CHAPTER FIVE.

 CHAPTER FIVE

 RIGHT TO FREEDOM

President Kazeem just concluded the grand stone-laying launch of the Makoko Beautification Project and the commissioning of the magnificent Drone Station; he was being driven in convoy through Montgomery Road and got caught in traffic. When he heard the initial pelting, he thought it was from a crazy swarm of confused bees, not until he saw the tiny crack marks of bullet hits. He turned in time to see a masked man bearing an RPG on his shoulder, and found himself blinking stupidly at the apparent trajectory of the approaching missile. The last thought on his mind was his romantic decision to slum it at Luxury Single Room Apartment around Araromi Street, Yaba. Just to reminisce about Susie. The missile made a hit. And President Kazeem found himself back in his office at the Presidential Villa. He walked briskly down the hallway leading to the suite reserved for his Turkish visitor.

Berat jumped when he barged into the apartment.

"There is a lock to your door, Berat. Use it."

"Your Excellency, to what do I owe this pleasure?" The alien tried to hide his discomfiture with a false smile.

"I need you to put a trace on criminal activities around the Makoko area in Lagos. Effective immediately."

"To do that I will need coordinates." Berat relaxed in his seat."

His fingers raced on the boat-shaped keyboard of his desktop computer and the screen instantly blinked data: 6°29′44″N 3°23′39″E.

"Now, I will hook up with the nearest satellite. I will also compromise any of the drone cameras in the area and its vicinity."

"How do you mean 'compromise'?"

"Respectable hackers prefer to use that word."

"I see. That's interesting. Give me something within the next two hours. I just survived …. Never mind, my friend." With that, he walked out of the apartment.

Back in his office, he found five females staring at the southern wall. All in white transparent gowns. They were naked beneath. And it was rather disturbing to him. They turned to face him as he reclined in a divan with his hands clasped … waiting.

"We pulled you out of that one, Kazeem."

"Yes …. I know," he sighed.

"It's already on Breaking News ….. President Kazeem feared dead. Presidential convoy attacked on Montgomery."

"There is no body," Kazeem pointed gently.

"We already gave them one. Your mangled body lies in the morgue at the Military hospital, Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, Lagos." One of them was saying, moving to join him on the divan. She pressed a huge nipple against his arm, and smiled at his reaction.

"When they gather to celebrate tonight at their guesthouse, you will make your appearance. They will all die of 'natural causes' as they say. Seizures due to the shock 

of seeing a presidential ghost," another submitted with a gentle laugh.

"Who are these people?"

"The G5 of the National Assembly."

"I can guess. And my body?" Kazeem asked stretching his long legs.

"Yes, that. We were coming to that. What are we to do about his body?" She said looking at others. She made for his crotch and felt the growing bulge.

"Aaaah, I now know what to do with his body." She croaked silently.

"Stop it, Asya!! The queen wants him." One of them responded nervously.

"She can wait for her turn, Elif. I want him here and now! Now face the wall." She barked in an authoritative tone of voice. The other females responded appropriately.

Kazeem was alone when his mobile phone buzzed on the desk. He reached for it and placed it on loud speaker.

"Phone hijack?"

"Yes. I had tabs on all mobile phones within the vicinity of Makoko and Yaba using Bypass codes and Wizard algorithms, I inputted Alpha and numeric characters into the satellite and obtained a trace on a message sent to someone in Abuja. It was a voice message that read: 'Done. Watch the breaking news'. The sender also called the number perhaps to notify the subscriber."

"Which part of Abuja?"

There was a considerable pause. Thirty seconds.

"The Three Arms Zone, sir."

"Berat, you have done well. We'll drink to this." Kazeem disconnected the call.

That night, at Apartments 1937, No 6 Silas Ilo Road, Guzape in Abuja, the power brokers of the National Assembly met secretly to celebrate. It was Allah's doing and it was marvellous in their sight. After they were surfeited with wine and women and were seeing all things as beautiful through frog eyes, even the poorly bleached, cross-eyed lady in a skin-tight mini-dress, was very comely to them. That was when a wall seemed to split in two to allow the entrance of President Kazeem into the overcloying and fleshly atmosphere. 

"Good evening, Honourable members, how are guys doing?" President Kazeem said rather pleasantly coming to sit across from the men in the lounge of the suite. The décor was all yellow. The men froze, the Senate President almost choked on the nipple of a buxom female who was rather décolleté in a YSL outfit.

