Sullivan Chime, Enugu State governor, has had to kick out his wife from the state house. Some governors before him did a similar thing in different ways with their women, giving the impression that the state house in Enugu has no room for first ladies
By CHIKODI OKEREOCHA and RAYMOND MORDI
This is not the best of times for Sullivan Chime, Enugu State governor, who has been receiving negative publicity in the last two weeks over his strained relationship with his wife, Clara, whose movement he has allegedly restricted within the precincts of the Government House.
The restriction was ostensibly done to shield the Enugu first family from any embarrassment that may arise from his wife’s health challenges. Though he is said to be one of the best governors in the country, Chime is not the media friendly type. With all his achievements in the area of infrastructural transformation in Enugu, for the governor, silence is golden. But in recent times Chime appears to have taken that policy too far by mopping up all the newspapers that carried the news of the way he had been treating his wife over her health challenge.
To opponents of the governor, some of who feel intimidated by his sterling performance in the last six years, the sour relationship between Chime and his estranged wife is good music in the ears. But to those schooled in the dynamics of Enugu politics, particularly as it concerns the office of the first lady, there is more to the unfolding drama of the absurd between Chime and Clara than meets the eye. To them, what is happening in Enugu, though sad and embarrassing, may be a repeat of history, as the Enugu State Government House, for some inexplicable reasons, has never been known to accommodate first ladies.
Amaechi Echukwu, national chairman, Movement for National Reformation, MNR, confirmed that much when he recalled that “Right from the time of Christian Onoh, Jim Nwobodo, Chimaroke Nnamani and Chime, governors of Enugu State have at one time or the other lived alone in the Government House without first ladies.” The septuagenarian recalled that when Nwobodo was governor of the larger Anambra State, between 1979 and 1983, he sent his wife, Pat, out of Government House. “Later when Christian Onoh took over (October – December 1983), he didn’t stay there for a single day with his wife, Caroline, who remained at his (Onoh’s) Enugu-Ngwo personal residence.
Then, you know the story of Chimaroke Nnamani (1999–2007), his wife, Nnenna, never entered Government House for one day. The current governor got married halfway in his first term of office; now we are telling stories about being locked up and not being locked up. They should go and investigate to find out what is wrong. We Igbos have a traditional way of unravelling such things; let them go there or go to the church, if they wish,” Echukwu advised.
The sour relationship between the governor and his wife came to the fore recently when the first lady raised alarm that she was “locked up” at the Government House in Enugu, on orders of her husband, thereby restricting her access to friends and family members. While her kinsmen insist that the governor must take proper steps to dissolve the marriage, a temporary truce was reached last Monday when the first lady returned to her mother’s house in Enugu and was promptly taken to an unknown location to shield her from the press. Some claimed last Thursday that the lady and her mother were sighted in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
Bob Ogbenna, the traditional ruler of the first lady’s ancestral home in Isuochi, Abia State, who said he handed over Clara to Chime during the traditional marriage five years ago, insists that what happened last Monday was not how to return somebody’s daughter whose bride price was fully paid, in Igboland. It appeared the governor buckled under pressure from the media and human rights community to allow the woman to go.
Femi Falana, lawyer and human rights activist, insists that the current move to bring peace between Chime and his wife was made with the consent of the first lady. “She was not forcibly removed from the Government House,” Falana noted in a statement attributed to him. The human rights lawyer could however not be reached on his telephone last week for further comments on the controversy. Falana had on November 1 petitioned the inspector-general of police, IGP, demanding the immediate release of Clara from unlawful custody in the Enugu Governor’s Lodge. In the petition, copy of which was made available to the magazine, Falana claimed to be solicitor to Clara.
The petition read thus: “For some inexplicable reasons, our client has been kept incommunicado in solitary confinement in one of the rooms in the Government House, Enugu, Enugu State, for over four months on the directives of Governor Chime. Thus, our client’s fundamental rights to the dignity of her person, personal liberty, fair hearing, private and family life and freedom of movement guaranteed by the Constitution and the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 have been violated without any legal justification.”
While claiming, among others, that his client’s dehumanising detention conditions had had deleterious effect on her psychological state as well as her mental and physical health, as she had been denied access to her doctors, Falana urged the IGP to ensure that his client is freed without any further delay failure of which he would take legal action. Apparently intimidated by the pressure from all fronts, Chime last week opened the door of the government house for Clara to take her exist. Henceforth, she became the responsibility of her family. That, definitely, was not what the human rights community, friends and family wanted. Rather they expected that the governor would take her for the best medical treatment.
Michael Ani, an Enugu-based political activist, is shocked that Governor Chime has thrown his wife out and is seeking to terminate the marriage. His words: “This is very shocking; anybody in his right senses would not terminate a marriage in that manner. Is he using his exalted position as governor to summarily dissolve the union in that manner?” Concerned persons like him said the governor should have taken interest in the diagnosis on the root of her ailment and participate in efforts to nurse her back to her feet. Such persons even wondered whether the nature of the relationship could have been responsible for the woman’s health. So what kind of person is the husband?
Those who know Chime very well allege that he not only loves fun, he is equally a ladies man. The woman in this drama is not his first wife. Clara got married to the Enugu first citizen in October 2008, after he had lived separately from his first wife for almost 15 years. The former wife is of the Ogakwu family in Udi, Chime’s hometown. But Clara complained that after the birth of their only child, a male, four years ago, she has not been sharing the matrimonial bed with him. Emphasising the seriousness of the misunderstanding between them, she said that even President Goodluck Jonathan and his wife, Patience intervened at some point without success.
“We do not have a relationship anymore and the situation inevitably led to my nervous breakdown. I have been diagnosed with severe depression and at some point was quite suicidal. In effect, I’m locked up in my bedroom without access to anybody”, her letter to the National Human Rights Commission read in part. She added that the Callistus Onaga, Catholic Bishop of Enugu State, and top priests have also tried to intervene without success.
The circumstances under which Governor Chime got married to Clara were not clear. According to sources in Enugu, Clara, who was born and brought up in Katsina, met Chime through the late President Umaru Yar’Adua. Clara and her family were said to be very close to the family of the late president. One of the magazine’s sources said Chime met Clara through the Yar’Adua family and married her because he wanted through that way to be close to the nation’s first family. Yet another account said that Clara was a friend to Chime’s daughter from his first wife. According to the account, Chime met Clara in one of her regular visits to the Government House to see her friend, fell in love with her and subsequently married her. Attempts to speak with the governor or his spokesmen last week to verify these claims were rebuffed, as Chukwudi Achife, chief press secretary to the governor, neither responded to the text message sent to him nor picked the several calls made to his telephone number.
Ugochukwu Eze, however, gave what appears to be a more plausible explanation. According to him, Clara’s elder sister, Barrister Ngozi, was an old time friend of Governor Chime. “She lost her husband while she was carrying the pregnancy of her first child. The family of the man accused her of having a hand in her husband’s death because the man was well-to-do. Being a lawyer, she took them to court over her husband’s family. It was during this period that Sullivan Chime became governor and pressure was mounted on him to get a wife,” he told the magazine. He said, naturally, he approached Ngozi, but she declined because she was determined to conclude the matter in court and clear her name. Subsequently, Ngozi asked him to go for her younger sister, Clara. “It was not a long courtship,” he noted. Eze admitted nevertheless that Clara’s parents were based in Funtua, Katsina State, where the first lady was born and brought up and that she also did her youth service in the northern state.