What Next for Akinwunmi Ambode?

If ever there is reservation on the flux of power in the field of politics, a momentary once-over of history is a fitting remedy. A man whose frosty gaze in recent years melted the hearts of his subjects might today tumble into a hall of the notably influential and only earn blank gazes. Grace to grass, grass to grace, grass to wild bush, it little matters; mutability is lord.

From the topmost cabin of Lagos power to plying the undercurrents of erratic life, it would seem as if the former Executive Governor of the Centre of Excellence has passed into the quieter demesne of Nigerian politics – the same space inhabited by the untried green, and the tired brown of political ambition. But nothing speaks more about the future of man that his past.

Akinwunmi Ambode came from Epe area of Lagos, brandishing a fiery wit and a kind of staccato charisma that soon distinguished him in civil service. From being the acting auditor general for Local Government, Lagos State, to the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance, the same brisk personality soon had him in the focus of Lagosians, even as he marshalled the goodwill of the artistic class to himself and earned a reputation as an upbeat, up-tempo, in-on-it governor.

Typical of the gubernatorial fraternity, Ambode swelled his dossier while commissioning basic infrastructure, transportation, security, and every other framework for social development. That is hardly a summary of his time as governor, however, as he soon allegedly secured the rivalry of the influential minority, of whom Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is worthy of note.

The buzz on media waves at the moment is that Ambode continues to roam the world, moving from one place to another. However, this is not a journey ride as he has not been allowed to rest easy, not even – a media bee had buzzed – to enjoy the bits of Lagos delicacy carted away. Lagos State Assembly, for one, has volunteered to keep his unseated buttocks roasting and unlikely to experience respite.

In any case, the trending gist on Ambode is that he is flitting from Dubai to London, leaving interested onlookers and stakeholders to wonder about him. It remains to be seen whether he will sew up the fracture with Tinubu and climb back up, bringing to mind the curiously similar case of Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi.