The Comrade Gov And His Bride

THE entire world is abuzz with wonder!  A decision which took five years in coming has put all the blinding searchlights on the soft side of the Comrade Governor of Edo State, Adams Aliyu Eric Oshiomhole.  His fame has skyrocketed, and with it, the reflection that this governor not only has taste for good projects in the way and manner he delivers the dividends of democracy, but also taste for good brides as witnessed in late Clara Oshiomhole, a woman with a golden heart, and now Iara Oshiomhole, who he described as “the mother of the house”, a divine gift from Cape Verde!
But … why has this epoch-making event become an issue for man, and womankind, to grin about!  There’s surely more to it!! Even at that, we all know where the Comrade is at his best: in his tough stance against any  action, or inaction that may stand in the way of democratic progress!
The first hint I got that the Comrade Governor’s wedding to his heartthrob, Iara, would not merely pass as the usual celebrity weddings or marriages was when my younger sister Clareth (she got attracted to the Oshiomhole family when her close name-sake, Clara, matriarch of the family, passed on,) called me from London, and we managed to have a three-minute chat before the line went dead.  While the conversation ensued, I noticed it was hurried, even frantic, at her own end.  The tremur in her voice suggested she was in a hurry to make a statement, clear a doubt or ascertain an ongoing issue, even add vibe to an argument.  I heard voices at the background, a confirmation that she had bystanders, a team of witnesses who were no doubt, eager to hear from the horse’s mouth.  Yours truly was, surely, the right horse, being a Benin-based media personnel, and not just that, a staff in a state-owned media where the very personality in contention holds sway as the Chief Executive Officer!
“Is this a conference call?”  I demanded.  She stammered an answer.
“Eh, no, yes … but sis, forget that.  Is it true that the Governor is getting married this weekend?  Please, let your answer be loud!”
I laughed.  Indeed, I gave her a loud answer from the corners of my lips.
“Come, you haven’t called me in two months and now you called just to get a scoop on a gossip about my governor, my boss?  I am not talking to you!”  And she began to plead with me not to hang up on her.
“Please, sis, just answer …”
“Yes!  The Comrade Governor is getting married this weekend.  Does that affect you and your other London married women?”
“To whom?”  She demanded, ignoring my side talk.
“To Iara Forte, a Cape Verdean damsel….”    And the line went blank.
My sister had hardly dropped when another call came in, this time from the United States.  This was someone who didn’t have a direct link with me; someone I had known from someone else, someone I actually never thought would ever call me.  But she called me; she had to get my contact from that other more familiar person and she put a call through immediately.  She had to first show some niceties, exchange some pleasantries, remind me of how she had always thought I was a genius, beauty and the brains and all that bla-bla-bla talk and then, passingly, she threw the bombshell as if she didn’t mean to:  “I heard Edo would be agog today with the marriage of the Governor to a beautiful lady …”  Did she say Edo?  The world was already agog and buzzing like busy bees!
I also responded passingly, to make her feel comfortable in her uncomfortable zone.
“Yeah, that; the Comrade Governor is marking another milestone in his life after the death of his wife and soulmate, our mother, Clara, five years ago.  He needs it,” and we gossiped for another five minutes, and I led her on to all the facts she needed so she didn’t appear like the one doing the prodding, and she was happy, even pledging to send me a smart phone. A smart phone for confirming that the Comrade Governor was getting married! That was something trendy!
Now, talking of trends, both my sister in the U.K and the other lady from the U.S, and several others from across the globe may not have bothered seeking out information from me because as at the time they were battling with poor network services to call for certainty, the subject was already trending on the internet.  Social media was awash with the tales. And the lies! For instance, is Iara Oshiomhole a model?
The groom says no, but she’s a beauty model personified!
The characteristic of each caller and those who posted, twitted was significant. Most were females, then the males came in a rush.   For females, everyone of them appeared to either be in their early or late twenties.  Their queries were unusually antagonistic in the first instance and later mellowed to indifference.  For instance, my South-African friend,  Khendulinze wanted to know why my governor didn’t behave like Mandela who married Graca Machel, an ex-First Lady and widow of his colleague, President Samora Machel of Mozambique, and at the time of her marriage to Mandela far beyond the threshold of menopause and remained his companion and best friend till death.
