Source: YNAIJA
Enugu State Government House has always been associated with acts that suggests cycles of wife hostage, wife sacking and wifeless tenures of governors.During the era of the charismatic governor Jim Nwobodo, it is well known fact that his first wife never surfaced at government house. The duo had fallen apart and Jim Nwobodo remained wifeless in the Lion Building throughout his tenure, and daughters of eve struggled for his attention.
Immediately after he left the
Buhari-Idiagbon imprisonment, under the magnanimity of Babangida, he
married this former girl friend, Patricia, whom he told many people
have made him look younger. His successor on the throne, C.C Onoh, and
Bianca Ojukwu’s father never accepted that he had any First Lady. He
was the man alone and ran his government without any input from his
wife, Caroline. Okwesilieze Nwodo was the next civilian governor and
managed to control his family in his 13 months tenure until the
military sent him packing.
Chimaraoke Nnamani came back from the United
States in 1998 and got elected as governor. His marriage to Nnenna was
a sweet affair until he entered into the Lion Building and the way he
treated the Iga Ohafia born mother of two changed. The first feelers
that all was not well between the governor and his wife came about a
year after his tenure, around early 2000, when the wife complained to
people that the office of the first lady is not functional. According
to Nnenna, the governor has refused to release any money for her to run
her office. She asked some clerics from both Methodist and Pentecostal
Churches to pray out the anomaly. She later accused the governor’s
chief spiritualist Kate Ene, also known as Ada Nkanu, of collecting all
the money meant for the governor’s kitchen and assigning the daughter
as the governor’s chef while she is abandoned in the Lion Building to
watch DSTV.
Soon the issue degenerated to the extent that she does not
attend functions without the strict permission of the governor. She at
times moves about with bruised faces and people rumored that the
marriage degenerates to fist cuffs and occasional manhandling. Days,
weeks, months brought the relationship between the duos to a standstill
that she was partially restricted from moving about except for some
shopping. The Lion Building became her boring confinement. Nnenna
Nnamani’s resort to pastors for help further infuriated the
deteriorating situation that she was at a time barred from spiritual
activities and constant prayers she manages to attend.
When the German
Evangelist, Reinhard Bonnke visited Enugu State for crusade at Okpara
Square, Nnnenna Nnamani, so excited at the visit of the Evangelist, was
barred by the governor from attending the 3-day crusade. She had to
watch the crusade from the windows of her wing overlooking Okpara
Square and participated in all the prayers from her window. Nnenna
openly told some pastors and priests that the governor’s sisters,
Chinero Nwigwe and Ngozi Ugwu are inciting the governor against her and
planning to marry another wife for him. Months after the crusade, real
problems started for Nnenna. She was sent packing to the United States
and another woman, a young girl of about twenty, replaced her. The new
wife, beautiful Nkemdirim Ene, daughter of the governor’s chief
spiritualist, Kate Eneh, became the First Lady until Chimaraoke handed
over to Chime in 2007. When it was obvious that Sullivan had refused to
submit to the ‘Ebeano Family’, the Governor’s campaign structure, an
act they termed as betrayal, an enraged Chimaraoke sacked the second
wife because her mother couldn’t divine well that Chime would betray
him.
Sullivan Chime became governor without wife in 2007, the first wife
having walked out of the marriage. He desperately wanted a First Lady
and her efforts to draft Clara Chime’s elder sister, Bridget as wife
failed. The governor then turned attention to the younger sister. This
marriage to Clara Chime, young, beautiful and ebullient, seemed rosy
and lots of irresponsible girls in the city wished they were in Clara’s
shoes. Hundreds of millions of naira was spent especially on the
traditional wedding and people hoped that playboy will settle down.
The
love between the governor and the wife started fading gradually
especially after she was accused of sponsoring some women to confront
the all powerful Chief of Staff, Ifeoma Nwobodo, over allegations of
husband snatching, at a PDP function, shortly before the 2011
elections. According to sources, the lady Chief of Staff swore to teach
Clara a lesson and ensure that she is eventually bundled out of
government house. It was reported that there was a little merry making
in the Chief of Staff’s house after Clara was finally sent packing from
Enugu Government House some days ago. It is a publicized fact that
Clara was held hostage at government house Enugu, and security
officials were under orders not to let her leave her wings under any
circumstances.
Those security aides sympathetic to her were changed to
less friendly ones until she cried out for help. It is pertinent to
note that Nnamani and wife seems to be living happily in the US before
they moved to Lion building and strangers tore their marriage apart.
Sullivan and Clara family had known for quite a while, especially the
elder sister, and the early years of their marriage was sweet, until
strangers tore the marriage apart. Part of those strangers includes
unholy affairs between the governor and Clara’s family members and
pressures from other women. It is most likely again that the next
governor of the state will have problem with the wife midway and the
woman may be held hostage, ignored, disenfranchised and ultimately
sacked.
This is the cycle operating in Government House ,Enugu and it
always constitutes a distraction to the effective governance of the
once Biafra Headquarters, Igbo Nation headquarters and Headquarters of
Eastern Region. Blaming Governor Chimaraoke Nnamani, Sullivan Chime or
whosoever for whatever transpired between them and their spouses is
unfair. Two evil spirits operate in that Lion Building, madness and
wife sacking and any governor who steps into that place is preyed by
this force until they succumb. The next governor who steps into that
place must tackle this nuisance and break the cycle of wife hostage,
wife sacking, wifeless tenure, madness and hallucinatory conditions so
that they do not constitute a distraction to the business of governance.
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