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Chapter 14  (Page  173-185)  The Homestretch The summit reconvenes. The mood is expectant, yet jittery, hope and fear hang in the air in equal measure. Heads of state hope The Method Committee that had been formed the previous evening has done its work and found a method they will use to choose between Way Omega and Path Alpha. They fear their pick of committee leader might have killed this prospect even before it was born. President Bangoura, the chair of the committee, has surprisingly told the heads of state that he had not read and will never read the documents. There is a change in the sitting arrangement: Minister Zinto has moved to a place farther from the summit chair to create space for President Bangoura, the chair of The Method Committee. The other two remain at the places they had sat before. Among the observers at the back row are three new presences: Mr. Robert Manley, the chief of the local VOA bureau,  Fiona McKenzie and Mr. Nicolas Sentinel. Mr. Long...

Chapter 13 (Pg. 168-172) The Choice Matrix Dr. Afolabi visits Fiona Mckenzie. He follows the directions he had been given by her. He is warmly welcomed. It’s evening. A few minutes later, there’s a knock at the door. Nicolas Sentinel comes in. Dr. Afolabi and Mr. Nicolas Sentinel meet face to face for the first time. Dr. Afolabi has been looking forward to this great opportunity. He thanks Nick for having given him the tip of The Trick that enabled him manage to put Path Alpha on the summit’s agenda. Dr. Afolabi says that African Presidents condemn trouble makers but ironically some of them are trouble makers. If the heads of state would have had prior knowledge of The Trick, they would have plotted mischief against it. Nick reveals that his silent listener has told him that a method for choosing between Way Omega and Path Alpha had been found and that The Method Committee has named it The Choice Matrix. Dr. Afolabi has organized for observer status for Fiona McKenzie at the summit the...

Chapter 12 (Pg. 150-167) The Summit The national anthem for Gambia, our homeland strikes. The Gambian president stands up and marches to the speaker’s microphone and seated before him are 49 fellow heads of state. He digs out from a breast pocket a prepared speech. He then reads it. In his short speech he averse that the task of the summit is to adopt a common growth strategy for their people: Way Omega. Then he officially opens the meeting. H.E Miniko Menkiti, president of an important country is the chair after the Gambian president declined. Flanking the chair on his left and right are two other summiteers: Mr. Tiku Zinto on his right, a Minister of Development Planning in an Island country. Dr. Afolabi, here as an advisor is to help the summit along if asked to, is sitting on the chair’s left. The chair calls Mr. Tiku Zinto as the first speaker. He underscores the need for change and is in support of Way Omega. Dr. Afolabi is the next speaker. In his seven minutes, he makes two req...

Chapter 11 (Pg.141-149) Meeting the Guide Pastor Chiamaka goes through the Pinnacle Hotel’s security clearance formalities without difficulty and enters the dining room with ease. According to the program, heads of state should have had a small dinner at the Pinnacle Hotel the day before the real banquet on the last day of their summit. That small dinner at the Pinnacle Hotel was cancelled without explanation. So Chiamaka’s intended plan to meet his president and ask him about Way Omega failed. Chiamaka’s mobile phone rings, he picks it up. The caller on the other end is in jovial mood. It is the guide calling. The guide informs Pastor Chiamaka that he has scheduled a meeting that is soon to bring together Chiamaka and four other people alongside the guide. Pastor Chineke Chiamaka is invited to room 2059, central wing of The Seamount Hotel. This is the room where the guide is. Meanwhile, as Comrade Melusi is in bed, flat on his back, day dreaming about his late wife, Ziliza, he reaches...

 Chapter 10 The youth (Nick) phones her immediately after lunch, Fiona McKenzie goes to see Nicolas Sentinel in his office. She’s told to meet the silent listener. From the recordings on the silent listener, Nick says that there could be something fishy going on at the summit; a secret agenda by people whose identities are yet to be figured out beyond their names. There is a network of people whom he refers to as nodes. Four nodes (people) are not connected to each other. There are conversations over cell phones between a man and four others. While the other man knew names of the other four, he insisted they just call him guide, a fake name. it turns out the guide is a hub-node then those other nodes are the four men: Prof. Kimani, Comrade Melusi, PastorChiamaka and Engineer Tahir. The nodes are at The Seamount Hotel. Nick says he uses the Global Positioning System (GPS) as a way of determining location. The four nodes are not in communication with each other. All the four are comm...

Chapter 9 After graduating from Abdelaziz Academy in Tripoli, Libya, Engineer Seif Tahir had left Libya and gone to study weapons development at the University of Paris. Some skeptics scoffed at him. He returned from overseas (France) on the day the leader of Libya was celebrating his twentieth year in power. The leader’s opponents were not happy with these celebrations.  Engineer Tahir dismissed them as “crackpots left alone and ignored.” He believed the ruler had the right vision for Libya and so was the right person to rule it. He defended the ruler. Engineer Tahir joined the “Fist for Allah” after his return from the overseas. In a happy coincidence, the leader of Libya adored the “Fist of Allah.” He gave it all the money it asked for. Al-Qaeda struck on the American soil. The leader of Libya knew America would retaliate and not necessarily with bounds of reason. He scrambled for his bases to shield Libya from America’s revenge. He even dismantled the “Fist of Allah” itself. En...

Chapter 8 In a flashback, the chapter introduces a reckless driver. The reckless driver is Chineke Chiamaka. Most people hated him for this careless and reckless driving except for one person; his brother, Obinna, an evening student at the University of Lagos. Chineke Chiamaka adores Lagos. One evening after dropping off his younger brother Obinna, Chineke Chiamaka was to drive to his office at Earth Movers Limited. Unfortunately, by taking the route he chose, he drove into trouble: Holy Camp. Chiamaka drove against the flowing current of vehicles and rammed into a mean machine; a fire engine, massive and unstoppable. His Mercedes flew off the road and spun in the air several times before landing on the road again. He escaped without serious injuries. The fire engine was nowhere. Not a single motorist stopped to check on him. That was the norm in Nigeria. Motorists never stopped at an accident scene on Nigerian highways. Because of the many miracles he had witnessed, he turned to relig...

 Chapter 7 Before the summit begins, the host thinks he should break the ice by going from guest to guest to create rapport. He first goes to the president of Nigeria because of what was discovered later on as the poles of influence: pure power, technology, simple alliances with one or more of the other poles and sheer obstinacy. He shares light moments with the seventy- year-old, a full general but now retired. Pastor Chiamaka sits in a back row among the observers following the summit keenly and quietly. The host president then moves to the president of South Africa then to the president of Kenya for he knew the strategic importance of associating with these two countries after Nigeria. Prof. Kimani is in the hall watching the president of Kenya at the back of the hall. From here, he moves to greet the Zimbabwean president. In equal measure, Comrade Melusi, now scowling at the man from a seat in a back row, hates his president intensely. Later, guided by the pole of influence tha...

Chapter 6 It’s in Banjul, Gambia, the congregation venue for the summit. The summit kicks off. Being the first day of the summit, the most important event of the day is the official opening of the summit. Key participants are the 50 heads of state. Security at the venue is very tight. Comrade Ngobile Melusi waited in a line to be cleared, His turn finally comes. He is found with a needle, one of the many things disallowed into the hall. There is an argument between Comrade Melusi and the security officer but later on, he is cleared and allowed into the hall. In the meantime, in a flashback, more details about Comrade Ngobile Melusi are divulged. Comrade Melusi is having lunch with his visitor at Chaminuka restaurant in downtown, Harare. It’s about 1:30 PM; the restaurant is empty except for the two: Comrade Melusi and his visitor. The Zimbabweans did not eat in hotels anymore unless as now someone else was footing the bill. Their economy had crushed. Lunch was the visitor’s idea. There...

