…..As the billionaire oil mogul appears in court today
By Tola Ogundipe
In the icy silence of his fate, Bashorun Jide Omokore probably rues the path he tread till he encountered misfortune. The Leader, as he is fondly called by favour-seekers, is a haunted man. He lives in dread of his next ‘best friend’ and billionaire associate that would stab him in the back.
As he grapples with the sad reality as he appears in court this morning, Bashorun cuts the pitiful portrait of a man whose days are blighted by betrayal and his nights are chilled by a gale of everlasting nightmares.
Unlike fictional Brutus, the oil mogul needs not wait for the cock to crow before he experiences the lacerating slash of treachery; some of his business associates and friends whom he helped turn their lives around, brazenly flaunt and flash their deadly daggers stained with his blood, before his very eyes and the full glare of the world. Jide’s friends have betrayed him. They have cast morality and decency to the winds to enact lethal deeds of treachery and deceit against the man variously regarded as their benefactor and mastermind of their fortune.
This radical turn in the fortunes of the Kogi born billionaire has become the stuff of random gossip in Nigeria’s political circles as not a few people are eager to see how it will end for him.
However, in a sad contradiction to the sycophancy and goodwill he enjoyed when the going was good, he has attracted no heartfelt or pretentious outpouring of goodwill.
Yes, his phones are no longer buzzing like high-pitched alarums. Indeed, friendship is overrated. Oftentimes it leaves a man vulnerable to the elements. It was a firm belief in friendship that cost the legendary Julius Caesar his life; eventually, he was betrayed by Brutus, his bosom friend and confidant. Likewise, a trust in friendship has left Jide Omokore, the Chairman of Atlantic Energy Drilling Concepts Nigeria Limited, an easy mark for treacherous friends. Today, the gallant, civilised and generous man is betrayed and subjected to a ruthless heartache courtesy his friends.
For Omokore, it is even more painful to note that a greater number of his detractors are friends to whom he had shown extreme generosity and support in their time of need. Interestingly, the number of his associates and self-confessed loyalists has depleted drastically, in the wake of his encounter with the EFCC.
A very close friend and associate of the oil entrepreneur however, disclosed that no matter the fate of Omokore, he would remain loyal to him. He argued that Omokore has persistently been in the news for the wrong reasons due to his predilection for helping people.
Consequently, mischief makers and rumour mongers have accused him of various escapades within and outside the country. Omokore, he argued, is simply being misunderstood and maligned by mischievous characters who deliberately misinterpret his relationship with beneficiaries of his generosity, to achieve their own selfish objectives.
