I AM PRESIDENT MAMUD (Part 7&8) – OPEYEMI AKINTUNDE

Part 7
I AM PRESIDENT MAMUD
Opeyemi Akintunde Ojerinde

Mamud and Sebrena got down from the vehicle and walked towards the private garden. Isire had packed some food for them. One of the aides carried the food basket in an attempt to follow them…

“ Hand it over?” Mamud said

“ What ?Sir?” The CSO replied

“ I won’t be needing you all, I want to have a private time with my daughter, Just two hours…” Mamud said

“ Sir!, I am sorry I can not leave you to be alone by yourself!”

“ 321, I appreciate you but I will be fine. I have no enemies, besides Nirato is a safe place. I am the first president after our independence, do you think or know anyone who will want me dead?” Mamud said.

321 shook his head in the negative…

“ Not anyone I know sir!”

“ 321, For almost 2 years, since the transmission from colony to republic, I haven’t had time with my family. Today I want to do a bit of catching up with my daughter.. And I wouldn’t want any distractions.”

“ Ok Mr President … We all will wait outside the garden for you!”

“ Thank you!” Mamud turned to go with his daughter, then his phone rang!

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

“ Pick up, please Mr President, I know you don’t have this number, but please pick up” Bereto said pacing up and down.

Bereto had gone back to his phone few minutes after he left initially…

“ I am sorry Father, I left one of my phones behind” Bereto had said

Ashkian suspected foul play but he let it go…

Bereto had gone to his room to playback the recording…

“ 321, I need you to loosen your security protocol, a group of men are coming to Mamud….. No… I don’t plan on killing the first president of Nirato… Exactly, his daughter, I heard they are going on a picnic… That’s why you are my man, you always get what I want before I even stress myself to spell it out!”

Bereto had dropped his phone…

“ Father wants to kill Mamud’s daughter? And they are out on a picnic?” Bereto said loudly…

“How on earth am I going to speak to Mamud… 321, the President’s CSO is in this plan with my father! Can anyone be trusted in Nirato, ugh…” Bereto knew he had to think fast…

He knew his father’s plan was simple, attack Mamud’s heart by killing his daughter. That would weaken him and make him rethink his dedication to the country.

Bereto picked one of his Father’s numerous SIM packs he used in sending anonymous messages. The lines could not be traced to him, as his friend in the Iskelon Goverment who was in charge of the Telecommunication company of Iskelon had given him those UNTRACEABLE Sim packs.

“President Mamud please pick up…!”

*************
Mamud was about to pick up the call when 321 spoke…

“ Speaking about distractions, I could answer your calls for the next 2 hours!” 321 said smiling. “I always turn off my phones on sunday when I am off duty. Sir, the moments I share with my daughters on those sundays are unforgettable”

“Hmm…Well , Thanks for that!” Mamud handed over his phones to 321. “How old are your daughters?”

“ 10 and 6, Sir!” 321 replied and in the process without Mamud noticing he pressed down the “Shut down” button of Mamud’s phones one after the other.

“You should bring them over some time to come play with Sebrena and Minaya!”

“ They are not in Nirato!”

“ Iskelon?”

“ Yes Sir, Nirato doesn’t have the best educational system for now, but thankfully with you at the helm of affairs, things might change!”

“ Hopefully, that’s if Ashkian gives me the chance!”

“ Ashkian?”

“ Yes! He doesn’t believe in my Closed Border System. I believe if we pump in more resources in our educational system and bring back most of our Iskelon trained Professors to invade the educational system, we will produce a new breed of scholars, engineers, doctors, lawyers who will serve our nation . What has been happening for years is that, the children of Nirato go to Iskelon to study and once they are trained by Iskelon, Iskelon will retain them. employ and exploit them. They pay them good money which is not be up to what they give their Iskelon counterparts, give them Iskelon citizenship and by virtue of that, they stay there forever. 321 is that not us losing out?. 321, ,you know I worked in the house of the Iskelon President as a cleaner for 4 years , the things I found out is what fuels my passion for Niratonians.

321, Niratorians are endowed, but Nirato is not benefiting from that endowment, rather we are given mirrors in exchange of food and drinks like our fore fathers….”

***********
“ Switched Off….” Bereto felt like pulling Down the whole building. The 3 phone numbers of the president was switched off…

“ Who else can I call?” Bereto kept asking himself…

****************
“ Approaching target….” Agnos said as they drove close to the private elite garden. “All arms ready?”

“All arms ready!”

.

Part 8
I AM PRESIDENT MAMUD
Opeyemi Akintunde Ojerinde

“ I can never and will never Pray for President Mamud!” Yenewa rose up from the prayer meeting.

