The love story of Anambra State Governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, and his wife, Nonye will always radiate spectacular emotions. In our contemporary society, where marital unions seem to have its sacredness and dignity in the eyes of doubts, Chukwuma and Nonye Soludo have shone amazing lights of hope on the revered institution.
But it is not just about being husband and wife that makes the union of Anambra’s first family every eye’s envy. There is more to it. Perhaps it will take the scholarly diligence of sociology researchers to unravel. At thirty-two, one would have begun a countdown of oldness, or something in the like of history.
Surprisingly, it looks like just the beginning for the Anambra first couple, who have defied marital expectations and set a record of what matrimony should really be. Thirty-two years, and you would think it began just yesterday.
Telling this sweet love story triggers corresponding lessons to couples who wish to find the place of tolerance, trust, hard work, support and selflessness in legal unions. Chukwuma and Nonye Soludo strike a distinct narrative of a classic couple who soared to prominence by leaning trustworthily on each other’s strength, tenacity and vision. Where Nonye’s altruism ends is where Chukwuma’s resilience and wisdom begin.
For more than three decades, this couple have harnessed their distinctiveness to form an unbreakable bond; one that most marital unions today hardly have a grasp of. There is a lot for one to learn from the Anambra first couple. Most essentially are the secrets to achieving a peaceful, godly and beautiful home.
Nonye and Chukwuma met around 1989 in Isuofia, Aguata Local Government Area. The Anambra governor’s wife had just completed her secondary education at the prestigious Queen of Rosary Secondary School, Nsukka, from where she gained admission to study Computer Science at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
At the time, Chukwuma was already a young, glowing and ambitious lecturer in the Department of Economics of the same institution. Both are from the same village; Umueze, Isuofia. The two love birds got wedded on December 26, 1992, at Saint Patrick’s Catholic Church, Isuofia. Reverend Father Professor A.B.C Chiegboka, Soludo’s brother, close friend and high school mate at Uga Boys, who was ordained four months earlier at the time, was the priest who joined the couple in holy matrimony.
Nonye married Chukwuma while in the university, and gave birth to her first two children as an undergraduate, rolling from the Nsukka campus of the prestigious UNN to the UNEC campus in Enugu metropolis. Through the period, the couple, despite their young age challenges, built a young, beautiful family from the fabrics of love, hard work and discipline. Soon, Nonye graduated and set up one of the first and largest cyber stores on campus: The Queens Computer.
Chukwuma had already become a celebrated scholar and one of the most sough-after econometrics consultants in the world. He was just in his late thirties. One of most unique definitions of this couple’s relationship is that Nonye is a woman whose nature identifies with calm wisdom. Yet, in her low-light character lies extraordinary courage. You may not know it, but the Anambra governor’s wife is that hidden brave heart behind her husband’s conquests.
The secrets of Nonye and Chukwuma’s marital success are two: love and friendship. Where most relationships see differences, the couple sees synergy in wisdom, oneness, mutual emotions and self-improvement. By being each other’s most trusted confidant, Nonye and Chukwuma Soludo share a bond of emotion and intelligence, and see each other as best friends, far from the formal mindset of man and woman.
One event the couple has never failed to celebrate in their thirty-one years of marital union is their wedding anniversary. They renew their vows, and set a stronger focus on how to keep growing in love. The couple does not look back to see how far their union has come.
What this great couple has been able to achieve over the last thirty-two years is magnificent. Both partners have been able to knit their individual uniqueness into a near-perfect, formidable union. Nonye, a daughter of two great teachers – with her her late mom, Mrs Gloria Uzoamaka Ezenwanne, rising to the position of an education secretary in the old Aguata era – brought her thorough-bred discipline, hard work, wisdom, humility and unassumingness to the table. Chukwuma, on the other hand, came with his brilliance, courage, vision and hard-core work ethic.
It did not take long for them to build a collective force out their individual strengths to become a super couple. Most observers have often misinterpreted Mrs Soludo’s calm worldview for self-ensconcement. But beneath the extraterrestrial waltz of Governor Soludo husband lies her heartbeats and spousal ingenuity.
Today, this super couple marks thirty-two years since that first, historical walk on the aisle, in a union that has produced six great kids – Ozonna, Ifeatu, Ekene, Chinua, Oduko and Zikora.
The prayers of Ndi Anambra are that God who has instituted this everlasting friendship of example, will keep using Chukwuma and Nonye as instruments of reference for both present and future generations. May this amazing couple continue to live in love and renewed friendship. Amen. Happy 32nd wedding anniversary to Governor Charles Chukwuma and Frances Nonye Soludo.
