This is a special tribute to my main man who went to sleep with his maker exactly 12 years ago. I still remember the good times we shared together as entertainment reporters. Sleep on Dusty. That is what we called you way back from Aba, the enyimba city.
How do I start the story of Amadi Ogbonna, the late entertainment editor of Vanguard Newspapers and I? Like they say, let me cut a long story short by starting from our chance meeting at a niteclub on Olowu by Ipodo in Ikeja that was managed by Eddy Jay Omodiagbe immediately he left Klass Niteclub after the death of John Chukwu, JC, also in Ikeja. It was there we met for the first time and our friendship kicked off. The following day I was his guest in his Ogba house where his live in lover then, will not mention her name because she is now happily married and has moved on, prepared a steaming cups of coffee for us.
That marked the beginning of a relationship that lasted till 2012 when death took him away. He was one of those, apart from Thomas Peretu, that took me through all the gambit of entertainment/sources.
I went all over the country courtesy Nigerian Brewery Plc in the days of Edem Vindah and Tony Agamomen in the courage of the alcoholic company’s musical shows like MegaJam, StarQuest and StarTrek.
On our own, we travelled to places like Race Course in Kaduna to interview the late Bala Miller, Jos to speak with the late Dan Maraya Jos, to Benin to talk to the late Sir Victor Uwaifo, Osayemore Joseph and Aigbe Leberty. In fact, we were everywhere and done this and done that. We both bught our plots of land in Ikorodu from Lagos NUJ in the days of Mrs. Funke Fadugba as the state chapel’s chairman.
But in between all of these, we were like cat and mouse; to the extent that those who know us very well, were always surprised if we stayed a week without quarreling over non issue. Even our wives knew that and never interfered when were on our familiar terrain because they knew that sooner or later, we will be back on each other’s embrace. That was our relationship until that fateful evening in 2012 when on my way home at exactly fagba Bus Stop Iju when I received a call from Mr. Victor Akande, now in Canada to ask when last did I hear from my friend. And when I told him three days ago when he came back from his village where he had gone to see his aged mother and we had agreed to see at our watering hole in Ogba owned by Sola Fajobi but could not because of traffic jam, he simply told me ‘call and find out his whereabouts.’ I immediately sensed that the worse may have happened but I never thought it was death. I immediately put a call to his wife and all I heard was, ‘the number is unreachable’ for the two times I tried. I then tried his fellow editor at work, Mrs. Judith Ufford, then features editor of Vanguard Newspapers who confirmed that my friend died hours ago as he was been rushed to a hospital In Ajegunle following an asthma attack . My friend was said to have forgotten his inhaler(s) and could not reach for any other when he was attack. That was how I loss a dependable friend to death.
Amadi, sleep tight till we meet again!
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