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.
#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.
Icheoku commends the chairman of the Nigeria Federal Government's Vision 2020 Sub-Committee on the Niger Delta, Prince Tonye TJT Princewill for resigning his office, in protest, over the massacre of his people of the South-South Niger Delta by the Nigerian government! What a selfless patriot and a real leader this prince is, who will not stand and watch the government which he is a member of, wantonly massacring his people! Well done, Tonye! 
Based on this courageous display of qualitative leadership by Prince Tonye TJT Princewill, Icheoku hereby call on the Vice President of Nigeria Jonathan Goodluck and all remaining members of President Umaru Yar'Adua's administration from the Niger Delta and the entire South-South, to resign immediately in tow, in solidarity, and to protest the ongoing 'genocide of oil' in their homeland. Duty calls and Vice President Jonathan Goodluck must so answer by resigning now! No amount of gold in Aso-Rock is worth selling-out your people by abandoning them in this their time of dire need! If your power cannot be used to the benefit of your people, then why seek and hold it? Ken Saro Wiwa was killed for oil and now what is left of the people of the Niger Delta are being killed-off, while Vice president Jonathan Goodluck is cozying up to the feudalistic mallams from the Sahara desert, in the name of being a loyal vice president? What manner of a man will be having a party while his house is ablaze but Jonathan Goodluck? Power is ephemeral and with what face will he return home to the Niger Delta area someday to explain why he stood akimbo while watching the northerners massacre his people? When has anybody killed off the Fulanis because they will not part with their cattle for a mere pittance? So why must it be the people of the Niger Delta South-South that must be forced to give up their oil because the oligarchs said so? Jonathan, your people are being annihilated, don't you get it? 
Icheoku says, this ongoing carnage on "disposable" Nigerians must stop forthwith; otherwise let Nigerians review their continued existence as an entity? Enough of this bullshit from the north and by the north against a helpless peoples of the Niger Delta; whose only sin is that they are asking for a reasonable fair share of their own nature-endowed resources! This is the time for all men in the Niger Delta to stand up and be counted as the northerners do not have any extra ball to be lording it over Nigeria, unchallenged? The Niger Delta/South-South governors should immediately protest the ongoing carnage in Abuja and threaten non-cooperation, if it does not cease immediately. Where are your souls Nigerians, that you should remain silent while fellow Nigerians are once again, being slaughtered or is Odi and Zaki-Ibiam not enough blood-shed already? The man died in him who keeps silent in the face of tyranny; are the men in Nigerians, all dead? Speak up, Icheoku commands you and end the onslaught in the Niger Delta now! Give to Niger Delta what is theirs and let them pay taxes on it to the federal government! It is the right thing to do! It is equitable! It is the practice all over the rational world and it is also commonsensical!
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Christy 'Apena' Essien-Igbokwe , the wife of Jegede Shokoya of the New Masquerade and Nigeria's lady of songs is dead; she was 51years old. Although her family claimed that "brief Illness" killed her like so many Nigerians; Icheoku retorts that it was most likely AKwa Ibom voodoo and remote control that was used to arrest her. It is on record that she had fallen out with the governor of her native Akwa Ibiom State and have been having a relentless war for political turf with the governor? So who knows whether she was sacrificed to Ekpe cult or even Alusi-Okija as an offal; afterall African science is still very much alive and portent. May her soul rest in peace.
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N/Delta: This is genocide –Clark
ReplyDeleteEZRA IJIOMA
Ijaw leader and one-time Federal Commissioner for Information, Chief Edwin Clark, has accused the Nigerian army of carrying out genocide in the Niger Delta.
Addressing a World Press conference yesterday in Lagos, Chief Clark said: "Yes, I call it genocide when you kill innocent citizens from the top. As one legislator rightly mentioned recently during a debate in the House of Representatives. He said: ‘Mr. Speaker, if there are some militants in this very assembly and a bomb is dropped from the top, will it kill only the militants or everybody?’ So this indiscriminate bombing of the area of innocent citizens is what we are against."
