JONATHAN'S DAYS NUMBERED - DR ALIYU U. TILDE?

"So from whichever angle one looks at it, appointing a proxy to Gusau would make a lot of sense for a scared Jonathan who is presently confined by the terror to the Villa. By appointing Sambo Dasuki, Jonathan might have bought some time, but only a little. How far he can run before the monster that caught up with those immediately below him also catches up with him is a distance known only to his destiny." - Dr Aliyu U. Tilde.

Icheoku says, scared, he is. Gutless, he also is. Jonathan lacks the courage to do what is necessary to right the wrongs in Nigeria including trading his own life if that is what it will take. He is commander in chief for crying out loud and all he had to do is give the orders. Icheoku had foretold the emptiness of this Obasanjo's imposition on Nigeria right from the onset and nothing has since changed that perception. Anyway, the office he holds is not Niger Delta's turn yet to hold and so it is with all that usurp what does not rightfully belong to them. Firing all the Azazis of the NSA will not help as Boko Haram is deeply entrenched and supported by some powers that be in the Northern Islamic enclave. Even the president confirmed that Boko Haram are everywhere including in his government? So how is the firing of Azazi going to help the president when Azazi was not allowed to do what it took to secure the government and Nigeria in the first place? Why are certain Northerners considered by Jonathan as untouchables when Northern presidents and Heads of States had never extended the same courtesy and reciprocity to Southerners no matter how highly placed they might be? Some of these Northern Islamic henchmen have said that Boko Haram are freedom fighters and not terrorists? Some said Boko Haram are fighting for justice? Some even said the Federal Government of Jonathan is a worst Haram than Boko Haram? Even Adegbite, a non Northern Muslim recently implored the Americans to treat Boko Haram as patriots? So is anything adding up here or is the probable conspiracy a mere figment of the mind? They all cannot be just coincidences.

Now tell Icheoku if President Jonathan is not surrounded and cornered in an island of total insecurity and lonesomeness with Azazi gone? Anyway the president did himself in when he cowardly professed that he is neither a general nor dictator and therefore should not be expected to preside over Nigeria competently and firmly and you wonder if resignation does not exist in his dictionary; hence not an option. What a shame and a curse of Nigeria when competence is usually relegated to the background and weakling mediocrity entrenched in determining who presides over the entity, PhD or other academic laurels notwithstanding. It is a well known fact and once again now proven, that bookworms are not necessarily competent people, administratively and politically speaking as evident in present day Aso Rock. Most academics are anti-social and anti-political loners who were glued to cramming the black and white letters of their discipline during school and had no time to learn how to mingle and/or socialize. Little wonder they lack the needed skill to schmooze and manage diverse people since such were never written down in any course they took while in school for them to cram; especially if the discipline is ZOOLOGY.

Anyway, what a pity that a hamstrung fine officer and gentleman has been sacrificed to appease the North who are now within very close striking distance and range of achieving their principal objective to take out the president who they hold with great contempt and disdain. But only an unthinking political neophyte would ask his arch enemy to man the gates while he slept or may be the Trojan Horse tale never mdke it to this president's curriculum? Odi was reduced to ashes by Obasanjo but this president could not turn the dogs of war loose on Maiduguri? Yaradua took the war to Maiduguri killing the then Boko Haram leader but this president lacks the guts to spill blood? Niger Delta was bombed into submission but this president could not drop a concoction grenade on any part of the North? Obasanjo declared state of emergency in Plateau etc but this president could not muster the courage to suspend one governor in the North? Even Buhari dared the president to arrest him if he can but this president turned tail? Abacha killed Ken Saro Wiwa and destroyed NADECO but this president cannot stand blood? Even during the height of Niger Delta terrorism, one Northerner called for the total annihilation of the region for the sake of the rest; since according to him they are merely a negligible fraction of Nigeria and can be expended? Just wandering out aloud in thought what the heck qualified this president as president in the first place if he is possessed only of the courage of Wizard of Oz's Tin-Man; and a PhD in ZOOLOGY is not necessarily a prerequisite to competently presiding over a complexity such as Nigeria.