They began to stumble on themselves as they struggled to stand, they were a mess, especially when they began to stutter in unison. The ladies were puzzled, who else was in the room? They wondered. Then, slowly they went down on the carpet, gazing at the wall as if entranced and finally clutched their chests as they began to convulse. The 

seven females watched as the men jerked uncontrollably on the carpet. They broke out in screams when the spasms stopped. They made for their bags and scrambled out of the suite. To them, these men were ritualists whose time had come. Unknown to them, visuals had already been recorded by CCTV. 

At exactly that time, President Kazeem was beside Ifenkili in their bedroom. Both were leaning on the elaborately carved and padded backrest. Both had something to say, it showed on their faces. Kazeem's attention shifted to the black envelope on the bedstand. The instruction was to read and destroy but he wanted to attempt communication with his wife, he felt he must come clean with his wife and forestall the consequence of exposure. She had better know now rather than get facts from other sources or come upon them personally. He wanted to test the possible outcome. Now.

"Ifenkili, a little bird told me that there is no shortage in the love you have for me, so much so, that you practically engineered my presidential victory." He said a tad awkwardly like a schoolboy wheedling for favours from a reluctant parent.

"That little bird also advised that you tell me, right?" She sniffed, apparently, with disinterest. Not looking at her husband.

"That's not where I'm going, Ifenkili."

"I know where you're going, K.O. Into her panties. I hear that Egyptians have the finest cotton, that is if she's not wearing Victoria's Secret like me. That's American and Asian cotton, I think." She said in the same vein. Casually. Kazeem smiled slightly. Even in a 

situation like this, he couldn't but marvel at his wife's sense of the dramatic. Her witticism and sarcasm. Kazeem left the bed, turned round and knelt by her side of the bed.

She turned to stare at him then.

"What are you doing? Don't go down in Nigerian history as the first president to lick his wife's ass, please." She feigned irritation and disgust.

"I don't care. What you started has repercussions. I now sleep with spirits," he said wretchedly.

"Interesting. So, Sadiya is now a spirit? An Egyptian variety."

"I'm so sorry, dear," he said rather remorsefully.

"What if you give me an infection? I hear that she does it with any available male. Their men will fuck anything, even cattle, they might have infected her with a crazy disease; Mad Cow Disease or something, which you can transmit to your wife," she said sniffing self-righteously. She was so engrossed that she didn't notice her husband's change in expression. His peeve was obvious.

He walked back to his side of the bed and picked his mobile phone. He touched the side with a finger and soon began to swipe through. He sat on the bed and offered his phone to Ifenkili. She heard herself saying; "Come in quick, handsome." Ifenkili watched the tape in shock and broke down in tears.

The visuals were damning. A terrible sex-tape.

"Let's search ourselves properly before casting blames into the sea of humanity. We 

were never made perfect, we often succumb to diverse temptations, Ifenkili. We should learn to forgive ourselves. The man who made that is dead. Delete the tape when you're done." He said and left the bed, picking the black envelope in one swipe.

You could hear a pin if it dropped on the thick pile green carpeting on the floor of the Senate building. It was plenary. Fear, awe and well-concealed hate was in the atmosphere. President Kazeem was again extending another damning courtesy to the National Assembly. On the platter was the suggestion of the constitutional reforms the Presidency wanted a debate on. 

"At this point, you must permit me to cite the case of the young female student stoned and beaten to death on the campus of a polytechnic in Sokoto State few years ago; because of an unguarded statement on her class's WhatsApp handle, one being Islamized at the time. They said she wrote blasphemy. We have succeeded in introducing religious bigotry and terrorism into our tertiary institutions. The Sharia and every trace of it must be expunged, pulled down and excluded from its place in the Nigerian constitution. The 1979 Constitution emphasized Nigeria's secularity while the 1999 Constitution is an Islamic constitution which was further entrenched at the 2014 National Political Conference. There is a provision for amendment in the 1999 Constitution when there is a need to do so. We must face our present reality. Several other hideous cases abound. A female schoolteacher was beaten to death inside a 

secondary school simply because she threw out a school bag that contained a copy of the Holy Quran during a school examination. How could she have known that the book was in the bag? She was just a part of the long list of persons martyred on the altar of religion. Nothing was done to these perpetrators by the governments…. Nothing. This madness in the name of religion must stop. The groups involved have been sitting on their brains, as it were. How can anyone reason logically if he's sitting on his brain? We should have arrived at that point of wisdom to realize that religion has become a serious problem to our peaceful co-existence as a national entity. It is never a solution! We thank God that we have succeeded in eliminating the incidence of religious terrorism and the misguided insurgents called ISWAP. 'God's Eye' did it for Nigeria. He is looking down on us ….. watching… waiting …" Someone applauded, it rang dully in the hallowed chamber of silently disgruntled honourable members.

