02/03/2024
CHIZOBA
As the burial week slowly approaches, I would like to pay a heartfelt tribute to my friend, CHIZOBA DOREEN WIGWE (née NWUBA) who died in the infamous Helicopter Crash which happened on the 9th of February somewhere near the Nevada Desert of the United States of America together with her husband Herbert, their son Chizi and our old friend Bimbo Ogunbanjo.
Chizoba is someone who deserves to be remembered and respected both in life and in death for the life that she lived, how she lived it and what she achieved while living it.
I first met and came to know Chizoba in the early 1990’s when we were both in our 20’s living and working in Lagos, fairly fresh out of Law School and NYSC, full of zest for living life to its fullest and eager to conquer any and everything with arms and eyes wide open. In those glorious and innocent days in South-West Ikoyi, nothing seemed impossible, unattainable or unachievable.
Chizoba and I had a mutual Sister-friend called Queenette through whom we met and whose flat we all hung out in during those exhilarating days when we worked and played in equal measure, fully exhausting all the hours that God so graciously sent us and still had the time and the energy to look out for one another.
We laughed a lot. Chizoba would laugh for hours, constantly interrupting our jisting with loud bouts of laughter. You could hear her loud, infectious, resounding laughter all the way from Falomo if you listened hard enough! She had those large laughing eyes, ever smiling lips and a cheerful personality. You laughed for no reason once Chizoba started laughing for her laughter was as infectious as an infectious yawn.
She had just returned to Nigeria from the United States but was shockingly the most acclimatized of us all. At 25 years of age, I took pride in my trading abilities and personally labeled myself as an “International Trader” by virtue of the fact that I imported what to me at that age seemed like large quantities of designer shoes, bags and various fashion accessories for sale in highbrow Lagos from several European Factories and Warehouses. Queenette had a high flying lucrative Executive Job complete with official luxury flat, car, driver, the use of a private jet and so forth but Chizoba… our dear ‘Americana’ Chizoba was fearlessly making insane amounts of money importing everything legally sellable from Cornflakes to toilet paper in massive quantities filling up back to back Containers, shrewdly supplying wholesalers and was already acquiring money churning Market Stalls. So while I was still counting my profits in the thousands selling to my elite clients in air conditioned mansions in Ikoyi, Chizoba was counting hers in the Millions trading with wholesalers under the hot sun in Oke-Arin.
Doreen was always way ahead of her time. At an age when we viewed marriage as a distant scary prison of sorts, she was fearlessly planning her wedding, going over names for her future children and even contemplating possible Schools. Always the independent thinker on the move with a huge heart for family.
When my precious Mother suddenly passed away in 2003 at the age of 69, Chizoba, Queenette and I happened to be in London. I could not find a seat on any flight headed back home for nearly two weeks and being half crazed with raw grief, my two friends dragged me on a European train trip in an attempt to take my mind off of my debilitating pain and sorrow. We travelled by Eurostar from London to the ends of Europe, stopping at every Country on the route, spending nights and days wandering around cities in France, Germany, Belgium… We spent a fortnight sharing the same room and bed, sleeping in Bed & Breakfasts around Europe, laughing and crying all at the same time while making memories that would last a lifetime.
Our Girls’ trip 21 years ago during one of the lowest times of my life cemented our bond and transported us to that special place that exists somewhere between friendship and sisterhood. A place where time, space, circumstance, marriage, life and death do not matter or exist.
I will remember Chizoba for her joy and her laughter, her work ethics, her sheer determination and audacity, her uncanny ability to make and grow money, her patience, selflessness and steadfast loyalty to her husband and her undying love for her children.
Goodbye Sister-Friend. Travel well until we meet again.
