For days and weeks on end, thorny issue of who killed Mr. Ribadua had fortunately taken the front burner with various manners of commentaries from the media, some quite plausible while others were outright ridiculous, full of sentiment that it was rightly possible that he plotted his fall death and in politics. In this part of Africa, journalism was a cherished profession. They never hunt for what to write. There were things to write on every day, ranging from death announcement of the most influential citizen to the assassination of a political opponent and rigging in ordinary casting or the collapse of firm and sectors or at worst strike from all organs of the government. There were many questions they could ask.
The country was going back to the old way. There was nothing in its place. The country was always in fight to fix in to their many competing interests yearning attention, new agenda and programs to keeps the wheel of power going.
Because he was shifted overnight from being the president, and few days to be elected the vice president, his death made many to ask most difficult question - why? His killing brought strong enmity and distrust in the offices and among close aids and friends making old wounds to bleed afresh. It also brought schism within the party, which gradually threatened the smooth handover of baton, to either the military or the interims.
The entire party and the nation received with shock the new of the death of Mr. Ribadau. In this the president had no hand in it. Though he was addicted with his syndrome ever when he had dumped him in the subversion of the country’s written code title, he chose to die wherever he died and be buried with him.
The news of his death had been pitched into a crisis. It was the issue of various reactions of regret by the prominent class who recalled the selflessness, submissiveness and loyalty of service he held high among his political kinetic contemporaries. He also headed judiciously to corruption in the light of activism in the development of the nation’s democracy. To these political kinetics and idealists who never believed that their body could be pieced by the metal nut and strong belief in their security detail, his death brought to them an untold hardship, worry and fear.
In politics where he had spent a greater chunk of his life with no good record of transparency and accountability, he would have bowed and retired in a dignified manner without being remembered for anything good, but death through assassination claimed him. His death was that of classic case of betrayal by either of his party members or running mates whom he had dined and wined. It was an unsure case to many as his death kept all mute on which step to take in the new dispensation that ushered in a new man in the seat of the presidency. Clearly, he got bogged down in the political quagmire and was the first to step in his own laid trap.
While he was alive, he was out of torch he knew when he was in danger and avoided it. He had very coverage he wanted from a reliable source. He could never be fingered, and the fingerer got free at the process and made many lose their political goal to the rubbish to opt for another thing. Nearly all the regions questioned the legality of his appointment into many committees he headed, but he was busy breeding a child with questionable paternity believing he would never die. The thought that no one was indispensable never occurred to him. He was hard-skinned with many charms for protection against harm.
At death, it was late for him to open a golden window of opportunity to prove that he had a mind of his own and capable of running his own show. He had a shattered dream. It would have been better without these risks than loosing at the end of his effort. He could not continue acting in the stage. The ghost of the man which was his stricken conscience behind him had proved him wrong.
Mr. President had been in silence and could not answer any question. His comment was only that he was still mourning a close friend, who could never be replaced; a son and true disciple who was a loyal to the end, who could truly understand him and how African politics are played. The plot to keep his head boy even when he had gone on reset had misfired. His killings brought many things to look and order. Some had opened their eyes wide to ask questions and no answer was forthcoming. The death in some quarters was considered a high-profiled murder.