NIGERIAN OR BIAFRAN FLAG, WHICH WOULD OJUKWU HAVE PREFERRED?

Icheoku curiously asks, were Ikemba to have made that choice, would he have elected for his casket to be draped with a green white and green Nigerian flag or the rising sun red, black and green Biafran flag? Where would his loyalty in death have otherwise laid or would it have been a flummoxed situation where the heart fondered in land so far away in a Biafra that could have been and the reality of his Nigerian-ness which fixated the feet somewhere different. 

Anyway Icheoku believes that Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu personally rested the quest for Biafra the day he accepted a full amnesty from a Nigerian President Shehu Shagari; then returned to Nigeria and ran unsuccessfully for a Nigerian Senate seat to represent Onitsha NIgerian senatorial district. Ojukwu's new disposition was further made manifest when he later swore that his next war if ever, would be to fight to keep Nigeria one united country. His national discourses as well ever since, were always anchored on the need to ensure Nigeria unity. And to keep any doubting Thomas at bay, the Ikemba accepted and received his pension and gratutuity as well as accrued arrears from the Nigerian Federal Government as a retired army colonel of the Nigerian army, the rank he held before the outbreak of hostilities between the Federalist army of Nigeria and the Biafra separatist army. 

All the expressed sentiments notwithstanding, Icheoku makes bold to state that Ojukwu was a Nigerian and not a Biafran at the time of his death. So any doubt as to what Ojukwu would have done or preferred as to his nationality was well put to rest while he still had air in his lungs, alive and well. Therefore, Icheoku agrees that wrapping Ojukwu's casket in the Nigeria's national colors was a right choice as that would be the correct interpretation of the Ikemba's final burial wish. Quoting MASSOB's Ralph Uwazulike, the man trying to fill the oversized shoes of Ojukwu as putative Igbo leader, "MASSOB want the best for Ojukwu and people thought that when the government declared it will give Ojukwu state (military) burial, we should come out to oppose it. Between Ndigbo and Nigeria burying Ojukwu, we prefer Nigeria. So why then should I say no, when the president of Nigeria said Ojukwu should be buried by Nigerians. It is better than Ndigbo burying him alone. So I want the best for my leader, for my father. If you say Uwazuruike should not talk about Biafra on that day, all well and good. Let’s give him that state burial. After the burial we’ll start talking about Biafra." 

Icheoku says a very well articulated statement by Uwazulike and we shall begin to watch more closely the MASSOB's leader. Icheoku is also very appreciative of Nigeria's President Jonathan for being so magnanimous in according Ojukwu a deserved national burial. Adieu Ikemba.  

OJUKWU, NIGERIAN OR BIAFRAN FLAG, WHICH WOULD HE HAVE PREFERRED?

Icheoku curiously asks, were Ikemba to have made that choice, would he have elected for his casket to be draped with a green white and green Nigerian flag or the rising sun red, black and green Biafran flag? Where would his loyalty in death have otherwise laid or would it have been a flummoxed situation where the heart fondered in land so far away in a Biafra that could have been and the reality of his Nigerian-ness which fixated the feet somewhere different.

Anyway Icheoku believes that Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu personally rested the quest for Biafra the day he accepted a full amnesty from a Nigerian President Shehu Shagari. Ojukwu thereafter returned to Nigeria and joined NPN, a national party; instead of the NPP, which was supposedly the regional party of the Igbo people. Ojukwu ran unsuccessfully for a Nigerian Senate seat to represent Onitsha Nigerian senatorial district under the platform of the National Party of Nigeria. Ojukwu's new disposition was further made manifest when he later swore that his next war if ever, would be to fight to keep Nigeria one united country. His national discourses as well ever since, were always anchored on the need to ensure Nigeria unity. And to keep any doubting Thomas at bay, the Ikemba accepted and received his pension and gratutuity as well as accrued arrears from the Nigerian Federal Government as a retired army colonel of the Nigerian army, the rank he held before the outbreak of hostilities between the Federalist army of Nigeria and the Biafra separatist army.

All the expressed sentiments notwithstanding, Icheoku makes bold to state that Ojukwu was a Nigerian and not a Biafran at the time of his death. So any doubt as to what Ojukwu would have done or preferred was well put to rest while he still had air in his lungs, alive and well, Therefore, Icheoku agrees that draping Ojukwu's casket in Nigeria national colors was a right choice as that would be the correct interpretation of the Ikemba's final burial wish. Quoting MASSOB's Ralph Uwazulike, the man trying very hard and courageously to fill the over-sized shoes of Ojukwu as putative Igbo leader, "MASSOB wants the best for Ojukwu and people thought that when the government declared it will give Ojukwu state(military) burial, we should come out to oppose it. Between Ndigbo and Nigeria burying Ojukwu, we prefer Nigeria. So why then should I say no when the president of Nigeria said Ojukwu should be buried by Nigerians. It is better than Ndigbo burying him alone. So I want the best for my leader, for my father. If you say Uwazulike should not talk about Biafra on that day, all well and good. Lets give him that state burial, after the burial we'll start talking about Biafra." Icheoku says well articulated statement and a very good response to a trigger, curve-ball question; which shows that the MASSOB leader is a very intelligent political leader; henceforth, Icheoku shall more closely watch and follow him going forward to see where he leads the Igbo nation. Icheoku is also very appreciative of Nigeria's President Jonathan for being so magnanimous in according Ojukwu a deserved national burial; admitted it would have been a different scenario were the Igbo-hating Otta deity, Baba Iyabo, still holding sway at Aso Rock. Anyway, Icheoku says, so long the peoples hero, Adieu Ikemba!

JAMES IBORI, TWO FACES OF A THIEVING-GOVERNOR

It is indeed the stuff a real and serious fight against corruption is made of - the denuding of a thief hiding under the cloak of a statesman by a country whose judiciary is not corrupt or should Icheoku say not too corrupt to be easily compromised? 


