Close friends, now arch enemies

By TOFARATI IGE

It is a common saying in the political terrain that there are no permanent friends or enemies, only permanent interests.

Tonto-Dikeh

Toyin-Lawani

With recent happenings in the entertainment industry, it seems the above phrase has also found truism in the world of art.

It is not unusual to find alliances and cliques formed between entertainers in various sectors of the industry such as in Nollywood, music, and comedy. What is however puzzling to observers is how quickly these friendships sometimes fall apart. It makes one question: was there ever any substance to the associations in the first place?

Some of these crumbled relationships start out as fairytale romances which the parties involved shout about from the high heavens, and in the end, they also hate themselves as passionately as they once loved. They do not hesitate to wash their dirty linens in public, and no detail, no matter how dirty or gory, is spared.

We hereby present to you some of the most celebrated relationships in the Nigerian entertainment industry which have crumbled like packs of badly arranged cards. Enjoy…

Tonto Dikeh And Toyin Lawani

One-time Best Friends Forever (BFF), Tonto Dikeh and Toyin Lawani seem to have forgotten the days that their relationship used to be rosy, as all they are bent on doing these days is to drag each other’s name in the mud.

Toyin, who used to be Tonto’s former stylist, recently accused the actress of giving the credit for her stylings to her new best friend, Jeremiah Ogbodo, and threatened to sue whoever took credit for her work. To which Tonto replied that she couldn’t care less. This was months after Tonto had taken to her Twitter page to publicly denounce Lawani’s Tiannah’s Styling. She tweeted, ‘I, Tonto Dikeh, do not shop from, endorse, or recommend nor identify with Tiannah Styling as a tailoring outfit…’ Lawani had also replied then with the words, ‘I’m a work mom who’s got respect for people. I work hard for a living to build my brand. I won’t let a riff-raff get away with rubbishing it with lies.’

Ebube Nwagbo And Anita Joseph

Ebube Nwagbo

Anita Joseph

Though they both deny it, it was an open secret that these two actresses, Ebube Nwagbo and Anita Joseph were once involved in an epic fight over ‘Limpopo’ crooner, Kcee’s heart. In the heat of the crisis, the two actresses were said not to see eye-to-eye, especially whenever they met on set. This is despite the fact that they both hail from Anambra State and were once close friends.

However, another twist was added to their love-hate story when it was reported that the busty Anita had apologised to Ebube severally on BBM and through text messages. When Punch Newspaper got in touch with Anita, she expectedly denied the gist, saying, ‘I couldn’t have gone to ‘beg’ Ebube for any form of forgiveness. How? Where? The truth is that we don’t have any issue. She may not have been my close friend but she is not my enemy either. It was just people that brought up the issue of us having a fight; it never happened. Forget all those things you hear, Ebube is a very nice person. We come from the same state and we speak the same dialect. She is a lovely person and there is no way we can quarrel.’