"The previous government spent $1B to retrieve occupied territories from terrorists, we didn't spend half that figure to put the Drone Station in place. The days of assaults and encroachment by nomadic herders on farmlands to destroy crops are over, some of them even kill innocent farmers and rape their women. They are presently classified as terrorists and will be treated as such. I'm using this forum to advise the creation of grazing land or pastures in the north by the governors of that region. If help is required from the Federal Government, they should ask. This is imperative. Every Nigerian has the right to co-exist with other Nigerians peacefully. The days of trampling on the rights of others based on a religious and tribal bias are over. The power sector needs to be addressed critically. With the spate of power outages in the country, it is quite imperative that we address the issue, especially since it works against domestic national growth. The Presidency is presently considering the revocation of the rights to harness and distribute electrical power in Nigeria. The abysmal neglect in energy sector is very important to this administration, and we will not compromise our stand. If the stakeholders will not improve on their service delivery, stop estimated billing, and make electricity affordable to the common man, then we will have no recourse other than to repossess their rights. The Presidency will convene a meeting with them shortly. Also, the NNPC had consistently declared zero profit for decades; they have perfected a ridiculous method of declaring profits that were swallowed up by overhead expenditure. Reading such reports would essentially bring a logical question to a sane mind: why declare those profits in the first place? Why is the pipeline to the Kaduna Refinery still active when the refinery is moribund? Why do we keep getting deficits? All the refineries are to be shut down until they are made operational. Crude should only be pumped to registered modular refineries. As my learned colleagues would say, I rest my case." He gathered his papers and within a few seconds, he was already on the floor of the chamber with his entourage and Secret Service operatives. The baleful expressions of the members as he walked past their positions, didn't go unnoticed. He smiled and waved at some of them as he passed their positions. For the cameras. 

Reactions to the National Assembly briefing was widespread. On all social media platforms, electronic and print media, and in the streets. The people saw him as a 

revolutionary and an inflexible but altruistic leader. Some saw him as a dictator in mufti. 

The print media played on part of his NASS speech: 'God's Eye' ….. watching and waiting. A direct reference to the Military Drone Station at Iworo, Badagry, Lagos.

The Morning Show on AliveTV didn't shy away from the dialogue. The anchor; Miss Ozzy Maduka and her discussants made fame while it lasted. Her show reached ten million on views alone not to mention downloads for private archives.

"The President did describe the obvious statistics for the redesign of the Naira denominations by his predecessor as 'gross misspending.' I'm not concerned about his choice of words but the germane aspect which is the questionable need for the change 

in the colours in the first place. What's your take on this one, Raufu?" She asked in her usual sleepy voice. A trademark. 

"It is quite strange that Nigerians did not react to it at the time but with this coming from him at this time, isn't strange. President Kazeem, in his usual self, has been unpredictable. Imagine the way he escaped assassination recently; you cannot read the man's playbook. The figures he quoted were made public at the time, but what was our response to them? The last administration told us that it spent N261bn to print three denominations of the Naira, and N3.88bn to destroy old notes. At that time, the Central Bank said there was still N2.3 trillion of the old notes still in circulation. So, it's obvious that the expenditure on the destruction of old notes would further increase. The absurd aspect was that there was no actual redesign of the notes; just mere colour changes. 

Yes, it is true that the money was misspent. We have too much money and our leaders 

do not know what to do with it." 

"Let's consider some of the president's landmark achievements thus far, it's been three years since his inauguration. I mean his scorecard. How would you rate his administration, Dr. Anyawu?"

"President Kazeem has delivered his electoral promises on most counts. You can say that he has put his money where his mouth is. Just last week, he was asked in London how he was able to make certain changes quickly. He said most of the equipment used were already resting in his private hangar at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport and at the Tin Can Island Port in Lagos even before his inauguration. That is a 

man who plans in advance; a visionary. Take a look at the present end of insecurity in Nigeria, the prevailing climate has attracted foreign investors even those that fled the country due to security issues in Niger-Delta and the Islamic insurgency in the North. Thank God for 'God's Eye'. I mean the Drone Station. Again, take for instance the Technological Transfer Scheme. Not less than 2000 persons are on that programme, mostly drawn from the Ibos."

"Yes, but the opposition are of the view that the president is tribalistic."

"Yes, they would say that even when it is obvious that the man is a Lagosian."

