Governor Adams Eric Oshiomhole is in the news again. Not for a row with a widow but for a vow with a leafy Cape Verde model. The diminutive comrade leapt his way to an African island where he won the heart of an ex-air hostess and model.
The comrade governor wants a whip of fresh air. Do you blame him for going beyond the Benin-Delta region (The name of Benin and Delta were merged together to form the portmanteau “Bendel”) to shop for a foreign partner? No. It’s not a crime after all.
But hear what the former union leader said about his late wife, Clara: “Any woman who agrees to marry a man who is not rich, a man who alternates between police stations and cells and lives in a one or two bedroom apartment that is your real love. When my wife [Clara] said I love you, it was from her heart”.
I know Oshiomhole as frank person. I wish he had the temerity to express his mind on his new wife. He hadn’t. Well let me help with what might be in the comrade’s mind: “Any woman who agrees to marry a man who is rich, a man who alternates between government houses and presidential villa and lives in ten or twenty bedroom castle that is not your real love. When my wife [Lara] said I love you, it was not from her heart”.
Comrade Oshiomhole may appear austere, as all comrades are won’t to appear. Comrade may always spot short-sleeve jacket to paint a demeanor of a worker living within his wage. But from the home front, comrade is “flamboyant”.
You never know with women, one writer had said. My good friend Eddy once saw a beautiful Hausa lady and exclaimed: “Jaafar! If this girl will marry me, I will first become Muslim. Second, I will drop out if she doesn’t want me to continue with my study. Third, I will ‘dash’ her my car”. I knew how Eddy loves his faith, his degree and his Corolla at the time. But he succumbed to the power of love, lust and beauty.
But Eddy is not alone in this transmutation. This is not new for the ex-labour leader to transform. Oshiomhole was once a Muslim but converted to Christianity because of love, the love of his late wife. A few years ago, Oshiomhole added his baptismal name “Eric” as his middle name and dumped “Aliyu” – all for love.
King Edward VIII had to abdicate the British throne for the love of his life, “a married woman who once divorced”.
Me too love weakens me – the love of my madam. Ehmm but… Well, forget abeg! The other day I told my wife I wonder why people get moved by the beauty of Ange Kagame, the daughter of Rwandan president, Paul Kagame. “Ange looks like Burkinabe soccer star Aristide Bancé”, I said. But she looked at me and snapped: “Ka gaya musu!”, meaning tell it to the birds!
Thankfully, Gov. Oshiomhole is not “abdicating” his governorship seat for his beautiful heartthrob.
Good that he remains within the “Cape Bendel”.
Love, lust and beauty are both virtuous and vicious circles. Defending on one’s fortune or misfortune, love can be sweet or sweat. The essence of living together is peace, happiness and reproduction. One can marry the most beautiful lady on earth and live peacefully, while another, the unlucky one, can marry the ugliest and live quarreling.
Congrats Comrade!