A former grocery store clerk/cashier turned governor/high chief and now a convicted common criminal and soon to be committed to prison for ten long years? What a changing fortunes of man or should Icheoku say once a rogue always a rogue and what is horrible with Nigeria where people with questionable character and not vetted are foist on society to mind the coffers and you ask yourself how can a bank-robber be handed the combination locks numbers of a bank safe? Only in Nigeria, the land of anything and everything goes.

C(t)hief James Onanefe Ibori now stands convicted as a common criminal, financial fraudster and thief who dipped his gluey hands in the pie of his Delta State and helped himself handsomely to the tune of several hundreds millions of dollars with States resources. 


A former high chief and former governor now posing for mugshot as a common criminal? What a shame and a very huge stain on Nigeria's already over soiled and badly tarnished image and notoriety as a cesspool of corruption. Icheoku hopes he will serve his ten year sentence in full in addition to full restitution and not disguise himself as an old lady in the manner of DSP Alamesigha and flee London. EFCC, do you now see how it is done?

CONVICT JAMES ONANEFE IBORI, DISSECTED !

“He was never the legitimate governor and there was effectively a thief in government house. As the pretender of that public office, he was able to plunder Delta State’s wealth and hand out patronage.” - Prosecutor Sasha Wass describing convicted criminal James Onanefe Ibori to the court. 

Icheoku says what a testament to Nigeria indeed; except that those thieves masquerading as leaders in Nigeria don't ever learn a lesson nor would they learn a thing from the Ibori's experience with the law in a functioning society of laws. This is the same thieving James Onanefe Ibori that an Asaba high court in Delta State Nigeria declared an incorruptible angel and you wonder how much such testimonial cost the Ibori team? Anyway, the verdict is in and it shows that once a thief always a thief.

CRUSADER RICK SANTORUM PLANS TO TURN AMERICA INTO A VATICAN?

Yes you heard damn right, he said it - that America should become a "Christian Republic of America" or better rephrased "Catholic Christian Republic of America" since according to him, all other Protestant religions/churches are now habitat for the Devil? Icheoku says move over Mullah Omar as the real extremist religious zealot and crusader has been located in the United States of America and his name is RICK SANTORUM. 

Luckily enough for Americans, this crusader, Rick Santorum, came out of his religious closet early enough for the people to know who he really is and to enable them run as far away from him as is possible; otherwise can anyone imagine the nightmare of fighting another civil war between these fanatic-lunatics and the more civilized live and let live of the American society. Good, good, good as Americans now know that this American Talibangelist is simply too extreme for America and he would be roundly rejected in his bid for the White-house. At least when the late former President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, a Catholic, ran for office, he clarified that The Vatican would not tele-guide his actions as president. But here comes another Catholic presidential aspirant, Rick Santorum, who have publicly proclaimed his preference that The Vatican take a center stage in his administration and he could care less of all other religious and none-religious of America? In his rabid and warped support for a religious government or theocracy as practiced in Islamic Republic of Iran, Rick Santorum said that he does not belief that there should be a partition between government and religion as the idea alone makes him wanna pewk. He posited that "the idea that the church can have no influence or involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical to the objectives and visions of our country." 

Icheoku is also disturbed that this fanatic who is a lawyer is deliberately misleading his gullible electors; trying desperately to throw them some red meat in order to get ahead in the Republican presidential primaries. It is rather doubtful that an educated person such as a lawyer would mean all these gobbledygook oozing from his mouth such as saying that education is elitist and people should not go to college because they are indoctrinated therein? Rick Santorum for crying out loud is a lawyer and benefited from college education immensely, so why the now turnaround of "education is dangerous for you" campaign against making education a befitting imperative. Icheoku asks, if education as presently seen by this crusader's jaundiced eyes is so bad, why has he not renounced his degrees and why are his children being educated? Anyway America knows better and will accordingly respond to this man's provocations with a resounding NO at the ballot.

 While American military forces are fighting all over the world to liberate and give people freedoms including that of religion, here we have an American Mullah Omar Rick Santorum advocating for the loss and emasculation of our freedoms including that of religion as well as the right to atheism. It is unfathomable as it is lunatic-fringed for these regrettable anti-education comments coming out of a lawyer's mouth. May be Cuban Fidel Castro was right afterall when he branded this bunch of 2012 Republican presidential candidate wanna-bees a congregation of idiocy and imbecility. 

Yet Rick Santorum does not exhibit traces of being indoctrinated or brain-washed as he alleges colleges make students; so Icheoku asks, why then is education that was good for Santorum now not good for "The Others" of America? The answer or rather the only semblance of an explanation that makes any sense whatsoever is that Rick Santorum wants to continuously subjugate and maintain a pool of unthinking pack of gullible imbeciles and morons of America for him to continuously lie to. While the Santorums of America roll by in affluence with the benefit of their advanced education as Senators, Congressmen as well as Presidents and CEOs of Fortune companies, the uneducated dark-minds wallow in perpetual want and poverty, dependent on the Santorums to do their thinking for them and provide them with absolute nonsense of rancid information. 

If Rick Santorum was serious about his aversion to education, he should first renounce his degrees or better show Icheoku a member of the Congress or any president of America without some education and in most cases advanced degrees. It is just a ploy to keep those gullible Americans captive and controlled, period and therefore freedom rejects all such leg-chains as Rick Santorum is trying desperately to yoke Americans with. The solution is simple - tell Santorum t take a hike or better still to go hide inside a monastery as a monk or even become an ordained Reverend Father; except that he would first be required to also renounce his wife and children. So between Mormons and Catholics, who wins the Republican Party presidential candidate nomination, depends on which of them is more American. So you decide as 'Operation Chaos' continues to rain havoc in the now themed "Anyone but Romney" Republican Party's presidential primaries.

OJUKWU, A VICTIM OF A NIGERIAN CRISIS OF NATIONHOOD - TINUBU.

"Ojukwu’s birth and life would have made him the quintessential Nigerian citizen, born in the North, settled in Lagos and of Igbo stock, he was a victim of a Nigerian crisis of nationhood. Ojukwu was truly a product of the flawed attempt to be a good Nigerian without first being a good tribal man - Igboman, Hausa woman or Yoruba child. 

