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Leaders, Associates Celebrate Herbert Wigwe at First Year Memorial
Eminent Nigerians and Global Leaders on sunday evening, remembered banking icon Herbert Wigwe in an evening of tributes and celebration of his life and legacy. It was the first anniversary of his passing in a helicopter accident in Southern California on February 9, 2024. He died along with his wife, Doreen, son Chizi and friend, Abimbola Ogunbanjo.
The four-hour memorial service, held at the ballroom of the Eko Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos, also featured prayers, musical performances and ministration by Lagos preacher, Pastor Itua Ighodalo. There was also a keynote lecture by the Prime Minister of Barbados, Ms Mia Mottley. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, in a tribute, described Wigwe as a quintessential banker and business leader who made immense contributions to the growth of Nigeria’s banking industry.
Recalling his numerous engagements, travels and works with Wigwe, Chief Obasanjo noted that the late banker had taken Access Bank as a small lender in 2002 to a global business empire. Obasanjo’s tributes were read by Bolaji Agbede, the acting Group Chief Executive of Access Holdings, the parent company of the bank and other subsidiaries.
President Bola Tinubu said Wigwe’s pioneering legacy in business and finance is a testament to the uncanny ability of Nigerians to overcome obstacles and excel in their chosen fields.
The President, who was represented by Finance Minister Olawale Edun, commended Wigwe for founding a university which is poised to make enormous contributions to higher education in Africa. President Emmanuel Macron of France described the late Wigwe as a master of the art of business diplomacy – a relatively new field that seeks to adapt the skills and mindset of the government diplomat to the needs of the firm he leads.
Macron noted that as President of French-Nigeria Business Council (FNBC), Wigwe had used the platform to promote bilateral relations between the two countries. President Macrons’s statement was read by a senior diplomat at the French Embassy in Abuja. In a keynote lecture delivered extempore, Prime Minister Mottley of Barbados regretted the loss of important correspondent banking relationships (CBRs) during the 2009 financial crisis by banks across the Caribbean and noted that her country has risen to the challenge.
A correspondent banking relationship (CBR) is a bilateral arrangement between banks, often involving a reciprocal cross-border relationship in multiple countries. The arrangement involves one bank (the correspondent – for example a major international bank) providing a deposit account or other liability accounts, and related services, to another bank (the respondent – for example a bank located and doing business in the Caribbean, or Nigeria or any other country).
The Prime Minister announced that Access Bank would soon commence banking business in Barbados once the necessary regulatory approvals have been concluded.
The Prime Minister recalled her fond memories of Herbert Wigwe as a consummate international business icon and recollected that King Jaja of Opobo was exiled to her country by the British colonialists in the 17th century for refusing to implement a nefarious British tax policy and obstructing the colonialists’ commercial and political expansion. Ms Mottley was particularly excited that Opobo is a community in the present day Rivers State, Wigwe’s home state; and she tagged on that to create a pun. ‘’Tochi’’, she called out to Wige’s daughter, now the eldest child, who was also seated in the front row with the rest of the family, “you will soon come to Barbados; but not as an exile’’.
The audience laughed. Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwon-Olu gave an impassioned and heartfelt tribute, describing Wigwe as ‘’larger than life person, who was a builder of people; ideas and fortune’’.
Sanwon-Olu described Wigwe as brave and courageous.
His words: “Where others hesitated, Herbert moved. Lagos has felt his absence. Across the state, his legacies abound’’.
He mentioned a few of such legacies as the renovated National Arts Theatre; Access Bank Lagos Marathon and the triumph over Covid-19.
One of the high points of the evening was Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede’s emotional tributes in which he said that his partnership and friendship with Wigwe endured for so long due to the trust they had in each other. ‘’I was never, for once, afraid that Herbert was in the room, closing deals, when I was not there; and vice versa’’, he said, eliciting a prolonged applause. He announced that despite malicious publications in the social media, he would never abandon Herbert Wigwe’s children.
“Tochi; Hannah; David; Okachi, you are mine; just as my children were your dad’s children when he was here with us’’, Aig-Imoukhuede said, to the applause of the audience, some of whom were already tearing up.
“They’re irreplaceable’’, he said, referring to the departed.
“Herbert is irreplaceable as a friend; he is irreplaceable as a partner’’.
Two of Chizi’s friends, Rasheed Sarumi and Tunde Ogundare, also gave emotional tributes to him; while Linda Petinrin and Queenette Allagoa remembered the late Chizoba Wigwe in emotional tributes. Ambassador Idaere Gogo-Ogan (Herbert’s longstanding friend); Roosevelt Ogbonna (CEO of Access bank Plc); Uche Wigwe (Herbert’s cousin and trustee of Wigwe University) and David Wigwe (Herbert’s son) also gave stirring homage in what was clearly an evening of mixed emotions and celebrations of beautiful lives lost.
Other dignitaries at the event were Chairman of THISDAY Arise Media Group, Prince Nduka Obaigbena; Mr. Paul Usoro, SAN and chairman of Access Bank Plc; Emir Kano, Mohammed Sanusi II; Prof Benedict Oramah, President of Afrexim Bank; Former CEO of GTBank, Fola Adeola; Ben Akabueze, former DG of Budget Office of the Federation; executives and staff of Access Bank Group.
During a dinner after the memorial service, Prince Ogbaigbena formally presented THISDAY Lifetime Achievement Award for Herbert Wigwe to Tochi Wigwe.
