Last week the nation’s political space was sensationally punctuated by a grin and grisly development from South-eastern state of Enugu . A foul stench from the Enugu Government House oozed out from the closet and permeated the national space. Stirring public consternation amid shock and bewilderment quickly followed by indignation. As the number one citizen of the state, Governor Sullivan Chime,

In a petition to the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, her lawyer, Femi Falana, a senior advocate of Nigeria, SAN, detailed instances of abuse, molestation, psychological torture, inhumane treatment perpetrated against her for over a period of four years under the guise that she suffered a medical condition. It was an SOS cry not just to the NHRC, but to all Nigerians to save her from her powerful husband who is protected by Section 308 of the 1999 constitution against prosecution. It was an unprecedented development that the wife of a sitting governor would cry out from the glitz, glamour and power of her position to be rescued from her husband.

The couple grabbed headlines in all the major newspapers as each side tried to win public support for his or her position. But clearly the wife of the governor was the underdog in this fight and naturally attracted public sympathy. A shocked nation was initially hesitant; unsure of what to make of the development, but shock quickly gave way to outrage as calls for a probe became strident.

Clara Chime’s ordeal is not new as many can testify to. Many women go through such ordeals on a daily basis from their abusive husbands, relatives and boyfriends.

More often than not it is hidden from the public, friends and close confidants. The victims choose this option believing that things will change for the better at some point. But in nearly all cases they never do; and from experience things only grow worse as Chime’s wife has painfully found out. According to her, she would have walked away from the marriage during the period Chime was sick and was away for five months, but remained on “very compassionate grounds” thinking that the sickness would change the governor’s ways towards her but that he got worse months after his return from cancer treatment abroad.

According to her, on many occasions, she attempted to leave but her family members, for pecuniary reasons, insisted she stayed put. After packing out or was she bundled out of Chime’s government house, this was how she celebrated: “I regained my freedom to move around on Saturday and I eventually forced my way out of that place (Government House) today (Monday).”

She denied she was as sick as the governor wants the public to believe. “I am not the one who is sick, but I became sick because of the way I was treated. There are some things people would do to you that make you sick or even die.” She vowed never to go back to her husband again.

“After treating myself, I will never go back there again. I will not even wish my enemy to marry in that kind of place again.”
Five years ago when the governor married her from the university, it was all glitz and glamour, she was absolutely stunning in those wedding photographs. She was an angel and to her, the governor was her prince charming, irrespective of the fact that the governor had had a failed marriage before hers. The governor spared no expense. Food, drinks, champagne of all brand and grades were generously served as dignitaries devoured the food like there was no tomorrow. There was all night dancing and merriment, probably at taxpayers’ expense to make a show of his new found love and bride.

Clara must have been counted lucky to be the pick from millions of young damsels craving for his excellency’s attention. And her family would have counted their blessings, “oh! It is the Lord’s doing” and must have been marvelous in their eyes until Clara cried out. And of course not left out in the circle would have been Clara’s friends who would have been jostling to be seen as closest to her just to gain favour. But it all came to pass so fast and within a year, cracks emerged and the celebrated marriage began to fail
If she is to be believed that for four years she had no sexual contact with her husband. What went so wrong? We may never know the secrets as this may be buried in the often impregnable walls of marital secrecy forever.

When the issue came to the fore, the NHRC team had come to Enugu, sources said at the behest of the governor, and came out with conflicting reports of their findings. While there was allegation of mental instability, Clara said she was pretty okay while admitting that what she had been subjected to was enough to make any woman go bunkers. The family has also come out to vehemently reject the madness issue. To them, it is absolute balderdash. Clara’s mum, Madam Patience Igwe, said there was no madness in her family.
“Do the people you are seeing here look like mad people? Or have you seen any mad person since you came in? Please we don’t have any mad person here and nobody in our family has ever been mad. So, I don’t know where Enugu people got the story that Clara is mad.”

Beyond the whole unfortunate incident is what the crying out of the Enugu first lady tells about what goes on inside the impregnable walls of Government Houses across the country and homes of the high and mighty. While this is hardly reported, information has it that many state chief executives have different women at their beck and call.

The sprawling compound that a Government House is and the adjoining chalets scattered around the Government House grounds make philandering on the part of many governors an easy vocation. Always ready to serve as go-between are aides whose job is to arrange these women or at times ferry them abroad whenever the governors are travelling. There are also some who ensure that their female aides do other chores outside those stipulated in their terms of engagement. Sources say that most first ladies are aware of these escapades of their governor husbands but usually choose to keep silent so as not to attract scandals and unwanted attention. But in keeping silent, they burn within and die instalmentally. Clara, the Enugu first lady’s case, might at the end of the day, may not be different. Perhaps, her case will embolden other first ladies to come out and reveal the pain and emotional trauma they bottle up behind those big head gears and opulence, pomp and pageantry that their ‘offices’ bestow on them. A lot, surely, will be revealed.

And this, again, is a warning to young women that the time honoured saying that all that glitters is not gold is all so true. Perhaps, Chime’s estranged wife might have been carried away by the allures of power, wealth and fame and failed to see that every coin has a flip side. For four years, she claimed, there had not been any intimate relationship between her and the husband. That could never be part of what she bargained for when she said ‘I do’ to the governor, in a marriage that has produced one son. Now that Clara has gotten her fingers thoroughly burnt, she cannot but wish that this nightmare passes away and she returns to her normal life. Perhaps, that life of peace of mind, simplicity and contentment she had before the glitz of first ladyship deprived her of her real life and joy.