BABANGIDA SEEKS TO OUTFLANK JONATHAN THROUGH THE SOUTH-EAST?

With a promise of an Igbo South East presidency in 2015, the devil incarnate Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida is testing the waters of the South East to see if it is conducive for him to launch his moribund boat and set sail for the Nigerian presidency in 2011? Icheoku asks but can anybody give to another what he does not have or possess? Except such a promisor is living in the la-la land of make-believe and wishful-thinking like Ibrahim Babangida, the answer is an emphatic resounding 'NO'; and Icheoku wonders the worth of such a boastful and empty promise to the Igbo nation of South East Nigeria.

Once again, the fabled Igbo peoples' lack of political adroitness and/or cohesion when it comes to taking a firm position on matters affecting them and protective of their collective interest in Nigeria and elsewhere in the Diaspora, is being tested by a motley of presidents wanna-bes including the infamous murderer Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida. They have queued up, severally courting the Igbo nation with different heavily promises, both realistic and unrealistic ones as they scheme their evil way to the presidency of Nigeria in 2011. Left in the lurch is an Igbo nation which like a deer caught up in the headlights is still bamboozled, as they debate and rigmarole over which side of the divide to pitch their tent of support. First they agreed to support Jonathan, then recanted themselves and seem now to be undecided; and you ask yourself, has Babangida also bribed them as he did with Nigerian journalists that any of them is even considering his candidacy? Icheoku decries this indecisive seating on the fence by the Igbos as an unhealthy non-beneficial political puerilism which serves them no good; and hereby call on them to forthwith and without further ado, cast their lot with one of the presidential camps before they become irrelevant in their permutations. The Igbo nation should not wait to be courted by any of the grooms this time; they should force themselves on one of them; and by forcing the issue, tell the groom what it is that they want and that attracted them to him in the first place.

Icheoku wants the Igbo nation to know that the ability to make up one's mind and take a decision when it matters most marks out a real man from the wussies of this world. Further borrowing a leaf from the evil-one Babangida, history will always forgive a bad decision than no decision at all; so let the Igbos decide today whose presidential interest they will serve and pitch their tent accordingly and stop waiting for all the heavy lifting to be completed by others before playing a second fiddle for whoever secures the trophy. Notable presidential candidates are again at the usual 'on and off' romance with the Igbo nation, using them as a pawn in their yo-yo political game of trying to outwit one another other. The fabled late Zik of Africa and Owelle of Onitsha, Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe once described this peculiar Igbo position as their being the usual beautiful bride who every political suitor in Nigeria woos, courts and dumps as soon as she looses her virginity and delivers the child of destiny - the presidency. In 2010 prelude to 2011 presidential election, it is again same old same old; of using a people whose inability to really and properly articulate what it is they want out of Nigeria's unholy wedlock has bedeviled their gaining their rightful position within the Nigerian polity.

Today this wish-washy Igbo nation's inability to take a firm position and stand by it has reduced the once very proud and respected Igbo stork to the lowest and most derided newest minority group of and in Nigeria. Is Icheoku pissed off at what has become the fate of the Igboman in Nigeria, you bet. Is Icheoku mad at those inept Igbo leadership that had supervised this decay, yes and rightfully so; for it is beyond pale the degradation to which the Igbo race has been reduced to in today's Nigeria. The once proud owners and occupiers of the table of power in Nigeria are the new beggarly prostitutes of today, genuflecting and cowering for whatever crumbles that might fall from their new masters Hausa/Fulani, Yoruba and now even the South-South's table. Who is to blame for this descent into near political irrelevance and obscurity but the Igbos themselves, whose crass infighting amongst themselves and their fabled crab-mentality have conspired to deny them their rightful place in Nigeria. The Igbos are supposedly educated but yet not learned or well informed; the Igbos are wise yet foolish; the Igbos are clever yet dumb; the Igbos are smart yet inarticulate; and above all they are grossly disunited and possessed of an unruly mob mentality which makes it utterly difficult for any one of them to emerge as their guiding light to chaperon their destiny. The result, the aground to which their ship of nationhood have ran in today's Nigeria; and whenever it resumes sail, is most likely to be marooned again in a island of nowhere since a vessel without a designated captain lacks any meaningful voyage direction or destination. Is this the fate of the Igbo man in Nigeria or the best they could wish or aspire for themselves within the polity or can they do better?

