THE EGYPTIAN ARMY ARE ALSO EGYPTIANS, THEY TOO WANT MUBARAK GONE!

They were sent to quell the revolutionary protest but instead became part of it as they joined ranks with other citizens united against a dictator; and converted the army tank bought with the peoples money into a staging platform for the peoples protest. What a big sign of relief that the revolution is grass-root and people driven. Icheoku says it appeared that the near-senile President Hosni Mubarak forgot too soon that the Egyptian army are also Egyptians and they too feel the impact of his rabid dictatorship. A mark of great professionalism was displayed by these Egyptian army by not allowing themselves to be strong-armed by a spent dictator into shedding the blood of their brothers and sisters. President Honsi Mubarak is just one out of eighty million Egyptians and should not continue to hold the country hostage by stringing out his departure. GO MUBARAK and GO NOW!

PRESIDENT HOSNI MUBARAK IS THE PROBLEM, NOT THE SACKED CABINET!

With an over-dyed hair and a French suit masking a wrinkly frail 82 year old skeletal body, the despot of Cairo and the man who sees himself as the modern day Pharaoh of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, addressed his raging country men and women. To placate their anger, the old pharaoh pawned up his cabinet - the sacrificial offal and bargain for their demand that he quit power? But Mubarak refused to throw in the towel and has so far refused to really comply with the Egyptian masses demand that the era of Mubarak's despotism came to an end in Egypt.

Instead of complying with the peoples demand that he relinquish power and leave office for good after 30 long years of no meaningful impact on the society's economic and political well-being, the modern day pharaoh arrogantly proclaimed himself as 'destined to take responsibility for Egypt?' Icheoku queries, which of the gods of Egypt so destined Hosni Mubarak to see himself as indispensable or is it his aging old faculties that is deluding him as to his "irreplaceable" role in Egypt? Icheoku says Egypt can do and even thrive without Hosni Mubarak and hereby call on the living sphinx to stop being delusional about his place in the Egyptian society. Icheoku therefore reiterates that President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt is the problem of Egypt which the Egyptians are protesting and wants gone; but not the cabinet which he appointed, dictated to, tele-guided and now forced to sack as a bargain for his own political survival. Hosni Mubaraka should therefore hearken to the outcry of the Egyptians and go NOW! 

Icheoku expects that after 30 years in office that Hosni Mubarak would have exhausted his all and have nothing else to offer which he has not yet offered to the great people of the River Nile; with the only sensible and rational thing left for him to do being to let another Egyptian try. But none of that happened so far, leaving the raging Egyptians with no option but to increase the decibel of their protesting-voices such that the seemingly dumb and deaf Mubarak can really hear them, loud and clear. Their cry is that Hosni Mubarak should just leave and leave NOW; and Mubarak's willful pretension of not having read the hand-writing on the wall is rather very insulting to the psyche of all average Joe-Egyptian. Icheoku once again restates that Hosni Mubarak is the problem that needs a solution which the ongoing revolutionary protest intends to solve. As long as Mubarak remains adamant to the call for him to quit with his expressed intention to cling to power at all cost and in defiance to the will of the Egyptian people, that long will his over-made up face continue to insult the eyes of many Egyptians and their sympathisers all over the world; who are wondering what the old grandpa still desires in office. Hosni Mubarak your time is up, just go and NOW!

However the good news is that at last the fog of fear which has been holding Egyptians down and cowered all these past 30 years of Hosni Mubarak's despotic rule has finally been lifted; as they have come to realize that Mubarak is not the pharaoh he claims to be. Icheoku says fear is man's greatest problem and the biggest obstruction to achieving anything including removing a despot from power. So with this problem now solved in Egypt, their greatest fear-inducer shall soon be gone and Egyptians will be free to articulate their future unhindered and uninhibited. In addition to dissolving his cabinet, Hosni Mubarak promised a hell lot of other reforms just to offer a candy to the cry-baby Egyptians; but Icheoku would be greatly disappointed if the Egyptians prove so gullible as to swallow their embattled president's hollow offer which the last 30 years was not enough for him to bring them to fruition. The bad news is that no one knows whether this time around, the modern pharaoh of Egypt will give meaning to those words he uttered while addressing the Egyptian people, begging for his political life and power. Icheoku says Egypt belongs to Egyptians and not Mubarak and his family, hence the current intifada must continue until they get rid of him and take their country back.

The genie is already out of the bottle, the momentum is on their side and so those brave protesting Egyptians will be so naive to fall for their despotic president's cajoling, believing him that things will be any better this time around than it has been the last 30 years of his absolute maximum supervision and control. So the solution is for them to continue to protest Mubarak until the maximum ruler turns tail and runs into exile in Saudi Arabia and joins his Tunisian co-despot, Ben Ali, who is already cooling off from the hot chase that drove him out of power from Tunis.

It is indeed regrettable the negatively charged DNA that all these African leaders are wired with, that make them to so hate their people that they could care less about their welfare and well-being just like Hosni Mubarak, whose policies have impoverished nearly half of Egypt's 80 million people who today live below poverty line on about $2 a day. These people have had enough and today, Hosni Mubarak's cup runneth over as some middle class disenchanted Egyptians have now united with the have-nots in a rage against a regime that is corrupt, abusive and neglectful of the average Joe-Egyptian and they are so many of them. Icheoku  also debunks Hosni Mubarak's claim that the ongoing Egyptian peoples power protest is "part of a bigger plot to shake the stability and destroy the legitimacy" of the Egyptian political system as fantastical because the protest is entirely home-grown and Egypt has no political system other than the Mubaraks. Further Mubarak's assertion that "we want more democracy, more efforts to combat unemployment and poverty and combat corruption" is hollow, since he had ample time of over 30 years to address these issues but he did not; instead he chose to muscle the people of Egypt down repressing them with a paralysing fear induced by his vicious state security apparatchik.

Icheoku hopes that every Egyptian is today the 36 year old journalist Faiza Hendawi who rightly articulated what the world is thinking, that a revolution is afoot in Egypt. According to this guy, "Mubarak didn't meet any of the demands of the people and they will continue to demonstrate. He thinks by speaking to us he will calm it down. What he doesn't understand is that this is a revolution." Icheoku says, VIVA REVOLUTION OF EGYPTIANS! Reechoing 21 year old Ahmed Sharif, Egyptians re the ones to bring about change in their lives and if they do nothing things will only get worse as the rest of the world will only hope and pray for a successful outcome for the revolution while wishing them the best. Debunking Hosni Mubarak, Icheoku affirms that the revolutionary protest will solve the problems Egyptians face and will also realize the objectives they aspire which is to see Hosni Mubarak gone from power.