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED, REILLE HUNTER CLAIMS YET ANOTHER VICTIM?

Icheoku says to home wrecker Reille Hunter, "What really happened" was that she is a shriveling gold-digging whore, who opened her legs for a married man, got knocked up by him and refused an abortion in order to blackmail him. In the process a home was wrecked, a marriage was ruined, a political career was destroyed, a cancer stricken wife was fast-tracked to an early grave by broken heart and now she has left the same man she destroyed hanging up to dry in an island of loneliness. That was 'what really happened' and no one needs a rehash of it or to be told or reminded of how this bitch completely destroyed the Edwards, especially Elizabeth and for crying out loud, JOHN too.

Icheoku says 'what really happened' was that Reille Hunter is a very dangerous daughter of Eve and the worst nightmare any married man could ever have or have happen to him; and if in doubt, please ask John Edwards how much he is smiling now? First to go was a marriage, then a wife who died of broken heart, admitted she was battling cancer as she lost the strength and support to fight on and now, the very libidinous man who yielded to a temptatious lecherous woman that cascaded his downfall. Reille Hunter, Icheoku asks, how many victims must you claim or take before you disappear from this earth or at least from our airwaves? How could you just walk away from John Edwards after what you visited on him or has he not suffered enough in your hands? At least you owe him your sticking around with him for making him lose everything he once treasured just because of you and now you have the temerity to dump him to write a tell-all book?

Icheoku says America, lets tell this woman that enough is enough and that we shall not indulge her heartless exploits of a family which she since brought to ruins. Please America, lets honor the memory of Elizabeth Edwards and not put our dollars in the hands of Reille Hunters. We do not need to know 'what really happened' especially from the conniving maggot herself since the drama played out before our own very eyes. Also whatever she may say or have probably written in the book can only be to tailor the story to fit her own very selfish interest, especially now that there is no longer Elizabeth Edwards to rebut such version and account of the lurid details. Look at the title "What really happened: John Edwards, our daughter and me?" So what about Elizabeth and her children whose family Reille Hunter destroyed? What about them or don't deserve a mention on the cover of what really happened; afterall it was her husband and their father that Reille Hunter stole? Hey what about them Reille? Please America, lets tell Reille Hunter that what she did to Elizabeth Edwards and her children was abhorable and that she is a despicable human-being not worthy of our dollars. What really happened, we must not buy. Let's boycott "What really happened" to send a message loud and clear that such behavior is unacceptable in a morally civilized society. Icheoku urges you to please not buy or even read Reille Hunter's 'What really happened' as she supplied nothing new in it. It is a self serving memoir, wherein she pretended that she did not know that John Edwards was married when she was kicking her wide spread legs in the air with him sandwiched between. What a piece of garbage.

THE POOR HUSBAND, THE RICH WIFE AND BOKO HARAM - an article by Femi Fani-Kayode

I have nothing against the Islamic faith. As a matter of fact some of my most loyal friends are practicing muslims. There are many muslims in my family and my maternal great grandmother was an illustrious Fulani woman from the muslim core north. I do however believe that there is a world of difference between a true Muslim and an islamist. The former is a humble worshipper of God who seeks to peacefully and piously live his life in accordance with the dictates of his faith and in true harmony with his neighbour. He is tolerant, reasonable, rational and God-fearing.

The latter is the opposite. He is an islamic fundamentalist and an extreemist who seeks to impose his will and his own understanding and interpretation of islam on others by compulsion, intimidation, violence and terror. The overwhelming maajority of muslims in Nigeria today fall into the former category but there is a small and growing minority that sadly fall into the latter. That group constitute those that we describe today as Boko Haram and they have been waging a relentless and brutal war of terror against the Nigerian state and people for the last  few years. They are indeed the enemy within. The question is what should our collective response be to these men of violence and blood. That, together with the a cursory analysis of how we got into this mess and the way out of it is the topic of this essay.

