PETER ODILI @ 73 *HOW HE MET HIS WIFE JUSTICE MARY, DRAMA DURING THE COMING OF THEIR FIRST CHILD

 

Sir Dr. Peter Odili and wife Mary

By Fred Iwenjora

Former Governor of Rivers state Sir, Dr Peter Otunuya Odili turned 73 years on August 15, 1948.

FRED IWENJORA explores his life and times as contained in his book; Conscience and History, My Story with special emphasis on how he met his amiable wife Justice Mary Odili, loved her at first sight and the drama during the arrival of their first child Adaeze.

Enjoy the respected physician in his own words as we burrow through one of the chapters in the book; Mary and I building our family.

He writes “I have always had this culture of “impatience for time wasted on queues”, especially for food, moreso if it was avoidable.  And so by the time I became a medical student at the Enugu campus of the University of Nigeria this attitude had become a habit.  I was either amongst the ‘1^st XI’ at the dining hall or amongst the last ’X1’.

On this fateful afternoon in 1972, at about 1.30pm while killing time in a lecture room on the first floor of the science building, studying and waiting to do last ‘XI’ lunch, three girls walked into the lecture hall.  The chatting and giggling caught my attention and I looked up from my Physiology book.  My eyes fell on one of the girls and something snapped in me and I said to myself “this is your wife”.  I had never seen her before that moment and had no idea who she was.  I watched them drop their books to ‘colonise’ seats for their afternoon lectures.  Again this was the practice on campus those post-civil war years.  Due to the paucity of facilities and infrastructure, lecture halls were shared between various disciplines and there were not enough seats for all the students, so to be sure of good seat upfront, serious students had to go in advance of the lectures and secure seats with their books.  The three girls took no notice of the young man who was gazing at one of them.  They left the hall having secured seats for whatever lecture it was they were programmed for.  I immediately walked up to where they had placed their books and opened the one placed by this unknown ‘angel’ that had me transfixed at first sight. I saw her names – Mary Nzenwa – Faculty of Law, instantly internalized the information and went back to my seat.  I could not concentrate anymore on what I was studying before the entrance of the three girls. I closed my book happily and was consumed with thoughts of this little angel Mary that my heart told me shall be my wife, even after, I silently watched Mary for the next three and half years without her knowing or even suspecting.  The Enugu campus was a relatively small place and it was easy to shadow anyone of interest.  I monitored Mary, I gathered all basic necessary information about her, but made no moves whatsoever to approach her. 

 TURNING POINT

“Like all things of destiny one fateful evening an old CKC friend Papp Alumona who was a law student on campus requested my company for a birthday party of one of his colleagues in their faculty – I obliged, it turned out that Alumona had in his company, his girlfriend and her roommate who turned out to be my dream girl ‘Mary’. You can imagine the internal excitement I felt at this unforeseen, unplanned and fortuitous coincidence. Mary and I met for the first time and got introduced to each other.  We clicked.  The ‘bug’ I had harboured for three and half years also caught her that night.  Our chemistry ‘jived’, we bonded. Nature, time, and opportunity met at destiny’s door.  We both fell instantly in LOVE, and got married 18 months after.  We have remained in love ever since.  This is our 36½ years in love non-stop and connubial bliss for 35 years. Mary was then in her final year as a law student.  She graduated from the faculty of law, and proceeded to the Law school in Lagos 1976/77 while I was in my final year in medicine.  We graduated about the same time, me from medicine and she from the law school.  I commenced my internship at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (U.B.T.H.) in July 1977 while she was posted to Ministry of Justice Abeokuta, Ogun State for her NYSC programme.  By 26^th August 1977 we got married at Oredo Local Government council Registry Benin, Edo State after one month as a house officer and Mary’s one month as NYSC member.

