None of the people my Oga helped have publicly identified with him or even visited him in prison in London Ekweremmadu’s ex-driver shares hear touching story
The Uber driver who picked me up from the
airport the last time I was in Enugu introduced himself as the former personal
driver to the detained Ike Ekweremmadu.
“He left the employment of the former deputy
Senate President last year to start his own Uber business with his car.
“The man shared so many stories with me on
the way to drop me off at my hotel room, but the one that stood out was how the
people his former boss helped them when he was in power have all abandoned him
at his lowest moment.”
According to the former driver of Ekweremmadu’s
“At the height of his power and fame, Ike
Ekweremmadu’s house in Apo, Abuja, used to be a beehive of activity, a Mecca
for so many people.
“A lot of people from different countries in
the world come around for different reasons, ranging from those seeking
financial assistance to those looking for employment in federal agencies to
politicians who, always leave with Ghana must go bags stuffed with money.
“But today, none of those individuals that
Oga helped have publicly identified with him or even visited him in prison in
London.
“They have all stayed away by distancing
themselves from his travails and predicament. As the former driver of the Enugu
state legislator was lamenting what had become of his boss,”
“I was trying to process what I just heard
while reminding myself in my heart that human beings are who they are. Wicked,
selfish, and self-centered.”
Ekweremmadu in prison in London
Reuben Abati shared the same story of how the
beneficiaries of his boss and former president, Goodluck Jonathan’s largess, all
abandoned him a week after Buhari was declared president in 2015
Let’s hear Reuben as he explains better
‘The
presidential election went as it did, and everything changed. Days later, State
House became Ghost House. The residence, which used to receive visitors as
early as 6 a.m. (regular early morning devotion attendees), became quiet. The
throng of visitors stopped.
“The number of phone calls began to drop. By
May 29, my phones had stopped ringing as they used to. They more or less became
museum pieces; their silence reminded me of the four years of my life that
proved so momentous.
“On one occasion, after a whole day of
silence, I had to check if the phones were damaged! As it were, a cynical
public relates to you not as a person but as the office you occupy; the moment
you leave office, the people move on, erasing every memory before throwing you
into yesterday’s dustbin. Opportunism is the driver of the public’s
relationship with public officials.
“Today, the phones remain loudly silent, with
the exception of calls from those friends who are not gloating and who have
been offering words of commendation and support.
“They include childhood friends, former
colleagues, elderly associates, fans, and family members.
“The
first thing I noticed after that phone call, in which the president conceded,
was that people stopped coming to the villa to see the former president. The
villa became a ghost town.
“The
traffic to that villa just disappeared,” he said.
“We were seeing pictures of people already
going to the other side, to the president-elect, including members of the
Jonathan government. They had changed camps, and the speed with which it was
done was amazing.
“Around the villa, some of the people started using the excuse that they
wanted to go to their village or London for a checkup.
“These
were people who would ordinarily not move an inch and who wanted to be in the
presence of the president all the time.”
“That taught me a lesson: You’re only as
relevant as the position you occupy,” Reuben Abati concluded. A lot of people
in your circle are not actually your friends.
“They
don’t like you like that. They are only around you because of what they get
from you. Once the bakery stops baking bread, they leave and move on to the
next mugu, the next market.
“This is why I belong to this school of
thought that believes that if you have not cried with me, stayed with me in my
vulnerable moment, seen my worst but still stayed, you are not good enough to
be called my friend. In the eternal words of Apostle Joshua Salman
“We live in a wicked world.” So if you find
people who love you for who you are and not because of what they benefit from
you, “pay the price and keep them.”
Newsweekng
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