President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he has told US negotiators “not to rush into a deal” with Iran, amid anticipation — and mounting criticism — of an agreement to end the war in the Middle East.
“The negotiations are proceeding in an orderly and constructive manner, and I have informed my representatives not to rush into a deal in that time is on our side,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account.
“The Blockade will remain in full force and effect until an agreement is reached, certified, and signed.”
The United States has imposed a blockade of Iranian ports since April 13 after Tehran virtually halted traffic through the economically vital Strait of Hormuz in response to the US-Israeli attacks on Iran that began February 28.
“Both sides must take their time and get it right,” Trump wrote in the same Truth Social post, while slamming the 2015 nuclear deal that former president Barack Obama agreed with Iran.
“Our relationship with Iran is becoming a much more professional and productive one. They must understand, however, that they cannot develop or procure a Nuclear Weapon or Bomb,” Trump wrote.
While the White House has not released aspects of the deal, Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said Saturday on state television that the two sides were nearing a “a memorandum of understanding, a kind of framework agreement composed of 14 clauses,” in “a trend toward rapprochement.”
Several voices, notably among Republican lawmakers close to Trump, expressed fears of an agreement favorable to Iran as supposed aspects of the deal that began to leak.
According to news outlet Axios, a possible agreement would extend the current ceasefire by 60 days, during which the Strait of Hormuz would be reopened, Iran would freely sell oil, and negotiations would be held on Iran’s nuclear program.
The top Republican senator overseeing defense policy, Roger Wicker, said that agreeing to a “rumored 60-day ceasefire” with Iran would mean, “everything accomplished by Operation Epic Fury would be for naught!”
Fellow Republican senators Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham also voiced opposition to Iran soon gaining benefits such as the ability to sell its oil freely.
“If the result of all that is to be an Iranian regime — still run by Islamists who chant ‘death to America’ — now receiving billions of dollars, being able to enrich uranium & develop nuclear weapons, and having effective control over the Strait of Hormuz, then that outcome would be a disastrous mistake,” Cruz, a Republican from Texas, wrote on X.
Thom Tillis, a Republican senator from North Carolina, said the deal “doesn’t make sense to me.”
“We were told about 11 weeks ago by (Secretary of Defense Pete) Hegseth and the Department of Defense that they had obliterated Iran’s defenses, and it was just a matter of time before we had the nuclear material. Now we’re talking about a posture where we may accept the nuclear material remaining in Iran. How does that make sense at all?” Tillis said on CNN’s “State of the Union” morning program.
AFP
Adebayo Adelabu, one of the aspirants for the All Progressives Congress (APC) ticket in Oyo State, has alleged irregularities in the party’s governorship primary election held on Thursday.
Adelabu, who expressed dissatisfaction over the conduct of the exercise, stated that the primary was characterized by misconduct ranging from disenfranchisement of his supporters in some wards and the commencement of election process earlier than scheduled.
Speaking after the conclusion of the primary election at IMG School, Ward 9, Ibadan South-East Local Government Area, the immediate past Minister of Power alleged that the process was neither free, fair nor credible.
He said: “Before our people started getting to their various wards, they have already conducted the election and they wrote the figures they want as results.
“In some wards, our people were prevented from voting. They were intimidated. They were chased away violently. And in some wards, voting did not take place at all.
“All this kind of misconduct is not good at this stage of our democracy in Nigeria, and something has to be done about it.”
Adelabu, therefore, vowed to come up with serious petitions against all the irregularities not just in Ibadan, but across all the five geopolitical zones in Oyo State.
“Also, conduct of many party executives is uncalled for, a lot of people bought forms and they were cleared. And they decided to conduct affirmation of a particular candidate in some wards.
“There was nothing like consensus arrangement. It was just a figment of their weird imagination. The instruction we got from Abuja was that we should all carry out free, fair, and transparent direct primary election where every aspirant will be given a level playing ground and the election will be conducted peacefully.
“Where did they get the idea of consensus candidates? And this is what happened in a lot of the wards. And it didn’t go down well with us. “We don’t want that. We are going to assess the gravity of this gross misconduct and the potential impact on the overall result of this election.
“I will put a petition forward to the appropriate authorities so that it can be deeply investigated and there must be consequences to this. The people who perpetrated this misconduct must be identified and punished. And the aspirants involved also need to be suspended because this is not good for us.
“Democracy is the government of the people by the people and for the people where nobody should be disenfranchised. Once you are a party member, you should have that freedom, that authority to pick an aspirant of your choice as the flag bearer of the party.
“This is Ibadan, this is Oyo State and this the centre of politics in the southwest. And we should be able to lay good examples and the process should produce a candidate that won transparently, freely and fairly,” he said.
Meanwhile, at Ward 9, Ibadan South-East Local Government, Adelabu, polled 430 to defeat his closest rival, Senator Sharafadeen Alli, who had 3 votes.
Al Nassr captain, Cristiano Ronaldo, has finally won the Saudi Pro League title.
They were confirmed champions on Thursday, thanks to a 4-2 drubbing of relegation battlers, Damac.
The title race had gone down to the final day after Al-Nassr dramatically dropped points against Al-Hilal the previous week.
Jorge Jesus’ side knew there could be no mistakes against a Damac side fighting for survival at the other end of the table.
Ronaldo was on the scoresheet, as his brace helped Al Nassr secure the title ahead of rivals Al Hilal.
