Between Oba Akiolu and Ambode

Right before our eyes, providence transported Akinwunmi Ambode, a seeming political neophyte, from relative obscurity to prominence and he became the governor of Lagos State.

Between May 29, 2015, and May 29, 2019, the Chartered Accountant ruled the state. While he held the position, many sought his listening ears for so many things like every other political leader in the country.

Life could not have been any better. But the Epe, Lagos State-born technocrat turned politician allegedly stepped on some powerful toes that vowed with everything never to forgive him and they never did.He failed to secure the ticket of his political party, the All Progressives Party (APC), to return for a second term. Babajide Sanwo-Olu was elected in his stead in 2019. But like a wounded lion, Ambode refused to go under without a fight. The fight ultimately turned dirty at a stage with name callings and allegations. His action further infuriated some of his party chieftains who vowed to end his political career, a vow they fulfilled with relish.

Without a doubt, the former governor did not bargain for what life thrusted on his laps. In the aftermath of the circumstances leading to his leaving office, the number of his friends and hangers-on has dramatically dropped, while he is hardly seen in political circles in the state.

This was no more but a killjoy of sorts for him. His failure to secure his second term bid to govern the state forced him out of the ornate Lagos State Government House, unceremoniously.

Sadly, a few days after he handed over power to Sanwo-Olu, he tasted the cold side of powerlessness. The attention he used to get and commanded unsolicitedly dropped by more than half. Many of those that claimed to love him while he was in power left him. He was left alone in the middle of the mighty ocean to paddle his own canoe.

However, like the popular Yoruba proverb – “No matter how bad a man falls into hard times, not all old friends will desert him.” If there is one man that still cherishes and loves the former governor, it is none other but the Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu.

Rewind the tape to the build-up to the 2015 general elections. For his unquantified love for Ambode, the Oba of Lagos, allegedly threatened to drown in the Lagos lagoon anyone who opposed the emergence of Ambode, the then candidate of the APC.

The threat created a serious furore and anger, especially from non-indigenes, who saw this as nothing but an abuse of human rights and freedom of association. Though the revered monarch denied this statement, he threw his weight behind the governor who eventually won the election.  

Since then, he has been like a father to the accountant-turned-politician.

Society Watch gathered that the former top cop-turned-royal father never abandoned Ambode even in the face of the crisis that later came. It was revealed that he made several trips to the home of Bola Tinubu and many others that mattered in the political circle across the state and beyond in attempts to save his job, but it was all futile as his fate had already been decided.

A source disclosed that the Oba had to leave the country to stay away from all the drama and controversy that left the governor in a never-seen-before messy situation.

Nevertheless, it was revealed that Oba Akiolu’s love for Ambode has remained the same ever since as he has constantly kept in touch with him while Ambode also holds the Lagos monarch in high esteem.