Ifereich grieves for President Kayode
MITTWOCH, 26. APRIL 2017 - VON FRIDA OMOLARA
IFE - The funeral ceremony began at sunrise. With all motor traffic in the city shut down, neon signs and lighting turned off, and black banners hanging from the windows and the balconies above, an army of mourners, ten thousand strong, slowly processed down the wide, empty avenues in silence. Loudspeakers on every corner broadcast the Schlagzeuger's call: a rhythmic drumming calling all to order, then the sorrowful cry in traditional Yoruba- "Kayode is dead!"
The hearse led the main procession's feet and tears down Independence Avenue. Flanked by a company of the 3rd Guard Regiment of the Republiksarmee, it pulled off the avenue and onto the open and empty Revolution Square, today less of an inspiring monument and more of a mourning one. Behind the rope fencing, the crowds quickly packed the square to its absolute maximum, each pair of eyes looking for one last time on their most beloved leader.
Kayode's wife Gertrud stepped out from a black limousine trailing the hearse, a veil holding back her grief. She looked stoically on to the Hall of Heroes, where its around-the-clock garrison had waited for the funeral's arrival. The captain of the guard came down the steps, medals and epaulets bouncing on his chest, and marched towards her. Passing the company of funeral guards, he quickly saluted them, then produced a bronze key from his jacket. He stopped when he reached Gertrud and, after pausing for a few brief words of consolation, passed the key to her. She accepted it graciously, and they both walked back towards the Hall of Heroes, the hearse and guards following them.
Beneath the Hall, at the side of the massive marble steps, stood the impregnable steel door to the tomb. Gertrud placed the key into the keyhole at the center and unlocked it. The guards marched over, each placing their hands against one side of the circular monolith, and pushed with all their might to roll it out from the entrance and open the tomb. The dust had piled high in 38 years. Next they formed two columns flanking the entrance while the hearse began unloading its hallowed cargo. Kayode's closest friends, representatives of the Assembly and childhood friends alike, shouldered his mahogany coffin and carried it towards the tomb. The guards turned about, facing outward from the entrance, and their commander barked orders to make ready. As the coffin passed them, they began firing the 21-gun salute, three times in all. As the smoke cleared, the pallbearers had clambered into the tomb, and President Hans Thomas Kayode passed from life into history.
The tomb was sealed, just as it was opened, and Gertrud helped to tearfully lock it again before surrendering the key back to the captain of the guard. As the hearse and car and military men left the square, the crowd finally broke its silence with tears and painful cries and horrid wailing. Their emotions out-poured, they solemnly filed out of the square, and by 8 AM, the ceremonies were over.
In an emergency meeting of the Citizen Assembly, many members exhorted their most sincere condolences, but recognized the pressing need for a replacement. By a near-unanimous vote, 92 to 8, the Assembly voted for a snap popular election for the President. The election has been scheduled for the 26th of May. While no politicians have announced their candidacy, it can be expected that the current leaders of each party in the Assembly- Georg Eniola of the Nationalfreiheitpartei (NFP) and Alfred Augustin Babatunde of the Einigkeitspartei (EKP)- will announce their candidacy in the coming days.
Eniola, if he does decide to run, is considered almost unanimously by pundits to be the favorite to win. In particular, Babatunde's EKP has been criticized for its radical policy platform, which includes higher taxes on the rich and corporations, an exponential growth in the size of the government, and most inflammatory, the nationalization of many private industries, including the largest sector of the economy, mining. Eniola, in contrast, would promise a continuation of Kayode's policies and the safety and stability he gave our nation for well over a quarter-century.
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