I simply asked her if the earth should become one giant stereotypical ball where people should do only what their neighbours did and everyone judged alike.  She said it wouldn’t be fun anyway and by herself adduced that everyone was entitled to act the way it is in their nature to act.
It was remarkable how so many people came out in the Comrade Governor’s defense, too.
One Lagosian posted on Facebook: “Why is government a continuum and not the way a governor acts?  The Comrade Governor’s late wife, Clara died at age 54, and now he’s 63.  He should have married a woman her age so that he would start from where his late wife stopped. That is continuity”.  People’s replies were thrown as salvos which rattled the one who fired the first shot.
The most remarkable fireback was from another Lagosian:
“It baffles me that you flushed your shit yesterday, and even the one you passed out in ‘1920’ when you were born.  You should have just continued piling up the shit.”  That remark simply was understood as, “Old things have passed away and behold all things have become new”. But for the Comrade Governor, no one replaces Mother Clara!
For a number of ladies, their angst was merely in regard to the idea, nay, fact that Nigeria could boast of very beautiful, classy and educated young ladies. Why did the Comrade Governor have to explore Cape Verde to find a bride?
Wetin dey for Sokoto no dey for Shokoto again?  One woman replied:  Are Nigerian ladies intelligent enough to match the wit and classical intelligence of the Comrade Governor?  Just read most of the posts here on this matter again, and you will see that intelligent Nigerian ladies are not yet born!”
That response attracted a barrage of assault in  defense of Nigerian ladies! At the moment, the subject was temporary forgotten.  So many of the ladies who expressed their grievances in one way or the other had only heard of the Comrade Governor, or at best seen him on television,  but that didn’t stop them from expressing their sadness, pain, hurt and even jealousy that he took a young damsel for a bride. But many admired him!
A Psycho-Analyst, Martha Adiukwu describes this attitude as “Compulsive Denial” just like people do at the death of their loved ones even when such denials didn’t remove from the original hurt but only helps in diminishing future pain.
“When a Nigerian lady looks at Obama’s wife she thinks aloud in her soul: It could have been me.  Why not me?  She begins to keep a grudge against Michele Obama and whenever she sees anything regarding America’s First lady, she is critical of it.  How to be in denial is to tell herself that Obama married  Michele because he had to, your path and his never crossed and may never cross, there’s someone for every person.  There’s a soulmate for every jealous woman too” And there’s a chance of re-marrying for every widow and widower!
Now, what about the guys, what is their grouse against the governor’s choice?
Martha Adiukwu says:  “It’s the same feeling. Why is it the Comrade Governor that marries an angelic beauty, lawyer from Cape Verde and not me?  Why is it that the older and richer men get the babes quite so easily and appear to monopolise bliss over and above us?
It is at a time like this that guys think of Dangote, Fernandez, Eleganza boss, the late Ikemba Ojukwu, and others who had married beautiful wives, but it is also time to reflect on achievements and prospects.  It is not enough to visualize an eldorado spent with a beautiful bride, it is also time to prove you can be a worthy groom”.
There were also misunderstandings concerning from what part of the planet Iara Forte had emanated from.  Was it Ethiopia, Egypt or Cuba?  The governor himself had to ask bloggers to know his wife came from Cape Verde in a twit!  Then her name was it Lara or Iara?  It’s Iara, but she could be Clara too!
Well, we cannot fully exhaust on this Platform the mindset of people across the globe on this ‘shocker’ thrown at us by the Comrade Governor, but don’t we know the person of the Comrade Governor?  He likes to do ‘great things’, and you can see it in his lofty development plans, ongoing overhaul taking place across the state.  Look at the storm water project, the erosion control sites, the Central Hospital project,  prompt payment of salaries when most states are owing the workforce, and you will understand that this man has taste! Aside taste, he has a ‘kind, loving and patient heart’ like lara Oshiomhole herself confirmed.
We also know that Nigeria waits for Oshiomhole and no man can squarely carry the burden of Nigeria on his shoulders without a good woman doing ‘Oshobey’ with him!  As it is, we ought to pray that the Governor and his wife enjoy a blissful marital experience.  Let all discerning people say, ‘Amen!’