Some are of the view that we ought to enter some form of dialogue with Boko Haram and that this would eventually solve the problem. My younger brother, Mujahid Asari Dokubo, enunciated that position rather well in an article titled ”How To Address The Boko Haram Problem In Nigeria” (25th June, 2011) . He suggested that President Goodluck Jonathan should enter into negotiations with the islamist terrorist group as quickly as possible regardless of the fact that they themselves have made it clear that they are not interested in any form of dialogue with the government and that they have murdered thousands of innocent and defenceless Nigerian men, women and children in the last three years alone. I respectfully beg to differ with Dokubo on this issue and indeed with all those that share this view.

In my view the solution is simple to the Boko Haram problem is simple. They must be utterly crushed by the Nigerian state and certainly not negotiated with. This is because in any serious society there can never be dialogue, compromise or any form of negiotiation with terrorists whilst they are still carrying arms and waging war against the state and the people. Worst still there can be no compromise with those that seek to forcefully establish a 17th century Islamic fundamentalist caliphate in our country and those that seek to impose their strange and outdated values on each and everyone of us. Worst still there is no doubt in my mind that Boko Haram is part of the world-wide Al Qaeda-sponsored ”global jihad” and if we give them one inch they will definitely take a mile. We cannot afford to have peace with them on any terms or peace with them at the cost of our hard-earned civil liberties, liberal and cherishedl values, plural and multi-cultural society and modern way of life.

There must come a time when we as a people can boldly say ”enough is enough” and when we draw the line in the sand. And if Boko Haram crosses that line they must be confronted by the full force of the Nigerian Armed Forces who must be ready, willing and able to unleash hell on them regardless of the collateral damage and immense infrastructural destruction that this will cause in various parts of our country. President Olusegun Obasanjo did this decisively and with ruthless efficiency in the town of Odi in the Niger Delta area a number of years ago with remarkable success. By the time the Nigerian Armed Forces finished shelling Odi from the land, the sea and the air there was not one building left standing there except for, interestingly, the local bank. The casualties in terms of human life were extreemly high but the point was made and the objective achieved. From that point on the Niger Delta militants stopped killing policemen and soldiers right up until the time that Obasanjo left power. Why can the same solution not be applied to the Boko Haram problem by the Jonathan administration today? What is the fear?

Why should the same treatment not be meted out to any city or community in our country that grants the footsoldiers of Boko Haram covert support, safe haven, sanctuary or shelter? This is all the more important because they are not true muslims or believers in God. Rather they are a cancer that must be identified, isolated and cut out of our body politic before they spread their terrible diesease of hate, extreemism, violence and intolerance throughout the federation and the reprisals begin. That is what a strong, focused, resolute and purposeful government ought to do. Sadly we have not seen any such thing from our government. Instead what we have witnessed from them are a series of feeble and pathetic pleas for dialogue with the enemy and the shameful display of weakness, incompetence and insensitivity when faced with their terror. To make matters worse the National Chairman of the President’s own ruling PDP, Alhaji Bamangar Tukur, recently declared that Boko Haram was ”fighting for justice”.

What a thing to say by an elder statesman who I not only have tremendous respect for but who I have always regarded as a father. I really do wonder what type of ”justice” he is referring to when churches are now being blown up virtually every sunday morning all over the north and when thousands of defenceless christians are being slaughtered on a daily basis. Is that what the Chairman calls ”fighting for justice”. Are these the people that are denying Boko Haram their justice and that are denying them their rights? Are they the ones that killed their leader, Mohammed Yusuf, a few years ago? Boko Haram started by targetting government institutions and security agencies with extreeme and deadly violence but now they have graduated to killing the followers of Christ and they have made known their intention to wipe out christianity in northern Nigeria and to stop christians from peacefully worshipping their God. Is that the ”just cause” that they are fighting for?