It makes more pragmatic sense to build Nigerian patriotism on those common tribal values and virtues that are not in any way against the values of Nigerian patriotism. If Ojukwu is viewed from that new prism, it would be clear that he was both a worthy Igboman as well as a worthy Nigerian. He was a friend of all heroic souls. He forwent the riches of his family and chose the patriotic lane. His voice was never drowned on issues that concerned him. He never compromised and for the sake of his people, he waged a war against injustice and ongoing pogrom." - Asiwaju Bolaji Tinubu. Icheoku agrees with BT and adds, above all that The Ikemba was the peoples hero and of whose true mold there is no other person in the Igbo firmament. Rest in peace Eze-Igbo.

SEEKING RELEVANCE, PUTIN SIDES WITH THE SYRIAN KILLER?

"I think that our position at the UN Security Council on Syria shows that we do not intend to be anyone's yes-men. And I hope that this is how things continue." - Vladimir Putin, Russian emerging petty dictator and power-drunk honcho. 

Icheoku says it is called res ipsa loquitur in law and the petite power-drunk Russian has now confessed his spoiler's role in refusing to save the people of Syria from the ongoing slaughter in the hands of now gone-mad Assad. How else can one explain that a president whose mission in chief is the protection of the citizenry become the villain and how slaughtering his own people for the sake of power? It is incomprehensible as it is condemnable as no sane president with love of country and people burning in his heart would do so. 

As for the Russian Napoleon Bonaparte syndrome sufferer, Icheoku says history will place you squarely on the side of a criminal behavior; having irrationally chosen instead to be in bed with Assad while he slaughtered his people - the people of Syrian. Just take a second look at what his reason is for standing in the way of stopping the ongoing carnage in Syria - not to be anyone's yes-man? What an arrant, stupid and asinine inferiority complex induced nonsense of a reason that Icheoku wonders why Russians want to tolerate this man's third adventure in Kremlin.

DETROIT SHOULD GO BANKRUPT, DID I SAY THAT? - MITT ROMNEY

The Mitt "Raw-Money" Romney now wishes that Michiganites especially those resident in the Motor-city of Detroit developed amnesia to not remember who stood by them at the height of their financial crisis and meltdown in the auto-industry. Now the man who publicly and loudly declared that Detroit should not be helped but allowed to go bankrupt is now wishing that those words were not his or better still that all those ears that heard it never did or their brains developed amnesia and forget that those words were uttered by his double-speaking mouth in the first place. 

His moment of "Ahaa I told you so" never came to live as it was swept away in the tidal wave of the success story that was Detroit auto industry bail-out by the Obama administration when it was least unpopular to so do, the industry having been given up for dead by the likes of Mitt Mormon Romney. Now as Detroit is once again producing what it is known for, following a rebound of the auto industry, Mormon bishop Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, now wishes he could swallow his vomit of wishing Detroit dead and now dazed, instead sees "beautiful trees with right sizes growing everywhere in Michigan?" Icheoku queries what is a trees' right size and since when did the Vulture Capitalist become an arborist or horticulturist, knowledgeable in trees behavioural science, to know what size is right for trees. America, please do not let this double-faced Janus con his way into the White-house, assuming he can first make it through the Republican Party's primaries of extremist imbecility and idiocy. Anyway, Mitt Mormon Romney is just a fake and too plastic to be entrusted with our country;  therefore he must be stopped before he treats America as a failed corporation that needs winding down, Bain Capital modus operandi. 

SANTORUM WANTS WOMEN TO HAVE RAPE BABIES?

The gospel according to Rick "Taliban" Santorum reads thus:- If your father rapes you and gets you pregnant, it is okay, just have the incestuous baby. If a marauder rapes you and gets you pregnant, it is okay, just have the rape baby? If an axe-killer rapes you under axe-point and knocks you up, it is okay, just have the monster-baby and so goes the litany of horrow-filled circumstances under which an already traumatized woman, victim of violent and unwanted sexual assault, is forced to relive her terrible ordeal permanently by having a baby whose father violated her sexually in the most brutal manner ever imagined? Yet extremist Rick Santorum finds nothing wrong in having such a baby? Could somebody please tell Icheoku that such a warped mind that is so fixated on other peoples business, especially women's reproductive right, is sane enough to be a president of a country with avowed liberties? 

Icheoku says this is the fate that awaits women in America should the perpetually-angry Rick "Mullah Omar" Santorum ever wangle his way into the White-house. So American women, if you do not want someone telling you what you can do or not do with your body; or forcing you to carry a rape-child to full gestation, then Rick Santorum is not your friend as he is against your special right of freedom of choice. So do not say you have not been warned and put on notice as to the violence he plans to do with your right to privacy of your body; so do right for and by yourselves, reject Rick Santorum's candidacy as too toxic for choice! Oh American Taliban Santorum, where then lies your moral authority to be questioning the extremism of your fellow Talibans of Afghanistan descent? It simply does not make any logical sense that an extremist of one religion should be questioning the practices of another extremist of another religion since both share the same philosophical ideology only that they have different pulpits. Just say no to Santorum's arcane and bigoted religiosity as not good for America.

OJUKWU, ICHEOKU SAYS ADIEU PEOPLES HERO.

OJUKWU

(1933-2011)

Will be laid to rest
March 2nd, 2012.
Umudim-Nnewi,
Anambra State, Nigeria

Icheoku says, Ikemba go in peace; admitted that what you stood for and went to war for, is still lurking very much around in Nigeria today. It is not just yet over the pogrom is continuing till today; but the people are grateful for the role you played to give Biafrans a future! So long Dikedioranma of Igboland Biafra.

OJUKWU, USA WEST COAST WAKE-KEEPING AND REMEMBRANCE.

DIM ODUMEGWU CHUKWUEMEKA OJUKWU

(1933-2011)

B.A.N. USA

(Bay Area Nigerians of Northern California, USA)

Honors

The Ikemba

Will you be there

Oakland

2/25/12

Icheoku says, Ikemba, the peoples hero, Adieu!

