Emotional Adams Oshiomhole Recounts Family Life With Late Wife, Clara, As He Leaves Office

Former Governor Comrade Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, who left office yesterday, Saturday November 12, 2016, expressed sadness over the death of his late wife, Clara while in office.

At the last executive meeting he had last Wednesday in Benin with his commissioners and other staff, 64-year-old Oshiomhole, recalled how he lost his beloved wife who was right by his side when he took the oath of office as governor of Edo State in 2007, according to reports.

The meeting was highly emotional. At a time during the meeting, he battled to stop tears while saying:

“My late wife wore khakhi with me, standing right beside me when I took the oath of office. Her death was very devastating to me because we were in the struggle together before I became governor and I felt now that God made me governor, she was going to enjoy the fruit of her labour.

So, it was shocking for me to lose her at that stage. I started with her and it would have been wonderful to finish with her.”

The father of five, however, said in an interview that he married the late Clara when he was just 22 years old.

”My father wanted me to marry early because he did not start early and wanted grandchildren. We were eight kids and I was the first. Whatever he said was law and I had to obey him. So, I got married and had two children before going back to school,” he recalled.

”I met Clara in the course of my union struggle. Then, she was a secretary and I approached her to help me type some union petitions. She was afraid that I was taking too many risks; something led to attraction and we got married.”

The ex-governor, who remarried in 2015 to his Ethiopian beau, Lara Forte, after he lost his first wife to cancer in December 2010, reminisced on his life as an activist:

“Before I became NLC president, I had already stopped making babies. Even when I was travelling around, I was lucky to have a wife who was caring and able to fill the gap.

My wife bore the burdens of peace because I’m a little impatient and I travel often. When you are exposed to tension, there is tendency for transferred aggression but you need a woman to understand you when in that kind of mood. When people say I was never around, I reply that I have five children and they were not produced in absentia. You would always find time to be with the family,” he said.

However, Oshiomhole commend members of his team for their effort towards the success of his administration. He described his Commissioner for Works, Osarodion Ogie as his son, saying “he has always been there for me. And sometimes even when I shouted at him he kept his cool and his loyalty has been unshaken”.