By Fred Chukwuelobe
“Everybody is going to be dead one day, just give them time.”
–Neil Gaiman
And it was time for the senator representing Anambra South Senatorial District, Distinguished Senator Patrick Ifeanyi Ubah, to die.
Since the news of his death broke this week, there have been mixed reactions: those mourning and those rejoicing. It is usually so when somebody dies. Not everybody likes you. Not everybody will grieve when you die. Some will be jubilating. Others will be mourning.
I have read many people rejoicing over his death. One cantankerous person said he was a politician and that “no politician should be mourned when they die.” He forgot in his acerbic remarks that politicians are people’s relations. Although we hold them accountable for the dysfunction of society, we forget that many of us are as guilty of either active participation or connivance.
I had quite a close relationship with the senator. So, it was natural that I should grieve. It is also natural that people who love me will console me even though I am not a family member; I am, by extension and by having had a business relationship with him. I won’t deny that. Not even in his death.
The senator lived on the fast lane. He had ambitions. He was entitled to that. How I wish he slowed down a bit. How I wish he concentrated on Capital Oil and Gas Industries Limited. How I wish he didn’t get involved in politics.
I want to make it clear that the late senator was not a saint. He hurt many people. He had some business dealings with many people that weren’t tidy. These are well-known facts. But it is also a known fact that he helped many people. Up until his death, many people relied on him for their daily survival.
There’s absolutely nobody out there who is unblemished. If all the businessmen and all of us were to die today and our lives put before a life x-ray, there would surely be secrets unknown, which will be revealed.
There will be those rejoicing and those mourning; those who will remember your good deeds and grieve; those who will remember your bad deeds and rejoice.
However, as we either rejoice or grieve, let us remember that death is one of the three constants of life. The other two are change and truth.
The truth is that Ifeanyi Ubah is dead. Everything he was to many people is gone with him. Every deed of his is going to live behind him.
The lesson of death is for the living. No matter how you react towards his sudden passing, you, too, will die. But as we live each day, let us remember that death is an inevitability. Let us watch what we do, what we say, who we wrong, who we help; for at the end of it all, death we must face.
My heart goes out to Uche, his widow, and his five children who will be facing the pains of his death and reading as people are either mourning or mocking him.
I pray God guides them as they grieve and that they pick up the pieces of their lives and move on. Luckily, they are not going to suffer financially like most poor people do when they lose their breadwinners.
The senator is lying stone dead in the morgue. He doesn’t know who is mourning him or who is rejoicing over his death. He is going to be interred with his good deeds and the bad ones. But his good deeds will live in the hearts of those he helped.
May his soul continue to rest in peace.
Amen!