"The First Lady is from the East."

"Ozzy, the man is beyond ethnic sentiments or bias. President Kazeem's mindset is clearly on how to make this country independent in terms of technology in the next 

decade."

"Thank you, Dr. We will take a short break at this time for some commercials. We'll be 

back shortly to examine President Kazeem's miraculous escape when his convoy was attacked in Lagos. Speculations are rife that he must have used a double for that visit. The commercials, please."

"We have received satellite signatures from Berat, his intel being bandits attack in progress in Dukku, Gombe. Berat has given us satellite feed. How he does it, is a mystery to me. We've got authorization to launch 'God's Eye'." A Turk in a camouflage 

tunic was saying to a colleague as they walked briskly toward a domed enclosure made of concrete. There were six of such structures in the compound. They both laughed, playfully punched each other's shoulders.

"I spoke to the guy once. He said he had placed virtual beacons all over the sensitive parts of the north on an electronic map in his office, he hears a beep when they are triggered by activity." The other man said as they stepped into the enclosure.

"Piç bacaklarini çekiy or du," the Turk chuckled, sitting in the pilot's chair. They both began the pre-flight checks, and responded to the LAUNCH signal beeping on a large screen. The Turk pushed a lever and they both stared keenly at the large screen to see the movement of a Bayraktar TB2; a UCAV. They both grinned at its takeoff.

"Time to unleash hell!"

"Good morning, citizens of Nigeria, I salute your courage and endurance in this time of our struggle to give our great nation a pride of place among other nations in the Western and Eastern blocs. Today, we celebrate yet another Democracy Day, and we thank God for the continued existence of our nation as a single entity. We have come a long way indeed in our struggle to sustain our spirit of Nationalism and nationhood. We must always consider every means by which we could be of significance to our dear country and bother less as to what we can get from her. True, past leaders have been utterly self-centred and wicked, and had neglected the useful application of our 

resources for the betterment of the citizenry. Yet, let's have a rethink concerning our self-application of our personal resources; intellect and skills, to further advance the cause of nationhood. Let us not only consider ourselves but others too. This is what our creator expects from us as human beings. We should be altruistic, when we have this in mind, we would find it difficult to destroy each other. This has been the primal focus of this administration. Some of us might see it as autocratic and forceful, but we do not rule wielding the tools that create fear only those that foster unity and respect for human dignity and rights. We pursue the collective desire for freedom of speech and movement, right to a peaceful existence and the creation of the enabling environment for legal human endeavour. This is why this administration remains committed to ensuring the safety and security of every Nigerian. We will not rest until these ideals are completely achieved. The Presidency has passed instructions necessary for flood crisis management to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to bring an end 

to the usual blame game and bulk-passing antics that existed before now, especially since the Benue-Atlantic Conduit has been completed and commissioned last week. In terms of security; the Military Drone Station in Lagos has maintained regular surveillance of sensitive areas and all the crude pipelines for possible attacks and unwarrantable encroachments. God has been faithful to this country, let us be faithful to ourselves as a nation and put aside every existing and emerging tribal or religious bias. Let us learn to forgive and embrace ourselves. We deserve to be free and be freed indeed, irrespective of our creed, tribe, educational attainment, riches, or poverty. 

 Permit me to reiterate this aspect, it is embedded in the preamble to the general provisions of the 1979 Constitution: 'We the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, having firmly and solemnly resolved: to live in unity and harmony as one indivisible and indissoluble Sovereign Nation under God dedicated to the promotion of inter-African solidarity, world peace, international cooperation and understanding: and to provide for a constitution for the purpose of promoting the good government and welfare for all persons in our country on the principles of Freedom, Equality, and Justice, and for the purpose of consolidating the Unity of our people; this Constitution is supreme and its provisions shall have binding force on all authorities and persons throughout the Federal Republic of Nigeria.' By this binding force, it is obvious that whoever breaks this inviolate rule is culpable and liable to trial in a court of law. That is why this administration is upholding this document and treating it as one would esteem a holy book since we believe in equality of freedom and justice. Thank you, and I wish you all 

happy celebrations. Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria." The sound of the National Anthem followed.

