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• Mr and Mrs Okah
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If you describe her as an enigma, you would not be wrong as she is not much different from her husband, who has been on trial in South Africa on terrorism-related charges since October 2010 over the Independence Day bombing incident in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city, that claimed about a dozen lives.
Speaking to Mrs Okah was indeed the icing on the cake to the very exciting but recent brief visit to Nelson Mandela country. The ride from the Gautrain area of Sandton to Bassonia, another upscale area of Johannesburg, lasted about 25 minutes. As the Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) made its last turning to the right after a gas station, you notice an expansive, five-storey building. There are similar exquisite structures as you ascend the hilly street, but one stuck out like a sore thumb. Perched atop the hill, it is breathtaking, simply awesome.
A remote-controlled entrance ushers one through a garage into the ground floor. Welcome to the palatial home of the fearsome militant leader, who is on his third spell in prison on account of his role in the famed Niger Delta emancipation struggle.
You also notice several works of art on the walls and around the rooms as you climb the stairs from one level to another. But you can’t miss the presence of the ‘man-eating’ dogs. There are said to be four of such in the building though I saw just one. But it was big enough to scare the daylight out of someone who had a phobia for the pet.
After about a 10-minute wait in one of the living rooms on the third floor, a slim, light-skinned beautiful lady of about 1.6 metres walks in wearing a simple white gown and a matching shawl. No airs around her. Almost instinctively, she opens the conversation: “You are welcome. Please, what would you like to drink?”
The business at hand crowded my thoughts as I sat on the sofa with a female colleague from Daily Sun of Johannesburg, who accompanied me.
“Thanks Mrs Okah. Water would do.”
“You don’t want something else, maybe alcohol?” Not being a liquor person, I simply said: “No, thanks.”
I eventually settled for distilled water and a can of soft drink when she insisted.
Straight to the business. “Please, can we sit somewhere we can talk?” I offered, trying to achieve my mission before she changed her mind, as it took some prodding to get her to agree to an interview.
“Oh sure. Let us use the study.” I followed quickly after her.
As she spoke, you could feel the subdued pain. One moment, her voice drops and she leans her cheek on her palm as if she was fighting her emotions. The next minute, she fires back, her voice roaring. But you can see a woman that has taken a lot in her strides, yet undaunted, courageous and strong.
She spoke exclusively to Sunday Sun in this first interview since her husband’s current travail began.
Let’s begin with this structure. How does one describe it, a palace, a mansion or a fortress?
(Laughs heartily). It is just a house.
But it’s massive I must say
Well, thanks.
Where are you from, I mean your state of origin?
I’m from Enugu State. We are a family of three children and I’m the only girl. I have two brothers. Really, I shy away from talking about my parental background.
When did you move with your husband to South Africa?
In 2004.
Since then you have lived here?
Yes
Tell me, what kind of person is your husband? For instance, at your wedding, he wore just a blazer and jeans trousers without a tie; so unconventional.
(Laughs) He hasn’t changed from that. Henry is just a determined person and always knows what he wants.
How long did you court before you married him and what was he doing then?
He was always a jack of all trade, who knew what he was doing. But I knew him as far back as 1993 and we got married in 1999.
Looking back and considering all that had happened in the last few years, how does it feel to be married to someone with a negative tag, so to say; someone who has been in and out of detention?
I won’t say negative. That is a word I disagree being used to describe anything that concerns Henry.
But that is the perception of the society?
Well, it depends on which side of society or the kind of people you meet. So, I won’t say negative. Really, he has been very positive in my life. He has made me more of a practical person. I used to run away from issues. But having met Henry, he taught me that you don’t run away from issues but you face them. So, I will never associate Henry with anything negative. He is very absorbing, I will say, in the sense that when you know him, you tend to become very much alive.
In and out of prison or detention, I won’t really also say that, because each time he had to be on that side of the bar, it had to do with what he was fighting for. So I won’t say it is negative. People get into prison for all sorts of reasons. His has never been what I will call criminal. So I have never bothered in that sense about what kind of stigma it could bring from society.
The charges against your husband border on terrorism. Are you not worried that that could mean life imprisonment or even death sentence?
Terrorism? Let us just say it favours the government to put that tag. Anyone who knows Henry will definitely know he is not a terrorist. I really wonder why they had to put that tag on him. You and I know that it has nothing to do with terrorism. We have been in South Africa for so long and he is supposed to be a terrorist? Why on earth did he live in peace? We have been here living in peace and they came up with that charge. Why didn’t they come up with that when they arrested him in Angola or when they took him from Angola to Nigeria? The first time they arrested him, it wasn’t on a terrorist charge. You should remember.
Then he was accused of gunrunning and treasonable felony
Yea. But even those who do coup d’etat in Nigeria are not called terrorists neither those who fight for their rights. So why would they say he is a terrorist? What proofs do they have? You just don’t put a stigma on somebody and you put him in detention while you try to look for the evidence. You have to prove first that he is a terrorist. This terrorism charge is new and we know he is no terrorist.
In 2007, your husband was arrested in Angola and detained for five months before he was moved to Nigeria where he was incarcerated for another 18 months before his release in July 2009. Now he is in detention again for close to 18 months. How do you get on with life with your husband always in the gulag?
(Long pause) I don’t think about that. Really, the most important thing for me is how does Henry cope? I have my freedom and I have my kids. To me, that is a whole lot.
Coping… Coping… Hmmm, you make it sound as if it is one horrible thing. Yea, I just think about Henry and him coping. It is not about me. So long as Henry is alive, I think I’m more or less okay. I just look at the bigger picture. I don’t look at it without Henry. He is still here whether he is in prison or not.
You must be a strong-willed person. Am I right?
Strong-willed? I don’t really know.
But there must be something that keeps you going…
I just know there is a purpose to everything. I look at the future. I know it will unfold and we will know why all these things are happening. I look at my past, I look at Henry and what is going on in Nigeria, and I dare to say it would all come to fit. I don’t intend to look at what is. Everything has a purpose.
Do you believe in what your husband is fighting for? He has insisted that the issues of injustice and underdevelopment of the Niger Delta must be addressed; that it is not only about amnesty
Sure, I do.
Even if it would cost him his life?
Well, I insist it won’t cost him his life because I take it up to Him (pointing skyward). You see, it’s not just a one-man thing also. I wish we had lots of Henries. Unfortunately we don’t. But I believe in what he fights for. I just pray that what he fights for would come to pass.
How many children do you have?
Four. One is 17, another is going to 12. The third is going to 11 and the last one is nine.
Does what is happening to their father affect them in any way?
Yea, the first one, Eniye, it does affect her because she has lived through it all. She is 17 and you know this thing with Henry has been going on for a while. She hasn’t seen much of her father, I must say. But she carries the traits of a woman who fights for what she wants. For her, it has both the positive and negative, but I’ll prefer to pick on the positive. Eniye would never allow anything to stop her from what she wants, which is a trait of my husband. That’s a nice trait, I must say. But she has to meet the right man.
Have you ever advised Henry to give up on this struggle considering what you and the children have to go through?
Yea, I have. Sometimes it sounds as if it is a selfish wish. I remember once when I told him that he had to slow down because he was not getting any younger, he simply said he does not know why he just can’t stop. So I realized it is something I can’t make him stop, whether for selfish reasons or for the family. Really, it is something I had to pray about.
You must be a religious person…
Well, I take it to the Lord and that is what I have been doing all these years. Like I said, we will see why all these things happened.
I have been trying to take your picture but each time you raise your hand and it blocks your face. Why?
(Laughs) I really don’t like photographs. I thought we had enough of them on the internet.
Even my camera appears to be fumbling. The battery power has suddenly run down
Yea, it is reading my mind, and that is good. You know, there is this scripture that says all things work out for good…em...em
…To them that love God, Romans 8:28
Yes. You know, all things don’t necessarily have to be all good things. It has to be all things that had happened. I’m not just looking at the Niger Delta issue and that is what I tried to tell Henry. I told him that I think there is a bigger purpose and not just the Niger Delta. I can see what is really playing out in Nigeria with Boko Haram and how the country is being torn in two as well as the demarcation between the rich and the poor. There is also corruption. We have so many things actually wrong with our country. Nigeria is sick and it is sad that you have to be the strongest to make it; more or less survival of the fittest.