The evil-one and self-confessed evil genius of Nigeria, a double badness, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida having failed to jump-start his dead on arrival presidential campaign from the Yoruba South-West have now turned South East as a plan B - to use the Igbos of the South East as a life-saver to his comatose and imbecilic presidential ambition. His bait of choice, the dangling of Nigeria's presidency in 2015 before the Igbos as theirs for the asking, conditioned on their playing alongside his team from hell to realize his own presidential ambition? Icheoku is convinced that Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida honestly believes and hopes that the Igbos will bite his poison bait and follow him to commit a mass political suicide in Nigeria, the Reverend Jim Jones Guyana example? Icheoku asks, when did this mad man of Minna, in his delusional state, think up the possibility that 2015 will again present another situation for the accommodation of another Ernest Shonekan from the South East, who he can again install as the interim head of government of Nigeria? Failing which, Icheoku condemns this petulant display of crass arrogance by Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida as self aggrandizing thinking that he alone can make the Igbo man president of Nigeria. What an idiotic statement of high fallacy and falsehood, coming from the very windpipe of the Nigerian Maradona, a man to who evil means good such that he prides himself as the evil genius of Nigeria.

Babangida's latest gambit of love for the Igbo man and professed scheming for an Igbo presidency in 2015 flies in the face of known evidence of his penchant anti-party to the Igbos and his constant sabotage of everything Igbo; despite eloping during the war with one of Igbo's most beautiful lady, the late Maryam. First Babangida and his fellow bloody mallams from the north and few disgruntled Yorubas led by Obasanjo, Akrinade and Adekunle conspired to scuttle Igbos march towards self determination during Biafra; when they marched mercilessly through then Biafran land of Asaba executing the massacre of every young and able Asaba man in 1970 under the supervision of the satanic worshipper, the late Muritala Mohammed. Till date no one ever in authority in Nigeria has deemed it fit to raise the issue of compensation for this wanton and unnecessary destruction of lives of Igbo men of Asaba stork and Babangida had eight years as a power hijacking despot of Nigeria between 1985 to 1993 to do so if only he wanted, but refused to do so or even tender an apology in that respect. The same Babangida it was with Gowon and co, who decided to checkmate a surrendered Biafra into a landlocked territory by depriving them access to the sea with a lopsided states creation which succeeded in cutting the core Igbo nation off from the Atlantic Ocean; yet he is professing his love for the Igbo man and expressing a desire to "install" an Igbo man president in 2015? Babangida it was who created states in Nigeria and not only refused to equalize the number of states in the present South East to be at par with the rest of other zones; but also failed to give the Igbo people on the west of River Niger a full fledged state they can proudly call their own. Instead, he decided to force-lump them into a permanent minority status in Delta State with the majority Urhobo and Itshekiris, leading to the Delta State Igbos not being able to produce a governor of their state' governor ever since; yet Babangida professes his undying love for the Igbo man. It was Babangida with Buhari and Abacha who planned and thwarted the prospective emergence of Alex Ekwueme as president of Nigeria in 1987 when they forcibly overthrew the government of President Shehu Shagari to subvert Ekwueme's prospective presidency in 1987 under the guise of stemming the economic dysentery and diarrhea afflicting Nigeria in 1983.

Icheoku says and warns every Igbo man and woman entertaining the proposition of the evil one concerning Igbo presidency in 2015 to please revisit the archives of history and ask him/herself whether he is really buying this white elephant kite being flown by Babangida and for what reason? The Igbo man's greatest undoing is their childlike behavior, of usually running after a candy held out by other races in Nigeria without themselves aspiring or desiring with all the sinew in their body to be the managing director and gatekeeper of the candy store handing out those candies themselves.

Icheoku says, Babangida must be smoking a lot of pot lately and thinks that every Nigerian especially the Igbos are also too doped and hallucinatory to remember his antecedents and well documented anti-Igbo people record. Any Igbo person in doubt should first check with Ebitu Ukiwe and hear his story of what he went through under Babangida and his anti-Igbo policies including the surreptitious membership of Nigeria in the OIC not caring a whiff that over 99.9 percent of Igbos are non Muslims. As Babangida's chief of staff (second in command), Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe was relegated to the background and at one time, courtesy of Babangida's instruction, was to come after Abacha, an army chief under him, in a procession. So Icheoku calls on every Igbo man romanticizing with the idea of a beneficial Babangida's presidency for the Igbos to first consult with his inner minds and juxtapose it with known antecedents of Babangida anti-Igbo records before buying the evil one's fantastical and nonsensical promise of a 2015 Igbo presidency.

Usually when someone tells you where he wants to go, you ask him where he was coming from in order to level off his prospect of reaching the new destination. A leopard' spots does not easily change and the last time Icheoku checked, Babangida has not become a convincing camelion either; and is only deploying this 2015 Igbo presidency as one of the last weapons of his mass destruction of Nigeria against President Jonathan; trying in vain to drive a wedge between the peoples of the South South and their South East southern neighbors. But this should not be misinterpreted as Icheoku's endorsement of President Jonathan's attempt to appropriate north's four more years of a zoned presidency, no; as our position still remains unchanged that Nigeria's unity will be better off served if the zoning arrangement of the PDP is maintained, That way, every sectional groupings in the country can have something to look forward to, a shot at the presidency; and not the dividing indifference by certain hitherto perpetually marginalized minorities of Nigeria who feels they are being exploited for no returns by the majority.