We must understand that Boko Haram, what they stand for and what they seek to establish is patently evil and that what they are doing represents the greatest threat to Nigerian unity since our civil war. They are not just a danger to christians but to all true muslims as well. Real muslims like Dokubo, Tukur and all the others that believe that Boko Haram are fighting a ”just cause” would do better by trying to educate and enlighten their misguided islamist brothers. They should advise them to stop the violence, to stop the slaughtering of christians and true muslims, to stop destabilising the Nigerian state, to stop trying to islamise northern Nigeria, to stop trying to return our country to the dark ages of the 17th century and to stop trying to wage a global war of terror against the rest of humanity. We as a people must not allow ourselves to be intimidated by their evil agenda and we must vigorously and courageously resist them no matter what it takes. No responsible and strong government would compromise or enter into negotiations with such barbarous and evil men that have so much blood on their hands. To throw down the gauntlet and confront such evil is one of the major challenges of our time and it is a challenge that our government must not fail to rise up to in a fearless, vigorous and responsible manner.

A few home truths must now be told. We christians take strong exception to the fact that literally hundreds of thousands of our fellow christian brothers and sisters from all over the country have been brutally killed by muslim fundamentalists in northern Nigeria over the last 50 years for no just cause.

The innocent blood of those people cries to God in heaven for vengeance and it gets louder and louder by the day. Boko Haram have said publically that they want the adoption of full sharia law and the establishment of an islamic fundamentalist state in all the northern states of Nigeria before they stop killing and bombing innocent people and spreading terror. Yet the truth is that that will never happen as long as Nigeria remains as one nation and remains a secular state. And if Nigeria ever stops being a secular state then we will simply break it up and go our separate ways. It is as simple as that. No-one wants a full blown religious war but neither will anyone run away from it if it is foisted on us. For how long can the people of the south and the Middle Belt sit by idly and watch silently as their own kith and kin that reside in the core north and their northern minority christian brothers and sisters are subjected to nothing less than genocide and mass murder from the most ruthless and barbatric terrorist organisation that this country has ever known. I believe in restraint but is it humanly possible that we will be restrained forever?

Yet I believe that there is still hope and that a war can still be avoided. That hope lies in the speedy convocation of a Sovereign National Conference. That, in my view, is the only vehicle that can provide a lasting solution to the monumental challenges that we are facing in our country today, including the scourge of Boko Haram. I say this because whether we like to admit it or not, Nigeria is more divided today on ethnic and religious lines than it has ever been since our independence in 1960. We should iron out all these issues at such a conference once and for all. These religious clashes and killings feature in the northern part of Nigeria alone and hardly in the south. In the south-west where I come from the christians, the muslims and the traditional worshippers are one and we treat each other with love, respect, understanding and sensitivity. We do not kill ourselves on account of our religious differences. That is simply our way and clearly many from other parts of Nigeria and indeed the rest of the world have a lot to learn from us. My position is that if Nigeria cannot be built on a foundation of equality, equity and fairness for ALL her people, whether they be christian, muslim, northern, middle-beltern or southern, then we should reject the concept of a united Nigeria and we should begin to renegotiate the terms of our union. I love this country and I would always be amongst those to defend and speak up for her unity but the truth is that there is absolutely nothing that is sacrosanct about the unity of the Nigerian state if we cannot live together in peace.

As a matter of fact there has been a school of thought since 1914 when Nigeria was first created that it was an ”unworkable union” and a ”cruel joke”. Lord Frederick Lugard’s vision, and indeed his intention, when he recommended the amalglamation of the northern and southern protectorates of Nigeria in 1914 was ably described and enunciated by his own very words when he said that the northern protectorate of Nigeria could be described as the ”poor husband” whilst the southern protectorate could be described as the ”rich wife”. He then pronounced the ”permanency” of our forced union by saying- ”today we marry the two and our prayer is that this union lasts forever”. That is how the north and the south got ”married” and that is how the famous amalglamation of 1914 came about. The problem was that the two young spouses were never asked by their British masters whether they actually wanted to stay together, let alone get married. Worst still the ”poor husband” was never given the opportunity to court, woo or propose to the ”rich wife”.