He further accused the Joint Task Force in the region of refusing voluntary agencies like the Red Cross from offering relief materials to the people. In his words: "The army has declared war on the Niger Delta people and have scattered everybody. Even Red Cross people went there to offer relief material to the people but were not allowed by the soldiers."
On Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan’s position on this latest violent crisis, Chief Clark asked: "If you were the Vice-President, what would you do? What would be your reaction? VP is an individual and you have agreed that he is a part of the present administration. In any organized society, you don’t expect Mr. President to make one statement and the Vice-President another one. But it pained and he has to appeal to his own people: ‘Please take it easy. Let there be peace in the area.’ And at the same time appealing to Mr. President: ‘Enough is enough. Do not carry on with this genocide.’"
He rejected calls that the Vice-President should resign from the government. "Resign for who?", he queried. "Who owns this country? Who will he resign for? Actually, he is feeling the heat but as part of the government he can only appeal to his people and to Mr. President."
Chief Clark bemoaned the virtual absence of development in the Niger Delta which he said is stocking the violent conflicts in the region. "The people of Niger Delta are a neglected people as successive governments have not done anything for them including Yar’Adua’s government. We are talking about a neglect of 50 years.
"How would you feel if in your village, your village and your people have no electricity, no water to drink and no schools to attend?"
Chief Clark said government should reopen political dialogue with the people of Niger Delta and still keep the amnesty arrangement for militants who lay down their arms. To the militants he appealed: "You can’t fight your government. You’ve drawn the attention of the whole world and Nigerians to your sufferings, to your neglect, to everything that has been happening to you for the past 50 years."
He warned politicians to desist from arming the militants for selfish political reasons. I am also appealing to politicians who are contributing to this crisis to desist from arming these boys and government should investigate and punish those who are doing this."
Crisis May Cause Military Intervention -Ijaw Elder
ReplyDeleteBy Emma Gbemudu, Snr Correspondent, Yenagoa
Erstwhile National Vice Chairman, South South, of the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP), Douye Douglas-Naingba, has warned that the unending bloody war between the militants and Federal troops in some Ijaw communities in Delta State, could result into another military incursion that would truncate the nation's democracy.
He argued that government is still creating situations of military interventions, which should be guarded against.
Naingba, a member of the Bayelsa Elders Forum, is therefore calling for a truce among the militant groups, operatives of the Joint Military Task Force (JTF) and the Federal Government to enable peace return to the destroyed and deserted Ijaw communities in Delta State.
He was reacting on the destruction of lives in Ijaw communities by soldiers, who are still searching for their missing 11 colleagues, allegedly killed by the militants.
Operatives of the JTF had vowed that the militants would not rest until the soldiers are found.
The ANPP chieftain in an interview with Daily Independent on Sunday in Yenagoa, appealed to the militants and Federal troops to shield their swords and return to the roundtable for dialogue for peace and development thrive in the coastal region.
According to him, the military suppression in the region would not address the crises saddled with the area, adding that "if you look at the Major Isaac Boro and Ken Saro Wiwa's struggles to this point, the military is yet to address the injustice meted out to the Niger Delta.
"When the hostilities continue, it can truncate the present democracy that we are nurturing. If we don't resolve the issues that are involved, definitely, if you suppress it, it will not end."
Princewill: Courageous Step Of A Democrat
ReplyDeleteBy Emeka Umejei Reporter, Lagos
In Nigeria, it is generally accepted as a norm that political office holders do not resign their office in protest of perceived injustice or an indictment. This trend has become fashionable due to what many describe as the politics of the 'stomach' which, as it were, has become a major character of political office holders in the country.
But Tonye Princewill, the Action Congress (AC) governorship candidate of Rivers State at the April 2007 elections, has joined the very few in our history that have demystified this trend. He went against the norm when he resigned his position as Chairman of the Sub Committee on Niger Delta, of the Federal Government's Vision 2020 Committee, and by that singular show of character, has helped in setting a new standard in the annals of Nigerian politics.
