Commentary: Mrs. Obiano And The Wiles Of Hatchet Writers

Written By: Chuks Iloegbunam

Mrs. Ebelechukwu Obiano, the wife of the Anambra State Governor, has, in recent weeks, been subjected to trenchant criticism by the forces of sectional press and political blackmail. For instance, one Dr Richard Nwachukwu wrote an open letter to Governor Obiano, entitled “How Not to Demonstrate Humanity and Charity”.

His grouse is that Mrs. Obiano, under the auspices of her NGO, the Caring Family Enhancement Initiative (CAFE), “fed homeless Houstonians and distributed gifts of chairs, electric fans and clothes to them…” Nwachukwu, however, conceded that the Anambra First lady was entitled to her charitable disposition, but argued that the money used to assist a tiny fraction of Houston’s miserable could be more meaningfully deployed to fighting erosion in the Igbo country.

After reading Dr. Nwachukwu’s open letter, it was impossible not to conclude that it was thoughtless and unbecoming of a WIC functionary. Charity is often spontaneous. A comprehensive exposition of the meaning of charity is in First Corinthians chapter 13. This charity is what Bruce Mayrock, a 20-year-old New Yorker and Columbia University undergraduate, exhibited 50 years ago.

Mayrock set himself ablaze at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on May 29, 1969, to protest genocide against the nation and people of Biafra during the Nigeria Civil War. He died a day later. He was carrying a cardboard sign which said, “You must stop the genocide—please save 9 million Biafrans”. Mayrock was white.

This charity was what John Lennon, the superstar songwriter of the Beatles fame, exhibited half a century ago when he returned the MBE (Member of the British Empire) he was awarded in Queen Elizabeth’s Birthday Honours of 1965. He took the action partly in protest against Britain’s involvement in Biafra. Lennon was English.

If foreigners sacrificed limbs, life, time faith and funds to prevent Biafra’s annihilation, it goes without saying that genuine charity knows no boundaries. It goes without saying that Mrs. Obiano’s Houston generosity was neither misplaced nor hypocritic.

Before Chief Willie Obiano became the Governor of Anambra State, his family members were Houston denizens. The Houston faces painted with smiles by Mrs. Obiano’s generosity belong to the same flotsam and jetsam she visited with charity prior becoming Anambra’s First Lady. Would it have been reasonable for Mrs. Obiano to turn her back to the wretched of the earth simply because providence had landed her husband in the Awka Government House?

According to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), there were around half a million homeless people in the United States in 2019. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was always aware of this. Yet, it did not prevent Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, and his wife, Melinda, from devoting billions to the cause of charity in Nigeria, in Africa and around the world. No one has called them hypocrites for this. If Christian missionaries had waited until the conversion of all their countrymen and women before proselytizing elsewhere, would Christianity have reached Nigeria?

Again, should fighting Anambra’s erosion mean the automatic imposition of a moratorium on all other personal and governmental obligations? Is the Anambra erosion monster liable to containment by the less than $10,000 that went with Mrs. Obiano’s Houston generosity?

Contrary to Dr. Nwachukwu’s obsolete statistics, there are about a thousand erosion sites in Anambra State. It is a problem that gives Governor Obiano sleepless nights and which he has valiantly combated since he took office. Yes. It is this problem of gargantuan proportions which experts estimate would require dollars in the billions to check that Nwachukwu wants solved with few dollars from Mrs. Ebele Obiano’s CAFE.

He forgot that CAFE’s money does not belong to Anambra State; that CAFE’s money comes from donations by pubic-spirited individuals. He did not reckon with the fact that CAFE deploys over 90 percent of its resources to giving succor to Anambra’s widows, and other citizens with health challenges. It trivializes the problem to index the solution to Anambra’s erosion challenge on a few thousand dollars contributed by individuals. Nwachukwu ought to do is team up with Governor Obiano to solicit Nigerian Government’s commitment, and to raise international support, including that of the United Nations and its agencies, for the war against erosion in the Igbo country.

Dr Nwachukwu has been in the membership of WIC for years, yet, he has not made any effort to internationalize the anti-Anambra erosion campaign. He has hardly ever personally contributed a dime to erosion amelioration.

It is common knowledge that the advent of a general election invariably elicits the subjugation of truth. It happened when Governor Obiano was campaigning for reelection. Over 50 photographs of the three iconic flyovers in Awka were repeatedly published in the social media by hirelings who claimed their imminent collapse. But once the gubernatorial ballot was won and lost, all talk about collapsing flyovers ceased.

Another Anambra governorship ballot is around that bend. That is why Chief (Mrs.) Ebelechukwu Obiano is being systematically calumniated today. The objective is to create hysteria of odium that will devalue the husband’s achievements. People must shine their eyes so as to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff.