Several simultaneous plots were going on in Abuja, capital of the giant African country, Silliland. Here politics is not politics as it would be recognised elsewhere. It is truly peculiar, with what the natives term "the Silliland factor" - the military might take over power at any time, democratic elections are really always selections, and the constitution is cruelly malleable, interpreted to suit each situation and the wishes of powerful interests. Now the president of Silliland has disappeared, incommunicado to the two hundred million citizens of the country, power holders as well as the people in the street. Where is the president, shall we ask the wife? Who is in charge? What does the constitution say? The political battle about what to do is a free-for-all mud-fight. It is time for Realpolitik. The stakes are immeasurably high: power and control over people, and all the country's oil dollars. More than ever before, irrespective of what the constitution stipulates, the doctrine of necessity will be determinant.