TheCapital

A connoisseur of sort when it comes to choice drinks; he knows wines and cognacs as intimately as a child knows his sandbox. When he clocked 40 last Sunday, Abuja almost choked on his alcohol-fuelled party and Alex Cole took his lifelong romance with alcohol to another level when in a fit of dizzying inebriation or so, he removed his shirt to dance to the admiration of his co-revellers, and the consternation of discerning fun seekers who could not reconcile with this act. Alex Cole is the younger brother of Tonye Cole, the MD/CEO of Sahara Energy, one of Nigeria’s foremost oil and gas companies. Of course, he is also Ambassador Patrick Dele-Cole’s son. And he is a thoroughbred with sound education like all the Coles.

But that is where the similarities end. Unlike his easy-going billionaire brother, Alex is a man-about-town; a jolly good fellow who comes across as having no worries in life. Every day for him is Christmas, or, at least a day to celebrate with rounds and rounds of expensive drinks. A night crawler par excellence, Alex is a force on the social fixture of Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.

Though an executive director in his brother’s Energy Group where he serves as Managing Director of Sahara Trade, sobriety is reportedly not in his lexicon. His affinity with cognac and other expensive alcoholic drinks is well known, so bad that he reportedly goes to the office straight from the club as he always has a change of clothe in the trunk of any of his choice cars. A heavy spender, he has Abuja girls drinking from his generous palm. And they swarm round him like bees to honey. And he has been like that for years, says his friends. No amount of family meetings can make him have a rethink about his lifestyle. And there is little any one can do because he seems far too gone in his ways.