Sunday Vanguard met with Governor Adams Oshiomhole recently to find out how life has been as a widower. He lost his wife, Clara, December 8, last year.

How has been life as a widower?

Life is tough in a quiet moment when you are back in your house, and you realize that you are all by yourself because, whether you like it or not, your first adviser is your wife. There are things that no one else can tell you except your wife. And, for most families, if there is one adviser you can trust, that the advice she gives is an honest advice, it may not be the correct advice but it is honest in the sense that she wishes you well. She is part of you as a wife. In a moment like this, you will get home but you will suddenly found out that you are completely by yourself. There are couples of things you will want to discuss with her and she is not there. It is hard, it is tough. But there are things you just have to reconcile yourself with, like they say, you pray that God just gives you the strength to accept what you cannot change.

Additionally, you have children who are grown up, the girls have all married. The boys are either in school or on their own because they have all grown up. So, you suddenly found out that you are alone in the house. It can be quite lonely, it can be emotionally stressful. But we can’t blame God, we can’t complain.

Late Mrs Clara Oshiomhole.

My wife was a strong pillar because she had faith. She was a woman who believed absolutely in the doctrines of the Catholic Church. That, to me, was a huge source of support because when you are in trouble, you have a prayer warrior at home, who reminds you that there is nothing you are seeing that is not in the Bible.

There will be moments of temptation, there are evil doers who will thrive. But you have Jesus Christ who has all the answers and, if you submit in the heart, I use the word the heart not the lips and you are shielded by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, no evil planted by man will flourish. And I have passed through a lot of difficulties. During the electioneering campaign, there were things that happened in my house that would have made people who are weak-minded to abandon the struggle.

During the long judicial process, there were some very frightening things that one observed in the house for which most people will either run away or they will just invite native doctors to take over the house. All I had to do, with the encouragement of my late wife, was to bring prayer warriors and Christians to do all night prayers in the house, in the campaign office. And if I am here, I believe it is because God has answered these prayers and the devil has been demystified as a liar.

So, in many ways, it has not been easy, but for everything that happens to a man, we give God the glory. Even before she passed on, there were moments that I was close to tears when my political opponents, as they have always done, tried to lie over the fact that my wife was not always around.

And I knew that she was having cancer. And people here, not a few came to me to say, what is the fight between me and my wife? They alleged that there was a fight, as a result of which my wife ran away from the house. Of course that was not the case and I was not in a position to say, no, sorry, it was because she had cancer. Those were the moments that were very very very emotionally stressful, but as I said, the devil is a liar. Yes, she could not make it, but, we thank God for everything.

How much support have you been receiving from your mother?

Oh, mama has been very supportive. She is a very caring mother. I go home once a week, or once in two weeks and, when I go home, I eat pounded yam, that I can’t miss. I don’t eat pounded yam here in Benin because they can’t make it the way my wife used to make it. But my mother is a well seasoned cook and most of my friends who follow me home, we all look forward to eating what we call mama’s food. But that is only once a week or once in two weeks.

How do you feel today after three years as governor of Edo State

It has been quite exciting, no dull moment. As I have said to many people, I thank God that I decided to get into politics and I thank Him for what he has used his infinite powers to accomplish for us in terms of being able to prevail over some of these very powerful dark forces that have dominated the state for a long time. I have come to the conclusion that our people are extremely easy to govern. And they are a very appreciative people. They are willing and ready to cooperate for anything they believe is in the interest of the majority. I have had enormous support across social classes, even to some extent across political divide. So it has been a very rewarding experience for me. But I must confess that in the first few months in office, I was a very troubled man. I was troubled by the fact that I assumed office at the peak of the oil crisis, oil prices collapsed and the allocation to Edo also collapsed to a level that was below what we needed to pay salaries.

And given my background, there were so much expectations. But three years down the road, I am a much more happier person, far more confident and with a sense of fulfillment; I am proud that from what seems to be a complete hopeless situation, one has been able to re-engineer the governance of the state, the politics of the state such that even my most ardent critics now accept that things have changed and Edo is changing.