Over the years, Abraham Ogbodo, the Editor of The Guardian on Sunday, had functioned more like a brother than a friend, as the two of us seem to agree perfectly on most things of life. In his usual ambitious way, he even claims to be my father in Lagos, not minding that he is just some ten short months older than I am. In fact, he had gone ahead to brow-beat my children to always refer to him as "Big Daddy". With his all-grey hair (more than ten years ago) my children couldn't question the claims of "Big Daddy" Ours date back to 1975 when we met that September 18 morning at Orogun Grammar School, Delta State as freshly admitted students of the great college.

Till we left in June, 1980, Abraham and I had remained pals, a bond that received more boost when our paths crossed again at The Guardianin the early 90's.Since then, the two of us have, as they say in Lagos argot, become like five and six. Although we do not talk so frequently, whenever we exchanged phone call, it is for a long time, sometimes running into hours. We hardly did text messages.

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