Nine

You could feel the tension as the government officials were about to leave. His speech was full of adlib. Despite that everyone had it all the way in tears; the audience broke into rapturous applause for his oratory skill. Despite the loss and pains, an astonish crowd of several thousand turned out to hear him. Many who waited were bewildered and dazed with fear. The move and talk was widely seen as an attempt to appease critics of his regime. War was looming. Eyes were red from tears. Mothers, holding their children, openly wept. One man ran up to an official and begged that he arrange for his children to be moved away. When no assurances came, he fell to the floor and cried hysterically.

The talk over, he went straight back to his car, made the rear window of his glass to come down and drove off. General Sango would have best served in a democratic nation, because of his high dosage of exposure. He spoke like a trained orator and was naturally a silent soul. Such demeanor he head earned him the lens of the military in his serving days when he could be relied on for any step to take. He never harangued his men in an oratorical way or joked with them like others. He was always serious, very precise and practical. He had been regarded as the best man who in power paid regularly to his officials, encouraged trade, kept power in the street and bulb lightening, repaired the roads, built universities, created more states, limited public and private extravagance in a variety of ways, cut taxes, stabilized food prizes, amended foreign alliance and built up considerable reserve of public money in case of national emergencies.  Everything about him was well arranged; from his speech, to his outfit, then his grooming. He was a perfect match to everything decent. Though he had these good qualities, but he was not the kind of mortal that could be initiated into the belief of adopting negotiation as the new game. He was a man of principle and chivalry who could not be bought nor sold, who do not fail to call sin by its name and stood by truth. He had courted many enemies, generals and high-ranking armies to maintain the status of modern military system. As a result, they were divided along diverse lines, when he could not compromise. He had severally shown off and displayed all level of transparency and civility, making his contemporaries in the military to be fearful and careful of execution in any attempt to overthrow him.

Moments later, a broadcast from a private radio house was on air. The radio house as rumored had not been licensed and was operating underground for a long time, pushing and announcing the ambition of General Kofi with full force. The broadcast reads thus;

         'Our interest is to promote good governance in our young republic and nothing else. Therefore, while we are sorry for the loss and many pains we cause to many families, we promise to take it up from here, to defend our integrity and one and all understand that we occupy a place in the comity of nations and Africa at large. Therefore, we say henceforth that the constitution is suspended and all elected government from all regions is suspended. We want to state clearly that we are dissolving all political, trade and cultural unions until we put things right. We are sorry to let you know that our method of achieving this is strictly military. We only need your understanding and support. We are seeking for a change and nothing more. I have no more words to say'

         General Sango had been taken unaware .The coup caught many of the army's high command by surprise as many of them were away from their posts.   At first, they took upper hand, subduing and maintaining absolute peace in more troublesome areas.  The second infantry Division decided to give the rebels time to give up secession not knowing that the fire of rebellion was still burning high in the hearts of most easterners.  Reports about the plotters could not easily be found, but they were ravaging many territories with news that the worse unexpected would follow. Reports found were baseless and could not perfectly be verified. The many lapses now were too visible to be hidden. His armies were ready but defenseless. They had not been trained for that moment and for any moment. Some were still mourning their many faithful friends and comrades and so the zeal to give whole-souled service in this time was not easily forthcoming. They lacked the skills, the mandate, and the zeal to pursue the insurgent. To prove their professional calls, they fought with extraordinary courage, flexibility and determination, but loosing at every step and determination. Truly they were taken unaware.