What I’m saying is that there is a bigger picture and I’m trying to see what really the problem with Nigeria iss. I don’t just see only Niger Delta or Boko Haram. It is a whole lot of things. Someone who can look beyond everything and see people finishing school and there are no jobs. How are you even going to make it? You earn so much but you cannot even access mortgage to get a house in Nigeria. Must you steal to make money? Must you be in politics to make money? I mean, it is sad. And those who are rich are getting richer while those in the middle class are struggling. If you don’t run out of the country, then you have to find a way to make it in Nigeria.
There must be something that can be done so that there is not so much demarcation between the very rich and the very poor. I’m just thinking that Nigeria needs a very big shake-up. Even if we settled Boko Haram or the Niger Delta issue, I’m telling you we still have a problem of the masses; of people who finish school and there are no jobs. All these things actually start from people that are dissatisfied; people who think how am I going to make money? How am I going to survive? Do I have to be friends with the rich or do fraud to make it? There must be a way. If we settle these problems and we don’t settle the basic problem of someone finishing school and having the dream of a nice job and a good house, we will still have problems.
Listening to you, one could perceive that you have imbibed the ideals of your husband. In fact, you speak like him…
Yes, you are right. After all I live with him.
What are some of his qualities you admire?
(Prolonged pause) He is focused. He is a rare man; very rare person. I’m not saying this because I’m his wife and people may think I’m biased. But take it from me that he is rare, in the sense that I wish I could protect him. I wish I could.
You said your family relocated to South Africa in 2004. Why did you have to leave Nigeria at the time? Was it in anticipation of what could happen in the Niger Delta?
(Smiles) We actually relocated in August 2004. Like I said, Henry is a focused person. He is someone who sees what could happen, maybe four or five years ahead. He told me that he saw; then we just got married and I wasn’t even looking into ideologies. I had my young girl’s dreams. But he said that he saw what would happen now and he needed us to be set, more or less.
Looking at life in South Africa and its history, how much of that has positively affected you in the way you see the travail of your husband?
I see there is hope. Being here has given me hope. It has made me also see the possibilities that whether he is in prison or he is not understood or things are not going as expected, I should not lose focus. If you borrow a leaf from what has happened to not just Mandela, we seem to forget that Obasanjo was also imprisoned and was almost going to be killed before the good Lord brought him out.
I don’t know the promises that he made the Lord but each man that has been taken from where they were and put on a higher platform, I believe they see a picture of what they must do. But the question is, do they do what they are supposed to do? Even Jonathan, our President, I’m sure that before he became President or even governor, he must have seen the road he is going to take. Now that he is there, he must ask himself, am I fulfilling the things I was sent to fulfill while I’m sitting on this seat? Yea, things are happening while he is there. But he must remember where he came from. He must remember the past, the promises that were dropped in his spirit and what he was assigned to do. If he derails from it, then he has lost it.
Considering what has happened to your husband, do you feel any animosity towards President Jonathan being somebody also from the Niger Delta?
No, no, no, not at all. I’m far removed from animosity and all of that. I won’t say he personally put my husband in prison. What I would rather say is if he looks into what is happening now; you know people get advice from left, right and centre. Sometimes these advice make them take a decision. I just think he should be the one who should judge the situation, apart from all the advice he has received.
For about 18 months now, the trial of your husband has dragged on without him getting bail. Do you still believe in the judicial system of South Africa?
Sure. It is slow but here they really know who my husband is and what he is fighting for. They know he is not a terrorist, from what I have picked.
Then why are they holding him?
Well, they know where they got their orders from. If you are a policeman and you have orders to arrest a man, you could find out that the man is innocent but because of the order from your superiors you will go ahead and do what you are told.
Is it possible for one country to take orders from another country?
It is possible, of course, depending on who you get your orders from.
We hear the South African government wants to repatriate him to Nigeria to continue the trial. Is it true?
Well, you have to ask yourself why now? Why would they want to do that now? Maybe they want to wash their hands off the case or they have found out that there is no truth to the stuff they have. It could also be that Nigeria wants it that way for reasons best known to them.
Scores of South African policemen and soldiers invaded your home on September 30 and October 4, 2010 to arrest your husband. What was the experience like on both occasions?
It was horrible. It is an experience you only see in films. You are sleeping and you just hear gbam, gbam, gbam on your gate. It was about 3am. I think the experience will remain for a long time in the minds of the kids. It is also something that can go away with time with lots and lots of love. I just thank God for the protection he has given over my house because if there was remotely any kind of violence after that, it would highlight the kind of trauma they went through. But I must say that God has been merciful as there has never been anything like that or anything before. So it is one incident that just happened.
