In the last one decade when he had planned to leave the office for a successor, he had publicly declared his interest for seeing Mr. Ribadau succeed him to humiliate  Mr. Zack. Now he had changed. He could change anytime and buy people over with the power of his word. But with the support , Mr. Ribadau had given him , it would be possible to believe that he had passed the stage of being shifted aside on a short debate.
The long debated matter kept all of them tired and worn out. No issue generated controversy over keeping Uka as the head of the electoral body and considering Mr. Ribadau as the president. He could over night be dismissed as the head of the electoral body. The young man was understanding politics in Africa. The fame in it. That was what people want in it. Some had not eaten reasonably since the morning of the other day. Some had not freshened up nor see their family.
Everyone was seeking for the best in the power sharing.  The party splinted into three-the against, the neutral and supporters. The argument that lasted was keeping Mr. Ribadau as the front-liner in the forthcoming election.
The long road to that hit the boulders at last. Uka emerged under the believe that he would improve with training and generous support while Mr. Ribadau loose the seat to Ben - the less expected.
There was sadness in display. He was a no person who spoke little and knew nothing, who always clam up when asked a simple question . He emerged from nowhere. Mr. President had plotted it finally. Ben had come from the region who had clung to power for long in the history of the country’s administration.
Mr. Ribadau got into sadness. All his game plans in the last fifteen years or more failed him. What was the meaning of it all? If he were a woman, he would have cried openly. Now he understood that Mr. President was not a man to be trusted. In fact he was saying in his heart that he was wicked. He would say it openly one day. He should hand over power first to them and then he would have the whole time to say his mind. He had made him kill a man, an honest man whom he could have been comfortable being his deputy, his friend, a very open minded man who worked for the good of all, who never thought bad of him for a single moment in his life and lowered his face. His hearts was burdened. He had seen blood, an innocent blood in his hand that moment, something he had not seen since it all began because of his ambition. He saw these wasted years and effort. He saw this hypocrisy, he saw this betrayal. Would Allah forgive him?
Allah. Forgive. Not possible.
He stood up and walked slowly out of the door to his car and left.
The thin god had been plotting it for long with this region without getting him involved. He could be bad in all honesty. He now came to reason and had some flashback the many times he had met him with Ben in his office and many times he answered his calls and discuss something in relation to succession.
It was bad.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
*
It should not be a surprise even from the grassroots Mr. President had picked Ben for the seat of the president. Mr. Zack was then right in his speech while he was alive that Mr. President could never be trusted in anything. If that could be his last confession after these it would make the gathering a memory to keep. No one expected Ben in the list of the would-have chosen. As for Mr. Ribadau, his stand and loyalty to the party earned him a force and effectively ruled him in as a possible candidate. Ben was a no person in politics until recently; when he was initiated into the fold. He had been a university researcher, with little earning and grant from international organizations, only that his father composed the independence anthem and his elder brother was a famous Ambassador and a retired soldier in the first and second Republic. His cousin was also remembered in the past administration as an economic attaché while still a postgraduate student in Paris. He was too young then to be remembered for what his father and brother had done according to the rumor carried around. He had long been axed in public that he was no longer relevant and his name drowned. Overnight, all of a sudden, he emerged at the political scene. Time shall only tell, but truly, he would soon be held hostage by the external force and competing forces that brought him into power.