This is a difficult one. In researching for this article, I tried to talk to some of the closest people who knew the late Air Marshall Alex Badeh, former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS). I was greeted with a wall of fear. I tried to raise the topic with his former colleagues in the military; I was again greeted with stonewalling and furtive glances. I broached the subject discretely with some of his old schoolmates from Villanova Secondary School, Numan. Again, silence. It suddenly dawned on me that our country is gradually being overtaken by an atmosphere of fear, and, with it, an ominous culture of silence. In late afternoon of Tuesday 18 December, former Air Force Chief and immediate past Chief of Defence Staff, Alexander Sabundu Badeh, was gunned down near his farm in Gitata, a settlement about 20 km on the Keffi-Bade road. He was age 61. His driver, who was also shot, is in the emergency ward of a Nigeria Air Force (NAF) military hospital. His farm manager was kidnapped,