Without warning, the first wave of the Sharia riots broke out in Sokoto. The Sultanate seemed divided. The Sultan was in a confused state of mind and undecided, he was 

asked by his council to take a stand on the issue but was unable and rather solicited for peace and self-restraint. Sultan Garba Binji has been living with the guilt of being a DSS-installed monarch and was cautious and scared of taking certain decisions. That madman in the …. He wasn't even sure of what organization he was with; he only knew he wasn't ready to die yet. His bank balance was quite fascinating. He had a keen sense of self-preservation. So, the people acted on their own; engineered by silent jihadists who had large and deep bags of money with loose strings. The Christians, expectedly, were the target. Lives and property were lost; destroyed or confiscated by the fanatics. The Federal Government did not respond immediately, until the following week. Initially, the drones had no warheads but gaseous tranquilizers that simply put the rioters to sleep in the streets; they just began to drop like dominoes. But when they regained consciousness, they resumed hostilities. President Kazeem had no other option than to put them out permanently. It was horrific. Whole villages and towns were 

wasted until the people had to flee into Niger Republic and remained there. The response of the Federal Government brought sanity and peace to the debate at the National Assembly concerning the need to amend the 1999 Constitution. President Kazeem, proactive as usual, had already chosen the body of reviewers comprising three professors of political science, three justices from the Supreme Court, and five members each from the two houses of the National Assembly, and had them sequestered in a hotel in Dubai. The choice of Dubai was an attempt at twisted humour. He didn't wait for the outcome of the debate in the National and State Assemblies; the two-thirds 

majority votes and the resolutions from at least 24 states respectively. His team had a single mandate; remove every trace of the Sharia and Islam, Grand Khadi, and Muslims from that document. 

The eleven governors of Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Cross Rivers, Delta, Edo, Gombe, Lagos, Ondo, Osun, Rivers, and Sokoto states had expressions of gaiety as they emerged from the emergency Council of States meeting at the Presidential Villa. They were all carrying large glossy blue envelopes containing the documents of resource autonomy signed by them and ratified and sealed by the president. They were shocked when President Kazeem told them that the new Military Zones in their states were actually modular refineries for the take-off of the resource control process and that the Kaduna Refinery has been shut down. The States are to purchase the onshore oil fields from Shell 

Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, and take over the company's 30% shares. The other companies such as TotalEnergies and Eni are to renegotiate their deals with host sates, while NNPC reduces its share holdings to 40% in the joint venture and retains hold on offshore explorations including gas. All licences and leases on oil wells and blocks were revoked forthwith. President Kazeem also introduced partners from Israel and Turkey. He however appealed to them to be faithful with their tax remittals and social responsibility to the producing areas in their states to prevent communal protests. He also added that cases of misappropriation of funds or embezzlements 

would be frowned upon by the Federal Government. In all, there should be accountability. 

President Kazeem's Bombardier Global 7500 landed at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport gracefully like a giant bird coming to roost. As the hatch-door leans outward four black Cadillac limousines were parked and awaited the disembarking constitution reviewers. It had been two months of their sojourn in the UAE. In a trice, they were being transported to the Presidential House in Marina where the president would personally receive them and thank them for a job well done. Prior to their arrival, they had dispatched relevant portions of the document to the president through his human mules. Upon their arrival, President Kazeem immediately commenced a press conference. The news hounds were already waiting; his Chief of Staff had seen to that.

"... Consequent upon my briefing at the National Assembly several months ago, the Presidency commissioned the review of the book of our nation's sovereignty; the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, specifically as a measure by which we'll make clear our stand on the secularity of Nigeria as a nation, not governed by doctrinal dictates from the Church and the Islamic faith. We should all abide by the legality and rule of law as entrenched in the courts of law. Nigeria is not an Islamic or Christian nation. The Presidency will not accept or condone any fatwa issued by any Muslim Cleric in the North or the ordinances and decrees of any Christian organization. Their 

Ifta and decrees, we'll nullify. A Muslim having issues with a Christian must resort to the rule of law in the courts, never the Sharia laws in Sharia courts. By this document, every suggestion and nuance of the Islamic or Christian faiths have been annulled permanently from the Nigerian Constitution. Now, we are free!!" He said lifting the document in the air. There was a thunderous round of applause. The event was televised. Upnorth, many Emirs and jihadists were having stomach upsets but knew better than to complain; they knew the president was a compelling blackmailer and had 'God's Eye' as a terrible tool or weapon. Whichever way you chose to look at it. The National Assembly realized one simple truth; this madman had plucked their teeth. Like all politicians, they resorted to the old slogan; No permanent foe, no permanent friend. With this in mind, they tactically embraced the principle of begging. Not too proud to beg. They played on the presumed spirit of vanity in all humans and hence began to praise and flatter President Kazeem. Kazeem was not impressed. He had an awareness of the 

pit covered with Arabian carpet before a golden throne. Though he was already a king nevertheless, the principle is the same.