From the outside looking in, the walls of bourgeois homes are like the gates of heaven, admitting only the privileged few to a life of unbroken ease in the lap of luxury, while shutting out the millions of masses who would die for a single taste of the opulence within. What is less realised is that those very same walls often trap their residents in their own vicious cycle of misery and woe that money cannot alleviate. The rich also cry, as the saying goes. They just don’t do it often in the public eye.
One woman who has decided to cry loud and long about her travails is Clara Chime, the estranged wife of former Enugu governor, Sullivan Chime. Since they got separated five years ago, Clara had disappeared from the scene. She became a tall shadow with no human substance in the public eye. Not many wondered what became of the woman, who during her time as first lady across her husband’s two terms, was very visible on the social scene.
However, someone, no matter how submissive or docile can keep quiet for only so long. Clara has decided to throw caution to the winds and let the whole world hear of what she is passing through at the hands of her estranged husband who turned 60 in April. Despite some moves made by close family and friends to try and salvage the marriage, Clara has reached the end of her tether. She has gone to court to dissolve the union.
Narrating her ordeal to a sympathetic court audience, the dark-complexioned beauty alleged that the former Enugu number one has barred her from seeing her child, reducing mother-child interaction to occasional glimpses and fleeting chance encounters.
She claimed the abuse and threats she received during her stay in her matrimonial home became so much and so brutal that she had no choice but to flee for fear of her life. Since then she had given Chime a wide berth, focusing instead on her oil and gas business. Even though she hasn’t been receiving maintenance money for her daily upkeep, she is happy with the way she is living now and wants the court to make it permanent by legally putting an end to the marriage.