To make matters worse the two spouses came from different worlds, had different backgrounds, had a different religion, had a different history and had a different world-view . Today the ”rich wife” and the ”poor husband” have suffered immensly in each others ”loving” arms. The marriage has been strained and turbulent. We fought a brutal and avoidable  3 year civil war from 1967 in which we killed no less than 2 million of our own people. Since1960 the story has been more or less the same and the tales of tragedy and woe have just continued to pour in. If it is not genocide, mass killings or sectarian butchery by groups like Boko Haram then it is always something else. Yet today’s barbarism and mass killings are far more horrendous than ever and are far better planned, funded, orchestrated and executed by those that are behind them than ever before.

The question is how much longer can the ”rich wife” and the ”poor husband” give and take this sort of thing from one another? For how long can the centre hold before the voices of reason and restraint are completely drowned by the irrational, compulsive outrage that is gradually building up and the uncontrollable outcry for reprisals and revenge? For how long can our hope and fervent prayers prevent the dogs of war from being unleashed? May God save Nigeria

THE FALL OF AZAZI, THE RETURN OF GUSAU - an article by Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde

Sambo Dasuki, I am tempted to believe, got this appointment by his marital link to the longest serving NSA, General Aliyu Gusau (rtd). Gusau is married to Sambo’s sister, the wife of late Aliyu Dasuki, may God have mercy on him.

Boko Haram has claimed its most important victim yet last weekend: the National Security Adviser, Andrew Owoye Azazi. For an avowed enemy of the nation’s security apparatus and political system, only the ultimate target remains: the President. If it can manufacture his downfall or the end of his regime, the group would boast that it has proved its mettle.

The fall of Azazi must have surprised many Nigerians. Ah, so the ‘clueless’ and ‘weak’ Jonathan can also bite, they would exclaim. Beyond that, biting his Ijaw brother was least expected. Many people think Azazi did not expect his sudden fall. He has since his resumption as NSA walked firmly on the presidential turf with a mien that was informed by the confidence of an insider and the assurance of a kinsman.

As the weakness in the President became clearer, the arrogance of Azazi as his untouchable protector and indispensable ally was increasing by the day. His display of power reached its peak last week when his contempt for the president was reported online. Somewhere the idea of declaring the state of emergency in Kaduna State was discussed and it was agreed that it was a good idea. To seal its fate however, the former NSA employed a sarcasm that portrayed his level of disdain for his boss, the President. “Where is the president to declare it”, was his reported remark, as if Jonathan was missing in Bermuda Triangle or he has abandoned the hot seat for a mere trivial summit in Brazil.

Azazi left office with the same demeaning impression for the President. After receiving the news of his sacking, his spokesman issued some statements that did not hide his long-standing poor rating of Jonathan’s courage to face challenges squarely. The spokesman said when Azazi suggested that Buhari and some top northerners be invited for ‘questioning’, Jonathan refused and accused the NSA of trying to “scuttle his government.”

As a tribute, I feel compelled to attest that Azazi was different from former NSAs in his relationship with the Nigerian public. Two months ago, he declared the ruling party and the northern presidential aspirants guilty of precipitating the present security crisis in the country. Right or wrong, the public felt that such statements should not have come from a person so close to the President and his NSA for that matter – a Freudian slip, you can say.

The tradition of the NSA in Nigeria as cut by his predecessors is complete silence. They understood that the strength of any security apparatus lies in its secrecy, through leaving the public guessing about its opinion and what it onows about any security issue. Even if Azazi shared that philosophy, the politician in him was not comfortable with it. He preferred activism to mystery. Under him, even the secretive SSS went public, appointing a spokesperson, issuing press statements, parading suspects and holding press conferences. The public could easily discern from these development that there was a competition for its recognition between the SSS and the police in any success, no matter how small, which was recorded in the fight against Boko Haram.

