The point-blank gunshot to his head cemented Helen Ogbu’s crushing fear her husband had been assassinated. He was not the random, tragic victim of a robbery gone wrong.
It did not matter. He was dead. Murdered. They had a small child, and she needed to run.
Nze Sunny Ogbu (1965-2010 ) was a scion of a prominent business family in the region, and was involved in politics, backing the centre-right PDP which had ruled Nigeria for 11 years at his death. Helen says he was on the cusp of a major public announcement: he was to transfer allegiance to a more left-leaning party, and seek political office.
She remembers feeling nervous, fearing he might be targeted during a brief, but sharp, period of political violence in Nigeria, and then the ultimate, heart-rending devastation when her base fear was realised.
Ogbu strongly suspects who ordered Sunny’s murder, but no one has ever been prosecuted in relation to his killing. The assassin was a man pretending to need assistance at the side of the road. Sunny’s car slowed, then stopped to help…
Helen’s and Sunny Orji-Ogbu’s only child, Chichi, had been born prematurely during a visit to friends in Dublin, nine years before the murder. So she fled to Ireland, seeking asylum from persecution, and ended up raising her child in the Eglinton Hotel, Salthill for three years under Direct Provision.
Fleeing here with very little, she now coordinates hundreds of volunteers in her day job as a community worker. The 53-year-old has cared for a staggering 30 children as a foster parent. She represents Galway City East as a Labour Party councillor, and is currently studying for a PhD at University of Galway.
Any sane observer might suggest ‘enough!’ but Helen now sits in her tidy kitchen, in Rahoon, pouring tea for the Galway Advertiser, having arranged to meet months ago, ahead of her attempt to win the first Galway West Dáil seat to be filled by competitive by-election for 51 years.
With a sad laugh, she contemplates that if that bullet had not killed the man she first met at a friend’s wedding, when she worked as a young social secretary in the Nigerian diplomatic corps, her life might have been very different. It is more likely a local newspaper in Lagos would be interviewing her husband, while she still poured the tea, despite a life-long ambition to become an ambassador.
So what are Galwegians’ - especially older, rural residents, who grew up in a mostly mono-cultural Ireland – responses to an African woman knocking on their doors?
“It’s great! They often think I’m younger than I am,” laughs Ogbu, who speaks in a sing-song, Nigerian-Galwegian accent that can quickly veer from sombre to a bit of craic.
Protection
Despite the Advertiser’s protestations, a Labour Party press handler sits in, silently, on the interview. It is Helen’s home, so her rules. To be fair, even a cursory scan of the comments beneath any online article referencing – and in particular photographing – Helen Ogbu, reveals why her party is jumpy about personal safety.
Ogbu is being protected by the party she joined almost five years ago because of the appalling abuse she is receiving online.
Her compact home is kitted out with extra security measures. Labour confirms it has deployed specialised Artificial Intelligence software to screen out swarms of concerted, racist attacks on the mother-of-one since she was selected as its candidate for the by-election, scheduled for Friday, May 22.
It began in 2024, when she successfully ran for Galway City Council, ultimately defeating Independent Ireland’s Noel Larkin and Fianna Fáil’s Mike Crowe. She was elected on the final count, alongside Fine Gael’s Shane Forde, and Sinn Féin’s Aisling Burke, in the city’s East ward.
The unspoken fear is that these bigoted, social media pile-ons might inspire a real-life attack. Ogbu herself says she worries for her daughter and foster children reading the online hate. Ironically, the bot attacks on Labour’s media channels only serve to rank Ogbu higher up Facebook and Instagram users’ newsfeeds; algorithms adore engagement.
Ogbu avoids social media. She does not want to read the bile. In all the weeks of on-street, door-to-door canvassing completed, she has experienced only two viciously racist, verbal assaults – both on Shop Street, when venomous individuals approached her.
Two too many, most fair-minded people might assume, but Labour’s fears are perhaps well-founded.
The Advertiser observed that during an anti-migrant rally held in Galway city centre last summer, a small group of agitators made a beeline for Councillor Ogbu, standing quietly amidst counter protestors behind gardaí. These brave men hurled abuse at her, ignoring several other women of colour nearby.
