Did Ebele Obiano Deserve The Farewell Slap?

After eight years of a mixed legacy in Anambra State, the legacy of Chief Willie Obiano was on Thursday mired in the mud after his wife was given a dirty slap on the day he left office. Even more, the former governor was that same night slammed into custody by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

For a man who had been sycophantically adored by his hangers-on as about the best thing to have happened to Ndi Anambra, Thursday came raining with a kind of shame that few men ever like to remember.

While the bemusing gait and gestures of the former governor was an issue for many, the temperament of his wife was one that was simply disgusting for nearly everyone outside her inner clique.

So disgusting and loathed was she as First Lady that when the reports of the slapping incident first came out, that many reporters in the state took it for granted that Mrs Ebelechukwu Obiano was again the aggressor.

Your correspondent called a couple of correspondents on ground who claimed that she was the one who slapped Bianca Ojukwu.

Incidentally, that report turned out to be inaccurate. However, the narrative was not totally different. However, for Ebele Obiano on Thursday, she met her match in Bianca Ojukwu.

Bianca Ojukwu was one who made her name many years ago while Ebele was still sorting herself out in the university. A former beauty queen, daughter of the former governor of Old Anambra State; she was royalty married to a war general, Ikemba Nnewi and Igbo leader, Odumegwu Ojukwu. She has also been Nigeria ambassador.

To have called such a distinguished lady a bitch or whatever was out of place. According to the account, Bianca stood up, dropped her phone on a chair, and then landed a dirty slap on the face of a shocked Ebele Obiano.

As the two ladies entangled themselves reporters apparently on impulse immediately claimed that Ebele was the one who slapped first. But they turned out to be wrong.

It turned out that once the true story of the slapping incident came out that many Igbo youths who had been traumatized by the Ebele Obiano story came out to congratulate the wife of Ikemba. One APGA activist who witnessed the incident proudly posed with Bianca saying she had made her day!

Not surprisingly political shades were drawn into the incident. Senator Stella Oduah, the incumbent senator for Anambra North in a lengthy post on Twitter cast aspersion on Ebele Obiano lamenting her as a disgrace to womanhood and the office of the First Lady.

Senator Uche Ekwunife who was sitting close by has not said anything in public but few would doubt the joy in her after the former first lady was disgraced. Mrs Ekwunife is believed to have left APGA after the two ladies had a falling apart almost like the Bianca incident during a visit to Eastern Europe in the first years of Obiano’s stewardship.

Of course, one would understand why Stella Oduah was quick to comment. Mrs Obiano in her last days as First Lady had not hidden her interest in taking over the Anambra North Senate seat from Stella Oduah. Your correspondent understands that based on the threat, that Stella Oduah is considering returning to the PDP, the only party that is able to stand up to APGA in Anambra.

Just few days ago, according to my sources, Ebele Obiano had gathered the full complement of the APGA political structure in Anambra North and formally informed them of her decision to represent them in the Senate.

At the end of the meeting some transport fare was provided for the APGA ward and LGA exco members. Her husband also came in to add a little to the transport fare.

The husband has not hidden his intentions to return to the United States after his stewardship. However, for Ebele, a former staff of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, having tasted political power as many in the political class, she seems determined to hang on in whatever way.

Of course, her ill-tempered behavior last Thursday seemed to have masked the best legacy that her husband delivered to Anambra; that is the support given to Charles Soludo to emerge as his successor.

Indications were that Ebele Obiano was also against this, having preferred Chukwuma Umeoji, the former member of the House of Representatives and LGA chairman.

For once, it is claimed that Willie was defiant to his wife as he stood to his gentleman promise to Soludo given way back in 2016 or thereabout.

Soludo’s inauguration address was one that was full of optimism. Your correspondent is especially delighted with his promise of patronizing local products made in Anambra first, Nigeria and Africa in that order.

Those who know the professor of economics also say that he is indeed also very economical and is not one wont to waste public resources. It was as such demonstrated during the inauguration when he ensured that the ceremony cost the state zero naira and that only home-made delicacies were made available.

But there remains one critique that those who have been around say about Soludo, that is that he knows everything! Well let’s see how this his knowledge will take Ndi Anambra, Nigeria and Africa.

Send Us A Press Statement Advertise With Us Contact Us

 And For More Nigerian News Visit GWG.NG