan, who was acting as president, was sworn in as the substantive president.
Though the Yar’Adua saga was played at the national level, that absurd drama is being re-enacted at the state level. This time in Taraba State.
When Governor Danbaba Suntai crashed his private jet near the NNPC depot in Yola, Adamawa State, on 25 October, 2012, many people thought he was lucky to have survived. This is because two of his aides died in the accident. The governor was believed to have suffered brain injury. He was treated at the National Hospital, Abuja and was later flown to Germany and then United States for further treatment.
Just like a clique of the inner friends of Yar’Adua and his wife, Turai, prevented the nation from knowing the true state of health of Yar’ Adua, attempts by the people of Taraba to know the true state of Danbaba’s health condition and decide whether he can continue in office or not, have been frustrated by a cabal suspected to be benefitting from the governor’s incapacitation.
The cabal, comprising officials of government and his wife, have been desperately churning out information to convince the people of Taraba that the governor was okay and can discharge his constitutional responsibility of governing the state, contrary to his physical state of health which shows that he is mentally and physically incapable of administering the state. This was clearly mainifested yesterday upon his return to the country as he could not greet or acknowlege cheers from the crowd that had besieged Abuja airport to welcome him. He was even assisted to alight from the aircraft that brought him back from America and also assisted to enter the SUV that took him from one end of the airport to board a chopper that flew him to Jalingo.
Just like in the Yar’Adua case, attempts to make the deputy governor of the state, Alhaji Umar Garba, succeed the incapacitated Danbaba, have been frustrated by the clique in Taraba, supported by some politicians at the national level.
When Garba was sworn in as the acting governor of the state following pressures from concerned citizens of the state who felt that something should be done about the rudderlessness in the state, loyalists of the governor ensured that Garba was prevented from performing to the satisfaction of the people.
Now with the arrival of the governor in the state, though he is still unfit, his diehard loyalists who are profiting from his unstable condition, are about playing out the second script which is to ask the state House of Assembly to revert the acting governor back to his position as deputy governor and allow Danbaba continue to rule. On his arrival, Danbaba was shielded by these loyalists from the people. Even the acting governor was prevented from seeing him.
The same drama played out at the national level on 24 February, 2010 when ailing President Yar’Adua, against all medical advice that he was incapacitated and cannot be saddled with affairs of state, was forcefully flown into the country to continue his rule by his loyalists who were bent on preventing Jonathan from becoming the substantive president. Jonathan was even prevented from seeing Yar’Adua, despite the fact that he was the acting president.
They succeeded to some extent as they prevented Jonathan from exercising full powers as president but as fate would have it, Yar’Adua died in As Rock on 5 May, putting paid to the shenanigans of his loyalists.
Looking at the developments in Taraba State now, history is about to repeat itself. The question is, should Danbaba, who from all indications, appears to be mentally incapable of administering the state, be allowed to die in office just like Yar’Adua did on account of the greed of some people? Time will tell.