It is said that there is no dignity for a man who sponges off another man’s cash. Like a leech or a surgeon’s knife, they are double-edged: sometimes they’ll cure, and sometimes they can kill. Same for some politicians, they are like starved greyhound. This, perhaps, could best sum up how many perceive former Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi over his flip-floppy relationship with his political godfather and benefactor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Not many will quickly forget how the bulky politician caused a sensation last year during the crisis that saw former Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode squared up in a battle with the leadership of the All Progressives Congress in the state. At that time, the APC leadership in Lagos had made up its mind not to give Ambode a second term ticket but Afikuyomi allowed himself to be used as a pawn in the failed grand designs of some politicians to wrestle power from Tinubu. He, to the consternation of many, chose to challenge the influence of Tinubu by switching loyalty to Ambode, thinking that if the former Governor beat the party leadership at its own game and secure the ticket, the end of Tinubu’s hold on Lagos’ politics would have come and he would have become one of the influencers in Lagos politics. But that was not to be as Ambode was successfully denied a second term and lost relevance in the state. Thereafter, Afikuyomi disappeared into thin air. Less than six months after Ambode disappeared from the political scene, Afikuyomi is now groveling once again at the feet of Asiwaju, the man he wanted to reduce his power and political control. There was the rumour that Afikuyomi has gone back to the man who literally butters his bread when he was sighted at the seventh convocation ceremony of the Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, where Tinubu was conferred with an honorary doctorate degree in Public Administration early this week.
Like a man with a large heart, Tinubu has always found it easy to forgive and move on with some of his associates who attempted to betray him. Afikuyomi, not once or twice, has had the grace of the APC national leader overlooking his excesses, to reabsorb him. But whether he will have Tinubu repose same old trust in him this time around is what many doubt would happen again.