OBIANO: SOLIDARITY WITH THE HUMAN FAMILY

Ebelechukwu Obiano, tall, elegant, vivacious, is a charmer. Her physical looks must have attracted her to the husband, a man of taste. But it is not her charming looks which have sustained, let alone deepened, their marriage over the decades. There is one thing she has in common with her husband: a deep concern for the needy. This shared attribute has made them one of the closest couples I have ever met anywhere. They are not just friends but soul mates, bonded to each other.

Her sobriquet of Osodieme, meaning the woman who walks in the footsteps of her husband for the public good, is well earned. They complement each other.

Their intense concern for those in need makes them authentic Christians in the finest tradition of the expression. In an era when some religious leaders are obsessed with outdated dogmas, it is imperative to call attention to the primacy in Christian theology of what Pope John Paul the Second popularised as solidarity with the human family.

Jesus Christ says in Matthew 25: 41-45 “On the last day, many of you will ask: ‘Did we not preach in your name? Did we not perform miracles in your name?’ I will tell them to get behind me. I was in prison, you did not visit me; I was hungry, but you did not feed me; I was thirsty, but you did not give me water; I was naked, but you did not clothe me; I was homeless, but you did not provide me shelter. Not everyone who shouts ‘Father, father’ will inherit the kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of my father”.

What Christ is saying here, in other words, is that faith without good work is dead because the body without spirit is dead (James 2: 26). The Pharisees and Sadducees had faith, but no good work. Jesus called them “a brood of vipers” (12: 34) because of their wickedness and hypocrisy. Christ asks, “If you hate your brother, how can you love whom you have never seen?” (1 John 4: 20).

Many of us feel that we practise the social teaching of the church when we sit in the comforts of our blackened SUVs and once in a while throw a few naira notes to street beggars to scramble for, or when we manage to pay the school fees of a relative or two. We need to be challenged by the example of the First Lady of Anambra State and her spouse, Governor Willie Obiano. This couple does not just give to the needy; they work for them with passion. They are at home with lepers, orphans, the physically challenged, people with mental problems—in fact, the rejected and dejected in society.

It is not surprising that in the pantheon of Mrs Obiano’s heroes are such people as Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta, India, and Mary Slessor, two women who gave up all the worldly pleasures to work tirelessly for the weakest in society, to dedicate themselves to victims of social, economic and cultural injustices, and to work totally for the emancipation of people in foreign lands. The Scripture says in 15:13: “… there is no love greater than the fact that a man should lay down his life for the benefit of others”.

As the 2017 annual Zik Leadership Prize for Humanitarian Service is bestowed on Mrs Ebelechukwu Obiano, millions of Ndi Anambra and other Nigerians rejoice with the First Family of Anambra State on this honour. Truly, His banner over us is love (Song of Solomon 2: 4). C. Don Adinuba, Commissioner for Information & Public Enlightenment, Anambra State