•Days after he sacked three commissioners, Lagos governor contends with a desperate, frightened cabinet
The centre cannot hold again at the Lagos State House. All hell has broken loose. Certainty recedes, commissioners’ hearts grow forlorn and grim and distrust sprouts across the power corridors. Untold apprehension courses through the Lagos State House as you read. There is tension at the government secretariat in Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos. Ever since Governor Akinwumi Ambode sacked three commissioners for undisclosed reasons, other members of his cabinet have been struck with terror and foreboding of what bad news may arrive at their doorsteps.
All the commissioners in Ambode’s cabinet are very scared that the governor may use his sledgehammer against them before the end of the year. Thus they have been running from pillar to post, meeting their godfathers and party chieftains, in frantic bid to save their jobs. Interestingly, however, like starved greyhounds jostling for mouthfuls of fetish sacrifices placed at communal crossroads, commissioners in Lagos are currently engaged in a mad quest to retain their positions.
So deep is their desperation that they have started seeking the intervention of their respective godfathers and also spiritual help from all manners of self-styled ‘prophets,’ in bid to keep their positions. But if each commissioner casts a spell on the governor in order to find favour in his eyes, would it not amount to too much pressure on the governor?
LIKE A THIEF IN THE NIGHT! DEATH STEALS FOLORUNSO ALAKIJA’S YOUNGER BROTHER
•TRAGEDY HITS BILLIONAIRE MAGNATE AS SIBLING YIELDS TO ASTHMA ATTACK
Even the garden loses its glamour, and the elder tree, its precious shade. The almond branch loses it avian tenants and the desultory sunlight eventually recedes. In the same vein, happiness and life deserts the Ogbara clan of Ago Ikorodu, Lagos as the family mourns the death of their beloved, Barrister Olawale Dawood Ogbara. He passed away on Sunday, September 16, 2016, at his Lagos residence, after suffering an asthma attack. He was aged 58. Ogbara was the younger brother of Folorunso Afusat Alakija, Nigeria’s richest woman.
The deceased was a successful lawyer during his lifetime. Dawood Ogbara was one of the first sons of the late Chief Lamidi Ogbara, the legendary businessman and billionaire from Ikorodu town, Lagos. For Alakija and her siblings, Ogbara’s sudden death amounts to a rude shock. The billionaire businesswoman shares a filial bond with her siblings, especially those from her mother’s side.
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BLAME THE RECESSION! NESTOIL BOSS, ERNEST AZUDIALU, SHUNS PRIVATE JET, QUEUES FOR COMMERCIAL FLIGHT
As the fairy tale romance brews and chars within the hearts of dreamy lovers so did the fabled good times bloom and fade from the lives of many a Nigerian billionaires. Ask Nestoil boss, Ernest Azudialu. Luxury and the frills of acclaim takes a dip in the life of the oil magnate even as you read. So stricken is he by the recession that he has begun to cut his coat according to available material. Due to declining fortunes, Ernest no longer flies a private jet. He flies commercial planes now. His private jet has been taken away from him due to paucity of fund. As if that was not enough, Julius Berger, his preferred construction firm, has moved out of his site which is beside Folorunsho Alakija’s house in Ikoyi.
Ernest’s current plunge down the ladder of wealth and acclaim no doubt contrasts negatively with his rising profile of yesteryears. Years ago, he lived a life of enviable luxury; he traveled by private jets and flaunted a garage full of posh automobiles like the luxurious Lamborghini Aventador, the BMW High Security 760 a.k.a BMW Individual, and different brands of customized Rolls Royce. The recession has definitely dealt a hazardous blow on the Nestoil boss. Like several of his peers in Nigeria’s high society, his taste for luxury and the good life undergoes irredeemable transformation.
