By Reuben Onyishi
(Ugoachataberu)

Patricia Nwobodo (nee Uguru) is one Amazon that bestrides her world unassumingly yet full of many uncommon deeds. Besides her paragon beauty, Pat, as she is fondly called, even in the corporate world, has much to offer her world.

Tall and and fair, Pat exudes this radiance of aura, charisma and charm which is accentuated by her natural mien as she glows and glitters like full moon. Her elegance and majestic hue come through her charismatic mien, aura and poise. These features normally go with pride and arrogance, especially where fame and wealth have bared their bossoms to beauty. But not Pat! Despite her beauty and many sterling achievements in life, she is very humble,unassuming and kind. But for her beauty and elegance, one might not pass her for the aristocrat that she is, as the wife of the highly reverenced Chief Jim Ifeanyichukwu Nwobodo, the former governor of old Anambra State, former minister of Youths and Sports, a former senator who represented Enugu East Senatorial Zone in the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and former presidential aspirant, because of her humility, a rare virtue to come by under such fortunes of life.

To say that Barr. Pat Nwobodo is a virtuous woman is to scratch the surface of this phenomenal woman with a combination of rarities: beauty, brain and brawn. Pat Nwobodo seems to have been described in the book of Proverbs 31. A virtuous woman, who can find? She is pricelessly more precious than rubies and diamonds. Chief Jim Ifeanyichukwu Nwobodo, her husband, testifies of her goodness and it ties in with Proverbs 31:11 where it is written of the virtuous wife, “The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her so that he shall have no need of spoil. She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.” It is no doubt Pat’s goodness contributes to the well being and longevity of Chief Nwobodo. Chief Nwobodo appeared to have signed a contract with happiness and satisfaction the day he met Pat in 1980 while he was the governor of old Anambra State and getting married to the beautiful young Pat was one of the best decisions he ever made in life for which he is most thankful and satisfied. It seems the Maker of mankind has special love for Jim for having made him excel in his businesses and political career, and upon that gave him the gift of an angel of a virtuous wife.

Patricia was a student of the Institute of Management and Technology( IMT) Enugu when he met his darling husband and then she was also running a degree programme in law at the Enugu campus of the University of Nigeria Nsukka. She was quite hardworking and enterprising to have engaged in the two programmes at the same time. She, however, could not round off the law programme for she had to relocate to Lagos when the military took over and clamped down on politicians many of whom they threw into gulag. Jim was involved and was one of those detained at Kirikiri prison in Ikoyi. Pat had to abandon the programme to stay near to her husband. She was, however, later to gain admission in the law faculty of the University of Lagos from where she graduated with LLB degree and went further to gain her BL at the law school in Lagos.

While Jim was in prison, Pat, like a virtuous woman that she is, bore the task and responsibility of taking care of the family which also comprised her four step children. It was a trying period for the family, but Pat remained unwavering and bore the hardship of the period with good presence of mind and stoical equanimity. “She would rise while it was night and give meat to her household. She led her home with integrity, discipline, teaching her children and serving God” as we would read of the virtuous woman in Proverbs 31:15. Pat had remained strong and honourable in her dealing while Jim was away. Pat Nwobodo is filled with much wisdom and in her tongue is the law of kindness. Pat is a jewel of inestimable value to Chief Nwobodo, for she nursed him back to his former self after he was released from prison and has till date taken good care of him as a true wife would her husband. Of the virtuous woman of Pat’s dimension, “her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land.” In the absence of Jim, Pat had seen to the preservation of his property anywhere in the country. Any other woman would have found that an opportune moment to dispose of them at the pretext of fending for the family, but Pat chose to preserve them and painstakingly waited and prayed for the freedom of her husband, a prayer the Most High answered in due course.

Having passed through the storm and high waters with him, Jim naturally reposes much confidence in his kind and loving wife and both of them have stock to each other as bees to honeycomb in oneness and love.