Azazi might have usurped the functions of the police and demystified the office of the NSA. But if it were not for his approach, we would not have been able to read the mind of the administration regarding crucial issues like its perception of the causes of the Boko Haram insurgency. To the delight of journalists, commentators and the opposition, Azazi was always there to let the cat out of the bag.

Well he is gone, for whatever reason and for whatever sin he committed. He is the latest victim of Boko Haram. He is familiar with sackings though, having suffered one as the Chief of Defence Staff under Yar’adua when he was indicted by an army security report on the theft of weapons from his 1 DIV by a Niger Delta militant syndicate. Perhaps, that was the first time he established relationship with Jonathan, who the report fell short of naming as one of the financiers of the gun running activities of the syndicate.

Azazi’s return as NSA might be a reward for his ethnic chauvinism. Our own, an Ijaw, possibly, my partner in the illegal arms deal is now the President, Azazi must have calculated rightly when Jonathan became the President. Jonathan too might have wondered if he could trust anyone better than the devil he knows. And on the NSA seat, we saw all sorts of sumptuous security contracts awarded to Niger Deta militants, the latest being the concession of our maritime security to them by the Jonathan administration. We also witnessed the largest allocation of our budget to national security in our history.

Azazi may now be bitter for losing the top security job but he can still keep himself busy by paying full attention to the execution of those security contracts that were fronted for him by Tampolo and other Niger Delta militants. With his departure, the dream of Niger Delta republic has suffered a serious setback. It is clear that Nigeria is bigger than his dream. Safe journey, sir.

At his heels comes Sambo Dasuki, a lesser known person from the Sokoto royal family. Compared to General Azazi, Sambo is a dwarf: a junior officer who retired almost two decades ago as a colonel. Politically, the highest position he held in the army was the ADC to President Babangida. He was nowhere close to commanding a division or becoming Nigeria’s chief of defence staff. Likewise, I doubt if he ever dreamt of becoming the NSA.

Now, if the NSA job has put his predecessor general to shame during these trying times, how did the President got convinced that Sambo would succeed in disabling the bombs of Boko Haram and silencing their guns? Look at the gamble: apart from his political appointment as the Managing Director of Nigeria Security Printing and Minting Corporation, the new NSA has nothing in hand to prove that he is competent in heading the security apparatus of country as it is today. At its face value, one is tempted to think that the appointment of Sambo is one of the most stupid things that Jonathan ever did as the President. So are we heading for the rocks, again?

Hold your breath. we are not. The President is not stupid. Come with me.

The reason is simple. Some things we get by birth. Many others we get by hard work. Few we get by association. Sambo Dasuki, I am tempted to believe, got this appointment by his marital link to the longest serving NSA, General Aliyu Gusau (rtd). Gusau is married to Sambo’s sister, the wife of late Aliyu Dasuki, may God have mercy on him.

In the past few months, there have been reports that Gusau was resisting the pressure to return to the NSA office. Gusau might have calculated the cool reception that Nigerians would accord him if he were to return for the simple fact that he has been there three times before. Man is hardly excited with the familiar. Also, he might have been hindered morally by his contest for the PDP presidential ticket against Jonathan under whom he last served as NSA. The idea of a proxy is therefore apt. Sambo would sit in as the figurehead NSA, definitely, while Gusau would ably determine the security operations of the country.

From his position at the top, Jonathan must have perceived that Boko Haram is inching closer and closer to him. It has caused the sacking of all categories of police and security chiefs. With some clerics warning him of an impending war, the President must have realized that he could be the next victim. The nation has, with distinctions, fulfilled all the requirements for a coup d’etat. The condition is so critical that he will not hesitate to call for the assistance of anyone perceived to be capable of making a difference between democracy and military rule.

It is easy to see the idea of involving Gusau as based purely on the merit of the former NSA. However, it surely goes beyond that. I do not also believe that it is a gesture made to appeal Northerners to dismiss the notion that the inability of the government to handle the situation is not a conspiracy to destroy the North.