As far as Icheoku is concerned the question of how many terms Babangida would rule post 2011 is moot; since he cannot and shall not be elected president of Nigeria to start with; not in 2011 and not anytime thereafter. Nigerians have since resolved that never again shall an evil person rule them again; especially when that evil person is an evil genius himself - a double evil. Babangida, a drowning man reaching out for every straw he can lay his flopping hands on was via a proxy at the recent World Igbo Congress (WIC) in Philadelphia Pennsylvania USA preaching his newly found gospel of Igbo 2015 presidency. According to this toothy monster of Minna, his impetuous desire is to "see that power moves from the North to the South-east to demonstrate the full integration of the Igbo into the mainstream of the country in order to put an end completely to the 30 months civil war"; and you ask yourself, when he was in charge of Nigeria what did he do to better the lot of the average Joe-Igbo man in the south East. Did he build their roads, no! Did he build an international airport in Igboland, nope! Did he build a second bridge on the River Niger which his sadistic Nigeria troops destroyed during their genocidal war against the people of South East of Biafra, no! Did he rehabilitate Oji River power station that hitherto supplied power to the entire South East, he did not! Did Babangida build industries in the South East Igboland, no! Did Babangida dredge the River Niger to make it easier for Onitsha and Aba importers and traders to use the navigable water ways to reduce cost of doing business, no! So now tell Icheoku what stupid intergration this toothy fairy of Minna is talking about when he refused and failed to implement same when he had the opportunity as a maximum ruler of Nigeria.

The bottom line is that Babangida's mind is playing tricks on him and has taken his entire thought process hostage. For Babagida to think that the Igbos are not sophisticated enough to read in between the lines and will fall prey to his ice-cream of a 2015 Igbo presidency and come out in droves to support his already failed presidential bid is hallucination in an overdrive.

In summation, Icheoku calls on the entire Igbo people of Nigeria not to fall for the bait of the corrupt fisherman of Minna, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, who might as well be so dead long before 2015. At 70 years old now, reaching 75 in 2015 might be such an uphill task judging from the life span of an average Nigerian and a Minna man for that matter. But assuming he does not die and is still sane enough in 2015 and chooses not to retire but instead to remain the eyesore he is before many decent Nigerians; Icheoku asks where are the guarantees from that the scumbag who took Nigerians on several years of a jolly ride to an endless transition to democracy and also an election which he annulled will perform his side of the bargain? What guarantees can a criminal master-mind and operative give, who as a defence minister went up against his boss Buhari and overthrew his government. What guarantees are there left in a man who killed his best friend forever and his wedding's best man Mamma Vasta based on a phantom coup? What guarantees are there in a man who blew Dele Giwa away with a parcel bomb in order to forcefully stop a story of his drug complicity with Gloria Okon from ever making it to the news stand? What kind of guarantees are the Igbo people looking to get from a man who snubbed Justice Oputa's investigative panel and the last time Icheoku checked Oputa is an Igbo man from Oguta Imo State; adding to the litany of chronicled Babangida's disdain for the Igbos.

What Icheoku is saying is that the gratuitous promise of a 2015 Igbo presidency in return for Igbos supporting Babangida realize his 2011 presidential fantasy is as worthless as the saliva wasted while spitting it out since the man making the promise cannot give what he does not possess or own. Nigeria's presidency is not Babangida's nor his for the asking and/or to give or bestow; otherwise he should not be running for it but would have just grabbed it. For any Igboman to buy into this phantom promise is to similarly believe that elephants can fly especially the white species; therefore the Igbos must distance themselves from the Babangida's DOA presidential dream and run away as far as their legs can carry them from the evil genius. Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida is toxic and such an unwanted piece of garbage should not be embraced by the Igbos of the South east not even for the illusory promise of a 2015 presidency.

The latin maxim "nemo dat non quod habet" aptly applies to this grandiose promise of a 2015 igbo presidency since Babangida does not own Nigeria's presidency and therefor cannot give to the Igbos that which he does not possess in 2015. Lastly Babagida going to the WIC is a wrong move since the said body no longer speaks nor hardly ever spoke for Igbo Diapora; it long ago lost its mojo and gravitas as an umbrella Igbo Diaspora organisation and neither have any influence abroad nor even among the Igbo market women back home in motherland. So how about that Babangida for the plane ticket and hotel accommodation of your delegate to Philadelphia; and Icheoku believes a lot of such opportunists are lined up throughout the Hilltop mansion in Minna waiting to collect part of the looted stash based on one thing or the other; but hey it is Nigeria's money and so Icheoku does not begrudge any Nigerian who lies his way into Babangida's evil and wicked heart to collect part of it. All said and done, this latest manuover based on some military training received at Fort Bening Georgia will not be sufficient to conquer Aso Rock and a wise man knows when to cut his losses and scamper; but regrettably Babangida is merely brutish but not wise and his wild goose chase continues!