Chime: 55 garlands for a silent achiever

By BY CHUKS UGWOKE on April 10, 2014 · Politics

It does not surprise people close to him any longer that there is no contemplation of any plan to celebrate his birthday today. As it has happened these past seven years, state functions have been scheduled for the day, including a joint Easter retreat for House of Assembly members, Executive Council members and the 17 local government chairmen, perhaps, partly, to keep both the elected and appointed officers at bay from his official residence.
Since he came in the saddle as the governor of Enugu State, Sullivan Iheanacho Chime has maintained such familiar distance and tradition of keeping everybody busy or embarking himself on inspection of projects, which, clearly exposes his reluctance to mark his birthday. The ritual is that his chaplain will conduct a brief mass “to thank God for the life of His servant, Sullivan Chime” and the few family members and privileged few friends will say “Happy Birthday, Your Excellency” and that will be it!

To risk this unsolicited tribute is, in itself, walking a tight rope, prayerful that no eyebrows are raised. Thankfully though, there are some events beyond his control: his birthday is today and he cannot stop the grateful people of Enugu State and others, who will take newspaper spaces, send text messages or use other platforms to wish him well.
Such chosen solemnity accords well with Chime’s self-detached disposition to his well-known achievements. The circumstances of his birth and progression in life seemed to suggest that his parents, Igwe Elias Aneke Chime, himself a First Republic parliamentarian and one-time Minister of Enugu, and his wife, Ezinne (Lolo) Theresa Ekpeluchi, glimpsed the future when they gave him a name, which conveyed destiny.
The couple had travelled all the way to the Vatican to meet Pope Pius XII way back in 1958. They had their first girl-child, named May, after which there was a seeming “break.”  Rather than give up or seek other ways, the devout Catholic couple went to Rome to ask the Pope to pray for them to have more children. Pope Pius XII prayed for them and prophesied the birth of two sons. On April 10, 1959, Sullivan was born and the parents named him Iheanacho (what we have been looking for) and after him came Dr. Jide Chime.
Since he came on stage, the people of Enugu State have also been celebrating the emergence of a governor they had fervently desired. Governor Chime truly inherited a state on crutches but he showed no interest in those who inflicted the obvious mortal damage that left it bleeding profusely. His primary goal was to heal the wounds and wipe away the scars of deprivation and devastation. It is in the same spirit of giving humble service and not seeking earthly acclaim that the governor has refused to advertise his solid and numerous accomplishments that are not tainted by any untoward crave for cheap popularity and self-glorification. His constant refrain has always been: “Why do you want to distract yourself by screaming that you’ve done what you were elected to do?”
Today, one must confess that the frustration of not having all the freedom to sing the praises of your  performing principal has given way to the acknowledged appreciation of Governor Chime by the high and the low in the state and far beyond, as a quiet pace setter and noiseless achiever. That is, perhaps, why society needs to identify and celebrate such silent performers, like Chime. If anything, it will aid to inspire the upcoming generation to embrace devotion, hard work, probity, accountability and selflessness in service. These are enduring virtues and values we must inculcate in our youths for the needed rebirth of our nation.
His birthday is not the ideal occasion to highlight the quantum accomplishments of Governor Chime. A day will surely come when we shall, using verifiable facts and figures, bear witness to the realities on ground and chronicle the journey so far.  That will be the period to tell how the government under Chime’s charge has made driving in the state such a pleasurable motoring experience, with the network of well-marked urban and rural roads, spanning hundreds of kilometers of newly constructed,  rehabilitated and newly dualised roads with concrete-paved walkways. That will be the time to talk about the traffic lights and how the streetlights installed by his regime are powered by dedicated transformers once there is power outage to illuminate the city, boost nightlife and aid security.
The Coal City Garden underlines Chime’s signature in the housing sector where the government has done more housing estates than any other one before it and with the Palm Estate, situated in Obukpa, Nsukka, being the first and only one outside the state capital since the creation of the state. Ditto for the success of the Free Maternal Child Healthcare, which has drastically reduced morbidity and mortality, and has continued to attract patients from even neighbouring states. Having also outlawed the imposition of indiscriminate levies in order to protect parents and guardians from exploitation by public secondary schools, and with financial support given to the state-owned tertiary institutions, Governor Chime also made the first nine years of education free for every child in Enugu State. In order to boost intra-city transportation, a total of 750 brand new cabs have been given to hundreds of unemployed beneficiaries as poverty-reduction packages under a subsidised hire purchase arrangement in which the government also bears the cost of bank interests.
From the San Carlos pineapple project to the Enugu Songhai initiative in agriculture, to the provision of electricity to numerous communities and the extension of power to the few remaining rural towns this year, the people of the state have enjoyed a new lease of life.  It is the same success story in waste management, as in human development across the entire state and the alluring beautification of the capital city.
A man of few words, Chime hardly talks about these tangibles. He is more preoccupied with respecting constitutional dictates and processes that have now restored the faith and confidence of our people in governance. He has conducted a record fourth local government election in a clime where some of his colleagues continue to see and run the third tier as an appendage of the state governments. In turn, the democratic running of the local governments in Enugu has led to unprecedented development in the rural areas with local government councils carrying out capital-intensive projects because the Chime government does not tamper with allocations due to the third tier.
Rather than talk about the mega projects like the multi-storey, ultra-modern new secretariat and governor’s office at advanced stages of completion and the Polo Park Shopping Mall, the biggest in the country built under a Public Private Partnership arrangement between the government and a private concern, the governor prefers to pursue the sustenance of the prevailing peace and security of life and property in the state via his collaboration with the security agencies. It is such support which comes in the form of provision of security vehicles and other communication gadgets to the security agencies that has helped to combat crime, necessitating the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Dikko Abubakar, to rate Enugu as the state with the lowest crime rate in the country.
Rather than climb the rooftop to proclaim his invincibility or monopoly of knowledge, he would pursue inclusiveness in governance by the process of consultation and negotiation as opposed to confrontation in the resolution of whatever conflicts, political or otherwise, even if he insists that mutual agreements reached by
parties and/or persons  must be respected.
At the outset of his government, Governor Chime inaugurated a special committee, known as Visit Every Community, which, as the name implies, visited the 260 communities of Enugu State to ask and document the key developmental needs of the people as chosen by them. It is a novel initiative worthy of emulation because numerous projects have been executed, in line with the priorities of the communities. It serves as a useful guide for the successor government to continue to address the
needs of the people.
Such are the legacies he will bequeath to the coming generation and the proud inheritors of the solid foundations he has laid. By his next birthday, he will have just 49 days to regain his freedom from what he sees as one self-imposed imprisonment. But when that time comes, Chime, this workaholic governor with legendary patience and uncommon capacity to listen, will be bowing out gracefully.
As for today, it does not matter if champagne glasses clink, in the celebration of his birthday or not. What is certain is that this day, as in many decades to come, the people will continue to have the fondest memories of this proverbial cat with nine lives, who made huge personal sacrifices for the overall wellbeing of his people, who will long remember him for what he did in the state than what we write on the pages of newspapers.
Happy Birthday, His Excellency!
•Ugwoke is the Enugu State Commissioner for Information

Culled from Sunnewsonline