Finally Icheoku says however the current impasse ends or is resolved, Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei is not the answer for Egypt going forward as he too is too old and belongs to the same old school as the soon to be gone Pharaoh Mubarak. What a futuristic Egypt needs is a young Turk in the mold of America's President Obama or British Prime Minster Cameron to energetically drive the Egyptian agenda forward. ElBaradei is simply too old and does not possess the necessary panache to replace another aged and soon to be gone Mubarak as the leadership of Egypt is not and should not be gerontological skewed. Admitted no one knows what the revolution might throw up or the nature of the bargain to come as Mubarak's replacement; but hey whoever or whatever comes would have a way of dealing with it. The  world must also insist that Egypt does not go backwards or be turned into an Islamic Republic; and should be prepared to go to war if necessary in order to maintain Egypt's current secular status. Lastly, provided the  successor of Mubarak will not be a stooge in the hands of the Iranians who might be engineering the current putsch as a payback for WikiLeak's leaked Mubarak's push for Iran's snake head to be cut off; anyone but Mubarak is ok by Icheoku going forward. Admitted Icheoku is not buying the conspiracy theory or as suggested by Mubarak himself when he cautioned that the protest is part of a bigger (Iranian) plot? So Pharaoh Hosni Mubarak, set Egyptians free - just go and NOW!

EGYPTIANS GET OUT AND GET IT DONE NOW, AWAY WITH MUBARAK!

 

Icheoku calls on the great people of the River Nile who gave the world the great pyramids and papyrus to follow the people of Tunisia into reckoning and into the history books. The momentum is on their side and opportunity never called better than now for them to just end a 30 year dictatorship that has brought untold hardship and great misery in the land of the Great Pharaohs.

Saddam Hussein is gone, Ben Ali is also gone and hopefully Mubarak will soon follow suit, as dictators of the Arab world are respectively being shown the way out - chased out of power like common criminals which they are. Icheoku says they should not be allowed to just run away into exile but should be tried and hung like the dogs they are in public squares for the atrocities they visited on their people. So Egyptians, the world is anxiously waiting and watching for you to push a little harder and get rid of the scumbag that has been holding you down for over three decades! There is palpable fear already within the inner circle of all Arab maximum rulers and Mubarak will turn tail any moment from now. Just a little heave and some sacrifice and Hosni Mubarak will become history. You must not waiver; you must not falter and do not let the possible death of a few deprive the many their liberty. Just follow the Tunisian example and take Hosni Mubarak out now!

UGANDAN GAY RIGHTS ACTIVIST DAVID KATO, MURDERED!

Icheoku says regrettably this African country has taken its hatred for people who are different and not orthodoxy in their sexual preferences to a new horrific heights. They bludgeon them to death, using mattock, hammer and such other blunt-force objects as would simply disintegrate the human skull. Uganda, the East African country that former guerrilla leader, Yoweri Museveni, has presided over since the early nineties so hate gays, lesbians, transgenders and bisexuals that it is simply a crime punishable by lynching to be so sexually wired differently.

All that is needed to carry out the death sentence is for the country's tabloid, "Rolling Stone" to condemn you as a gay person, publish your picture as a gay person with your address and you are so gone as a once lived human. Icheoku does not know if there is any professional or business relationship of this Uganda anti-gay tabloid with the American Rolling Stone magazine; and says if any, it should be immediately severed. The American RS should also denounce unequivocally this brutal murder of an innocent Ugandan gay man and distance itself from the local Rolling Stone; otherwise the American magazine will similarly share in this heinous crime and peradventure have its hand stained with the blood of the innocent murdered. It is worthy of mention to remind the world that Ugandan Yoweri Museveni is one of those African despots who hopefully should be blown away by the wind of change currently blowing through Africa and which whirlwind originated from Tunisia. Yoweri Museveni has spent the last 25 years in Uganda's seat of power in Kampala without any noticeable difference in the lives of Ugandan people including lack of upward movement in their economic and political status.

Worldly known Ugandan gay activist and the face of gay activism in Uganda, David Kato, 42 was murdered this week in his home in Uganda after being outed and marked for elimination by the country's Rolling Stone tabloid. A school teacher who gave up his teaching career and took up the gay cause in Uganda, following an anti-gay bill which called for death penalty for  homosexual acts/practices? He also successfully enjoined the Ugandan Rolling Stone tabloid from further acts of defamation in publishing names, addresses and pictures of gay persons in Uganda. He had brought a lawsuit against the tabloid for defamation and invasion of privacy for publishing his name, photo and address as a gay man that needed to be dealt with by hanging? He was equally active in the activist group Sexual Minorities of Uganda (SMUG) and actively led effort to develop HIV/Aids polices in Uganda.

Icheoku says it is simply not right for anyone to so hate another person or a people simply on account  of their differences - who they are, their skin color, language, culture or even sexual preferences as to wish that person death. Uganda is the loser here and not David Kato; who has become larger in death than in life that even the president of United States of America Barack Obama as well as his Secretary of State paid tribute to him. Icheoku hereby declare Uganda stained by the blood of the gay martyr, David Kato; and also designates it as a gay-unfriendly, homophobic African country of the world. Icheoku also urge every gay person of this world and their sympathizers alike, to abandon Uganda and henceforth not to spend a dime in that African country or in any project or product that will in any way benefit them. One murdered gay person is just one too many for the community to tolerate and the community must hold Uganda to account for the murder of one of their own, David Kato. It is called being one's brother's keeper; and every gay person should see him/herself as a David Kato and thereby be united in grief as they condemn this senseless murder of DK.

David Kato paid the supreme price for a lifestyle which he sincerely and strongly believed was not a choice; but a natural genomic wiring of gay people. Should he have been murdered for just being who he is, Icheoku does not think so and hereby condemn in unmistakable terms, his brutal murder as a very big black-eye and deficit for the entire people of Uganda. Icheoku hopes and prays that the blood of David Kato has purchased freedom for all gay men and women of Uganda and also that his innocent blood will help water the tree of gay-liberty and allow it to grow into a mighty Sequoia of freedom for every Ugandan including their gay citizens, brothers and sisters. Icheoku also hopes that very soon LGBT lifestyle could be freely and proudly lived and celebrated in Uganda just like any other civilized human-habitation on planet earth, without gay people necessarily looking over their shoulders constantly. Further that Kampala will someday have its own Castro district with a thriving gay community and like San Francisco California, come to accept that just like there are white people who are differently colored from black people and do not look like atypical Ugandans, that there are people who are different in their sexual preferences. People who prefer different orifices and that this behavior is not criminal; and even if a crime, should not be a death-penalty offense; and even if death-penalty, should not be extra-judiciously carried out but allowed to travel through the long winding course of justice. Simply stated, there should not be another David Kato again - not in Uganda, not in Africa and not anywhere else.