In my humble opinion that the return of Gusau was due to two reasons. One, from what Azazi said two months ago – that violating the principle of zoning in PDP was responsible for the present security challenges in the country and that no one expects that those aggrieved would fail to respond by creating difficulties for the Jonathan administration – it is clear that he meant that Boko Haram is recruited by those who lost the ticket to Jonathan. So they must know the secret behind it.

Nobody expects that Azazi will make such serious accusations without any support from the hundreds of files he has treated on the matter. Jonathan, according Azazi’s spokesman yesterday, has resisted the fomer NSA’s advice that such people be called for questioning. Gusau, being one of those aspirants, must have made it to Azazi’s list conspirators.

Jonathan here took a directly opposite route. If he cannot invite Gusau for questioning, it would not be a bad idea to saddle him with the challenge of restoring security to the country.

The second reason is that possibly few people, if any, in our security domain would know about Boko Haram than Gusau. It was under the tenure of Obasanjo that Boko Haram was conceived, hatched and nourished to full growth. The first we heard about the group was when it called itself the “Nigerian Taliban” after it clashed with the police in Yobe in the early 2000s. Many of the arrests made then turned out to be sons of influential people in the old Borno State. The suspects were eventually released. From there, the group moved its headquarters to Maiduguri and enjoyed the support of people like Governor Sheriff. Perhaps few people knew that it would turn so dangerous.

But the SSS director then, Gadzama, has raised sufficient alarms which, for unknown reasons, were not heeded to. It took the vacation of Obasanjo from that office, along with NSA Gusau, before the authorities could provoke a violent engagement with the group resulting in the present crisis.

Why was the group not stopped from blooming and fruition during Obasanjo still remains a mystery to many of us. But it will not be a mistake to assume that the person at the helm of our security structure during the formative years of the group clearly knows its dynamics and the forces behind it. Who else is then best qualified for the job than him?

So from whichever angle one looks at it, appointing a proxy to Gusau would make a lot of sense for a scared Jonathan who is presently confined by the terror to the Villa. By appointing Sambo Dasuki, Jonathan might have bought some time, but only a little. How far he can run before the monster that caught up with those immediately below him also catches up with him is a distance known only to his destiny.

Finally, I would like to put this question to my readers. Should the new NSA fail to meet the expectations of Jonathan and Nigeria precariously attains a tipping point, would the country be ready to sacrifice Jonathan in order to avert the impending disaster or would it prefer to go into an indefinable civil war and dismemberment simply to maintain him as the President of a democratic Nigeria?

Jonathan would be keen to know your answers. But he must be under no illusions as to what they would be. Nigerians have answered such questions each time the country reaches the brink in the past. And consistently, the answers have never been in favour of the presidents. This one too will not be different, I suppose.

MIAMI HEAT'S NBA WIN, THE KING FINALLY GETS HIS CROWN.

King James that is - the king of basketball court and he holds it with audacious bravado. Now all the naysayers and haters alike, particularly the folks at Cleveland and their Cavalier owner, Dan Gilbert, who ate their hair and went acerbic because LeBron James left in search of the elusive NBA championship, would now be forced to swallow their vomit. Their alleged curse of LeBron has been completely debunked by James with his stellar win of a championship; thus consigning the curse to the dustbin of unproven myths like the Scottish Loch Ness monster. What a people, a very sore people, the Cavalier clan are.

Icheoku queries Dan Gilbert's credit worthiness now that the King has won the NBA championship before his struggling Cavaliers? Recall that Dan Gilbert has boasted that he personally guarantee that Cavaliers would win an NBA championship before the "self-titled former King wins one?" To make matters worse, Dan Gilbert had told his Cavalier fans to take his promise to the bank; which promise, unfortunately bounced today with the stellar performance put up by the Miami Heat led LeBron James culminating in their well deserved championship win.

