A friend of mine, an American returnee who was once a commissioner in Rivers State shared an experience with me a few years back. As commissioner, he supervised a ministry that dispensed favors and patronage. He made friends. Small, medium and very big friends. His three phones were always ringing, morning, afternoon, night. They rang non stop. He was invited to weddings, church Bazaars and other social gathering and was always honored with a place at the top table. He was happy. He was surrounded by tons of good friends. So he thought.

Then in 2011, there was a cabinet reshuffle. And his card was shuffled out of the pack. The day after this was made public, the phone rang endlessly as usual. Friends who were worried that their source of patronage was being blocked called him to confirm if what they heard was true. The next day the phone rang but not as disturbing as was usual. And the next-next day it rang at more reduced rate. After a few weeks, my friend would lift his phones up after several hours of silence to check if the batteries had run out of power. He was bewildered that the phones that could not stop ringing were now so silent that they could serve as grave stones in a grave yard.

I had a similar experience in 2004, but it was less dramatic. After five and a half years of serving as CSO to unarguably the most generous State Governor in the Nigerian Governors class of 1999-2007, i was redeployed to a less influential role in a less glamorous State. A few weeks after my redeployment, an Oyibo acquaintance who was the manager of a telecom firm operating in Rivers State called to request access to the Government House to deliver Christmas Hampers to me. I told him about my redeployment and asked that he deliver the hampers to a named subordinate. Till today I never received the gift. Not because it was  misappropriated by the recipient but because my expatriate friend went back to his office with the gifts and wrote a new label and card for the new occupant of my former office. To him my purpose was served and as an ex big man, I was no longer deserving of the goodwill of his company. That is life.

Why are these stories relevant? They are to serve as useful lessons for people who occupy public offices and who on account of such offices are edified by members of the public, worshipped by associates and courted by the creme de la creme of society. It is all fake. It does not last for long. If you get carried away you will wake up the day after with a bad hangover. So be real. Don’t abandon your old friends to embrace new ones just because you now feel that your old friends are not up to speed. Rather, help them upgrade. In these days of makeovers, every being can be ‘made over’ to the next level. Behold, make new friends but remember that friends acquired whilst holding public offices are like fresh firewood.. they need fuel to keep burning. As you enjoy your new status, bear in mind that old firewood does not quench fire. So keep the flame of old friendship burning, it will not quench your fire.