Celebrating My Wife, Mueyiwa at 40
“And the man said: This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for out of man she was taken.
“Therefore, shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” Genesis 2: 23-24.
I proposed to my wife Mueyiwa in 2001 and charged her to get the buy-in of key persons in her life.
However, while she went about that, She was mocked, humiliated and bruised for my sake!
Yes. Relations and friends saw her as someone who had lost it in life for electing to marry me.
She was told that I was an ‘old man’, ‘a poor man’ and that if she got married to me, her ‘children would be running naked in the streets.’
An Uncle asked her: “where is Leo from?” She replied: “from Eme-Ora Sir.” He quipped: “Ah!, Ora? Afemai people don’t last oo…When they are 40, they die.”
In the face of the heavy oppositions, over 98 per cent of her friends told her to back off our marriage plans.
In the heat of the mountain of oppositions from left, right and centre, the devil struck:
My elder brother Tony Iria Atakpu died in December 2003 at 39.
In January 2004, my eldest brother, John Aruya Atakpu died at 49.
In April 2004, my beloved mother, Edna Nnodi Atakpu (Nee Dumbi) who had been mounting pressure on me to get married so she could see my children died at 73.
In November 2004, my Uncle Cyril Jimah Atakpu passed on….
I felt the whole world crashing on me.
Some friends asked her: “Is that the family you want to marry into?”
But she believed in me, trusted me and was unruffled.
In December same year, I told my fiancé then to give me a straight answer to my marriage proposal and we agreed to get married despite all odds.
When I arrived Oredo Marriage registry for our wedding on 18 December 2004,
Alas! Oredo was on fire! Fire fighters from all around Benin could not put out the fire.
Delta State fire fighter were called in for a helping hand…
I pulled a call to her and she broke down in tears!
She was consoled by my only brother who was oblivious of the reason for her tears and immediately chauffeured her down with his “Oga madam” car.
We were later moved to a make-shift location for the event.
When the marriage Registrar put the question pointedly to her: “Will you take Leo Atakpu as your lawfully wedded husband in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer till death do you part?
With just a friend by her side, she responded: “Yes I do.”
At the reception, my Sister’s husband, the Late Hon. Boniface Asikhia (May God bless his soul) had just one prayer for us; “May your risk work for you.”
After a brief, modest wedding reception in my brother’s house at Evbuotubu, we retired to my rented apartment, a Room and palour in a “face-me, I face you” building (an apartment, meant for the lowly in society she had never lived all her life).
When she was called to the Nigerian Bar in 2006, I was the only one with her to share in her joy.
The rest today is history.
Last December, our marriage was 16 years and we both could look back and give thanks to God for His faithfulness.
God has proved to us that no man can take His place in our lives.
So, family members and friends, please join me to celebrate and pray for this rare gem, a beautiful Rose from Thorns, the bone of my bones and the flesh of my flesh, a transparent, honest, accountable woman.
My love, a true born-again child of God, a jim-jim spiritual daughter of our father in the Lord, Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, an incorruptible public servant, my Queen and beloved wife in whom I am well pleased, Mrs. Oritsemueyiwa Ohiro Atakpu (Nee Jemide) as she Clocks 40 years today.
@views exclusive rights: Leo Atakpu is Deputy Executive Director, African Network for Environment and Economic Justice, ANEEJ
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