ADDICTED TO SEX, CONFESSIONS OF A SEXUAL PREDATOR NAMED DSK.

Icheoku says the Frenchman rapist of a New York hotel chamber-maid, Dominique Strauss Kahn, definitely is a candidate for treatment or medical castration to cure him of his unbridled sexual appetite or should Icheoku say perversion. 

Really this Frenchman that raped a hotel janitor is seriously crying out loud for help over his sexual addiction; he just confessed of having a he-goat attraction to females? Icheoku recommends an immediate confinement until he is weaned off his vaginal attraction. What a pervert; yet the prosecutors in New York let him walk off a free man after violating a hotel cleaning woman? It is also disappointing that his wife is still standing by her man? What a shame.

RICK SANTORUM, THE NEW REPUBLICAN BRIDE?

Icheoku says once again the baton has changed hands in the battle for the Republican Party's presidential candidate front-runner status as Pennsylvania Rick Santorum is now the latest groom in the waiting of the party. It appears that the feeble-minded Republicans are suffering from a disease known as "indecision," as it is evident that finding an agreeable and electable candidate among the present crop of contenders, to coalesce around, is increasingly difficult if not near impossible.

So with the latest poll favoring Santorum, the front-runner status have literally gone around all the candidates starting with Michelle Bachman to Mitt Romney to Newt Gingrich and then briefly back to the Mormon bishop has now settled on Rick Santorum. Except for grand-daddy Ron Paul who has never won any state nor occupied the front-runner chair, almost everyone of the other candidates including Herman Cain and Huntsman have tasted the front-runner lollipop and the famous fifteen minutes of fame. The question now remains, how far would Rick Santorum ride the tiger before he is either eaten or violently thrown off to the wayside.


It can only get messier, weirder and more convoluted going forward in the primaries and borrowing Rush Limbaugh's own words, it is "Operation Chaos" revisited. One message however is constantly resonating from the present Republicans' inability to so far settle down on one candidate. It is the Republican Party's base registering their vehement protest of "ANYONE BUT ROMNEY." It shows that the Mitt of Massachusetts is rejected by his supposed own and you wonder what the American general electorate would say to him. No one wants a dud for a candidate especially one that constantly morphs and who like chameleon, changes his colors each time depending on his environment. Icheoku says, it is called taking a firm stand against a FAKE, Janus-faced Mormon bishop Mitt Romney.

JENNIFER LOPEZ, IF ONLY SHE HAD ASKED DEMI MOORE?

Icheoku says what a stubborn irony of life that humans do not necessarily learn from the experience of others. There is a time-honored reason why courts make use of precedents in arriving at decisions - it is called guidance. If only the Jenny from the Hood(Block) had first consulted Demi Moore on the futility of cougars preying on young studs, she would have seen the sadness which awaits such predators at the end of the tunnel. But is she listening?

Almost always and following assured inevitable breakup, such mother-hens and old-layers take to binge drinking, narcotics and/or prescription pills abuse as a way to escape and numb their reality. As a result they usually end up at emergency rooms and/or detox centers where they are lucky to survive and some land themselves in morgues? Icheoku says the only constant in such a mismatched users love-game is a certain break-up and it is usually not funny. Once the fog of the monetary-induced stupor lifts from these boy-toys and they realize their stupidity, they either break out or are forced out by a suspecting hag afraid to lose part of her fortune to a gold-digging stud. It is always a rude-awakening. Except for Lady Madonna, whose charming of men and now a little boy from Brazil is legendary, none of these old layer celebrities have ever had it easy dating young boys, who are sometimes too young to be their sons? But is J-lo listening?

Demi Moore 50 tried hypnotizing Ashton Kutcher 34, but it only lasted for so long before the scales fell off Ashton's eyes. The result was a devastated Demi Moore that nearly lost her life to sedatives and she is yet to make a full complete recovery. Now the Puerto Rican hot pant, mother and three times married and three times divorced, not including her very high profile but ill-fated public romance with Puff Diddy Combs and Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez 42, is now playing a sugar-mummy to a barely matured young boy named Casper Smart 24. Could someone please tell Icheoku that this is real and the parties have been smitten by Cupid's arrow? Jennifer Lopez or Casper Smart most likely scripted this Val-day photo-ups to make it appear they are having a bliss and send Marc Anthony raging; but when it looks too good to be true, then run to the hills of disbelief. Could someone please counsel Icheoku that after Ojani Noa, Sean P.Diddy Combs, Cris Judd, Ben Affleck and Marc Anthony that Jennifer Lopez has finally found the right man with all the vital stats in Casper Smart? Only time will tell but Icheoku is afraid the world has not yet seen or heard about the last of Jenny's men.

Call Icheoku love-forsworn if you like, but this two parties are certainly up to something not sanctioned by Cupid and possibly merely trying to use each other to achieve certain end respectively? Is it a fair position to take that the now doting mommy J-Lo was only looking for some live hot stud to satiate her legendary libido and found one victim in boy-Casper? Conversely that the boy-toy, Casper, is a gold-digger on the prowl and lurking around when he stepped into Jenny's love-trap and now playing along just to become another Kevin Federline aka Mr Britney Spears? So how about that for your thought - simply having a Mr Jennifer Lopez for a change. But is Jenny listening?

MITT ROMNEY, HATES THE POOR AND IS MEAN TO DOGS.

Icheoku says when poor people of America thought they had it worse in the hands of Mitt Romney, the Mormon bishop from Massachusetts, here comes a dog named Seamus from Mitt Romney distant past to inform humans that pets left in the hands of  Romney are strapped on car rooftops and driven hundreds of miles in wind-speed of about 70miles? So human-beings, especially the poor people of America who are already in Mitt Romney's cross-hairs, go figure what awaits you should the accident of a Mitt Romney's presidency ever happen. 

