GUN VIOLENCE IN AMERICA: FOR WHO THE BELL TOLLS NEXT.

Just five people shy of Sandy Hook elementary school mass shooting incident that claimed 26 lives, the Uvalde Texas Robb elementary school mass shooting at 21 victims, now ranks among the highest grossing gun carnage in America. It is sad that such frequent blood spilling has tragically become part of our culture as a society. May the souls of the killed now rest.

25th AMENDMENT: ITS NOW ALL CRICKET.

Madam Speaker Nancy Pelosi once questioned former President Donald John Trump's fitness to remain in office due to what she claimed was his declining mental capacity. Does anyone know what Madam Speaker presently thinks about the incontrovertible case which America is now saddled with? Just curious!

WHO WILL REBUILD UKRAINE?

The West should convert frozen Russian assets, both state's and oligarchs' owned, into a full seizure and set them aside for the future rebuilding of Ukraine. Like the Marshal Plan, call it the Putin Plan.

A HERO IS BORN.

I am staying put. I will not run away and abandon my people. The fight is here in Ukraine. What I need are weapons and ammunitions, not a ride out of town like former Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani - President Volodymyr Zelensky.

IT IS WHAT IT IS.

"There is too much hate in America because there is too much anger in America." - Trevor Noah.

WORD!

A life without challenges is not a life lived at all. A life lived is a life that has problems, confronts problems, solves problems and then learns from problems. - Tunde Fashola.

NOW, YOU KNOW.

When fishing for love, bait with your heart and not your brain, because you cannot rationalize love. - Mark Twain.

JUST THE FACT.

In our country, you can shoot and kill a nigger, but you better not hurt a gay person’s feelings - Dave Chappelle

DO YOU?.

“What you believe in can only be defined by what you’re willing to risk for it." - Stuart Scheller.

HEDGE YOUR CRISIS.

Never get in bed with a woman whose problems are worse than yours. - Chicago PD.

PROBLEM SOLVED.

'The best way to keep peace is to be ready to destroy evil. If you Pearl Harbor me, I Nagasaki you.' - Ted Nugent.

OUR SHARED HUMANITY.

Empathy is at the heart of who we are as human beings. - Cardinal Matthew Kukah.

WORDS ON MARBLE.

"Birth is agony. Life is hard. Death is cruel." - Japanese pithy.

REPENT OR PERISH - POPE.

Homosexuality is a sin. It is not ordained by God, therefore same sex marriage cannot be blessed by the church - Pope Francis.

CANCEL CULTURE IS CORROSIVE.


FOR SAKE OF COUNTRY.


MAGA LIVES ON: NO RETREAT, NO SURRENDER!

TWITTER IS BORING WITHOUT HIS TWEETS. #RestorePresidentTrump'sTwitterHandle.


WORD.

"If you cannot speak the truth when it matters, then nothing else you says matters.” - Tucker Carlson.

#MeToo MOVEMENT: A BAD NEWS GONE CRAZY.

"To all the women who testified, we may have different truth, but I have a great remorse for all of you. I have great remorse for all of the men and women going through this crisis right now in our country. You know, the movement started basically with me, and I think what happened, you know, I was the first example, and now there are thousands of men who are being accused and a regeneration of things that I think none of us understood. I’m not going to say these aren’t great people. I had wonderful times with these people. I’m just genuinely confused. Men are confused about this issue. We are going through this #MeToo movement crisis right now in this country." - Harvey Weinstein.


RON DELLUMS: UNAPOLOGETICALLY RADICAL.

"If it’s radical to oppose the insanity and cruelty of the Vietnam War, if it’s radical to oppose racism and sexism and all other forms of oppression, if it’s radical to want to alleviate poverty, hunger, disease, homelessness, and other forms of human misery, then I’m proud to be called a radical.” - Ron Vernie Dellums.


WHAT REALLY MATTERS IN LIFE - STEVE JOBS

“I reached the pinnacle of success in the business world. In others’ eyes, my life is an epitome of success. However, aside from work, I have little joy. Non-stop pursuing of wealth will only turn a person into a twisted being, just like me. God gave us the senses to let us feel the love in everyone’s heart, not the illusions brought about by wealth. Memories precipitated by love is the only true riches which will follow you, accompany you, giving you strength and light to go on. The most expensive bed in the world is the sick bed. You can employ someone to drive the car for you, make money for you but you cannot have someone to bear sickness for you. Material things lost can be found. But there is one thing that can never be found when it is lost – Life. Treasure Love for your family, love for your spouse, love for your friends. Treat yourself well. Cherish others.” - SJ

EVIL CANNOT BE TRULY DESTROYED.

"The threat of evil is ever present. We can contain it as long as we stay vigilant, but it can never truly be destroyed. - Lorraine Warren (Annabelle, the movie)


ONLY THE POOR WISH THEY HAD STUFF?