 A SIMPLE BUT UNIQUE WEDDING

 “Our wedding was very unique in its simplicity.  At the registry there were just four of us (Mary, myself, Agnes, Mary’s immediate younger sister and Humphrey Ukpabi, my house officer colleague).  When we got back to the house officers’ quarters, I just called my colleagues to join us in our one – room apartment for a reception.  Our wedding mass was at St. Paul’s Cathedral Parish, Benin City; present were Prof. & Mrs. Linus Ajabor, Mrs. Faith Ene and the Reverend Father (an Irish priest).  In all, the total cost of all the ceremonies including cost of our wedding dresses and suit, rings etc was N280.00.  My salary as a house officer was N400.00 per month and Mary’s NYSC monthly allowance was N170.00.

 AN EXTRAORDINARY AND NOBLE FATHER IN- LAW

“Anyone familiar with marriage to an Mbaise girl would find this story hard to believe because getting married to an Mbaise girl is probably the most expensive marriage in Nigeria.  My Late father in-law was a very extra ordinary and noble gentleman.  His kind doesn’t happen commonly and not many are privileged to be as lucky as I am to have had him as my father in-law.  Once Mary spoke to her parents about me, because of their love for her and their confidence in her judgement, I was accepted without any of the usual traditional protocols.  I simply made the traditional initial introductory visit with a few bottles of drink.  When I enquired about details of the real traditional rites, my father in-law simply said to me that I should not be in a hurry because I would need a few years to be able to cope with the cost implications of that.  He said it was not a business for a one month old graduate.  He was right and gracious.  When we finally performed the full rites in 1982, it was clear that the Royal Father knew what he was talking about.  We were ready and fulfilled the traditional rites in style and pomp but in full appreciation of the magnanimity and greatness of the mind, attitude and disposition of my father in-law HRH Eze (Barr.) B.S.C. Nzenwa. Over the years we became so close that I regarded him as a father, firend, confidant and political guide.

 

Dr. Peter Odili and family

DRAMA

Odili delves into the drama that heralded the arrival of their first daughter beginning with a difficult Chief Inspector who doubted their marriage to effect a reposting to Benin. According to him “the ground was now set for the building of a new nuclear family of Mary and Peter Odili by end of August 1977.  We tried to arrange the transfer of Mary’s posting to Benin City from Abeokuta but had to grapple with the reluctance of a difficult Chief Inspector, a Mr. Shoyege who even had the impudence of doubting the veracity of our marriage certificate.  Anyway, we eventually secured a transfer for Mary with a four month extension for frequent trips out of Abeokuta to Benin City.  We were glad and relieved to be together in Benin City and saved the risk of me traveling after call-duties. Mary finished her NYSC service in September 1978 as I was starting mine, but luckily at University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) Benin City.  It was convenient for us to then settle down for the next on year together under one roof in UBTH which became our first home as husband and wife.  Adaeze our first child arrived one month ahead of schedule on the 19^th of July 1979, a new family was fully born.

 MORE DRAMA

“However, before Ada came.  Mary and I went through a nightmarish experience as a young couple.  Mary was pregnant for what could have been our first, in early 1978.  At her 26^th week of pregnancy, a week after her antenatal clinic visit, without any premonition, she had a full blown eclampsia and was in a coma for 3 days.  It took God’s Grace and the extreme professional commitment of the staff of University of Benin Teaching Hospital Obstetrics and Gynecology (UBTH O & G) department to save her life.  We lost the baby but I was grateful to God for sparing Mary.

 Those days of Mary in coma are days I could never forget.  I was in a frightened daze for 3 days until Mary came round.  I could neither touch a cup of water nor tea, take my bath, nor change my clothes as I simply could not leave the ward.  I simply ignored all entreaties.  Mary’s consultant now Prof. Fidelis Micheal E. Diejomaoh, and his team.  Prof. Linus N Ajabor, was then head of department, under whom I worked as an intern for 3 months, their wives and associates like Adesua Eimunjeze, who were non-medical people, all got involved in managing the emergency.  We shall remain eternally grateful to all of them for the extra ordinary love, friendship and commitment they exhibited during those most dreadful days of crisis in our early married life.  We have since then become very close family friends and developed ties that have endured till date and they are permanent guests at every important event in our lives since then.