The story has it that the Republican presidential candidate wanna-be, Mitt Romney, the Mormon, drove his car on a 12 hours vacation journey from Boston to Canada with his supposedly "pet" Irish setter dog named Seamus, strapped to the roof of the family station wagon? Icheoku asks what manner of a person would so ruthless and viciously so mean as to strap his own loving pet dog in such inhuman manner? If he does this to his own pet dog, what would he then do to people that he does not know or care about, especially the poor people of  American who he has avowed dislike for. 

Icheoku will like to reecho some commentators viewpoint on this dog-hating treatment of Mitt Romney"- one said that he "wouldn't want someone who has that kind of judgment running this country.” Another intoned that "Romney’s attitude toward dogs was indicative of his attitude toward the most vulnerable in our society." Another said that it is irresponsible for anyone to strap his dog on a rooftop of his car while going 70miles per hour on a 12 hour vacation journey. Another said that what Mitt Romney did to his family pet dog exposed him as a very callous unfeeling son of a bitch who could care less about other peoples well-being and welfare. 

But Mitt, while as usual, trying to justify or explain this callous treatment of his dog,  protested that Seamus liked traveling that way and that he was kept in "a completely airtight kennel, mounted on the roof of our car." Icheoku says what a bombshell that only adds insult to the injury as Mitt Romney by his own admission inferred that Seamus was completely deprived of breathing oxygen while the journey lasted and possibly died of brain damage due to asphyxiation? Additional implication is that Mitt left the dog on its own anguish while the journey lasted including playing deaf to its cry and yelp just like he said he will live poor people in their safety nets without doing anything to help lift them from poverty. His warped Mormon theory is that since Seamus "liked to ride that way - strapped like an animal on a rooftop of his car; which according to Mitt that is what Seamus is anyway, he was just left that way? However the Mormon bishop never told us how he figured out that Seamus liked to ride, strapped that way? Is Animal rescue on this?

RICK 'MULLAH OMAR' SANTORUM, ANTI WOMEN'S CHOICE?

Icheoku says this class of 2012 Republican presidential candidate wanna-bees make the Talibans seem somewhat moderate. Their extremist positions on issues make America lose the argument on extremism as why the war in Afghanistan was started and is still going on several years later. The only difference between Rick Santorum and his Taliban counterpart, Mullah Omar, is just their geographical locations, otherwise both religious bigots share the same extremist viewpoints. On women's right to use contraception, the American Taliban while objecting to it, said, "it is not okay for women to use contraception because it is a license for them to do things in the sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be done'? Icheoku asks this American Mullah Omar, to state according to who, are "things supposed to be done in a particular way?" Needless to remind Americans that his sponsor in chief Frais advocated for total abstinence - the aspirin treatment.

MITT ROMNEY, SETS UP $100 MILLION TRUST-FUND FOR HIS CHILDREN?

Hello 99 per-centers, do you know that Mitt Romney just inducted his children into the richest 1 per-centers Hall of Shameless and Stupendous wealth? The over-scripted and cunning Mormon bishop from Massachusetts, running for Republican Party's presidential nomination has endowed a $100 million trust fund for his five sons at $20 million each respectively? 

America, now you know why the plastic, Janus-faced Mormon, Mean Mitt, so much dislikes poor people of America. As far as Mitt Romney is concerned, the super rich should not be unequally yoked with the very poor since birds of the same plumage flock together.

WHITNEY HOUSTON'S DEATH, BOBBY BROWN'S CULPABILITY?

Just asking, is there under any circumstance burnt-out rapper Bobby Brown could be arrested and prosecuted for aiding and facilitating the death of singer Whitney Houston? This question becomes imperative because Whitney Houston killed herself, using the instrumentality of extensive use of illicit drugs, which to public knowledge was courtesy of her estranged husband, bad-boy Bobby Brown who introduced her to it. Icheoku wonders if aiding an emotionally unstable woman by providing her access to illicit drugs qualifies as a crime punishable by law under certain circumstances such as the tragedy that was Bobby Brown's meeting Whitney Houston in the first place? Anybody with superior knowledge should please let us know as this guy is or ought to be somehow partly held accountable for the fate which befell his ex-wife.

Look at the picture of a strung-out-on-some-substance couple, Whitney and Bobby, giggly as only "under the influence" would elicit; with Whitney's eyes practically shut down as consumed drugs overwhelms her? What a shame that a death which everybody literally saw coming eventually took away Whitney Houston, thereby making a rude joke of the saying that to before warned is to before harmed. Icheoku asks, where was the intervention, confinement and put in another way, the Britney Spear's treatment that turned around a once cliff-bound Britney Spears?

CRACK IS WHACK AND IT WHACKED HER!

Icheoku says that is the problem with hangers-on and posses as they never tell you the home-truth but whatever the heck you want to hear as long as you continue to lay their golden eggs. Their loyalty is just the greenbacks nothing more otherwise some trusted fellows like family members would not have watched Whitney disintegrate completely. Now she has drugged herself to death, who knows who their next victim will be. Simply put, Whitney Houston literally killed herself - suicide by crack and she saw it coming but strut headlong over the cliff anyway!

CRACK IS WHACK WHITNEY HOUSTON, NOW FINALLY DEAD!

Icheoku says the dead-woman walking, the songstress who reached an Olympian height of singing only to free-fall from grace to grass and whose addiction to drugs was of public knowledge, the American version of the also-overdosed to death late British singer Amy Winehouse, Madam Crack is Whack, the lady who Bobby Brown helped destroy and made into a crack-head, the woman otherwise formerly known as Whitney Houston is dead, as in gone to the world beyond. 

Any watcher of Whitney's dramatic destruction would agree that it was only a matter of time before her shrivelled body turned up somewhere in a fetal position, dead by overdose. Now the fear has turned into reality as the former song-bird turned up dead in Los Angeles, Saturday February 11, 2012, the eve of Music industry's Grammy Award. Whitney Houston was 48 and now joins the so many talents and celebrities who have fallen victim to their unbridled appetite and addiction to the white-snuff. 

