By Fred Chukwuelobe
I am doing a follow-up to the article I wrote yesterday entitled, “City of David, The Wigwes, And the Iluyomades.” You may think I am over flogging the matter; no, I am not. I am doing this because I got a call from a top level member of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), City of David. He called in response to that article and to state his own views and clarify issues raised in it.
I have decided to keep his identity anonymous to avoid exposing to him to the execration of a few people who do not see anything wrong with the grandiose “balling” of Mrs. Iluyomade one week after Herbert Wigwe, his wife, his son, and his friend died in a helicopter crash in the US.
My caller, whom I know, began by saying this: “I spit on your grave!” I thought he was angry with me and wanted to tell me off for the piece I wrote. Many had called me to express support for my views, and a tiny few made scathing comments on it.
Upon receiving his call and that line said, My adrenaline pumped up, ready to ‘give it back to him.’ However, because I identified him, and his is a well-respected senior citizen and an accomplished person, I calmed down. Fortunately, he meant well. He was angry. He was bitter. He was crestfallen. But he chose his words carefully.
Why did he call me? “I called you because by that party, they simply told Herbert, ‘I spit on your grave. The party was terrible. It was so bad. It was unconscionable,” he said to me.
He was particularly concerned that the redeem family was painted with a tar brush that they didn’t deserve. So, he called to clean this up.
In the article, I called on the church to redeem itself by sanctioning pastor Iluyomade and his partying wife, and to win back the trust of those who think it is truly the Redeemed Christian Church of God.
“Not all redeem people sanctioned that party,” he said to me. “It might interest you to know that pastor Iloyomade was approached not to approve of the party after reminders were sent out when the death of Herbert had occurred. Although arrangements for the party had been concluded long before Herbert died, we reasoned that it should be suspended to allow sufficient time for mourning. Many prominent persons who worship at the City of David, and who were invited, stayed out because it was not right; they didn’t attend. Respected people at the City of David didn’t attend. So, it was not sanctioned by many parishioners and the whole redeem family should not be blamed for the indiscretion of the pastor and his wife,” he added.
My caller was bitter and expressed that in no unmistakable terms. He asked those who attended the party to “put themselves in the shoes of the Wigwes and their dead friends.” He said if they had done that, it could have helped them realize that what they were saying to Herbert was, “I spit on your grave.”
He described the late Herbert as a dedicated and committed parishioner who impacted on many lives and many institutions in Victoria Island, Lagos and beyond. When I asked him if he didn’t think the party went on to avoid Siju losing money she had committed to the event planners and performers like Flavour, he quipped, “What is money? Flavour asked that question in his chat-topping hit, ‘Agba Baller.’ What is money that they cannot sacrifice for Herbert who contributed in more ways than one to both the church and their lives? “Do you know that if they had approached Eko Hotels and asked for postponement, they would have easily done that for Herbert?”
At this point he became emotional. He said he spent the whole of yesterday thinking about the death of Herbert and found himself soliloquizing and asking, “Herbert, is this how you died?”
He concluded by telling me that “people read the Bible, preach it, but are not rational and reasonable” in living out the doctrines of that Holy Book.
“Fred, I am very bitter! Is this how Herbert died? Is this now how the world is? Herbert died and people who benefited more from him couldn’t mourn him?”
Well, I am sure like my caller, many redeemers are mourning him. Non-redeemers are mourning him. The Access family is mourning him. Friends and relations are mourning him.
In the words of Madaeme De Stael, a prominent woman of letters and political theorist in both Parisian and Genevan intellectual circles and daughter of banker and French finance minister, Jacques Necker and Suzanne Curchod, “We understand death only after it has placed its hands on someone we love.”
Let those who loved Wigwe continue to mourn him and pray for the repose of his soul and all the souls of the faithful departed.