18th March, 2022
In the last eight years, former Governor of Anambra State, Willie Obiano, and his wife, Ebelechukwu were swimming in opulence. They were the first family in Anambra State, everything revolved around them, they controlled the machinery of the state and what have you.
As the saying goes, power is transient and the holder must vacate the seat one day. Despite the saying that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, no one has ever held on to power forever. Obiano came to power with the support of his predecessor, Dr. Peter Obi and along the way, they fell apart and he took charge fully.
In a jiffy, eight years came so fast and he must leave office, the immunity is over. Life after power is a different ball game entirely. Shortly before leaving office, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) knocked at Obiano’s door by placing him on their watchlist because they smelt some skeleton in his cupboard. He had called the EFCC bluff, saying he had nothing to hide.
A day after Prof. Charles Soludo emerged winner of the governorship election in Anambra, in November, the EFCC wrote a letter to the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Immigration Service, on November 15, 2021, to place the then-governor on its watchlist.
The commission requested the service to place the governor on a watchlist and inform it anytime he is travelling out of the country from any of the international airports and other points of entry and exit.
The D-day came, March 17, 2023, Obiano was to hand over power to Soludo. The event was low-key at the State House, Akwa. Only 50 people were invited to grace the ceremony. As the event was underway, something shameful occurred. It has never happened in the history of Nigeria. Ebelechukwu, who came late to the event decided to make herself a gazing and laughing stock.
She did the unthinkable. She thought she was still in power. She cat-walked majestically to where the wife of a late Biafran warlord, Bianca Ojukwu was seated and muttered some unprintable words to her ears; Bianca stood up and delivered a ‘dirty’ slap to her face as the audience yelled in amazement. The duo were pulled apart, but the deed had been done, an outgoing First Lady of a state had just been slapped in public glare. What a shame!
Several comments later after the episode alleged that the former First Lady used to slap people and that she had at a time slapped a former deputy governor even though this act could not be confirmed.
As Bianca would later explain: “as the inaugural ceremonies for Prof Charles Soludo and his deputy began and all guests were seated, the Former First Lady of Anambra State, Mrs. Ebele Obiano, was noticeably absent. She then arrived some one-and-a-half hours later while the ceremony was on. I didn’t pay any particular attention to her arrival. Surprisingly, she then walked towards me and I thought she was coming to greet me. Instead, when she got to where I was seated, she verbally attacked me with her voice raised, taunting me and asking me what I was there to do and using unprintable vile language.
“She asked if I had come to celebrate their last day in office. But I ignored her completely. Then, she kept aggressively putting her hands on my shoulders and shouting. While I ignored her verbal onslaught, as advised by those sitting around me, I requested twice that she refrained from touching me with her hands. She proceeded to do so yet again and went further to grab at my head-tie, which she attempted unsuccessfully to remove. This very act is considered a sacrilege to a titled matriarch such as myself in Igbo culture.
“It was at this point that I stood up to defend myself and gave her a dirty slap to stop her from attacking me. As she made it towards me, I then pulled away her wig. She held on to her wig with her two hands and tried to take the wig away from me. The former APGA chairman, Umeh, told her to leave me and engaged APGA members that had gathered at the spot to lead her away, which they did and took her to the seat next to her husband Chief Willie Obiano who sat through the entire episode completely speechless.
“I was stunned by the stench of whisky in her breath at such an early hour of the day. How could a first lady be so drunk and proceeded to turn up in that state at an Inauguration ceremony that began at 9am? It is unfortunate that she threw all caution to the wind and imported this kind of melodrama to a state ceremony. This was highly embarrassing to the Governor who left the venue almost immediately, taking her along with him. Luckily, this did not disrupt the proceedings and I stayed back to witness the ceremony to the end after which we were treated to a sumptuous reception at the Government House.”
Ebelechukwu fell from grace to grass, from the pinnacle of grandeur to the abyss of shame and disgrace.
That same day, her husband, Obiano was arrested by the EFCC, which had placed him on their watchlist since November 2021. He was arrested at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport while on his way to the United States.
He was arrested around 8:30pm on Thursday while on his way to Houston, Texas in the United States. He was first detained at the commission’s office in Lagos and was later taken to Abuja for questioning.
The question many people are asking is, why was Obiano in a haste to leave the country if he has no skeleton in his cupboard? The immunity is over and the preying EFCC has caught him. What next for Obiano? Time will tell. Certainly, Obiano and his wife fell from grace to grass the same day they handed over power to Soludo. Their influence in Anambra politics has waned drastically, Soludo will have the free hand to operate fully without thinking of trying to please a certain godfather.