Irritably however, the police in Uganda is trying to mislead the world into accepting that David Kato was killed by armed robbers during an armed robbery operations and that they are investigating the incident? But Icheoku says don't believe the fantasy and hereby rebuts that DK, judging from his austere looks, would have something or even anything of value that would interest the armed robbers? The David Kato the world has come to know and embrace as the poster-child for gay-freedom in Uganda does not appear like a man of any meaningful means or who had enough earthly possession as would entice any robbery gang to visit his home at such ungodly hour of the night? Icheoku concludes that Dave Kato was a victim of a society's hatred for people who are simply different from them and that the Ugandan police's weak explanation is a sordid attempt to mask a brutal bludgeoning to death of a man who loved differently and who many Ugandans may consider an unorthodox lover. But hey, at least he died with his convictions and beliefs intact; unlike many turncoats who will take to their heels the moment they are fingered as one of them - remember Apostle Peter and his three-times denial of our Lord Jesus Christ in Gethsemane.

Icheoku holds Ugandan Rolling Stone tabloid collaterally responsible for the murder of David Kato as they should have known that words whether spoken or written has consequences. When they write derogatory commentary on gay people and how they are corrupting the Ugandan society, with their pictures and home addresses published in toe and urging their hanging on the lamppost; it should have been obvious to these publishers that some people might be persuaded by their argument to act on their urging. But now the tabloid, like Alaska's Sarah Palin did with regards to Tucson Massacre, is denying any manner of responsibility whatsoever for the tragedy that was David Kato's murder.

By his death David Kato has become a gay-rights hero and legend, at least in Africa Uganda and within that context, has joined the annals of other notable heroes for a cause greater than themselves. Admitted in a small scale as serves his Ugandan gay community properly and purposefully. Like Gandhi he was petite. Like Martin Luther King he was an eloquent speaker. Like Mandela he was a freedom fighter. Like Obama he was a leader. And like every known person who have changed the course of history, David Kato was not afraid to speak up, as he was a brave man who charted a course that was both unpopular and derided within the Ugandan community. But he soldiered on until the wicked gay-haters of Uganda, instigated by that country's Rolling Stone tabloid, clobbered him to a painful death and in his home while resting from the day's  work? But will he be ever forgotten; Icheoku says nope, as David Kato has transmuted into history as that Ugandan Harvey Milk, who stood up for gay-rights when others turned tail and when it was deathly and not convenient to so do. The good news is that history never forgets the just who fight for just causes; especially when that leads to their death. Like Harvey Milk did in San Francisco, David Kato has lit a gay-fire in Uganda which will turn into a raging inferno scorching all anti-gay ideology as well as humans in Uganda since one's sexual preferences does not make him or her any less human. To David Kato, Icheoku says to you posthumously that your death has reached all corners of the globe and people paid attention and they knew the reason you were murdered. You died for your conviction, your cause was worthy and your mission was accomplished. Your legacy lives on. Icheoku says, Adieu!

RAHM EMANUEL MEETS THE ONE YEAR RESIDENCY RULE, HE IS BONA FIDE!

Icheoku says the politics of the proverbial windy city never ceases to amaze its numerous fans and watchers. The latest being the attempt by Illinois Appellate court to suggest that the erstwhile chief of staff to President Barack Obama is not a 'sufficient' Chicago resident and does not meet the one year residential requirement for any prospective mayoral candidate of the city of Chicago; hence is not qualified and cannot run for the office.

Icheoku says never in the history of global legalism has an opinion been so weird; reached without adjudicating the intent of such a person as to his residential allegiance. This is a man who answered a national call by the president of the country to serve the government and the country as the chief of staff of the president. In accordance with the dictates of the office he moved on the national assignment to Washington DC from his primary place of residence, Chicago. Icheoku says only a demented human will interpret this temporary relocation to Washington DC to be an abandonment of  the primary Chicago residence. We are also convinced that were the two cities easily commutable, Rahm Emanuel would rather have commuted than uproot and dislocate his wife and children from their place of work and school as well as from family, friends and relatives including a familiar neighborhood.

The people of Chicago would have, instead of this pettiness of trying to bar Mr. Emanuel from the Chicago mayoral race through the back-door, ushered him with fanfare into the mayor's office for meritoriously representing Chicago in Washington, helping another Chicagoan, the president. But politics always gets in the way and humans start taking inexplicable positions which no rational mind can fathom or explain. The only explanation that could possibly try unraveling the appellate court's position is that its membership is constituted by anti-Emanuel judicial activists who are so petty and jealous of his success in getting all the pies that their chagrin turned to irrationality? The matter was even made worse by the fact that two of the opinionated members are registered democrats and you wonder where cometh the beef? Good enough, his appeal of the matter to the states Supreme Court is in good hands and the wise men and women of the higher court will see through the phoniness of the appellate decision.

The controlling and dispositive legal guiding principle in cases like Rahm Emanuel's, is to determine the intent of the party - whether he  want to permanently divorce himself from his primary residence or still regards it as home and plans to return thereto at the end of his call for service. Icheoku says Rahm Emanuel is the later and his case is akin to our servicemen and women who go on call of duty tours in Afghanistan and Iraq or even NASA astronauts who are at the Space station hovering over two hundred miles above the earth. So will it not be ridiculous to suggest or in anyway infer that these people have lost their primary residence in the country just because duty-called and they answered, 'here I am send me?' Icheoku agrees with Emanuel erudite lawyers that he never lost his residency by answering the call of the president to serve the country as his chief of staff. Therefore let Rahm Emanuel run for the mayoral seat as he will definitely win and is the only candidate among the contestants with a feet big enough to fill the vacating Mayor Richard M. Daley colossal shoes. Other contestants Miguel del Valle, Carol Moseley Braun, Patricia Van Pelt-Watkins, Gery Chico and William Walls do not possess the gravitas of Rahm Emanuel and are no match or good enough for Chicago. Chicago does not deserve any less a mayor than a man who has been a White House aide, a Congressman and a Chief of Staff!

LIST OF OTHER ARAB/AFRICAN SIT-TIGHT DESPOTS THAT NEED TO GO!