 FIRST PRIVATE PRATICE

Young Dr. Peter Odili had made up his mind early to pursue the practice of his course of study as soon as he got qualified. He narrates that; “by August 1979, as I was concluding my NYSC assignment in UBTH, I secured employment at Hebgreen Medical and Dental Centre in Port-Harcourt, having made up my mind to go home to my State of origin, Rivers, and get into the private medical sector.  This decision was not as easy as it sounds because in the course of two years of work in UBTH I had made good impressions on my consultants and so had offers for residency programmes from the departments of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Medicine and Psychiatry. Rejecting these offers from a centre of excellence as UBTH at that time, was neither easy to make nor easy to understand by others.  But I was clear in my mind about what I wanted to do with my medical career and the future.  So, I headed home to PH and started work as a staff physician on a monthly salary of N1,000 at Hebgreen Medical and Dental Centre, 130 Bonny Street, Port-Harcourt under the Late Dr. H.E.B. Green, a very fine gentleman, dental consultant and physician –at ex-military officer.

Mary was now a nursing mother with Adaeze just a few weeks old and so I had to quickly arrange for them to join me in Port Harcourt, immediately, by the end of September 1979 had settled down fully in Port Harcourt.

THE BIRTH OF PAMO

“Within my first month of stay in Port Harcourt, I took a survey of the medical facilities available in the city and my findings informed my advice to my dear wife to be extremely careful about our domestic hygiene and health related issues.  By April 1980 I was compelled by principle to voluntarily resign my appointment with Hebgreen.  I then set up a new practice under the supervision of Late Dr. James Ene Henshaw (a retired director of medical services in Rivers State), as the clinician in charge.  This was the birth of what later became Pamo clinics (acronym for Peter Adaeze Mary and Others) when I attained the then statutory post qualification age of 5 years for independent private practice by 1982 in a rented flat of N4,800.00 p.a. the floor tiles of which I personally laid.  The first year was very tough. Mary and I had to judiciously apply every kobo that we could save from the practice and from her meager monthly salary of N320 to sustain the practice.  By 1984, PAMO Clinics and Hospitals Group became a Limited Liability Company and had earned her first million naira and had become one of the best-run private hospitals in Port Harcourt, if not the best.

 IN LOVE WITH UBTH

“Our three other children Chinelo, Peter and Njideka were born at nearly equal time spacing of between 15-18 months in between births, By Mary’s 52^nd birthday she had become the happy mother of 4 kids.  All were delivered by caesarean birth at the UBTH Benin- City except for our last child Njide who was delivered at Prof. Ajabor’s Anita Summit Hospital Benin City.  All our kids were delivered by Prof. F.M.E. Diejomah.  This implied of course that we were travelling from Port Harcourt to Benin City for ante-natal care and delivery between 1980 and 1984, a clear testament of our faith in the staff and facilities at the UBTH at the time, especially Prof. F.M.E. Diejomah and the O & G department of UBTH.  The years between 1980 and 1984 were very busy and laborious for us, raising our lovely kids, Mary working hard as a magistrate and me building the practice that had become a reference centre in town with not less than 3 teaching hospital consultants popping in on a daily basis to see special patients and partake in the daily pounded yam lunch that Mary personally prepared with her special fresh fish Nsala soup (an Ndoni special treat) and other soups.

 MILLIONAIRE DOCTOR

This period saw us grow from a young struggling couple to comfortable young millionaire parents of 4 kids and employers of labour, owners of a country home, purpose – built hospital and staff quarters.  We graduated from self-driven Lada car to a brand new Mercedes Bens 200 air-conditioned and tinted glasses, metallic green colour imported in December 1981.  Mary also had her official car and driver.  We had, by the Grace of God, arrived, as the saying goes and had become a source of help and succor to our extended family relations and friends.  One of the remarkable turning points in our affairs and the progress of our hospital during this period was the rapid growth in patient attendance following our offer of free treatment to all staff and students of Catholic Institute of West Africa (CIWA) at its inception in 1981 under the Rectorship of monsignor Ezeanya, later Archbishop of blessed memory.  This was in response to the appeal by the rector to CKC Onitsha Old Boys Association PH for support to the insatiate.  The rector was an old student of CKC.  We volunteered this free service as our personal contribution to CIWA, and we believe God in response blessed PAMO.