I AM PRESIDENT MAMUD (Part 13&14) – OPEYEMI AKINTUNDE

Part 13
I AM PRESIDENT MAMUD
Opeyemi Akintunde Ojerinde

Mamud felt his world was crashing. Isire was the only friend he had aside his mother.

He couldn’t afford to break down before Sowak. He moved from Isire’s door and went back to his room where he broke down in tears..

“ God of Minatu my mother, this wasn’t what she told me was going to happen in my tenure…She told everyone, you created me to change Nirato, but I haven’t spent my first 6 months before this shaking…”

His phone rang and hurriedly he went for it hoping it would be Isire…

“ Venosa!” Mamud saw the caller ID. It was his Vice that was calling.

“ Hello Venosa! Good evening!”

“Your excellency, Good Evening sir!”

“ Yes Venosa, What is it?”

“ A group of secondary school girls who went on excursion were kidnapped by the Anti- independence group! A total of 18 girls were abducted including 3 female teachers”

Mamud just went numb…

“ Hello Sir! Are you there?” Venosa said

“ I am here but I don’t know what to do right now! Let me call you back in a bit!”

“ Sir, are you okay?” Venosa asked as that was the first time in the 6 months of their tenure that President Mamud would sound defeated…

Immediately, Mamud ended the call, Venosa looked at his wife…

“ Something is wrong with the President!“

“ What?”

“ I don’t know, he just sounded off!”

“ Maybe He is just in a bad mood, call him in the morning!”

“ No, let me go see him right away!” Venosa said

“ It’s past 8pm… Whatever is wrong with him can’t kill him before morning. Your going there this night won’t make much difference!” Venosa’s wife said

***********
Mamud sat on the floor of his room, hoping someone will be by his side. He had been calling Isire for over an hour but she kept declining his call…

His Siblings and Mother were all in the FIFTH STATE ! He had no one to lean on…

“ Ashkian!” The name dropped in his heart…

“ Yes! Ashkian saved me from death today! I must have misjudged him earlier” Mamud thought amidst his tears.

***********
Ashkian was probably the most troubled person in all of Nirato.

“ Who took the dead girl’s body?” was the question ringing in his head.

As a way of covering his tracks, he had told Agnos and his boys to leave Nirato and go lay low in Iskelon.

His phone rang!

“ President Mamud!” That was the last person in the world he needed to speak to, but he had no choice…

“ Hello Mr President!”

“ Professor Ashkian!, I need a friend!” Mamud broke down in tears…

Ashkian stood up immediately. He liked what he was hearing over the phone. The voice of a vulnerable President.

“ Have you heard about the 18 kidnapped secondary school students?” Mamud said but Ashkian had not heard about it as he had been neck deep in covering his tracks about Sebrena’s death and disappearance.

As he listened on, he got a new idea…

“ Mr president are you sure it’s not the same person who sponsored the kidnap of those girls that sponsored the kidnap of your daughter?”

“ Really?… What do they want?”

“ Obviously, they don’t want or like your tenure, but this is the time to be bold and fearless… From my political experience, they want you to resign.!”

“ Resign?”

“ Yes, what they have done is simple. They want you to choose between your daughter, the missing girls and your throne.”

Mamud was speechless, he didn’t get the full picture but if what Ashkian was saying was close to the truth, then he was in for big trouble…

“ I will choose my child and those 18 girls over my tenure as a president!” Mamud said

“ No, you can’t do that, Leadership is about sacrifice…Mr President, can you trust me to be your true friend and Special Adviser. I am ready to walk this road with you, if you will let me…” Ashkian said

Mamud knew he had no other choice, he needed a Counsellor and Ashkian seem like the best.

*************
Isire sat in the h0tel room Hidoko had rented for her in a secluded secret h0tel he owned. Minaya was asl€€p. She had been asking about her sister.

Hidoko had said he would see her later in the evening.

She kept watching the T.V hoping there would be an announcement by Mamud about Sebrena. Only the 18 kidnapped girls were reported…

Knock knock!

Hidoko was around.

Isire opened the door and jumped on Hidoko for a warm embrace. For the first time in years, she didn’t feel irritated at Hidoko’s touch rather she felt secure…

“ Isire, I assure you I will do everything in my power to make sure Mamud returns your child. I promise you!” Hidoko said looking into Isire’s eye.

Her eyes had never stopped pulling him to her.

“Mamud, Not only will I get back Isire’s child, I will get back the office of the President from you and Marry your wife!” Hidoko said silently as Isire laid her head on his chest.

**********
Minatu couldn’t sl€€p. She was an early sl€€per as she loved to wake up in the midnight to pray for her children. Everyday, as early as 7:30pm she was already asl€€p, but that night seem different. It was 8:15pm and she kept turning on the bed.

“Could it still be about Mamud?” She thought silently.