1. Moummar Ghaddfi of Libya - 42 years in power since 1969

2. Paul Biya of Cameroon - 29 years in power since 1982

3. Yoweri Museveni of Uganda - 25 years in power since 1986

4. Mugabe of Zimbabwe - 31 years in power since 1980

5 Omar Bashir of Sudan - 21 years in power since 1989

6. Yemeni's ruler - 33 years in power since 1978

7. Jose Santos of Angola - 32 years in power since 1979

8. Blaise Campore of Burkina Fasso - 24 years since 1987

9. Idrissu Deby of Chad - 21 years in power since 1990

10. Mbasago of Eqatorial Guinea - 32 years in power since 1979

11. Yoweri Museveni of Uganda - 25 years in power since 1986

12. Gbagbo of Ivory Coast - 10 years plus in power since 2000

MOUMMAR GHADDAFI, THE POSTER-CHILD OF AFRICAN SIT-TIGHT RULERS. HE TOO NEEDS TO GO!

 Icheoku hopes and prays that the wind of change currently blowing through north Africa will not cease and will not abate until it blows away all African tyrannical leaders who are ruling against the will of the people. Libya's Moummar Ghaddafi is the longest of these dictators as well as the ignoble face of these despicable genre of human-beings in Africa. Icheoku hopes that the people of Libya braves it and rise to the occasion and say to Ghaddafi, ENOUGH! 

ZINE EL ABIDINE BEN ALI, TUNISIA MOST WANTED FUGITIVE!

 

Icheoku ask you to help Tunisian people capture their deposed and now exiled former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, now a fugitive from justice, hiding in Saudi Arabia. His offense include crimes against the people of Tunisia, torture, murder, economic paralysis of Tunisia, gross unemployment, food scarcity and the looting of Tunisia public funds. Icheoku hereby call on the Kingdom of Saud to deport this fugitive immediately to answer for his crimes; while they too should await the rage of Saudis in their own version of Tunisia-Revolution to reclaim their kingdom from their family. Dictator Ben Ali deserves to answer for his stewardship in Tunisia and Saudi Arabia must not be in the way or anyway, constitute themselves into the receptacle of African as well as Arab dictators running away from justice!

BOLA TINUBU'S FAMILIAL-STYLED DEMOCRACY IN ACTION?

 

Former governor of Lagos State and ACN chieftain, Bolaji Tinubu is a family-based democrat. He believes and practices democracy provided the beneficiaries are members of his family:- his wife, Remi Tinubu is the ACN nominee for Lagos Central senatorial seat; his daughter, Sade Tinubu is the ACN nominee for Agege Constituency in Lagos State House of Assembly; his son in-law, Oyetunde Ojo is the ACN nominee for a House of Representative seat while his wife's elder sister, Lola Akande is also a ACN nominee for a Lagos House of Assembly seat. It was on these terms that Lagos State governor Fashola was endorsed for a second term by Tinubu and any person with any objection was advised to leave the party and seek his fortunes elsewhere. Icheoku asks what manner of a democrat is this Bola Tinubu; except that he is not alone in this their selfish "all for me and nothing for others" type of democracy as practiced in Nigeria as Olusola Saraki of Kwara State shares similar character traits with him - his daughter Gbemi has to be governor following after his son Bukola who will be termed out as governor of the same Kwara State; go figure?

2015 IGBO PRESIDENTIAL DREAM, ABORTED?

Election have consequences and so it is that the 'election' of President Goodluck Jonathan has literally killed the dream of Igbo people of South-East Nigeria of producing the president of Nigeria in 2015. First is the Namadi Sambo factor as he will most likely graduate from vice president to president in 2015. Second is a wounded north that will not take a chance at being left out next time around and will fight with everything within their means to get back the presidency. Now they are sounding out that intention, surreptitiously hinting that Abubakar Atiku should wait till 2015 to stage a come back? First to fly the kite of Atiku's 2015 candidacy is Bamangar Tukur and now Governor Nyako of Adamawa State has followed suit by saying that 'Atiku should go for the contest in 2015?' Icheoku says where is this sudden somersault coming from, but a north that knows the South-East Igbos are not deft politicians and are not prepared to make needed sacrifices to achieve their political goal of producing the president of Nigeria. But where does this leave all the guarantees made by IBB and co for an Igbo president in 2015? To the Igbos of South-Eastern Nigeria, Icheoku challenge you to show cause and prove to Nigerians that you too can make a successful dash for the presidency; and be bold and audacious going about it. Please do not cower down in 2015 and let the courage of the South-South Niger Delta which got them the presidential trophy be your inspiration!

OJUKWU'S SOCIAL SECURITY NEEDS, NOT ONLY FOR GOVERNOR PETER OBI.

Icheoku has watched and followed with disdain, the lackadaisical attitude of all the governors of the five South-Eastern states, except one, towards the emerging welfare and health-care needs of the Ikemba Nnewi, Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu. To say the least, it is quite appalling and very unbecoming of a people, who would have been a-nobodies but slaves of the northern Hausa/Fulani oligarchy were it not for the brave sacrifice of the Ikemba, to be so nonchalant about the Ikemba's needs? A man who gave them a pride of place and a ringing strong voice within the Nigeria political establishment to be abandoned in this manner, left to his fate, is very heart-wrenching indeed.

Icheoku says if a man who invested all he had both in wealth and career as well as risk to life, and in a cause as worthy as the Biafran war of survival on behalf of his people, the Igbo people; would be so neglected by them when he absolutely needs all the help he can get with his increasing welfare and health-care needs, then how would the next guy dare should similar situation, a precursor to Biafra, arise in the future? Ordinarily, a culture that is appreciative of heroic sacrifices as was made by the Ikemba would have suo-moto, declared the Ikemba a public-charge and the responsibility of the entire South-East Igbo people and their respective governments. There should have been a budgetary allocation made by the five South-Eastern states for his upkeep, welfare and maintenance. But nay, these opportunist-governors would not do so or think about it or even hear about that. Instead they are parading themselves as the lords of the manor while forgetting that without Ojukwu, there probably would have been no Igbo states or even Igbo people left for them to govern?

However, Icheoku wants to specifically single-out and thank Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State for being the only rational and appreciative governor among  this class of unthinking governors of Igboland South-East Nigeria. Governor Peter Obi is hereby commended for appreciating that the Igbos of the South-East Nigeria owes much to the Ikemba for what he did on their behalf during Biafra. Borrowing from Britain's Winston Churchill, Icheoku reiterates that "never in the history of Igboland has so much been owed by so many to just a single individual and that individual is the Ikemba." Or could it be that some of these governors were not old enough or even born during the Biafran war of survival to appreciate the great sacrifice of this great son of Igboland; who rose to the occasion to say enough of the Igbo blood-shed to the blood-hounds of northern Nigeria. A man of great courage who took up the gauntlet of a war which was forced on the Igbo people by the bloody Hausa/Fulani pogrom that took place in the north, especially the then Benue-Plateau region is a man who should be revered by all Igbo people and his needs taken care of without any question or hesitation.

Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu risked his all - his life, his military career, his inherited enormous wealth which stood to be seized and were seized by the Federal government of genocidal Yakubu Gowon, to tell all Igbos in Nigeria particularly in the north to just try and make it to the East and the safety of their lives and properties will be guaranteed. It was unplanned and it was ill-prepared, yet Ojukwu gallantly fought off the Federal army and for three long years which but for the mercenaries would have lasted longer if not victorious? Ojukwu defended the honor of Igbo people under very austere circumstances and a completely blockaded situational region, using only his resolve and the "Igbo-kwenu" can-do spirit of an all volunteer peoples militia to protect a people who were under the threat of being completely wiped out of existence. It was genocidal and it was earth-scorching; there were so many massacres of innocent Igbo people in the north before the war and during and after the war in Onitsha, Asaba, Nsukka and other sectors. All geared at exterminating Igbo people from Nigeria that Icheoku wonders what would have been were it not for Ojukwu's drawing a line in the sands against a maniacal Gowon's attempt to wipe out the Igbo race.

The rest as they say is in the history books for those governors of the five Igbo South-Eastern states to go verify themselves, assuming they were not around then or never heard anything about that sad chapter of Igbos in Nigeria. Icheoku says it is about time these governors did right by Ojukwu and gave him his duly earned benefits; at least a pensioner deserves his pension! Ojukwu earned it; Ojukwu worked hard for it; Ojukwu sacrificed for it and Ojukwu deservedly earned to be repaid for his good works and at this time of great toll on his welfare, upkeep and health-care needs. Icheoku hereby call on Governors Theodore Orji of Abia State, Martin Elechi of Ebonyi State, Sullivan Chime of Enugu State and Ohakim of Imo state to without much delay or any further indifference, team up with Governor Peter obi of Anambra State in taking care of the Ikemba Nnewi and Dikedioranma of Igboland on behalf of the Igbo people of Nigeria. It is the right thing to do and the Igbo people of South East Nigeria understands this and will be perpetually grateful for these governors rising up to this responsibility - it is never too late to make amends or repay a debt owned.

Icheoku admonishes that Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu does not belong to only Anambra State or Governor Peter Obi or the APGA; no, Ojukwu should ordinarily be a Nigeria national responsibility if not that some people in Nigeria are still punishing him for his role during Biafra; but at least he should be the responsibility of South-East Igboland. Ojukwu has been going through some health challenges in recent times and only Governor Peter Obi has so far risen to the occasion, shouldering this responsibility whether as individual or on behalf of Anambra State; but it should not be so as Peter Obi or Anambra State state should not be left to bear it alone. Ojukwu did service for the entire Igbo people and his needs now should be borne by the whole Igbo people as a group, being the beneficiary of his great sacrifice during Biafra. "The fowl does not forget the person that took off its feathers during rainy season" and so the Igbos must now show their gratitude to a man who stood up when it mattered most. The good news is that Ojukwu is responding well to treatment in an undisclosed London hospital, all courtesy of Governor Peter Obi's magnanimity and generosity; but should the unexpected happen and the Ikemba is no more; Icheoku will hate to see these governors jostling for the camera in their attempt to outdo one another with his funeral arrangements. Mike Ejegha has a song "kwaa m na ndu", translation "celebrate me while I am still alive" and Icheoku will hate to see Ojukwu being celebrated by these governors posthumously.

Now is the time for these five governors to take up the challenge of Ojukwu's failing health and ensure that the Ikemba stays around as much as possible; challenged that they will not watch and see Ojukwu be the first one among those many other despicable actors of the Biafran war of survival, to make his exit from this earth and Nigeria. Genocidal Yajubu Gowon is still very much around, Olusegun Obasanjo is also still around and likewise Ibrahim Babangida as well as many other minor players of that genocidal war. Icheoku says it will be very shameful for the Igbo people to in addition to loosing the Biafran war to also lose the psychological war of whose leader dies first. Igboland five governors, the onus of ensuring that Ojukwu's life, welfare and health is  preserved for as long as humanly and medically possible lies squarely on your shoulders and please do not fail in this task or in any way disappoint the expectation of the Igbos. Icheoku says it will be a great shame that a man who risked everything to protect the Igbo people of South-East Nigeria from assured genocidal extermination in the hand of maniacal Yakubu Gowon led federal army, was abandoned by the same Igbo people at his hour of great needs and/or eventual demise.

It sure will not look good and these five Igbo governors should do all within their powers to ensure that Governor Peter Obi gets the support he deserves in taking care of Ojukwu and that the Ikemba never regrets or was forced to ever question the merit of his historic sacrifice on behalf of the Igbo people, protecting the Igbo race from an assured destruction? Lastly,like America, Biafra is a dream and the dream must not be allowed to die due to attitudinal indifference of a people who should know better as represented by the five uncaring governors of South East Igbo states. The dream called Biafra must live on in its hero, the Ikemba Nnewi and Dikedioranma of Igboland, Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu. Icheoku wishes the Ikemba a quick recovery and a full return to active good life and many more years of inspiring leadership of the Igbo people of South Eastern Nigeria. Icheoku also agrees that Ojukwu should not continue to be a political partisan at this point of his life but should instead serve as a father of all Igbo partisans, a symbol of authority for every Igbo man and woman and also the unifying beacon for the entire Igbo people of South East Nigeria. Long live the Ikemba and thank you Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State for holding the forte!

'40 IGBOS (CHRISTIANS) KILLED IN JOS, PLATEAU STATE, NIGERIA' - IGBO LEADERS!

Icheoku queries, has another pogrom started in the north; and would it lead to another Biafran war of survival? According to reports reaching Icheoku from Igbo Community Association in Plateau State, over 40 Igbos have been killed within the last two days, of Saturday1/8/11 and Sunday 1/9/11; following the latest outbreak of Islamic violence against Christians in Plateau State, Nigeria. Terrible, terrible, terrible! Those people in charge in Nigeria should know that no country survives two civil wars and therefore do something very urgently to safeguard Igbo lives and properties in Jos Nigeria. The South-Sudan solution is increasingly looking very attractive as a panacea for Nigeria! Enough of the bloodshed

SILVIO BERLUSCONI NEEDS HELP NOT CHASTISEMENT FOR HIS SEXUAL ADDICTION?

Icheoku says the people of Italy should have sympathy on their philandering Prime Minister and listen to his desperate cry for help. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is an addict, who is addicted to sex and requires urgent treatment o get rid of this monkey hounding him.

