Indeed those who know Chief Mrs Ebelechukwu Obiano, the First Lady of Anambra State are familiar with this side of her. Long before she became the wife of the debonair governor of Anambra State, young Ebele had always marveled at the unquestionable ways of the Almighty God which manifest in the strange inequalities of nature. The perplexity of children born with disability, the profound uncertainty of the life of children whose mothers abandon at the point of birth and the ever widening gulf between the dispossessed and the blessed of the earth never ceased to amaze her. Unlike most people with her comfortable childhood, little Ebele was precocious enough to look beyond her immediate comfort to acknowledge the humanity of others whose circumstances were less than idyllic.
And so, it was almost seamless for her to make the smooth transition to the position of the wife of a man whose life finds rebirth in the very act of helping those who are in dire need of a jolt of kindness. Her marriage to Governor Willie Obiano opened a window into the puzzling world of her childhood in a manner that made it difficult to look away from situations that could use her direct intervention. Playing the role of the silent instigator, Ebelechukwu nudged her husband towards a more programmed approach to philanthropy. The Obiano’s soon began to make themselves noticeable in the ancient Eri kingdom with timely interventions in the lives of the people, providing succor and transformative assistance to people in need. Although they lived and worked incredible schedules in Lagos, they still found sufficient time to reach out and touch lives in Aguleri and environs where their intervention was most needed. It was purely on account of their endless striving to enrich the lives of others that the couple was given the rare titles of Akpokuedike (the warrior in demand) and Osodieme (the one who does like her husband). That was long before they ever dreamt of serving Anambra State as the first family.
Interestingly, quite unlike people who are inured to the pains of others by the trappings of power and influence, Ebelechukwu Obiano’s concern and passionate affection for the downtrodden has grown since she became the First Lady of Anambra State. Indeed, Osodieme, as she is fondly called by friends and close aides has left no one in doubt that she has a soft core for the unfortunate members of society who occupy the lower margins of our collective existence. These are mostly children with special needs, people living with disability, the extremely poor and young women who are have no life-aiding skills to scrap a living. Osodieme is usually at her best in any conversation on how to open a crack on the wall of our collective conscience and let the sunshine of our kindness warm these people up. At such moments, her beautiful face glows like amber light as she reminds you that these people enrich our world in ways that words cannot tell. “They are God’s special gifts to humanity,” she once told a documentary production team in a recent interview session. “Our world is incomplete without them. They remind us of our imperfections and God’s completeness. God created these people with us in mind. We all have a responsibility to reach out and touch them in our own separate ways and capacities,” she explained, figuratively opening a window into her heart of pure gold.
It is obviously for the purpose of “reaching out to touch” these special members of the human community that Osodieme decided to set up the Caring Family Enhancement Initiative (CAFE), her pet project with which she has launched a bold effort at giving meaning to the lives of the dispossessed and disadvantaged. Long before the unveiling of CAFÉ in an elaborate ceremony in August this year, Osodieme had touched many lives with her acts of kindness and a dazzling smile. She has carried herself well as someone who is fully aware of her unique position as the mother of the state and has accepted the full weight of her responsibility without a blink. One of the many beneficiaries of Osodieme’s golden heart is Basden Memorial Secondary School, Isulo in Orumba South Local Government Area of Anambra State. Perhaps nothing has ever tasked Osodieme’s emotion in all her years of responding to the yearnings of the less privileged members of the society like this school.
Before Osodieme began to take interest in Basden Memorial Secondary School, a school for children with disability, the school had wallowed in abysmal neglect and squalor. The students studied in incredulous conditions and wore the forlorn look of people who had been cast away. They had no immediate source of water and were routinely fed on threadbare meals. Osodieme’s heart melted when she met them in that near hopeless state of existence. Her visit turned out to be the turning point the students had prayed for and things have since changed drastically with her intervention. The children no longer have to crawl all over the nearby forest in search of a stream to fetch water from. Not only are they fed on better diet these days but their general environment of learning is undergoing a massive overhaul with new classroom blocks being added to the existing ones. In fact, following Osodieme’s passionate interest in their affairs, her husband, the governor has given free education to the students of Basden Memorial and other children living with disability in the state. And that is the way it should be – an archetypal mother figure in the government house, nudging her husband, the governor, to cast a glance in the direction of forgotten citizens and make the world a better place for them.
Indeed, Osodieme has continued to demonstrate her capacity to make a difference in the lives of Anambra women and children. With her pet project, CAFÉ, she has given hope to so many abandoned babies in Anambra State, some of whom she personally picked up in the streets and handed to orphanages. She has also held vocational courses for young girls in the state to equip them with crucial surviving skills. Through CAFÉ, Osodieme has provided soft loans and outright grants as well as equipment to rural women in the state to enable them start a trade.
Osodieme also seems to harbour a deep love for widows. In recent times, her pet project, CAFÉ seems to have struck a rhythm with Mrs Patience Jonathan’s Women for Change Initiative. The two groups are collaborating in a heart-warming manner that will change the austere lifestyles of many widows in Anambra State. She personally supervised the distribution of special empowerment packages for widows from the entire South Eastern Nigeria who thronged the Alex Ekwueme Square. During the event, Osodieme made a plaintive speech, urging Ndigbo to rethink the tradition that suddenly turns a loving wife, mother and sister into a witch and a murder suspect once her husband is dead. She even announced her plans to sponsor a bill in the Anambra State House of Assembly that would free widows from the clutches of an unjust tradition.
In all, looking at the trajectory of the life of Chief Mrs. Ebelchukwu Obiano, one gets the feeling that those who believe that there is something in a name might be right after all. At least, Ebelechukwu (the mercy of God) Obiano looks set to epitomize the mercies of the Most High God in the lives of the downtrodden in Anambra State today.