.

Part 14
I AM PRESIDENT MAMUD
Opeyemi Akintunde Ojerinde

“Sowak, I need food!” Mamud roared from his room.

Sowak was Isire’s Chief maid, she and Isire were in charge of fixing Mamud’s meals, but the moment Isire was gone out of the house, Sowak was the one always being called upon anytime of the day to fix his meals.

Mamud had changed drastically… before Isire left, Mamud ate once or twice daily. He was always satisfied with little but after her departure, it seem like he had a Lion living inside him. Mamud ate almost six times a day and it was always that loud roar of…

“ Sowak! I need food”.

**************
“ The president doesn’t need food, he needs happiness in his life” Sowak’s mother had told her when she got back home for her three days break. President Mamud gave each of the presidential staff, 3 days break every month. Other days they were on call 24 hours every day.

“ Happiness? Mum, he is the president, he has everything he could ever want at the tip of his fingers” Sowak said

“ Everything without his family?, you told me in confidence that his wife has left him for over 2 weeks and they are yet to find the missing child, plus the 18 students that have gone missing, Sowak which man can be happy with all of these circumstances surrounding him?”

“ No one really?”

“ Him screaming for food every now and then is Him trying to fill up His loneliness…”

“ He is not lonely, Professor Ashkian is always with him.”

“ He needs a woman Sowak! So this is the time to do something great for your boss!”

“ What?”

“ Help him find his happiness!”

Sowak stared at her mother, not getting the real point her mother was trying to make, but at some point when her mother gave that mischievous smile, she knew where the conversation was heading…

“ I have a steady boyfriend mother…and besides I don’t want to be known as the President’s mistress. Mum please… I have my plans and I don’t want anything to destroy my plans, I want to be a lawyer!”

“ Yes Sowak, and what better way to become a lawyer and a rich one at that! Think about this!”

Sowak’s mother took her to the window and held her hand…

“ Close your eyes and imagine this… The president has 8 years to spend…”

“ 4 years mother!” Sowak cut in

“ He is going for a second term!”

“ That’s if the populace enjoys the first term!”

“ Shh… Shhh… Can the lawyer in you keep quiet Sowak and listen to Me…by becoming his mistress, he sees you through University and establishes your own law firm for you. He will also give you top and mighty clientele. Sowak this is your, our opportunity “

For the next two days Sowak spent at her mother’s, it was scheming tutorials. Sowak’s mother taught her all the moves she needed.

**************
“ This girl has been here for 2 weeks and she still doesn’t remember jack about her past life, instead she is calling you Mama. Guess your face got imprinted the moment you rescued her..” Shubba said to Yenewa with irritation in her voice.

Shubba was one of the visually impaired ladies in the house. She seemed very angry at Sebrena’s presence In the House.

“ Shubba, What is really eating you up?” Yenewa asked

“ She crosses my path at will and you know I hate that, it makes me lose track of where I am headed”

“ I am sorry about that! She may not have lived with visually impaired people before, so we will teach her how to do so?”

“ But why are we not returning her to the authorities, that way her family finds her” Shubba said

“ Oriel said anyone could claim ownership of the child, since she can’t remember anything about who she is!” Yenewa defended, though that was just half truth. She had also bonded with Sebrena who they now call “ Holey” which meant HOPE in the Nirato native language.

“ But I hope, we won’t be arrested for abduction!” Shubba said

“ We didn’t abduct her, we saved her”.

“ Yeah right, like the 18 secondary school students who are missing too..” Shubba retorted..

“ Well, That is because your weak president is very heartless!” Yenewa said. “He should have done something about those kids by now!”

***************
Oriel saw the man who God had shown him with his inner eyes as President Mamud. He saw that a lot of people were thronging at him, trying to get what they could get from him. Piece by piece , they tore him apart till there was nothing left of him….

Oriel jumped from sl€€p…

*************

It was time for the night devotion, Oriel spoke up…

“I know Yenewa doesn’t want to hear this, but I can not deny what the Father keeps showing me about the President. Father shows me, the man has good intentions for the country, but there are a lot of self centered people around him,and little by little , they would pull him apart. Please let us pray for the President.”

Yenewa hissed and stood up from the devotion…Sebrena followed her…

“ Mama, who is a president?”

“ The leader of a country!”

“ Why don’t you like him?”

“He is a bad man, he did something bad to me a very long time ago!”

“ What?”

“ Adult stuff! I promise to tell you when you grow up!” Yenewa said as she moved away from Sebrena. She needed to go to her hiding place, her place of calmness…

“ Holey, go back inside. I need sometime alone!”

“ Yes Mama…”

Yenewa started counting her steps, but all that filled her thoughts was what the beast called Mamud did to her and her family many years back…

He killed her elder brother Fila, back in the Fifth State.