Wabara: My Wife’s Death Devastated Me

Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo in Umuahia

Former Senate President, Chief Adolphus Wabara, has revealed that the demise of his wife, Felicia, in April at the age of 69 devastated him completely.

He disclosed this inner longing when he received the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abia State, Chief Ikechi Emenike, who was at Ohambele in Ukwa East Local Government Area to condole with the former Senate President.

“I had told my wife that I would like to die before her,” the former number three man in Nigeria said, adding that “women are stronger than men”, contrary to the general belief.

He said that he has been devastated by the passage to eternity of his Edo State-born soul mate, who had been part of his life for over four decades, hence it would have been better for him to have gone before her.

Senator Wabara lauded Emenike for putting politics aside and deemed it fit to come on a condolence visit to his Ohambele home in Ukwa East Local Government even when they belong to different political parties.

According to him, the burial ceremony of his wife would be a non-partisan affair as he formally invited the APC governorship standard bearer and members of his party to come and join his family to pay their last respects to his wife.

He said that the burial ceremony of his wife would “attract a lot of people to this place but there is no road to Ukwa.”

Wabara commended Emenike and his entourage for enduring the harrowing experience of travelling from Aba to Ukwa East on dilapidated roads.

“People are bound to ask: is this in Abia State? It appears Ndi Ukwa are not considered for relevance in Abia politics,” Wbara lamented.

However, he enjoined Emenike to see the need “to correct the ills of the past” when he became Abia governor.

“The confidence of your party is what people may not understand,” he said. “Whoever knows the right way should follow it.”

The Abia APC leader, while sympathising with Chief Wabara noted that women remain the indispensable part of the home hence losing a wife is an experience that every man should dread.

He enjoined the former Senate President and his family as well as the Ndoki people to bear the death of Mrs. Wabara with fortitude and prayed for the eternal repose of her soul.