How Poor Anambra Widow Celebrated Christmas For Soludo With Big Chicken

RAYMOND OZOJI

A widow, who works as a cleaner in the office of the Head of Service, named Obiageli Margaret Nwokedi, has given Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo a very big chicken worth N30,000 in the market as Christmas gift. 

Soludo, who was obviously perplexed at the Christmas foul being given to him by a poor widow, watched and listened to her while she reeled out the reason she had to present the big chicken to him despite the economic hardships in the country.

Nwokedi told her colleagues in the state civil service who turned out at the Secretariat complex Awka on Friday 20th December for the 2024 Civil Service Day Celebration that she decided to give the governor a Christmas gift because the governor constructed Afor-Nkpor road which she plied daily to come to work in Awka.

The widow recalled that prior to the construction of the said road,  it was a death-trap with life-threatening potholes. But according to her, as soon as Governor Soludo attended to the road, she now plies the same road and gets to her destination within a twinkle of an eye unlike in the past communters had to grapple with the deplorable conditions of the Afor-Nkpor road in Idemili-North council area of the state.

She however, prayed for greater heights for the governor, declaring that after the governor’s second tenure, he would proceed to the Senate and from the Senate, Soludo will become President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Responding, Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo described the poor widow’s Christmas gift as very symbolic, saying that she has indeed demonstrated the true widow’s might in the Bible. He said it was a very profound gesture because the chicken according to him will not be less than N30,000 in the market.

The governor said that the woman who brought the chicken is a widow and a cleaner: which according to him, is about the lowest and least paid worker. He said that he struggled to hold back his tears because the gift was very symbolic and emotional even as he thanked other women who brought oranges and gift items as Christmas presents.

Soludo therefore, noted that there is a lot of lessons to learn from what the poor widow did even as he thanked her immensely for the kind gesture; asking everyone present to emulate Obiageli Margaret Nwokedi who in spite of economic hardships decided to share with others from the little she has as reflected in the biblical widow’s might.