What a pity for the black American community who have yet suffered another loss of one of their own stars, following last few weeks suicide by gun of Soul-Train encore Don Cornelius and Micheal Jackson who died of similar overdose the previous few years. May the crack is whack soul of Whitney Houston now rest and hopefully her demise will serve as a wake-up call to all other knuckle-heads out there who are strung out on the white substance as well as crack etc.

IRAN TO UNVEIL NUCLEAR MILESTONES?

Icheoku asks, is Iran deliberately goading the West to strike it and secretly praying they do so in order to consolidate its power base and rally the Mideast against their perceived enemy, the United States of America? Otherwise why all these taunting on their march to obtaining nuclear power, including this latest declaration by President Ahmadinejad that "within the next few days the world will witness the inauguration of several big new achievements in the nuclear field." 

Icheoku asks, could Tehran have a joker they would play in the event the West bites their bait of nearing acquisition of nuclear power and drop some bombs in Nantanz and Tehran? Icheoku really is lost at what forms Iranian "bravado" in this face-off with practically the world; but it would appear the eclipsing sanction is beginning to bite otherwise Ahmadinejad would not have said that "Iran is ready for talks within the framework of equality and justice" irrespective of his following bluster that Iran "will never enter talks if enemies behave arrogantly." Icheoku says whatever the outcome of the current fighting words, the only thing certain in the circumstance is that in the event of an outbreak of shooting hostilities, Iran will not and can never win a war against the West. They can only bring unto themselves a devastating destruction should push comes to shove as they are likely to get their wish to be attacked if their current confrontational stance does not yield to reason.

ROMNEY MORPHS INTO A SEVERE AND ACUTE CONSERVATIVE?

America, we have a new word in the lexicography of Republican Party politics, it is called "severely conservative," whatever that means? According to the quisling politician from Massachusetts, the man who shows his face of Janus differently to different people, depending on which audience he is speaking to or standing before, conservatism could be severe. 

Icheoku says the last time we checked, when something like someone's party ideology is severe, it never bodes well for others outside the few protected and privileged class of party faithfuls. Usually, it requires some outside strong intervention to forcibly give it some compassionate human heart to treat others as sane enough to want differently. Such a position as "severely or acutely conservative" bothers on the fringes of a Taliban-styled extremism and fundamentalism, and should have no place in American politics where majority independents refused to be teleguided or herded in one ideological direction but would rather, solely rely on their individual well informed judgement.

Icheoku says, for lack of a better word, the latest claim or assertion by the "vulture capitalist" Mitt Romney smacks of desperation at best. Mitt Romney, now starring his chances at securing the Republican Party's presidential candidate nomination being shut down and foreclosed, following his trouncing in three states by conservative poster-candidate Rick Santorium, suddenly decided to play-up a trump card of his imaginary conservative credentials. The plastic man of Massachusetts, a poor peoples hater and an ordained bishop of the Mormon cult, the face of America's 1% Wall Street vulture capitalism, Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, touted his none existent and phantom "conservative" credential as being "a severely conservative Republican governor.” Who would begrudge a man who tells himself lies that he is not what his head tells him otherwise who would pride himself in being an extreme version or severe version of what is, but a man who has lied so much that lies are seeming sounding truth in his ears while thinking that America conservatives are brain-dead yo yo who could be easily swayed or forced to change their position or knowledge of the subject which Mitt Romney represent in this case.

Icheoku queries, does encouraging young girls to seek courts consent to procure abortion where their parents refuses sound like "severely conservatism?" Saying that gay people have right to marry does not sound "severely conservative" either and so is palling with The Donald, whose thrice married lifestyle is not a conservative characteristic except you ask Newt Gingrich? Icheoku would however concede to Mitt Romney that his hatred for the poor is a perfect-fit for conservatism; likewise driving wedges among the different mosaic of people that make up and inhabit the United States of America. But whether stashing millions of dollars in a foreign Swiss bank account, instead of investing it here to help create jobs for millions of jobless Americans is "severely conservative" is beyond my Economics 101 class knowledge. Further is Mitt Romney's voting for Democratic Party's candidates instead of his Republican candidates conservative? What about saying he will not send American troops into Pakistan if actionable intelligence exist that Osama bin Laden was hold up there, or is this what his warped "severely conservative" purports? Before Icheoku forgets, was deleting all his records as a governor from all computer files and hard-drives part of being a "severely conservative" Republican governor of Massachusetts? Icheoku like millions of Americans are still lost at sea on what this man was and still is hiding about himself or his records that made him to purchase all computers of the state of Massachusetts and destroyed them in order to hide his record as a "severely conservative Republican governor of Massachusetts?

Anyway, without belaboring the latest phraseology and new addition to the Republican Party politics, which already have GW's "compassionate conservatism," please let's welcome Mitt Romney's very own self-invented "severe conservatism." Icheoku however wonders whether this "fake" man, who seems to have a lot to hide and thus comes off as not being genuine or real, would have a place in his government for the "others" of America. The problem of this world is that so many people, such as Mitt Romney and his severely conservative wing of the Republican Party, are always strung out on their very myopic and bigoted positions on issues and politics; so what becomes the fate of all those others who do not share or agree with this their pigeonholed fanaticism and extremism. In Mitt Romney's own words, he said, "I know conservatism because I have lived conservatism; I was a severely conservative Republican governor of and from Massachusetts."

However, Professor Ezejiofor of University of Nigeria Law Faculty of the blessed memory used to say, "it does not lie in the mouth just to say that you are this and that; and saying so does not necessarily mean it is so." Therefore, the ever calculating Mormon bishop cannot and should not be allowed to pull a wool over our eyes as we already know him and the stuff he is made of. At this eleventh hour and so late into his political formative years, it would be totally ingenious of Mitt Romney to try to reinvent another Mitt Romney different from that Mitt Romney who America knows is not a conservative, talk-less of a "severe conservative." Also no amount of his saying so or the decibel of its utterance would make us suffer the amnesia of who Mitt Romney truly is.