Sexual addiction is like any other sickness and requires to be duly treated - both psychological and physiological treatment via a concerted therapy to free its hostage. Therefore instead of wasting resources investigating and pontificating about the sexual dalliances of Berlusconi, Icheoku suggests that he be checked into a treatment farm where he can be weaned off this insatiable urge to go after special humans in mini-skirts; thereby putting the whole country especially the office of the prime minister to undue ridicule and curiosity. Sexual therapy is the answer, Italians; Ciao!

GOVERNORS FORUM HIJACKS PRESIDENT JONATHAN'S ADMINISTRATION - AMINU.

"When you have a big party like the PDP which is in power and it aspires to remain in government, the onus is on it to behave well. Now, everything is given to the governors. I refer to it as indirect rule system. The people in Abuja are satisfied, entrusting everything in the hands of the governors, including finances-and they would not call the governors to order even in the face of glaring misbehaviour. What they do is akin to what happened during the British colonial rule where the Governor and the Resident Office allowed the local chiefs and emirs to terrorise everybody, and all they demanded was loyalty to the crown, and if you are loyal to the crown, then you are good regardless of whatever you do to your own people.

That is what is happening here. There is no difference between what is happening in the party now and the colonial system. The atrocities are committed in the states by the governors. The party has handed over everything to the governors, and then, the governors decided to act in concert. I heard something which shocked me. I heard that the governors are now like a cult. If you touch one, you touch all. The moment you try to call any of them to order, they would pounce on you. And since PDP operates like the law of indirect rule where the center depends on the states for political action, then, whatever they say is what they will do. There is no way you can say this attitude is good for the image of the party either now or in future. It is a big party and in power, enjoying the support of the federal government now and that is why it is doing these things and can get away." - Professor Jubril Aminu. 

Icheoku concurs and adds that it is as a result of the weakness of the weakling that is Nigeria's providential president, President Goodluck Jonathan that these impetuous governors 'terrorize' Nigerians. Otherwise where were the governors and/or their governor's forum during the Otta deity, Olusegun Obasanjo's regime or even the less strong Kaduna Mafia backed short-lived Umaru Yar'Adua's rule. President Jonathan is what he is and that is the reason why the apparent hijack of his government by these terrorist-governors forum came so easily; and his apparent timidity and lack of decisive backbone did not help matters at all.


The loser-in-chief of all these governors forum shenanigans are millions of Nigerians whose interest suffer and cannot be effectively pursued by the government in power as it continuously try to wrestle its powers back from the Governors Forum. When two elephants fights, the grass suffers but blame the president who have  unknowingly mortgaged the peoples' need at the alter of those spoiled-brat governors whose wishes must be President Jonathan's command; yet the president is supposed to be occupying a higher office than them? That is what a country gets when saddled with an uninspiring, fidgety and wish-washy political neophyte as president and one wonders whether he even trembles when faced with his service chiefs? Nigeria's Excess Crude Account has also been drastically depleted from over $20billion in 2007 to now less than $1 billion; shared by Jonathan amongst the governors and himself. 

KEITH OLBERMANN PARTS WAYS WITH MSNBC!

 Icheoku says it does not matter what caused the parting of ways between Mr. Countdown Special Comments and MSNBC; the winner here are those right wing conservatives extremists who will now freely operate without someone on the left to fire back.


Whatever may have happened leading to this abrupt end of "Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Icheoku says MSNBC have lost their golden goose and with it Icheoku's viewership; likewise millions of other Keith's fans all over America, who will now sit out the network to await Keith's next anchor-move.


Now Glen Beck, Bill O'Reilly, Shaun Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and the rest of other anti-people elements in America are now free to roam, unchallenged with their watchdog, Keith Olbermann, now gone. Just asking, could it be that those right wing Republican Fundraisers who starved Michael Steele's led RNC of funds went through Comcast to buy MSNBC just to get rid of their perceived enemy, Keith? We fans are not happy.

IGP HAFZ RINGIM, NOLLYWOOD'S JOHN OKAFOR ALIAS IBU LOOK-ALIKE?

 

Icheoku says, what a body-double?

100 WISE & MADE GUYS TAKEN DOWN, UNDERLINGS TAKE TO MATTRESSES.

It is a trite Mafiaoso Omerta rule of silence that two can only keep a secret when one is dead; but the five clans running the show throughout the gamut of New York and the entire northeast seem to have under-appreciated this time-tested truism. Or was it a case where the omerta mythology has been shattered beyond belief and the former men who kept silence even at the pain of death, now sing like sissies? 

As a result 100 of them including capons, consgiliaris, under-bosses, captains, enforcers, runners, lieutenants etc, were taken down by the United States criminal justice system; charged with various offenses ranging from racketeering, murder, extortion etc. Icheoku is certain that very little percentage of those arrested will ever see the inside of a courtroom as they will make deal after deal to stay outside the walls, free and freely roaming in their respect turfs. 

The world was first really introduced to the inner workings of these fisty-men in Godfather and most recently in Sopranos. The world saw how a don and his lieutenants run underground businesses and uses their enforcers to strong-arm other businesses to pony up in protection money or business permits or be swimming with the fishes. In private they are ordinary family guys or so it seems; but beneath the smile and laughter lay a cold heart of steel which ruthlessly take out rivals or disrespectful family member/s. They also go through normal daily-life induced pains that some of them have been reported as wishing that the cup would be taken away from them and would give anything to have their lives back. 

Such a massive take-down of 'made-guys' has happened before, the last of such being the Teflon Don's case. But like hydra, the clans always rebounded, rejuvenated and ready to go. Their rebounding is such that less than a decade after the Teflon guy was smacked down and sent to prison, the buzzer went off that another 100-made guys have been apprehended and will face justice for their crimes against humanity and the economy.  The Mafia knows that to survive, the fewer the merrier is the name of the membership; and so they should have limited their personalities to manageable made-guys but the raid proved otherwise. But throughout New York, New England and the entire Northeast, this time tested truism was taken for granted and they got burnt and burnt heavily. .One hundred of them were arrested and now facing trials for their economic and criminal offenses in what is considered the biggest Mafia take-downs in recent FBI history. Icheoku asks  would this be the end of the mafia in the NYNJ America or are the survivors simply going to go to mattresses to wait out their families incarceration? 

