….Turns 53 today
Stella Oduah- Ogiemwonyi wears her husband’s name like a life-jacket thrust in her palms in the heat of life’s turbulence. Even though they are estranged from each other, Stella lives for the glory of her husband’s name. The former Minister of Aviation who clocked 53 today, wouldn’t be caught dead answering to her maiden name even after her estrangement from Mr. Ogiemwonyi hence she holds tenaciously to his name in a move that has been variously described as her desperate and heartfelt attempt salvaging her self-respect and pride as a married woman.
Truth is, Stella is no longer Dr. Chris Ogiemwonyi’s wife – so why is she clinging to his name?
What really is in the name that makes the former Aviation minister and wealthy proprietress of Sea Petroleum and Gas hold tenaciously to it? Perhaps it’s because Dr. Chris Ogiemwonyi, a former Executive Director, Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and immediate-past Minister of State for Works imbued her name and persona with unprecedented honour?
Perhaps it’s due to the immense benefits accruable from her retention of the name, more or less like the prestige associated with it. Stella, like many rich, divorcees may be holding on to her estranged husband’s name because it makes it easier to maintain and run a bank account and keep an elite club membership, like membership of a prestigious social class.
For others, it makes things less confusing for everyone, especially for children from their former marriage. Some other women choose to make it a mixed affair as its noticeable in the case of Stella Oduah- Ogiemwonyi. Sources close to said she simply loves to answer to her ex-husband’s name, though they are no longer together. Whatever her argument, truth is, the retention of former spouses’ name indeed has its conveniences. And marital-name change is not without its down sides.
In the eventful life of Stella, her estrangement from Dr. Chris Ogiemwonyi, a former Executive Director, Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and immediate-past Minister of State for Works, denied her a lot of things