May be by next week, the Mormon cult bishop would begin to claim that he is a Catholic by proxy of some distant relative in Mexico; assuming his membership of the Mormon cult begins to take a toll on his desperate bid to claim the Republican Party's nomination. What a FAKE this Mitt Romney of Massachusetts is; but gladly enough the conservative grass-root American Republicans are not biting his bait of poison this time, never again as this is not 2008 anymore. The real Americans, the grass root American conservatives, have soundly and unequivocally, rejected any such attempt by either the New York/Washington Republican establishment or their anointed surrogate, Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, to pull a fast-ball on them this time. In the year 2012, grass-root conservatives want and shall have a real conservative and not an Obama-lite fair-weather conservative like the ever somersaulting Mitt of Massachusetts, who have perfected the art of speaking from both sides of his mouth and mouthing off things his conviction is in conflict with just to fool some people.

ROMNEY THUMPED, SANTORIUM SWEEPS THREE STATES.

Icheoku says as a sign of things to come, the Mormon bishop and the man who does not care about the poor, plastic-man Mitt Romney of Massachusetts has been rejected by voters in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado. With an overwhelming majority, the three states voted for Rick Santorium as the only authentic conservative Republican in the race for the party's presidential nomination; thereby sending a clear unequivocal message as well as the first warning salvo to say that Mitt Romney is unacceptable to the Republican base and will be demolished in the general election. Icheoku advises the man who speaks on both sides of his mouth to just save his energy and money and go away since he stands no chance in hell of winning in November, having been rejected by his own party's base and any attempt to still impose him anyway as the Republican presidential candidate will spell doom for the party.

Also the voters in these three states sent a strong message to the other wives-trader, Newt Gingrich, that American White House has been sanctified following the days of Lewinsky and has no place for a morally bankrupt adulterous grandfather; who was so mean as to divorce his cancer-stricken wife on her hospital bed while she was writhing in pain, taking chemotherapy and radiation, and ran off with a girlfriend. Icheoku queries, if Newt Gingrich could be this mean to his own wife and mother of his children, how much more would he kick the rest of us around as worthless dirt if given the opportunity. Icheoku asks, where lies Newt Gingrich's compassion? These bunch of republican presidential candidates wanna-be really suck and Fidel Castro might have been right when he described them as an assemblage of idiocy? Just an aside, this developing story out of these three states shows that both Alaskan Sarah Palin's endorsement of Newt as well as Donald Trump's endorsement of Mitt did not produce any traction; or it may be overt rejection of two candidates, palling around with the "dumbo" and the "too rich" respectively.

REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARIES, TURNS DOG EAT DOG?

"Mitt Romney loves firing workers but unlike Newt Gingrich, he did not fire a wife on her death bed" - Rush Limbaugh. Icheoku says this 2012 Republican party primaries, I'm lovin it like McDonald's. May there never be any truce nor surrender in this bare-knuckles fight to finish by these wanna-bees in their effort to clinch the presidential candidate nomination of their party. A bunch so far described as God's gift of a second term to President BO.

SUPER BOWL XLVI, IT IS NEW YORK GIANTS.

Icheoku congratulates the New York Giants for winning the XLVI Super Bowl 2012. The Giants defeated New England Patriots 21 - 17 to carry the Vince Lombardi trophy in a spectacular game in Indianapolis, Indiana. Icheoku says that will at least make San Francisco 49ners somewhat consolable that they lost to the eventual champions. Well played NY.

GENERAL IBRAHIM BABANGIDA'S DOCTRINE OF SETTLED ISSUES" - FEMI FANI-KAYODE

"There is a doctrine known as the ''Doctrine of Nigeria's Settled Issues'' and nobody should attempt to tamper with them.  Number one, I don't want any one of us to tamper with anything to do with Nigerian unity. Number two, the republican constitution is also a settled issue, more or less. Number three, the states are the federating units of this country and number four we are a capitalist country. Anybody that wants to talk about this country must make sure that he doesn't do anything that will disrupt these basic settled issues in our political life.'-  Ibrahim Babangida, The Daily Trust Annual Dialogue, Abuja, 26th January 2012.'  

I" have nothing but the deepest love, respect and affection for General Ibrahim Babangida and those that know me can attest to this. He is not only a great and profoundly good man that has sacrificed so much for our nation but he is also one of the very few truly detribalised leaders who genuinely and honestly loves Nigeria and who passionately believes that the interest of every Nigerian is better served if our country remains as one. I do not for one minute doubt his sincerity of purpose or his deep sense of patriotism. Anyone that can take a bullet to keep Nigeria one must always be given his due respect and honour. He, General Yakubu Gowon, President Shehu Shagari, President Olusegun Obasanjo, General Muhammadu Buhari, General T.Y. Danjuma and a handful of other past leaders and elder statesmen have done more to hold this country together by the sheer force of their will and their sense of patriotism than any other group of people since 1966 and for this every Nigerian owes them an enormous debt of gratitude. They have also consistently put their lives on the line for our country which is no mean thing. However whether we like it or not, this is the beginning of a new dawn and a new era for our country and Nigeria is once again at a major crossroads just as she was at the beginning of 1966. And despite the genuine affection that I have for General Babangida I am afraid that, from an intellectual and political perspective, I have to respectfully and humbly disagree with him on this issue. I do not believe that there is any such thing as a ''Doctrine of Settled Issues'' in our body politic and neither, in my view, is Nigeria as we know it today a sacrosanct, unbreakable or unchangeable union. It is trite that the only thing that is certain in the life of men and nations is change. Whether we like it or not change is like an irresistible tide and, when it's time comes, it is like a moving train and a raging wind which crushes or blows away anyone or anything that stands in it's way.

