If I Made One Right Decision, It Was Marrying Stella
Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa – that name certainly rings a bell. He has led interesting professional life, done extraordinary things in his field, and gone through a remarkable experience. But there are aspects of his life you probably have never heard of. The phar
If you are conversant with the inner circle of Nigerian entrepreneurs, you surely know Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa. Ohuabunwa is a familiar figure on the business scene. He has interests in different sectors and deals with a wide range of people. “I’m networked, perhaps, in an unusual manner. I am in business, I relate to business associations; I’m in God’s work. I relate to religious organisations; I’m a community man, so I relate to community people. I’m a professional. I was in Umuahia for one week (November 6-11, 2017); we were hosting the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, which is my original constituency,” Ohuabunwa says.
Ohuabunwa is, perhaps, best known for his role in private sector economic advocacy. He is the former president of the West African Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association, ex-president of Nigeria Employers Consultative Association, and ex-chairman of Nigerian Economic Summit Group. He was a member of the Vision 2010 Committee, National Council of the Vision 2020, and the Presidential Steering Committee on the Global Economic Crisis.
He is a fellow of several professional and academic associations, including Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, West African Postgraduate College of Pharmacists, Nigerian Institute of Management, Chartered Institute of Marketing of Nigeria, and Nigeria Institute of Public Relations.
Romance
Now formally retired, but still working hard, Ohuabunwa looks back on past events, particularly romance, and relives what he saw in his wife, Stella, with evergreen fondness. His initial standards while looking for a wife never favoured her.
“My wife was very submissive, both from her external look and her real character,” he says. “That was what endeared her to me. Of all the people, she was the least educated, the least able to earn money. That was why those criteria were not favouring her. But when I threw those things away, I went for what my heart was telling me.”
Both have been married for 37 years. They have five children and seven grandchildren. Yet, looking back at the past decades, and forward to the future, he says, “Each day I wake up, I say, thank God. I say, God, if I had made one right decision, this was one.”
He explains, “The truth is that I was praying. I wasn’t such a wonderful Christian. But I went through Christian school, and I had a family experience. My father married two wives and there was always commotion. So I kept praying to God that I didn’t want to have commotion in my home and saying, ‘God, please, give me a good woman that will not give me reason to start looking for a second wife.’
“Eventually, when I made up my mind to marry, I had a number of prospective wives. Somehow, I was a little bit a guyish, a boy around town. Finding a wife entailed making sure that from the list I had I got the best. Often, I would take the list I had and score them according to things like education, financial capability, physical beauty, etc. But when God wants to help you, all those things won’t count. At times, after doing the list, I would tear the paper, because where my mind was, was not where the scores were leading me. Then I said to myself, who am I happy with among my girlfriends? Whom did I sit with and I felt good?
“Then somebody I had met and told, please, go your way, was the same person I went back to and said, I have made up my mind with you. Even the circumstances of our first meeting showed me that it was God. People should learn to pray. God is a merciful God. He hears our prayers, even when we think we don’t deserve it. Don’t say because I’m not holy I can’t pray, no.”
Encounter
Ohuabunwa narrates how he met his wife.
“Our meeting was divine,” he says. “Where I used to live, my wife was in school and they came to do what they call bob-a-job. When I saw her, I was really enthralled. What caused my enthrallment was that the school she came from, I used to pass it on my way to work. I used to say, who gave these girls the uniform that made them look like petrol attendants. I was in Enugu then doing my internship at the teaching hospital. But this girl, the day she appeared for the bob-a-job, dressed in
I was a boy around town, and when I married my wife, I still had some other extramarital activities. Of course, it was going to cause problems. Sometimes you come home late and in all kinds of shape. But when I gave my life to Christ, I became a faithful husband and a good father