Pat was not yet done with academics. While she currently runs a doctorate degree programme at the University of Pennsylvania, UPENN, Philadelphia, USA on blockchain technology, Barr. Pat Nwobodo has four masters degrees taken from the following universities: (1)Harvard(M.P.A.) obtained in 2010 in public administration with special bias in leadership and management of public institutions, public policy, economics of public institutions including budgeting, taxation regulation, infrastructure financing and management; (2) MBA from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA which she obtained in 2009 with specialisation in global leadership and innovation, leadership of global corporations, corporate finance, entrepreneurship and technology,human resources development and personnel policy, to mention no more; (4) MBA from Institute of Management and Development IMD Business School, Lausanne, Switzerland obtained in 2005 with bias in corporate strategy, international business development and entrepreneurship.

Pat had prepared herself for a career in banking, finance, stock brokerage, and corporate administration. She is a chartered stockbroker and licensed financial trader with the Nigerian Stock Exchange and also has the professional qualification of a licensed pension administrator, apart from the fact that she is a solicitor and advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

With the academic and professional arsenal at her disposal, Pat Nwobodo comes heavily into the corporate world and bestrides it like a colossus and has made much positive impacts. Pat has more than 30 years experience within the banking and financial services industry with focus on the development of small and medium segment for the growth of the real sector of the economy. She was an Executive Director at the defunct Savannah Bank PLC which came under the vindictive political vilification of the Obasanjo administration. However, the Nwobodos have regained the licence through a legal process that gave them justice, for the bank had no ailment to merit its proscription.

Before assuming office at Savannah Bank, Mrs Nwobodo had been a Director and individual major shareholder of former FSB International Bank (which was later merged with the current Fidelity Bank) from 1992 to 2000.

Mrs Nwobodo was also the Chief Executive Officer, Rowet Capital Management in Lagos and was armed with this extensive knowledge of complex financial structures and products within debt and capital markets. Pat has this strong qualitative and analytical bravura, an asset she did bring to bear on the management of Savannah Bank.

Between 1997 and year 2000, Pat was the Chief Executive Officer and Management Director of Price Securities and Trust Company Limited, a player in the Nigerian Stock Exchange which was also licenced by the Central Bank of Nigeria as a nonbank deposit taker. Mrs Nwobodo as at 1994 raised N400 million for the firm’s capital through private investment and boot strapping. She managed the firm as its founder and CEO and traded actively on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

Pat, the virtuous woman, is a member of the following professional bodies: Institute of Certified Pension Administrators, Chartered Institute of Stock Brokers and Nigerian Bar Association. She is the chairman of Khalsa Centre for Innovation and Teaching; member Board of Trustees, Chapel Hill-Chauncey Hall High School, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA, a top boarding high school in the surburb of Boston. Mrs Nwobodo is also the founder and leader of MIT Sloan Fellows’ Sustainability Club, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. She was also the Vice President, Board of Directors, American International School, Abuja between 2002 and 2005.

Barr. Mrs. Pat Nwobodo is strategic, innovative and adept at corporate management, business development and public policy finesse. Mrs Nwobodo has good knowledge of global economic and human development trends. She has deep knowledge of Nigerian educational, economic and political landscape. Little wonder she is currently leading a project team working on the establishment of a world-class private university in Nigeria. Pat is a dynamic and result-oriented leader with a strong track record of performance in turnaround and change management, utilizing keen analysis, insights and team approach to drive organisational and institutional improvements and implementation of best practices. She is a lifelong learner with strong interpersonal skills and capable of resolving multiple complex issues and motivation of people around her for optimal self-actualization.

Isn’t she an asset to her world, not just to her husband and the entire Nwobodo family but also to Enugu State, Nigeria and the world?

Pat and Jim are blessed with the twins, male and female, who themselves are masters degree holders doing great in their chosen careers. Mrs Nwobodo is a rare gem who has been able to combine effectively her family roles with the task of topnotch management of corporate firms. She is a quintessential virtuous woman and her life and achievements are a template for every would-be successful woman to study and emulate.