You either bend with it or you break. I am a student of history and it may interest those that subscribe to this rather arcane and anachronistic theory known as the ''Doctrine Of Settled Issues'' to know that Nigeria remains the only mega-nation and forced union of incompatibles and numerous nationalities that the British colonial masters cobbled together at the beginning of the 20th century that still remains together today. There were actually three in all and the other two, namely the Sudan and India, have broken into two and three pieces respectively over the years. Why should Nigeria be any different? More importantly why should we be told that Nigeria MUST be different? Would this have been so if there was oil in the north? Again when one considers the delightful and miraculous ''crumbling'' of the almighty Soviet Union (another forced artificial union) or the breaking up of the old Yugoslavia and the emancipation and creation of numerous new countries in the Balkans and eastern Europe which came as a consequence of that magnificent change, I ask again, why should Nigeria be any different? The words of the Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher are instructive here. In the September 2, 1991 edition of Newsweek she said, ''the lesson of this century is that countries put together artificially will fall apart. National identities will not be suppressed''. Twenty years after these famous words were spoken we are beginning to witness their relevance and veracity in Nigeria. The right to self-determination and to forcefully resist what many feel is an internal colonial system is a legitimate and inalienable right of all free men and women. You cannot hold me down and keep me in your house on your own terms and deny me the right to be free or to say or do as I please. If you do not treat me fairly and if you continue to make me feel worthless and full of fear of your terror and ability to inflict violence on me and mine, then eventually, whether you like it or not, I will leave. No one signed their life or their future away to bondage and none of us subscribed to the view that decisions about our country and our future can and have been made by our past leaders and heroes and that they can no longer be changed or altered. I say that they can if the circumstances determine that this must be so. And if you do not give us our rights eventually we will exercise them by force and regardless of how you feel. 

As much as I am amongst those that have criticised the Goodluck Jonathan administration forcefully, objectively and vigorously over some of their policies in the last few months let me make two things clear. Firstly my criticisms are borne out of my concern for our country and nothing else. I have nothing against Mr. President personally other than the fact that by not getting it right he is playing into the hands of the ''born to rule'' northern cabal who believe that he does not have a right to be President simply because he is an Ijaw man. Ironically General Babangida himself has been criticised by this same group over the years for being ''too liberal and accommodating of the south'' and they have often accused him of not towing their line. That is how racist, myopic and absurd some of these people can be. Thankfully the overwhelming majority of the Hausa-Fulani intelligentsia and northern elites do NOT belong to this cabal and are indeed decent, law-abiding, rational and patriotic Nigerians. However there is a small, powerful and strategically-placed cabal that do espouse this Hitlerite philosophy and do believe that no southerner should have the right to rule in peace without being told what to do and without being teleguided and controlled by them. This small group have sworn to make the country ungovernable for Jonathan and we are now seeing the results of that threat. For the record let us just warn these ethnic supremacists that they must not misconstrue the position that some of us have taken when it comes to this government and it's policies as an endorsement of their deeply conspiratorial and despicable ethnic agenda. I should also add that Jonathan must not die under any mysterious circumstances because if this were to happen there may be no Nigeria left afterwards. The new Nigeria has no place and no room for those that believe in the ''born to rule'' philosophy or those that subscribe to any form of Boko Harm or Taliban-style islamic fundamentalism. We will not tolerate it, we will not bow to it and we will resist it with every fibre of our being. 

I have said it before and I will say it again- if Nigeria is not a place that every ethnic nationality is regarded as being equal and is treated as such then let there be no more Nigeria. There is nothing that is sacrosanct about a forced union of incompatibles. If you are in a bad marriage you get out of it before you kill each other. The Lugardian ''poor husband of the north'' cannot force the ''rich wife of the south'' to remain in this unholy and iniquitous union for much longer unless the terms are right and unless there is equity and justice for all. The mistake we made in 1967 by not standing on Aburi will not be repeated. The days of the master/servant relationship that we have witnessed between the north and the south for 51 years of our national existence are long over and they shall never return again. This country is moving forward and she is not going back and if President Goodluck Jonathan can just get his act together and vigorously resist the hegemonist giants in the land he would have my full support and that of millions of others. This is the time for a new vision for our country. It is the time for new leaders who are ready to stand up and speak the truth about our precarious state of affairs and about the direction in which our nation must go. It is the time to talk about the convening of a Sovereign National Conference and to answer the Nationality Question. It is the time for courage. Let us not take our unity for granted or treat it as ''a given''. Nigeria must change, she must be restructured, she must be reformed and she must make every single ''Nigerian'' believe that he or she can get to the top regardless of their nationality or faith.

On a final note permit me to point out the fact that it does not help when you have a northern Governor of Central Bank who seeks to create a subtle but clear intellectual justification for the existence and activities of Boko Haram by telling the Financial Times of London that ''there is clearly a direct link between the very uneven nature of distribution of resources and the rising level of violence. When you look at the figures and you look at the size of the population of the north you can see that there is a structural imbalance of enormous proportions. Those states simply do not have enough money to meet their basic needs whilst some states have too much money''. The subliminal message and signals are clear to the discerning. Yet it does not stop there. Thisday newspaper (28th Jan. 2012) reported that that same individual said that ''attempts to redress historic grievances in Nigeria's oil-rich south may inadvertently have helped create the conditions for the Islamic insurgency spreading from the impoverished north-eastern region of the country''. I am astounded by this contribution and having read it, it is now very clear to me that President Goodluck Jonathan was absolutely right when he told us that there were secret members and sympathisers of Boko Haram at the highest levels of his government. The Governor of Central Bank's rationalisation and attempted justification of the shameful and unacceptable activities of the murderous islamist sect Boko Haram are an eloquent testimony to that fact. Yet he is not alone. The northern Speaker of the Federal House added insult to injury by saying that Boko Haram should be ''forgiven'' for their sins and called to the table for ''dialogue and negotiations''. And this was just a day after the Kano bombings. Mr. President apparently took his advice because just a few days later he reached out to Boko Haram on CNN, BBC and Al Jazeera, asked them to identify themselves and attempted to open a dialogue with them.  In return, and predictably in my view, he was rebuked, spurned, treated with contempt and disdain and told to ''repent and become a muslim'' before any form of dialogue could begin. So much for the advice, counsel and rationalisations of the ''insiders'' and secret members of Boko Haram within our government. My advice to Mr. President is to identify these fifth columnists, name and shame them publicly and weed them out of his government  before it is too late. The longer he waits the more dangerous it will be for him and for a united Nigeria. Let us pray for our country