THE LAST DAYS

Some where in the deserted roads of Lagos City a black luxurious Escalade SUV truck with no plate number stops behind a three story building just before an over head bridge. Four of the passengers came out of the vehicle with the driver still seated by the wheels. A small four propeller drone ascends into the air and flys fast towards the bridge. The drone pilot monitored the device on his hand with full attention as he navigated the drone around the surroundings.

"Anything yet" a voice asked.

"That's a negative Captian, but let me cover the East Wing, it is maked red on the map" the drone pilot replied.

The Captain also known as Captain Lambo folded his arms to rest on his bulky bulletproof vest in a relaxed posture compared to the others who were all agile looking with fingers on triggers waiting for the slightest reason to start shooting. He pulled opened a strap by the side of his vest and took out a baby finger size rolled up weed and a lighter. He lit the weed, took a deep slow drag and as he exhaled he went back memory lane before the present chaos started.

He used to be a school teacher at a secondary school. He taught Government and was fondly called Uncle Peace by his pupils. Teaching had become a popular readily available job for unemployed graduates as the Nigerian labour market was a complex puzzle on its own. Being a fan of government as a subject he was saddened to see at the early stage a catrostophy ahead when the politicians turned the national security and political arena of the country into a competition of the smartest criminals. An unpopular president had run the country into hyper inflation focusing only on maintaining power. The security situation in the northern part of the country, at first  got worse to the extent that military bases were easily overtaken by armed fighters who the government identified as organized bandit network. The labelling of these criminal elements as bandit and not terrorists had been a topic of debate between him and a lot of people.  He had always insisted that the government was playing politics as describing the killers as  bandits only restricted the measures and seriousness to be applied in curbing the problem. Bandits connotes robbers that can be handled by internal police force which States could easily handle within their jurisdictions but these killers were more than mere robbers, they had military training, military grade weapons, military style formations when attacking and they took over territories for themselves. They were simply organized territorial minded terrorists. Declaring them terrorists was now the big problem because it would give the international coalition UAATG(United armies against terror groups) a reason to overrule sovereign rights and conduct military exercises within Nigerian soil. The end of these terror groups would also end many financial incentives that comes with battling insecurity in a country enjoyed by the political class.

The president at a time was having difficulty with the top military brass especially the army. On his directive, many top generals were retired, worsening the already existing fracture in the army and presidency relationship. As the president tried to maintain an eagle eye on the opposition and a solid bid for a second term in office with a growing frequency in mutiny within the military formations, the suffering citizens became his unexpected bone in the throat. The modern social media world allowed for a massive exploit of free speech which created an unpleasant global image of his administration. While most part of the global community treated Nigeria and Nigerians as a nation of security concern, the international monetary fund (IMF) became it's closest friend with outrageous amount of loans borrowed to handle security and infrastructural development. All the monies borrowed became the genesis of the nations disintegration.

Alot of money was distributed within the politicians, the central bank issued out billions of printed naira notes, state governors held back monies from illegal exporting of natural minerals, selected military heads were given unmonited access to funds of security votes and all was disguised as borrowed loans. Alot of powerful politicians mainly in the north kept and armed criminal gangs for intimidation and control of their constituencies during election seasons but after securing their wins they relocated and base their stay in the country's capital Abuja where is also the nation's seat of power. The armed gangs over time stopped getting regular funding because of the absence of their masters and since they were armed and could not be touched by the already paid corrupt security operators, they started robbing their surroundings and overtime grew into powerful bandits controlling carved out territories mostly at the outskirts of major towns.

"We have movements, East Wing, 300 yards" the drone pilot announced drawing everybody's attention.

As Captain Lambo dragged in a deep one from the little blunt remaining the others came around to the bornet of the truck where the captain and the pilot were.

"Are they civilians or hostile" the captain asked.

"That I cannot tell, am counting four adult male, inside a building eating, if I go any closer, jossy baby would be exposed".

"Ah Fada Moses, abeg bring our jossy baby back o..we don't want any heart break" one of them joked". The others laughed but the drone pilot maintained a serious concentrating face on his monitor.

"Alright pull Jossy back, she is the only eyes in the sky we have" Captain Lambo ordered.

As the drone retreated from the building it captured three other men with AK 47s entering into the building.

"Ok show time boys, listen up, our aim is to pass through unnoticed so I want the elimination noiseless,you get me?..so Doc what do you have for us?" Captain  addressed them.