How things got bad between Fred and Agatha Amata

BY ADA DIKE

According to Fred, “For over 20 years I kept silent, desisted from any comments on my failed marriage, allowing the ‘good wife’, hoping the wounds will heal and reconciliation possible. But for 20 years the ‘good wife’ pounded me, rubbished my reputation, belittling my achievements exploiting my name for her selfish benefits.

“It was over 25 years ago that I came up with the unique idea of Inside-Out with Agatha, a talk show with six informed and opposing points of view represented by a person with Oratorial skills, now male now female. We had gone to see a talk show by Regina Askia, and Agatha wanted to be a talk show host. I told her not to worry “I will come up with something, it will make you be like Oprah Winfrey”. And I did. Ingeniously.

“I was the dedicated creator, throwing in flesh blood and sweat to create and deliver a concept that had never before been done in Nigeria, save for a similar perhaps less engaging 6 episodes of a program called MEE to you, or something like that, by the late May Ellen Ezekiel, who was married to RMD. A program that could stand the test of time and put bread on the table of the young marriage. A program, so versatile, it is still relevant today.

“Inside-Out with Agatha was an instant hit, the genius of the angle the production values the directorial approach the lighting and production design were so engaging, it was irresistible. I was at the height of my directorial rendezvous, and i gathered a production crew of the best technical hands in what is now early Nollywood and TV soaps were the biggest things, because we dared to stand out. From the emerging crowd of Nollywood Directors, Kingsley Ogoro my friend, brother and nemesis, would lead a high. I co opted Nollywood greats, Zack Orji, Okey Bakassi, Sunny Mcdon, Francis Onwochei, Emeka Ossai, Zik Zulu Okafor, Francis Duru, Prince Jide Kosoko and numerous friends who looked up to me and I asked their support for the first episodes, and soon everybody who was anybody wanted to be part of Inside Out.

“I staked every resource, friends, favors, loyalties, family, extended family wife and links, I involved the creme de la creme of the big production, studios. Tunde Kelani, Wale Fanu, Tade Ogidan, Tunde Oloyede, Pat Nebo, Uzor Okpeche, Simi Opeo Oluwa, Opa Williams the late Chico Ejiro, and numerous others to ensure no failure of the program, I staked even my first attempt to be president of DGN, Don Pedro Obaseki and Matthias Obahiagbon will attest. Inside Out with Agatha became a runaway hit, so good I did not realize it threatened the fabric of the marriage.

“At a meeting of the two families when a resolution was being sort to the marriage crises, Inside Out was at the centre of deliberations. It was agreed that if Inside Out could provide for the Children. Then we should let Agatha the ‘good wife’ continues with it, after all; she was the marketing person. And Inside Out with Agatha, became the cash cow of the ‘good wife’, it became her tool to malign me, became her weapon to steal my fame and rubbish my name.

“With the influence it wielded and the contacts and connections it gathered, ‘The Good Wife’ soon built an empire with no emperor. She employed maligning my name to acquire favors and contracts. Inside Out is the Source of the entire good wife’s wealth. My genius, my sweat my vision, and for 20 years I swallowed it. My reputation diminishing as the good wife’s gathered momentum. So today the ‘good wife’ using my brain child has become a billionaire. No credit to me. No compensation no royalty. But the ‘good wife’ is good, let rising the the children be my royalty.

“Buoyed by her own success without any recourse to the creator, the Ebu Delta state born ‘Good Wife, has gathered a litany of resentment, she has registered a new company to own the program discarding the company we set up together, she has sued for and gotten a divorce, and 20 years on she still carries a bitterness and will still go to extremes to tarnish my image.

“But after 20 years, one would think she has had her fill of putting me down. Her resentment seems to be that I contested nothing, challenged nothing, not ownership. Not even compensation. But know this ‘Good wife’ Agatha all you have ever owned, all you will ever own is because of INSIDE OUT, my brain child my intellectual property.

“Yet to put a nail to a coffin to bury me for being silent, taking no heed of the billions you have harvested, carefree of your stupendous assets. ‘The good wife’ will dare tradition. Challenge abomination, embrace taboo, stare Africa in the Eyes to manipulate my daughter and her husband, to hoodwink the love birds and walk my daughter down the aisle, to give Stephanie away to a husband.

“I can’t keep quiet any more. It’s time to speak up. This is an abomination. This is taboo. Nowhere in the world, nowhere in Africa, Nowhere in Delta State and the lands where we come from can a woman give away her child in marriage especially where the father is alive. Especially when the father is willing and able, worse when the father is in the same city.

“What malice would drive a woman in an attempt to rubbish her ex to lead his daughter to marriage? What manipulation would warrant concealing the date and time from a father who has already given his blessing. Even if the daughter forgets, when father and daughter are in the same city of London. Is it not the place of ‘The Good Wife?”

But Agatha explained in a response that she could not afford to raise her children in an unhappy home.