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EDIDIONG IKPOTO writes on how the burial ceremony of former Access Holdings CEO, Herbert Wigwe, was hijacked and turned into an arena of a political squabble
On Saturday, March 9, 2024, the immediate-past Chief Executive Officer of Access Holdings, Herbert Wigwe, was committed to Mother Earth. As a testament to his giant strides and stellar reputation as one of Nigeria’s top bankers, the event was graced by high-ranking government functionaries and a galaxy of stars drawn across the length and breadth of Nigeria’s private.
Wigwe, one of the most towering figures in the Nigerian banking industry died in a chopper crash alongside his wife, Chizoba, and son, Chizzy in the United States last month.
His demise had echoed as a thunderbolt from the blue, triggering tributes from friends, colleagues, associates, counterparts, and countless others whose lives had been touched by the philanthropist.
However, on Saturday, when the top banker was finally laid to rest, there was room for one final round of tributes. Fittingly, the Governor of Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara stepped up to the plate.
In his speech, the governor made sure to remind the star-studded gathering that not even unlimited power and wealth can bring ultimate gratification to a man, and that it was not worth chasing same ‘at all costs.’
Fubara said, “What is this struggle all about? You want to kill, you want to bury, what is it all about? This is a man, he’s not a politician. He made his money through us, our investments.
“He has the world in his palm financially. He controls even the political classes. But today, with all the power financially, can’t control life.
“Is it not enough today to ask ourselves why are we struggling? Why are we not making impact in the life of our people? Please, political class, let’s go home with that question, and be answering it in our minds, and reflecting it in what we do.”
While the governor’s remarks could have been viewed as a generic rhapsody on the vanity of life by many, it did not particularly take a savant to sieve out the innuendo that laced his speech.
For months, Fubara has been at loggerheads with his political benefactor and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike. The crisis in the state has persisted despite an intervention by President Bola Tinubu.
In fact, only two days prior, (to Wigwe’s burial ceremony) Fubara, in an interview with AIT had expressed his willingness to give up his office for peace in state.
On the basis of his protracted rift with his political mentor and also given the public perception that the governor is the David in this ‘David vs Goliath’ fight, Nigerians may, or may not have had ample reason to forgive Fubara for his snide remarks at the funeral.
However, what the governor did not anticipate was the fact that his comments echoed like striking a matchstick next to gasoline ‘just to see what happens.’
Shortly after Fubara’s emotional charge, the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio took to the podium. The former Niger Delta Minister had hardly uttered a few words of eulogy before proceeding to reply to the governor’s snide comments.
Akpabio said, “We’re not going to cry in one day alone, we’ll cry so many days. When you look at the university, you will cry. When you pass through his personal house and edifice, you will cry.
“Any of the Access Bank branches worldwide, whether the one in Dubai, or whether the one in Kenya or anywhere, you will cry. The children that he touched, those that he sent to school, and the lives he touched, when they are talking about it and they mention his name, you will cry.
“Then you will ask yourself, just like Governor Fubara said, what is the struggle all about? Your excellency, Governor Fubara, if there is nothing in the struggle, don’t struggle.”
Akpabio’s comments have since sparked widespread criticism from many Nigerians who believe that the event was not the right place for him to air his political grieviances.
Chief among the critics was the founder of Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc, Atedo Peterside, who expressed his dismay over comments made by Senate President Godswill Akpabio at the funeral.
Taking to his X page, Peterside recounted that Akpabio began his address by lamenting that the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, received a better ovation than himself at the event.
Peterside described the Senate President remarks as ‘self-centred and totally insensitive.’
He wrote, “For the record, I was among those who found the Senate President’s comments at the Wigwe Family Funeral in PH to be in poor taste. He began by lamenting that PeterObi received greater applause than he (Akpabio) got & later told us to join him in consoling the widow who was lying in one of the 3 caskets in front of him. Jokes? Political jibes at a solemn Combined Funeral? Methinks that was self-centred & totally insensitive.”
In his 1918 poem titled ‘Death,’ Austrian poet, Rainer Maria describes death as an inescapable phenomenon that holds our fate closely ‘in his quiet hands.’ More often than not, losing a loved one often serves as a prompter on the brevity of human existence and why one must make the most of it.
So, when Nigeria’s elite gathered in Isiokpo, Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State to pay their last respects to a colossus, the expectation from all quarters of society was for anyone who got on the podium to, without any sinister agenda, extol his life and times while also evoking a rallying cry to those with beating hearts to chisel their lives with intentionality and purpose.
Wigwe, described by many as a giant among men, was ever hardly viewed as a man who did not have a slew of praiseworthy attributes. This is why it was stupefying for Nigerians when the politicians decided exploit a platform meant for eulogising the top banker to throw political jabs at each other.
What further dents the optics of this verbal fray between the politicians is their party alliances. For any neutral, it almost seemed like the public servants had decided to hijack the burial ceremony of a respected Nigerian and instead elect to stage a death match in the full view of an apathetic audience.
Now, when headlines concerning the burial ceremony of an accomplished Nigerian is cast, what easily comes to mind is not the heartfelt tributes extolling his legacies, but a sword fight staged by two political gladiators who ought to have known when to sheath the sword.
Also worsening the narrative is the fact that the situation is by no means blowing over. Only two days ago, the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party in Rivers State exchanged words over the political banter between Governor Fubara and the Senate President.
The PDP, in a statement on Tuesday by its Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Sydney Gbara, accused Akpabio of ridiculing Fubara, describing the Senate President as an enemy of Rivers State.
Gbara alleged that Akpabio was jealous and angry because Fubara’s remarks drew applause from the audience.
Gbara stated, “It is now obvious that the Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio, is an enemy of Rivers people, as evident in his past and present actions and utterances on issues concerning the state.
“The applause from sympathisers and mourners at the burial drew the anger of Senator Akpabio, who mounted the rostrum afterwards to fight.
“After narrating a concocted fallacious story between him and a former Deputy Governor of Akwa Ibom State over a power struggle, he attempted to ridicule Governor Fubara by asking him to resign if there was no need to struggle to kill for power.”
Reacting, the Chairman, Rivers State APC Caretaker Committee, Chief Tony Okocha at a press conference described the PDP as fifth columnists that are encouraging Fubara to disobey the President.
Okocha also accused the governor of lighting the fire that incited the Senate President’s response.
He said, “At a burial ceremony, if you have the opportunity to speak, you are expected to do a tribute. Even when you want to sing what they call a dirge, you don’t introduce politics.
“The governor goes to Isiokpo,and by protocol, he is allowed to speak, pay a tribute to the dead. The corpses were lying there. What did he do? A minute after he even started, he veered off, saying, ‘I’m talking about the political class. Why are we killing and burying?’
“Why is he interested in unnecessary public campaign validation? Come to think of it, was Wigwe a politician? That population there that day were they all politicians? Was that a political campaign ground? So, he could have said anything without dragging in the political class.
“It’s the reason the Senate President, when he took the stage, said, ‘What are you now struggling for? If you don’t want it, don’t struggle.’ He was passing a message.”
As the all out party squabble and the war of words continue, one question that has been posed by many, which perhaps requires perhaps an answer on an apology on the part of the characters in this dramatic sequence is – ‘Did the Senate President desecrate the Altar of God with His response to Governor Fubara?’
