The people we get along with, trust and feel simpatico with are the strongest links in our networks. Ask Wale and Mofe, they would confirm this.

For as long as we can remember, Wale Tinubu and Omamofe Boyo have been friends and business partners; they have cherished and been kind to each other’s hopes and individual dreams. They run Nigeria’s largest oil and gas company and one of Africa’s leading energy solutions providers, OANDO, as Group CEO and Deputy Group CEO respectively.

Beyond their OANDO gig, the many other businesses they run together, the similarities between both are as striking as they are diverse. Mofe turned 50 recently and it would be the turn of Wale on June 26th. Both are trained lawyers; while Wale attended the University of Liverpool for his bachelor’s, Mofe was on the other side of town in King’s College, London. Both are famed for carrying out one of the biggest coups in the oil and gas industry.

In 2000, Ocean and Oil acquired Unipetrol during the Nigerian government’s privatization exercise. Two years later, they led the largest ever acquisition of a quoted Nigerian company with the purchase of Agip by Unipetrol. The group was rebranded as Oando PLC and has grown to become the leading oil and gas retailer in Nigeria, ensuring one in five cars on Nigerian roads drives on its fuel.

When business went awry, and the cash seemed to dry up and people thought it was all over for the oil and gas whiz kids, the two friends stuck together. Wale was harder hit because of his la vida loca lifestyle while Mofe, ever private and self-effacing, was in the background.

Wale was one of the biggest donors in the last presidential campaign that ushered in President Muhammadu Buhari. In fact, so profoundly appreciated was Wale’s financial contribution to the campaign that his uncle, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, reportedly nominated Mofe as Minister of Petroleum. He could not have nominated Wale because of their filial relationship. Mofe’s appointment never came through though.

Perhaps one of the wealthiest guys in his generation, what Wale Tinubu lacks in height, he makes up for with his charming and congenial personality. Wale has always said that the vision of his company is to be the leading indigenous exploration and production player on the African continent. The vision is no different from Mofe’s. But that is where the similarities end.

Dandy Wale is a fun-loving rocker who loves his wine exotic and vintage and can fun from Miami to Bahamas and South Africa to South of France and everywhere else with sandy beaches, poplar-lined esplanades and beautiful women and great men. Mofe prefers the quiet, homely life. He hardly parties and is hardly visible on the social scene. Unlike Wale who is perceived as stingy in spite of how rich he is, Mofe is regarded as generous and a folksy family man. He is married to former filmmaker and popular 90s actress, Ego Boyo of the Checkmate fame.

Conversely, despite this close-knit relationship, their wives, Bola and Ego, do not enjoy such relationship. You can never see them together anywhere. For women who are the pillars behind their husbands, posers have been raised as to why they do not appear together more often. Could this be attributed to petty rivalry or high-priced ego? We are not sure.

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