“For, All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall”
1 Peter 1:24 (NIV)
On 9 February 2024, news suddenly filtered through that a helicopter had crashed in the distant United States, bringing down with it a Nigerian famous enough to have people worrying and hoping he was not on board the chopper. Sadly, the news was confirmed; Herbert Wigwe, banking juggernaut, had died alongside his wife and their son. Alongside the Wigwes, Nigeria also lost another corporate juggernaut, Abimbola Ogunbanjo. For days, Wigwe was trending on social media platforms, but as certain as life is, people have moved on.
Within days of Herbert Wigwe’s death, Access Bank, as expected, announced a replacement to keep the bank functioning as a going concern. Some persons lacking understanding of corporate governance and the implied superiority of institutions over personas, wondered why Access Bank quickly had to appoint a new head. For them, this was a testament that no one is indispensable, so people should not take their jobs too seriously. Well, they have a point, but we will come back to them.
Somewhere on the other side of the discourse, the wife of the pastor of Wigwe’s church in Lagos held a lavish 60th birthday celebration. For some persons, considering Wigwe’s contributions to the church, the sexagenarian should have either cancelled her birthday event or held a low-key event to honour his passing. For these ones, we will also come back to them.
The focus today is on the fickleness of human thought and the hypocrisy with which we function. In the two-week period after the sad accident, an alien looking at social media posts and the outpouring of encomiums would have been forgiven for thinking that humans had suddenly discovered the essence of life and would skip the prevalent cut-throat approach to the unending rat race. But durh! All we had was 15 minutes of rehearsed sadness where we feigned to reflect on the irrationality of doing whatever it takes to “make it” in life when like the rich farmer in Jesus’s parable, we had no say over our exit date from this life.
After pondering on the billions in cash and illiquid assets that Wigwe left behind, we are back to being the worst persons we can be to get one foot ahead of the next person. We are back to breaking laws, backstabbing, lying, blackmailing, seducing; anything we can think of to make all the money we can make, so we can someday beat our chest and say like the Rich Fool: “I have plenty of food laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”
We now leave our folly and return to those convinced that Wigwe’s replacement is a reason to be unserious at work. The challenge here is finding a balance between assuming irreplaceability and putting in your best at work. It is true that literally everyone can be replaced. The replacement may not reach the stature of the replaced, but the world would adjust and move on. However, if your philosophy is to put in the barest minimum at work, then be truthful to your self and seek a role where this would be acceptable. By virtue of our unideal life, there are certain positions where one would be routinely expected to go over and beyond to keep things moving. Imagine an experienced surgeon turning down patients at the point of death because his contract says only two surgeries a day, or a police officer backing out from arresting a criminal because it is past his time on the clock, or a banker refusing to reload an ATM with cash because it is a public holiday, and she must rest. For some persons, as long as they are alive, they are “irreplaceable”. If they die, another person assumes the veneer of irreplaceability. If you don’t want that life, simply choose another path.
Now, for those who feel a birthday celebration by a non-family member should have been cancelled, I think we are being irrational. Any cancellation should be at the behest of the celebrant because of her closeness to the deceased, and not because of any contributions he may have made to the church. This grouse even betrays our unchristian mindset. If you believe that in making a donation to a church, you are “giving to God”, why do you want the pastor to grovel at your feet? Herbert Wigwe gave to God. People can choose to tackle the pastor’s wife for perceived insensitivity while others were mourning, or for the alleged ultra-secularity of the event, but not because a major financier died. And for an event like this, the planning had likely been ongoing for several months, so cancellation may not have been as easy as we may wish.
All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, so like Uncle Moses the Psalmist, let us seek to learn to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Image Credit: partandparcel2014.wordpress.com
Jilomes 