Herbart Wigwe did not enter the banking Industry as a superstar. But he left as a shining ornament , stronger than one thousand pieces of Diamond, which will be around forever.
The idiom that “diamonds are forever” will continuously reference this young man whose time broke open like a pod in harmattan.
The Nigerian banking sector has been one vibrant business entity that is known to have been making and moulding people, most of whom leveraged the unseen hands of the very bogus institution to claim success or achievement. Only a few within the industry could be said to have made the industry. Wigwe was one of them. By the time he got to where he was destined and worked hard to be, his great ideals began to manifest.
As a young banker, he was only very busy moulding his inner structure that will manifest the real human, powerful enough to unleash the magnificent posture of super-ego that would remain fearless in the face of daunting situations and challenges that confront his calibre.
He remained resolute and quiet, studying the rudiments of financial management and the powers that rule it, until the time to break loose like a seed against the various soil formations . He came out spitting sharpness and smartness but not authority.He listened to his contemporaries with fierce attention but very calm and fearless disposition. He was not too loud a person. His contributions in so many developments remained very proactive and effective even though they may have arrived from low tones, until recently when he was getting halfway close to his destination, when his very voice became an order.
When financial journalism was the rave of media practice he was one of those very youthful icons whose destinations looked sure, but not as sure as getting to where he found himself at his last point, because there has been this feeling that, in banking, the bad ones always lay some banana peals against those who have oil in their brain.
He continued to move fearlessly even in the face on very fierce management and sectional politics.
I regret not having him interviewed in my career as one of the leaders of the future. The reason was that he did not seem to have factored grandiocity, which the media erroneously confers as one way of getting “there”. Those who may have got him into interviews may have bothered his life so much. But listening or reading his interviews most of the time, one feels like laying siege to get him do it. But that was not my style.
A banker of minimal controversies unless they have to do with banking rules and regulatory fall-out, Wigwe lived and worked with few words and more excitements which are fallout of serious achievements; abiding by the dictum that ruled his father’s profession “what is not on paper is not for broadcast” which strictly confines him to the core spirit of banking.
Sharing same paternal professional background with his core business partner, Aig-Aigboje Imoukhuede, could be one gift that correctly fit his successes in his later day banking. As sons of iconic broadcast media managers, they must have imbibed thoroughness, being detailed and factual. These are the only three words in the world where journalism and banking meet.
Today, the fibble Access Bank that was slidding into distress from the palms of Ambrose Fesse, the original owner of the bank, has become the rave of the moment due to one man’s larger mind and expansive thinking. Today, African financial industry has the feeling of a loss based on the posture he has created for banking in Africa. His fearless investment escapade was not anything he was afraid of, one bit. Its root was as strong as that of baobab and gamji trees, to the extent that the structure and confidence of the staff of the bank were so fortified.
Even in death, as most of them wept, they still believe that the only thing absent in the bank is Herbert; not skills and not discipline. But what they miss badly is that tomorrow would have come with new ideas from him.
If you have an Access Bank staff in your house do him a favour by not allowing him to go down because every time he looks straight to the wall, what he sees is Herbert, the fierce and fearless Nigerian.
I do not harbour any adverse feeling about Access Bank. Only those who do not know its trajectory from Broad Street to Olu Jolayemi and the current supersonic offices would. Herbert’s trajectory is a study in structured excellence, which is like a knot that is unbreakable. In the few countries that have Access Bank or its subsidiary that I have visited, the first conversation is about the CEO, whom they respect so much.
I don’t want to bring into this write-up any other perspective of Herbert, because all he was able to do was because he was a sound banker and financial management guru which became the common denominator to all his accomplishments.I sincerely believe that his banking expertise should becloud every other supersonic expertise he exhibited in his world.
His life was full of the good words of orators, but the pages could be spared for men who are coming behind him and could pass the same road of excellence.
He was definitely a Superego.
This world is a stage!!