CHAPTER 5📚 Before Dr. Afolabi was invited to Banjul to serve as an advisor to summit of heads of state, he had previously been guest at the Foundation for Democratic Rule in Washington to give a key note address at the annual conference. Dr. Afolabi was married to Pamela from Boston, US. Dr. Afolabi’s invitation to Washington had given the couple a chance to visit Pamela’s father, a widower who lived in Boston. Dr. Afolabi fondly remembers Pamela’s dad through a watch that could help one check pressure, memory among other things. Dr. Afolabi while walking about Boston, he bought a razor at five dollars and twenty-three cents. Later, he rejoins his wife at her father’s home. Later, while in a flight out of Washington back to Nigeria, Dr. Afolabi meets Tad Longway. Mr. Longway is the Director of special projects at the Agency for Governance and Development in Africa (AGDA). The two exchange pleasantries and contacts. From their talk, Tad Longway had listened to Dr. Afolabi’s address and...

 CHAPTER 4📚 ++The Voice of America (VOA) Contract++  Fiona McKenzie gets into a taxi, leaves The Seamount Hotel and heads back to her office. She had indicated to her boss that she would be at the office in an hour’s time. It takes longer to get to the office because of the roadblocks that were basically everywhere. She is stopped at Arch Number 22. The police wanted a bribe from the taxi driver, an unemployed graduate. So she reaches her workplace/office late. McKenzie goes straight to see her boss who informs her that he is pulling her from her assignment at the summit at the Pinnacle Hotel. He explains himself. He seconds her to the VOA. She is now on a two-year loan from the Gambian News to the Voice of America with immediate effect. In retrospect, there was a time when US policy forbade the Voice of America to broadcast in America. The image was bad for VOA. It had to go. The more reason VOA was employing non-Americans. Mr. Robert Manley, chief of the bureau, met her at ...

Chapter 3📚 The chapter unfolds with a flashback into Prof. Kimani’s life. Prof. Kimani joined the University of Nairobi directly as a senior lecturer straight from the University of Oxford where he studied. A month after his arrival, Prof. Kimani launched a noisy debate in which he demanded that the University of Nairobi henceforth strive for being relevant to the society rather than simply focusing on delivering excellence in work, Six months later, his clarion call prevailed. The University’s official motto became “Relevance to the society.” After winning this first war, he wedged another one which was even noisier. He wanted the university to be an agent of change not a mere spectator of it. In the meantime, he married Asiya Omondi. He became a Professor and now felt complete. A global economic recession hit Africa. Jobs and incomes shrank. To get out of the crisis, Africa had to make changes and donors were the architects of these proposed changes. Donors demanded for change and A...

CHAPTER 2📚 ++At the Seamount Hotel++ A mobile phone rings at The Seamount Hotel – west wing and pastor Chineke Chiamaka answers it; it is 9:00 p.m. The caller wants to find out the progress. Pastor Chiamaka affirms that everything is fine. The caller inquires whether the briefcase is open and further asks what Pastor Chiamaka has seen in the briefcase. Pastor Chiamaka confirms that he sees a letter from Agency for Governance and Development in Africa (AGDA) and a copy of a document dubbed Way Omega. He also says he sees a copy of Path Alpha, the development strategy that AGDA believes is superior to Way Omega and that it hopes to slip in and replace path Alpha. Pastor Chiamaka also confirms to have seen leaflets, pamphlets and brochures from AGDA. He further confirms to have seen the mobile phone he is using. The caller/guide is still reluctant to give his real name. The caller is the only one to initiate the conversation between them. The guide tells the pastor that they are on the s...

Watch here👉https://youtu.be/EMBAvfKiY0w It is evening, four strangers check in at The Seamount hotel in Gambia’s capital” Banjul None of them knows the other three First to check in is Karanja Kimani, a professor in the Institute of Development at the University of Nairobi, Kenya. He’s assigned a room on the fourth floor, east wing. Ngobile Melusi, a comrade and a citizen of Zimbabwe is second to check in and is allocated a room on the fifth floor of the south wing. Third to clock in is Chineke Chiamaka, a pastor at the Church Inside Africa in Lagos, Nigeria. Chiamaka is booked on the sixth floor of the west wing. Last to report is another stranger,  his name is SeifTahir, an Engineer formerly employed by the Ministry of Defense in  Tripoli- Libya. He is assigned a room on the third-floor north wing. In less than an hour after the booking, all the four “strangers,” receive a call from the same caller who declines to divulge details about himself, He only identifies himself as...