The group was surprised at Yenewa’s outburst, very unlike her. She was the most compassionate in the group. In fact, she was the Co-Visionier of PFNM (PRAY FOR NIRATO Movement). It was a small group of visually impaired people who prayed for Nirato.

They had been meeting for 5 years every weekend to pray for Nirato and part of their answered prayers was Nirato becoming a republic. Though Yenewa was blind, she was a strong voice. She had a passion for Nirato, a strong passion. A lot of people wondered why she was that passionate about a nation she had never seen how it looked like.

“ I see with my ears … I ear what people say on the streets and what I hear creates pictures of what Nirato looks like. I hear Iskelon is better than Nirato, and for God planting me in Nirato, it is not a mistake. I must do my part”

“ How can you know if a country is better than another since you have no eyes to judge that?” A man had taunted her once…

“ When I am served two different meals, I can tell which is more delicious by the taste on my tongue, likewise through the pictures I paint in my mind by virtue of what I hear, I can tell which is better!”

Yenewa was that passionate about Nirato, so hearing her say that she would never pray for their newly elected president was very strange.

Oriel the Leader of the movement who though was blind but gifted in prophecy and abstract visions had raised a prayer point for the president…

“ I see vipers, unfriendly friends trying to pull down our president, can we pray for him!”

“ I can never and Will never Pray for President Mamud!” Yenewa had said standing up abruptly

“ Yenewa…!” Oriel has said

“ Oriel, I have told you this in private, why bring it up in public…?” Yenewa said

“ I know you told me you never want to have anything to do with whatever the president gives to the movement but I was led to pray for him Just now….Yenewa, You know I can’t ignore the movement of the Spirit. The Spirit leads us to where we least expect some times”

“ Well, tell the Spirit, Yenewa is not interested in following the Spirit on this one…” Yenewa walked away. She knew her way around without her stick and Oriel could tell where she was headed to…

Her Secret place.

Piloma, Yenewa’s best friend called after her…

“ Let her be, she is going to the riverside. She needs to cool off” Oriel said to Piloma…

Yenewa knew her way around, Her Favourite spot at the riverside was 578 steps from Oriel’s House; 220 steps forward, 100 steps to her right, 58 steps to her left, 48 steps to her right, 113 steps forward, 39 steps to her left. At her 39th step, there sat on the floor her rocky stone. That was where she sat anytime she came to her CALM SPOT.

************
“ Sebrena, so tell me things you want me to know…” Mamud said to Sebrena

“Daddy, Why are you always angry?” Sebrena asked

“ I am not always angry, I just get angry at bad things and there seem to be a lot of bad things around!”

“And Bad people?” Sebrena asked

“ Yes, a lot of bad people get me angry!”

“ But Mummy is not a bad person and yet you get angry at her!”

Mamud was caught off guard…

“ Yes, mummy is … mummy is not a bad person and I am sorry I get to be angry when I am around her. It’s just transferred Frustration !”

“ Transferred Frustration ? What’s that?”

“ When someone gets you angry and you transfer the anger on someone else…!”

“ Ok…Like a scapegoat!”

Mamud had his mouth wipe open in shock at what was coming out of his seven year old daughter. He didn’t believe she could be that wise. It dawned on him, he needed to get closer to his daughter as she was a treasure in the making…

“ No, your mother is not a scapegoat… Sebrena listen, I promise not to ever transfer my frustration on your mother again!”

“ Ok, you promise to love her, to hold her, till death do you part…” Sebrena said and Mamud looked at her very amazed.

“Is that not what married people say when they are about to get married?” Sebrena asked with innocent looking eyes

“ Yes, and I said those words to your mother meaning every letter of those words. Sebrena I love your mother and I will always do”

“ Pinky promise?” Sebrena said stretching out her last finger. The act was strange to Mamud…

“ Pinky Promise, but I don’t know what to do with that cute finger of yours” Mamud said laughing…Sebrena joined in the laughter as she took her father’s last finger locking it with her own…

“Oh! Nice… I am learning!”

“ Then we hug !” Sebrena said really excited she was teaching her father something new…

“ Daddy, before we hug, I want to let you know, I Like you because you are strong and hardworking… I will want my husband to be like you!” Mamud was touched and yet wondered at how 7 year old Sebrena was thinking of a husband and seeing him as a yardstick… He quickly hugged her so she wouldn’t see his tears.

The hug meant a lot to Mamud, it drew more tears from his eyes but the feeling of Joy was short lived as he saw 321 coming towards him from a distance with his two hands above his head and 3 masked man following him with Large professional looking guns…