It is as if the worst type of immigrant, in their eyes, is one who has arrived legally, worked hard, and excelled, never mind won a mandate to exercise the (modest ) powers of a local authority member.
“It is the policies of the Government. People just want someone to blame. They do not do their own research; just follow the influencers. They’re blaming migrants for the failures of government, like: ‘migrants are taking all the houses’. But are they?
"The likes of Bus Éireann is recruiting drivers outside Ireland. Who will fill those positions right now without them, or in health services? Hospitality sector? Education as well, like foreign students paying the highest school fees. Are they taking anything from the state?”
The 16 other by-election candidates may be pilloried for what they do, or say, or represent, but Ogbu, now an Irish citizen, and already an elected representative of the people of Galway city, is targeted by racists and fascists who question her right to exist as a black woman living in a republic founded on fundamental concepts to “promote the common good, with due observance of Prudence, Justice and Charity, so that the dignity and freedom of the individual may be assured,” as the Constitution’s preamble ordains.
It irks her, because she wants to talk about policy, plans and solutions for Galway's issues, like the ring road, hospital, housing and light rail, yet those opposed to her, based on prejudice – rather than opinion – are shaping the narrative.
Upbringing
Helen Ogbu’s early years were spent growing up living in a police barracks where her father served as an officer.
It was a disciplined existence for the middle child of eight siblings - seven girls, one boy – with a strong emphasis on education. Their beloved “Papa” – Isiguzo, known as ‘Isi Boss’ - retired from the police, and set up an electronics business, distributing hi-fis, TVs and fridges in Lagos, after a stint as a music producer - “his passion”.
Helen’s late mother, Ezinwanne or ‘Comfort’, ran a small shop, occasionally alternating between textiles and dry goods as demand changed. She sold traditional African ‘wrappers’ – colourful, patterned garments. In her mid-sixties, she suffered a heart attack while visiting Galway, 12 years ago. Helen found her collapsed on her kitchen floor. After “excellent care” in UCHG, she returned to Nigeria, but passed soon after.
From her parents, Ogbu – a History and Diplomacy graduate of Nigeria’s top university, Port Harcourt – says she learned the values of honesty, hard work and self-belief, but also wariness of being a people pleaser, a notion she squares with seeking election.
“Well, I am very objective – a realist. I listen to issues, and then tell people I try to do my best, but I don’t try to give people false hope.”
Last week, a meme circulated of an email sent to Ogbu, hoodwinking her into seeking assistance for “the plight of a young Galway man by the name of Liam Mellowes (sic )… outside in all kinds of weather day and night”. The trap set to see if she knew her Eyre Square statues backfired, as Ogbu’s response: advice, and an offer to liaise with relevant support agencies, won her praise for empathy and appropriateness.
Ogbu does not want to talk about it, nor dwell too much on other dirty tricks to embarrass her, or whip up racist, xenophobic opposition. She insists her campaign approach, infused with detailed Labour Party policies adapted for the constituency, is positive for Galway West’s people. Her religious outlook underpins a belief in social cohesion.
“I am very into my Christian belief. Life is not without its own complications and complexities, but it is how we weather these storms, is what I teach my daughter and foster children. My support structures are my family, social network and my religion.”
She has no problem balancing the democratic socialism of her party with faith. “Yes, it is different, but [Labour] is about community; my religion talks about community. My religion talks about treating everybody the same. My religion talks about helping people. My religion talks about love. So yes, my religion influences my politics. I have my belief as a Christian person, but then I have a duty of care to serve the community [as a councillor] and I think my religion is separate to serving, representing and listening to community.”
A chance encounter with Michael D Higgins in the Clybaun Hotel almost two decades ago inspired Ogbu’s interest in Galway politics, and her weekly constituency clinics – a rarity these days - are based on his model. Later, as a volunteering coordinator, she became friendly with city councillor Níall McNelis, who convinced her to formally join the Labour Party. Its leader, Ivana Bacik is a "hero".
She says she now wears James Connolly's red, starry plough pin, on her blouse, with pride.
“If you look at the challenges that women, workers and people from migrant backgrounds face, it is the only party which has held our hands. That is why I talk about its authenticity. Yes – maybe it made mistakes in the past – but who hasn’t? It also championed great policies, like in Housing, and free health care for children,” she says. “We need these. Now.”
