How quickly the love and closeness between former Governor of Lagos State, Akinwunmi Ambode, and his bosom friend Kazeem Adeniji, dwindled and died, is still a mystery to many. And it is a stark reminder for those who know them that friendship is fickle especially when money or power becomes involved.
In his days as governor, Ambode appointed Adeniji, SAN, as theAttorney General and Commissioner for Justice. They were like two peas in a pod. Adeniji was the go-to-guy, the Mr-Fix-it in the administration and one of the few people who had the ears of Ambode and could get anything from him if he so asked. If Ambode had skeletons buried anywhere, Adeniji would be one of two or three people that would know. He had access to the inner confines of Ambode’s life and was almost always the first and the last person to see him every day bar the First Lady. For every deal that needed legal manoeuvring or method, he had Ambode’s back. And the two friends creamed off the four-year governorship with ease.
But when the powers-that-be in the state decreed that Ambode would not get a second term, with the concomitant desertion by many of his trusted aides and loyalists, Ambode figured that he still had Adeniji and a few others in his corner. To his chagrin and consternation, Adeniji reportedly pitched his tent with the Bourdillon crowd (a euphemism for the camp of former Governor Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu who lives in that upscale street in Ikoyi). It was one numbing desertion that shocked Ambode more than the denial of a second term ticket.
He would discover that the moment Adeniji got wind of where the pendulum of power had swung, the latter reached out to Asiwaju. Ironically, Adeniji never quite got what he wanted from the other camp even after subjugating his decades-long friendship with Ambode.
Whether for political relevance or money, Adeniji and Ambode are no longer chummy and it is a major fallout that is still heartily discussed in different social and political circles where one was not seen without the other when the going was rosy and profitable.
(The Capital NG)