“I’m not that interested in material things. As long as I find a good bed that I can sleep in, that’s enough.” - Nicolas Berggruem, the homeless billionaire.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

"OBJ - the king who danced naked"

This well articulated commentary by Simon Kolawole is hereby completely and totally adopted by Ebekuo for republication in our web portal http://www.icheoku.com/ . All copyrights deference is hereby extended to the writer and is being re-published here merely to increase its viewership on the world wide web and not by any means being appropriated as ours. The only addition I would have proffered is in the title of the article which should have more appositely read "OBJ - the king who danced naked". Please enjoy Kolawole's riveting insight on the Otta monster which he had titled "My Heart Bleeds for Obasanjo by Simon Kolawole" you may also send additional rejoinders directly to Kolawole's email at simonkolawole@thisdayonline.com,

"Some things happen to some people in life and you just tell yourself: this is God at work; this cannot be the making of a human being. That is the view I have always held about Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, former president. Everything in life looked pre-arranged for him. Minus the small matter of having grown up in poverty, Obasanjo has always had the best things of life signed, sealed and delivered to his laps on a platter of gold.When he became president in 1999, I had cause to reflect over the life of the retired general. The instruments of surrender of the Biafran Republic were symbolically handed over to him in 1970 when the civil war had been won and lost. It all looked as if it was Obasanjo that won the war on behalf of Nigeria, whereas other generals had toiled and toiled to make victory certain. Obasanjo reaped where he did not sow. Lucky fellow.In 1976, when General Murtala Muhammed was killed in an abortive coup, the mantle fell on Obasanjo, as the second-in-command, to succeed Murtala as the military head of state. And although Murtala had transition to civil rule as a priority on his agenda, it was Obasanjo who actually handed over power to civilians in 1979 a feat that became his selling point as the first African leader to voluntarily cede power to a democratically elected government an accolade that actually belongs to a Ghanaian general.In 1995, Gen. Sani Abacha dragged Obasanjo and his former second-in-command, Maj. Gen. Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, to jail over a phantom coup. Chief MKO Abiola, acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993, election had been clamped in jail in 1994. By the time Abacha died in 1998, Yar’Adua and Abiola had been killed, or had died, whatever, in prison. Only Obasanjo came out alive. And while we had been campaigning that Obasanjo should simply be released from prison, he in fact came out of the prison to become president. This was incredible. Always reaping where he did not sow!I recall that when Obasanjo was campaigning for presidency in 1999, I was captivated by his credentials. I composed something like a poem in my head for him. I was reciting it at the slightest provocation. It went like this: A civilian acceptable to the military, a Christian acceptable to Muslims, a Southerner acceptable to Northerners. For me, it was almost impossible to get any Nigerian who could boast of these qualifications all at once. It all looked like Obasanjo had been specially favoured and anointed.I recollect also that as soon as Obasanjo was elected president in March 1999, the price of crude oil, which had fallen below the $10 mark between 1997 and 1998, began to pick up dramatically. From $12 in March when he was elected, it had risen to $15 in May when he was sworn in. It never fell below that price again. By December 1999, it was $23. And by the time he left office in 2007, crude oil price was dancing between $80 and $90.I thought having gone to prison and come out alive, Obasanjo was going to rule Nigeria with a heart of gratitude. I expected him to be sober and humble in presiding over the affairs of this country. But what did we see? A man who ruled us with contempt and conceit. A man who took us for granted. A man who became an expert at manipulating and misusing state agencies to perpetrate selfish and narrow ambition. A man who wasted billions of naira to organise a political reforms conference designed to legitimise his inordinate third term ambition.You always knew Obasanjo was headed for self-destruction when he began to insult anyone who disagreed with him. For him, nothing was sacred and no one deserved respect, apart from himself. He ditched the people that helped him to power and walked on the heads of those who those tried to call him to order. He used and dumped people at will. So devoid of grace is Obasanjo that he insulted Chief Bola Ige whom he had used to divide Yorubaland even in death, describing Ige as someone who did not know his left from his right while he was Minister of Power and Steel.Obasanjo was the Master of Manipulations. He destroyed the credibility of state institutions like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) just to get even with his opponents or fulfil his selfish heart desires. He manipulated and manipulated anything that could be manipulated. Right before our eyes, Obasanjo metamorphosed from a potential great leader to the ultimate poster-boy of anarchy in our land.After presiding over a party where treachery was systematically entrenched, he fished out Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and made him his successor. I am very pleased whenever Yar’Adua reverses Obasanjo’s policies and rubs in the due process mantra very smoothly. Yeah, that is what Obasanjo deserves for his manipulative streak. When Yar’Adua recently described Obasanjo’s $10 billion expenditure on the power sector as not yielding any result (a euphemism for waste, that is), I was very happy. That is what Obasanjo deserves from his handpicked successor. That is what happens to people who think they can manipulate history and get away with it.But my heart bleeds for Obasanjo. If his enemies were just Atiku Abubakar and Solomon Lar, it would be understandable. You could attribute everything to politics. But when his own son decides to strip him naked in the market place, Oh God, what a shame. Obasanjo should have ordinarily gone into his grave as an accomplished man and a great leader of men. But what he has perpetrated and perpetuated in Nigeria in the last eight to nine years will forever cast a shadow on his life and times to say nothing of his own son rising up against him. What a pity. What a shame"!

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