His resignation letter reads in part: "After reading and monitoring the ongoing carnage perpetrated by the military of the Federal Government and with the obvious connivance of the Presidency against my people in the Niger Delta region, and with pronounced lack of interest and commitment towards addressing the Niger Delta issue, I, Prince Tonye TJT Princewill, after due consultation with my family and political associates, consider it wise to hereby tender my resignation letter as the Chairman of the Sub Committee on Niger Delta of FG Vision 2020."
Princewill, dubbed the prince of Niger Delta politics by his supporters, is not new to making sacrifices for the betterment of his people. He shocked cynics when, against personal gain, he decided not to challenge Governor Rotimi Amaechi at the courts, prefering to join hands with the governor for the betterment of his people. Since taking that decision, those who know him intimately insist that he has remained focused and constructive in criticizing the state government, rather than rabble rousing.
Many Nigerians have continued to applaud Princewill for showing commitment to qualitative leadership by putting the people first, rather than self. They claim that people like Princewill should be given a chance in the political firmament of Nigeria to champion the evolution of true leadership.
Festus Keyamo, Lawyer-activist agrees that the step taken by Princewill is the best thing any well-meaning son of the Niger Delta should do.
"You cannot blame him; it is an action that all well-meaning Niger Deltans should take. Niger Delta people should stop participating in any committee of the Federal Government over the Niger Delta, until they stop killing innocent lives," Keyamo stated.
Princewill was born on January 4,1969 and began his early academic pursuit at Hillcrest High School, Jos in 1976 before moving on to Federal Government College, Port Harcourt for his secondary education . He later attended the University of Port Harcourt, where he bagged a Bachelor's degree in Petroleum Engineering in 1990. He later went on to the Imperial College, London and obtained an M.SC. in Mineral Resources Engineering and a Diploma of Imperial College (DIC). He contested the 2007 governorship election in River state on the Platform of AC, but lost to the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party
N’Delta Crisis: Dokubo Wants Jonathan, Ijaw Ministers to Resign
ReplyDeleteFrom Chuks Okocha in Abuja, 06.03.2009
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Leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, Asari Dokubo, has called on Vice President Goodluck Jonathan and all ministers of Ijaw extraction to resign from office as a sign of protest against what he described as “genocide against Ijaw People.”
Also yesterday, a pro-human right group called on the United Nations to initiate a full scale probe of the military action by the Joint Task Force (JTF).
Speaking in an interview with THISDAY, Dokubo who lamented the crisis in the Niger Delta said, “Vice President Goodluck Jonathan should resign along with the Ministers from Ijaw nation, because the Vice President is like a prisoner in Abuja. He does not even know when a decision to launch military attack in the Niger Delta was taken. On the plight of our people, he should resign, because he is already trapped.”
Reacting to the news report where he was quoted as saying that Jonathan is a traitor, Dokubo said, “ I dont think that the Vice President should be in this government. I will not call or say that the Vice President is a traitor. I was one of the people that drummed up support for him, but he is not aware of the decision taken to commit this genocide against the people of the Niger Delta.”
The leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force also called on ministers and members of the National Assembly that are of Ijaw origin to quit their offices, as a protest against the military action in the region.
“My appeal is that they should resign, our people are watching and questions would be asked on what they did when the Ijaw people are facing genocidal action from the armed forces,” he said.
They should resign because what is happening is genocide, there is no need being part of government that kills your people, ” he said.A statement by the Human Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) and signed by its Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, called on the United Nations and independent civil society groups to commence investigation of the military action by the JTF at the creeks of the Niger Delta, explaining that it is imperative that an impartial body like the UN be allowed to investigate the allegations of human right abuse and edxtra judicial killings in the zone in view of constant military bombardment by the Nigerian Army- led JTF.Also the group called for the suspension of the Bayelsa State Commissioner of Police over allegation of extra judicial killing and murder of an alleged militant, Ken Nweahia , who was recently killed in questionable circumstances by the Police after his arrest."Extra legal killing by law enforcement agents must stop and offenders should be sanctioned because to sweep allegation of extra legal execution under the carpet is unconstitutional and undemocratic," the group said.HURIWA stated that it is constitutionally obligatory for the Nigeria military engaged in internal operations to open up their zone of combat for human rights audit to ensure compliance with the rules of engagement and international best practice.