Because of the large scale operations involved in the arrest of these wise-guys, authorities used maximum show of force, accompanied into battle by some 800 armed and dangerous federal agents and police officers who affected the arrests; making scores of simultaneous arrests totaling 125 stemming from different mob families from New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island. Like the previous Gambino family arrest in 2008 when all but one of the 62 suspects took a plea, Icheoku will like to see how this one plays out. We are certain however that there will be lots of turncoats, snitches, sleepers etc who will rat others out or sing like canaries just in order to gain their own freedoms. We urge that justice be meted out to these crime-families judiciously. But whatever happens, lawyers are sure to make out good from this misfortune of the underworld gangsters.Good job Attorney General Holder; another feather in President Obama's fight against organized crimes of the five mafia families of Lucchese, Genovese, Gambino, Bonanno and Colombo. Another discomforting Italy's gift to America and by extension, the world?

PRESIDENT JONATHAN THROWS NWODO UNDER THE BUS.

 
Icheoku makes bold to say that Okwesilieze Nwodo was used and dumped by President Goodluck Jonathan to reinterpret the word "zoning" to read "the presidency was zoned to the north but anyone can also run;" thus reversing a long standing PDP internal policy on distribution of elective offices.

This was the sole reason Vincent Ogbulafor was shoved out as party chairman because he would not play ball accordingly and refused to ascribe to such a condescending and humiliating equivocation which Nwodo has no scruples with. Nwodo bent and twisted every PDP structures, dissolved standing states party executives and ordered inexplicable re-organisations in an election year period; forcing governors who were sitting on the fence hitherto to comply with his marching orders to ensure victory for President Jonathan at the just concluded PDP presidential primaries. Mission accomplished, Jonathan is now the PDP's presidential nominee for 2011 election and like all prostitutes, Nwodo's services were no longer needed so he became expendable? Suddenly "the litigations and sins" of Nwodo became too worrisome and too visible that they now constitute a clog and distraction to the president, such that Nwodo has to go to make way? Icheoku says this is notwithstanding the fact that these allegations were in the public domain and publicly in existence prior to Nwodo's ascendancy to the seat of party chairman with President Jonathan's approval? There was even a court proceeding pending against Nwodo, but which Jonathan deliberately ignored; and accepted Nwodo as chairman of his party, the PDP. Nwodo's assignment, the concession for making him the party chairman, was to midwife a President Jonathan's victory in the primaries and boy did he deliver!

Icheoku however blames the ousted party chairman for overreaching himself by antagonizing his base, the South East PDP especially Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu State; who personally engineered his ascendancy to the office of the party chairman. Also Nwodo conveniently forgot that he too was an illegal returnee to the party when he sat in judgment over his fellow returnee in illegitimacy, Abubakar Atiku's effort at securing a waiver and granted him a waiver, not minding what the party honchos would rather have him do; and he was never forgiven. Anyway, good riddance! However, Icheoku will remind President Jonathan to beware of the implication of having both northerners as the party chairman and vice president. It may be a political time-bomb waiting to go off and he too might fall victim to some northern political machination and manipulation; himself being equally schemed out of power. Also the entire South-East has nothing left now in President Jonathan's Nigeria political power structure - the north now has both the vice president, the party chairman (whether acting or not) as well as the senate president; the West has the Speaker of the House while the South-South has the presidency and the South-East Igbo has nothing. So long for a country that prides itself as united; yet no Igbo person is occupying any political position of relevance in President Jonathan's Nigeria? Shameful.

IT AIN'T A CASE OF 'BLOOD LIBEL', SARAH PALIN LOVES AND NURTURES VIOLENCE?

Icheoku says this woman, admitted she is beautiful and attractive, is practically a beauty and no brains blood-hound. She loves blood so much that if not for her beauty, a  female-Dracula would have been an appropriate gnome genre for her? But regrettably, Sarah Palin is so naive or appears to suffer from so much willful indifference to appreciate why people often link her to violence. 

Alaskan Sarah Palin in defense of her traducers' latest allegation that she somewhat contributed to the Tucson mayhem, categorically denied that she did. She went further to deny that she is a violent person; emphasising that she abhors violence of every form and shape and called the mass-murder the act of one deranged man who should be individually held responsible for his acts.  Icheoku has no contrary evidence to suggest that Sarah Palin caused Jared Loughner to unhinge, but says that words matters. The author of words, whether written or spoken, do not have control on the reach and outcome of such words and must have this in mind while uttering those words. In the classical works 'Julius Caesar', William Shakespeare brought to the world an orator Mark Anthony, whose words swayed a previously well behaved group of mourners into a raging vengeful mob; who killed Cicero the poet in a case of mistaken identity of Cicero the conspirator. Yet Sarah Palin is completely shirking away from any collateral responsibility for what happened in Tucson Arizona, which could have otherwise inhered from her spoken words?  

With Sarah Palin, there is a pattern of violence or rather indifference to them that Icheoku will here now take us through the journey of Sarah Palin on the road of violence? There abound several instances of Sarah Palin's words and actions which could have easily triggered any deranged fanatic down the same road as was traveled by Jared Lee Loughner, the white mass-murderer of Tucson-Arizona. Some of them are also poignant enough as to be conclusive evidence of Sarah Palin's love for blood. 

Without a doubt Alaskan Sarah Palin loves guns and ammunition and prides herself as a hunter extra-ordinary and an NRA great enthusiast numero-uno. Her infatuation and exploits with guns is 'maniacal'; and she personally confessed to her infectious love for guns when she scribbled "I'm the NRA" on her palm as she spoke at the National Rifle Association's Leadership Forum in Charlotte, North Carolina on May 14, 2010. Icheoku is aware that many Americans wondered aloud what it was that Sarah Palin wrote on her palm that she was glancing at during that nationally televised mysterious writing on her palm? It is only a person wowed by an event or thing that will declare in such unabashed fashion, claiming that she is that thing like "I am the NRA?"

Sarah Palin calls her unwed teenage daughter and baby-mama to Levi Johnston, Bristol,  "Bristol the Pistol?" Icheoku asks what kind of non-violent mother would brand her wayward daughter in this way and manner, identifying her with an instrument of violence and blood-letting, yet Sarah Palin hates violence? Calling somebody a 'Pistol' is no joke and if Sarah Palin was not so much in love with guns and ammunition, Icheoku does not think she would have ever given her DWTS daughter a pistol for a name? 


Further America watched as Sarah Palin fired and reloaded rifles in her soon to be rested television reality show "Sarah Palin's Alaska"; and how she also bludgeoned fishes to death, mercilessly hitting them repeatedly on their heads until they lay still just to prepare them for dinner? There were other blood-letting scenes of Alaskan rural living in that her television show; yet the woman who prides herself with "fire and reload" suddenly abhors violence? Sarah, please tell that to the marines as Icheoku and many Americans are not buying this your sanctified definition of self. 


