How Obiano’s Wife Rescued Popular Actor, Earnest Asuzu, From Death

Raymond Ozoji, Awka

One of the remote reasons the wife of the Anambra State Governor, Chief Mrs. Ebelechukwu Obiano, is christened Mother Theresa came to the fore recently when she extended her magnanimity and benevolence to Mr. Earnest Asuzu, ace Nigerian movie star, who hails from Arondizogu in Imo state.

Her name, Ebelechukwu, which means God’s Mercy in English interpretation was made manifest in the life of the popular Nollywood actor, who was abandoned by his colleagues in the movie industry when he caught stroke and fell down at ShopRite premises in Lagos begging for alms and calling for help but no one came to his rescue. Not even the Imo state government came to his rescue when he was closer to his grave.

Unlike Muna Obiekwe and a few other notable Nigerian actors who lost their lives carelessly over inaccess to financial aids at the hospital, Asuzu was fortunate because the wife of the Anambra State Governor gave him reason to live again through her timely response to his ill-health at the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital Amaku Awka.

Obiano’s wife got a wind of the actor’s failing health as well as his inability to get help from the Actors Guild of Nigeria through the Senior Special Assistant to Governor Willie Obiano on Media Uju Edochie, who is also an accomplished Nollywood actress.

Uju Edochie had narrated Asuzu’s plight to the governor’s wife and as it is traditional with her, she ordered that the actor be taken to Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital Amaku Awka from Lagos, where he would receive comprehensive medical care in a special ward. All expenses were on the wife of the Anambra state governor.

The governor’s aide said, “About three weeks ago, it was all over the media that Earnest Asuzu fell down at ShopRite Lagos and was begging for alms.

“I begged mummy to help them and she said I should ask them, if they could come to Anambra state. They agreed and I pulled them down to Anambra state.

“Before mummy came to see them, she ordered that he should be given treatments for his stroke and they should put him in a special room and continue diagnosis and treatments until she came to see him and his wife at the hospital. It was on Tuesday that she saw them at Amaku.”

Edochie said that it was the governor’s wife’s intervention that saved Asuzu from premature death, adding that as at Tuesday when the governor’s wife visited the hospital, the actor was recovering very fast from his ill-health.

Although the governor’s aide wondered why the Imo state government and the Actors Guild of Nigeria abandoned Asuzu to his fate, she pointed out that she invited the likes of Bob Manuel Udokwu, Obidike and Rita Arum to come to the hospital and be eye witnesses to what Obiano’s wife did to save their colleague from untimely death.