A dutiful father by all indices

Mr. Okwubunka was one of the most committed family men I had ever seen in my entire life. This was the part of him that made me and so many other members of our community to love him without reservations.

For a man who had his tertiary education in Scotland in the 1980’s, you would appreciate how much love he has for the nation Nigeria, when you are told of how he relocated from Scotland, back to Nigeria immediately he graduated. This was done, so that he can use the knowledge he had acquired overseas to serve the Nigerian healthcare system.

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Summary of Mr. Okwubunka’s story with coming back to work for the Nigerian government was an outrightly bitter tale, of how terrible the Nigerian system has always been.

For refusing to look the other way while his Colleagues and an Indian expatriate in their department at the University teaching hospital committed fraud, he was framed up falsely and forcefully retired from Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital Zaria, sometime in early 1990’s.

Upon retirement, he relocated to the Eastern Nigeria to start off a private practice which unfortunately never really blossomed till the day of his sudden death.

Sudden death realities and its implications.

Fast forward to 3^rd February 2017, Mr. Okwubunka had spoken with his son Mr. Banky over the phone on the eve of that blessed day. Mr. Banky earlier informed his dad, that he had travelled from Abia State to Asaba, Delta State to celebrate with a Senior friend whose birthday was on the 4^th of February. Mr. Okwubunka had called on the phone as it is typical of him, to check up on the son, to ask how smooth the trip was.

Mr. Okwubunka never saw any sign earlier in the day, to make him suspect that he was never going to see the next day. To cut the whole story short, while Mr. Banky his son was in Asaba to celebrate with a friend of his who is a professor, his dad Mr. Okwubunka passed on at the early hours of the 4^th of February 2017 in his Aba residence.

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Before Mr. Okwubunka’s death, his son Mr. Banky had never bothered to ever ask his father about his ATM card pin or other private details as it pertains to his bank transactions. The young man, called Mr. Banky was unfortunately 28 years when his dad suddenly passed on.

It was at the death of his Father, that it dawned on every member of the family that no one in the family knew anything about their late Father’s bank details. Nobody in the family knew people who were owing him or those whom he owed before his death.

The family was terribly shaken by the sudden death of their bread winner as a lot were not known about their dad with respect to his finances.

After Mr. Okwubunka had been buried later in 2017, remember that he had always been a pensioner with the Federal government, harsh reality dawned on the family.

Endeavour to keep your passwords and other details handy for your family members.

Despite Mr. Banky his son having his phone line and seeing the constant bank credit alerts for the late father’s monthly pension, no member of the family could have access to the money despite having the ATM cards.

Between the year 2017 and 2020 just after COVID, the account was being credited monthly by the Federal government, with Late Mr. Okwubunka’s pension payment and even at a time, with some arrears of pension bulk payment.

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Mr. Banky could see the crispy alerts that drop monthly but he could not withdraw it at all on behalf of the family. The much they could do from the account was to buy data and airtime but that also had limit.

Remember that in Nigeria civil service law, a pensioner stops being entitled to his pension benefits the minute such a person breath his last. As a result of this policy, Mr. Banky and his family members understood the delicate nature of the situation. The money in that account had accumulated after the death of Mr. Okwubunka and as such was not legitimately theirs.

Notifying the bank of the death of a customer has implications.

Mr. Okwubunka’s family knew that they did not want to notify the institution where he worked of the death of their Father because chances were high that someone would criminally divert the pension instead at the hearing of such news. They also did not want to report to the bank for the fear of the bank staff playing a smart one on the family.

Here is where the whole thing gets interesting. Mr. Banky reached out to some street guys he knew, he offered them a percentage of the bulk money in the account, if they can hack into the account with the details he would provide for them, to pull out the money.

This never yielded anything tangible despite giving the guys the ATM card details, BVN and other delicate details, apart from the pin of the card which no one knew, with which to gain access to the account.

What we all feared finally happened, the minute the bank manager learnt that their client was dead.

The inevitable happened the day the other family relatives of Mr. Banky (his mother and his other siblings) physically stormed the bank against the advice of Mr. Banky to make enquiries as to how to get the money out of the bank against Mr. Banky’s advice.

Being criminally minded, the bank manager understood the intricacies surrounding the money in the account, and how much of a kill it would be for her, if she is able to play a smart one on the family. Of course, she did and succeeded.

When the Bank Manager at the time had gotten all the necessary details she needed about the account, she struck in a fierce manner. Guess what her approach was?

Executing the predictable.

She threatened the family members that had come to the bank, that she was going to make an official report about the fact that a man died, and they refused to report to the Federal government, while tampering with the payments made into the account.

The bank manager made them believe that when she does that, that the family members would be locked up and they would have to refund every money they have used from that account to buy airtime and data in the past.

Out of fear, Mr. Banky’s mother and siblings left the bank and never returned again. Interestingly, immediately after that visit, Mr. Banky stopped receiving alerts from that account anymore.

This must have happened to Late Mr. Okwubunka’s account.

Every smart Nigerian reading this can guess what later happened at this point.

The Bank Manager in question would now convert the money in that account for personal use, knowing fully well that Mr. Okwubunka’s family cannot come officially to claim the money in the account, being that they were accumulated pension payments, after the passing of Mr. Okwubunka.

There was no money in that account as of the day their father died hence no one except the Federal government can lay claim to the accumulated pension which happened after the death of the pensioner.

End of the matter and lessons therein.

Unfortunately, the ATM card still had a very long shelf life before it would expire while all these transpired but the inability of the family members to have their father’s pin, made them loose over three (3) million naira plus, that they would have withdrawn quietly without anyone knowing.

While we are not conscious of morality in this particular story being told, your ability to share certain details with your family can save them from a lot when you suddenly pass on.

Ensure that your Account Officer is known to your family. Before he is told of his customer’s death, be careful to do your due diligence first so that he does not cash in on that, to swindle the family.