How was he arrested on October 4?
The arrest was peaceful, more or less, because they just came and took him. The one that was traumatic was when they invaded the house (on September 30, 2010), which I thought was not necessary. If they came for questioning, like they said that was what they came for, they should just have knocked on the door and know when he was going to be in.
How many were they?
I couldn’t count them. They just filled the house. I think what happened was that they were given this false information that probably there were terrorists living here and not just him alone; maybe a gang of terrorists. They did not come as if they were coming to a family house. Why would you bring a tanker and people with all kinds of machine guns? It wasn’t just the police but also the soldiers with sniffer dogs. I mean they came as if they were going to raid…
What I’m saying is that they did this because of what they were told from Nigeria. But even then they should have studied the house and seen the kind of people who come and go out. They would have known that it is just me, my husband and the kids. When they came, I just knew they came for my husband. In fact, I told him that they came for him when I heard the banging on the gate. That was what my instinct told me.
It was reported that they could not gain entry into the house…
Yea. He wanted to stay but I told him to move. I also screamed to the kids to stay in. My concern strangely wasn’t for the kids but for him. I just told him go.
Go to where?
I cannot tell where he went; that is a secret. And they were wondering where on earth did he go to? They searched the whole house but couldn’t find him. When I became sure he was safe, then I came back to the house, asked for the kids and asked them what they wanted from my husband. And we took it from there.
How long are you prepared to wait assuming this trial drags on endlessly?
I don’t put a time limit… (Pauses and voice drops) When you put a time limit on things, you lose…(Pauses again). I look at factors. I try not to look at time because things must be in place. You know, I look at the story of Joseph. If Joseph was released six months before he was released, he would have been released into the wrong atmosphere. He would have been released before time. But it was at the right time.
So I don’t look at time. I look at the factors that if God says it is time, then it is time for me and it is time for Henry. I don’t want my husband to come out and his life is at risk or he comes out before time. I want him to come out at the right time. Not that I want him to stay there or come out in 10 years. What I’m saying is that he himself knows about timing. So, you go with the clock but that is not the time I go with. But I wish it is soon with the time only ticking.
What are your worries since this saga began considering that his brother is also in detention and being tried over the same allegation in Nigeria?
Well, Charles. You know he was in hospital and it just tells me that things can happen that you don’t expect. Moreover, someone else died, Francis. I don’t know if they are really looking into the welfare of inmates. I’m not just talking about my husband or Charles but generally inmates. People tend to put people in detention or prison and throw away the keys forgetting that they still have to prove whether they are innocent or guilty. How fast is the process? Do you just keep them there and drag issues?
The challenges are for us the wives – me, Uche and the others who have wives, Segun, Nonso and others who were taken just because they are associated with my husband. You don’t just take people like that because you hear they have something to do with my husband. It is sad because they put the burden on my conscience that people have to suffer alongside because they are acquainted with my husband. There should be a law that stops this kind of arrest. I mean, why don’t they seize their passports or find a way that they can’t escape while you hold them? But taking them and locking them up while they lose their jobs, their wives or children just for you to get them to say something or question them as witnesses, then you mess up their whole lives.
One very popular quote that was associated with Nelson Mandela was: The struggle is my life. Do you see your husband as the Mandela of the Niger Delta struggle?
Emmm… Henry… Nelson Mandela? Well, let us just say the bright side is that Nelson Mandela is alive. But Henry is just 47 now and if you say he is Mandela, then it means he is going to live for 100 and something years too. Well, I don’t know.
How often do you see him?
Every Friday, and I speak to him behind the glass. But he calls me every day at a certain time of the day.
Listening to you, one tends to feel that the two of you were meant for each other. One needs a wife that can stand by you in moments like this
That’s nice. I think I will be happy if they say I’m made for Henry. He is good for me and has made me stronger. I hope I’m okay for him too because he needs someone who will understand him.
Where did you school, South Africa or Nigeria?
In Nigeria, at Queens School, Enugu and the University of Benin.
What did you study?
Education (Finance)
What do you do in South Africa?
I manage Henry’s property
Thanks for obliging us
You are welcome. God bless you.
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