Icheoku says that the numerous wildlife in Alaska have nightmares whenever the name Sarah Palin is mentioned within their ear-shot is incontrovertible. In her living room are taxidermy of bears, giant king crabs as well as Moose etc; and story has it that she killed most if not all of these animals when she visited them in their habitat with her hunting rifles. Icheoku asks how else can an animal be brought down if not through violence? Stories abound of Sarah Palin hunting down foxes, using helicopters and in some cases, directing the wildlife officials to do same; and you wonder if a person who abhors violence would find relish in having animals life violated in this bloody fashion? 


Shoot, "fire and reload" has almost become Sarah Palin's call letters and Icheoku wonders what pleasure a person who abhors violence finds in shooting, firing and reloading? Such fighting words which connotes shoot until you drop and cannot shot no more is by no means evidence of abhorrence of violence but glorifies it as a worthy venture. Guns are made to kill, whether animals or human-beings, and many would agree that anyone who loves guns the way and manner the Alaskan wildlife killer loves them must live and thrive in violence. 


It is also important to call into perspective the bloody turkey gauntlet scene which formed the background as Sarah Palin rattled off on some issues while still governor of Alaska and emphasis that it tells a lot about a woman who have no qualms with blood; yet Sarah Palin claims to hate violence but finds nothing ironical in using as a background scenes featuring turkeys necks being broken? 


Now, instead of taking some 'in-context collateral responsibility' for the tragedy of Tucson, mindful that the lunatic white terrorist Jared Loughner might have taken a page from her book, Sarah Palin was instead busy, cursing everybody that "accused" her or suggested that she may be somehow responsible, even for some scintilla, for the massacre. Sarah Palin also made disparaging racial slur on the Jews, using the term "blood-libel," which still reminds the Jews of their past history when they were accused of allegedly killing babies to exploit their blood for some medicinal research? Admitted Sarah Palin might have used the phrase without comprehending its full ramifications, but hey she now owns it and Icheoku prays that the powerful Jewish lobby groups will remind her of that whenever she decides to run for any future office in the country. It is ironical that a woman this beautiful and attractive have no qualms with goriness; and this is where Icheoku is lost, trying to decode Sarah Palin. Women generally are known to get squeamish at the sight of blood, talk-less of being the ones opening the fountain; but the case is different with Sarah Palin that one wonders if she is differently formulated than other women. But hey, she is Alaskan; and people of that clime are known to be very close to nature and Sarah Palin likes to see red.

OLUSEGUN OBASANJO, REJECTED!

First by his Yoruba people of South West Nigeria who never accepted him as a true bona-fide son of the soil; an Oduduwa legitimate offspring; hence his not so favored place in the annals of their history despite being a two time Nigerian head of State and president. The Yoruba rejection was followed by the entire Nigerian polity which resoundingly said thanks but no to Olusegun Obasanjo's bid for a third term in office. Now a machine, a non animate contraption had followed suit and also rejected Olusegun Obasanjo as a Nigerian, incapable of voting or being voted for since he cannot produce his fingerprints. 

The INEC's data collecting and processing machine, deployed for voter registration in Nigeria against the forthcoming April election has rejected Olusegun Obasanjo and declared him a person non grata in the registration exercise. It failed or refused or could not recognize Obasanjo's finger-print that Icheoku wonders if the Otta deity tampered with his fingerprints to cover up a prior existing malfeasance or something else. Anyway, the machine was subsequently tweaked to accommodate Obasanjo's fingerprints and he was fingerprinted and registered after initial several futile attempts. 


Icheoku asks could this be a ominous sign that even the heavens might someday question this man's humanity to be accommodated when his Yoruba people, Nigerians and even an inanimate machine have all rejected him. Olusegun Obasanjo, Icheoku says it is not yet too late to make amends, first with a public apology for all that went wrong during your ill-fated administration and then ask for forgiveness. Nigerians demand an answer and would be glad if you oblige them; Icheoku is waiting alongside them.

A WORD MADE FOR NIGERIA GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS?

"What's the point of being in the government if you don't try to make things better, which means trying to change things." - Richard Holbrooke. Icheoku says the diplomat was speaking as it would seem to Nigeria government officials who usually go into government only to enrich themselves and not to make things better for the people, period!

PRESIDENT JONATHAN SPEECHES, DOES THE PRESIDENT HAVE SPEECH WRITERS?

"It is with great humility that I accept the monumental mandate, which you have handed over to me as the presidential flag bearer of our great party. This mandate is unique, as it makes a decisive statement in the history of our great nation. The statement is that our people have chosen the unity of this country above all other considerations. Nigerians have made up their mind to jettison ethnic sentiment for national unity. It is a quantum leap into the great ideals to hold our great nation together. I promise all Nigerian that I would do all within my power not to disappoint this umbrella you have entrusted on me today.

I will carry this banner of our great country to make sure that the essence of this unity is not lost. We thank God for making this day possible for all of us. I thank all the delegates to this convention for the confidence you have reposed in me; I tell you that I will never let you down. Let me very respectfully pay a very special tribute to Mrs. Sarah Jibril and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who all fought gallantly. I believe that the very nerving presidential primary has the vice president and I and indeed the entire party for the forthcoming general elections. I want to welcome Mrs. Jubril and His Excellency, Alhaji Abubakar on board so that together we can build a Nigeria of our collective interests. A Nigeria where ideas guide our dreams for a greater nation. This is the time for our great party to move forward in unity to bring this country under the PDP’s banner and gain electoral victory that we need to better serve our nation. 

This country has so many challenges and our polity certainly needs reform. Our economy needs to be strengthened; opportunities needed to be spread and security needs to be improved. Only a national party can lead us through the national transformation Nigeria needs. Today, that national party is our party, the Peoples Democratic Party. These are the uncommon times in the history of this country. The challenges that confront this country are enormous but the opportunities available to us are even more. It is our responsibility as the ruling party of this great country to listen to Nigerians and move in the direction that people expect us to go. Nigerians want peace and security and we are determined to provide (?). Our party must convince Nigerians that we have a plan for national security and that we can cover the entire country in that plan. We are shedding the politics and corruption of the past that have held us down for too long and have formulated the strategy and claim to transform Nigeria. It won’t always be easy but our momentum is strong and our vision for Nigeria is clear."

Icheoku says the preceding is the acceptance speech delivered by Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan after he won his party's nomination as their presidential candidate for the 2011 April election. Going through what he read as a presidential acceptance speech, Icheoku wonders whether he scribbled that by himself at a moments notice following his victory or he had it written and vetted prior to the Abuja delivery. It sure sounds mediocre for a presidential speech and was this the best his speech writers could come up with or does he not have them or does not make use of them; just asking?