Icheoku harpoons the Cavalier owner Dan Gilbert as a disgruntled, self effacing scumbag, who took a purely professional business decision by LeBron James to take his talent elsewhere to Miami Heat so personal he sucked. Suddenly James became cursed but was not so cursed while toiling away for the Cavaliers? Suddenly James became a "self-titled King" but he was a worthy king while doing all the heavy lifting for the Cavaliers? In sports participants are expected to take both a win and a loss in strides like sportsmen; but unfortunately such admonition see not applicable to this Cavalier owner Dan Gilbert? Icheoku queries, were LeBron James to be an under-performing player during his days in Dan Gilbert's owned Cavalier, would Dan Gilbert have cut him some slacks and not fire him before blinking an eyelid and turning him loose as a free agent? What a compound loser Dan Gilbert is that couldn't deliver on his promise to motivate the Cavaliers to a championship before the "self-titled king" gets one. Icheoku asks, who is now a "self-titled" whatever - a King who finally wrestled his crown or a sorry ass Cavalier boastful owner who could not keep his promise thus making him a "self-tiled" promisor without performance! Dan Gilbert was only sulking because his golden goose walked away in search of a better pasture.

Nothing was wrong with LeBron James except that he sacrificed so much with a mediocre team called Cavaliers and for seven long years with no championship to show for his effort. Like any rational human-being would do, he left the Dan Gilbert's under-motivated Cavaliers to a more fired-up Miami Heats, where today's crowning victory has proved he was not under any spell or curse and that he is simply the greatest now that plays the hoop. To King LeBron James, Icheoku says may your reign last long and may the ten-foot tall basket become shorter faced with your menacing take no prisoner dunks. Icheoku is particularly happy for you because so many people have said so many bad things about you for no just cause, despite your four times MVP awards which is now five times with today's win; and also not minding that it was not because of you that Cleveland Cavalier never smelt the championship or Miami Heat lost the previous year's championship since a tree does not make a forest. Even the best General needs good soldiers to win any war.

Thankfully you and your soldiers of Miami Heat convincingly anchored the 2012 National Basketball Association championship over an equally tough and talented side the roaring Thunders of Oklahoma City. It was a well fought and won 4-1 aggregate victory and both teams deserves some encomiums. What a glorious day for Miami, the only city in Florida that makes that state still somewhat attractive to visit; the Stanford vigilantism called in mind. Icheoku says well done LeBron James and the boys. However the gist of this championship is all about LeBron James and his first championship ring in his nine years playing career, seven of which were wasted in Cleveland Ohio with an ungrateful Dan Gilbert and his team Cavaliers. Who said there is nothing in a name like cavalier manner? Now just two seasons in Miami, the eagle has landed and LeBron James is a proud and fulfilled NBA champion with a ring to show for it. Icheoku reechoes his sentiment that "It's about damn time; it's about damn time" and LeBron James richly deserved the championship. At last, his dream has now become a reality and according to him, it is the best feeling he ever had.

MR "CAN WE ALL GET ALONG" RODNEY KING, DEAD.

Icheoku says he is finally dead, the black-man the then racist Los Angeles police men beat to a pulp and left for the dead in 1991. Rodney King, Mr "Can we all get along" victim of police brutality was found dead drowned in a swimming pool. Icheoku asks was he killed and then faked it as if he drowned? 

Was he a male version of the over-dozed Whitney Houston, rendered incapacitated by drugs in a swimming pool; admitted Whitney's was in a bath-tub. But who goes swimming by 5.30am in the morning? Anyway no answer has become available just yet; but Icheoku hopes he did not fall to the numerous bulls-eyes that were trained at him ever since that near destruction of Los Angeles as a result of his brutalization in the hands of four racist police officers. Rodney King was 47 years old. 

Rodney King was stopped for speeding in March 1991 by four racist police officers who hit him more than 50 times, kicked him and shot him severally with stun guns. His inhuman beating was captured on video but those four officers Theodore Briseno, Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind and Sgt. Stacey Koo were still acquitted despite the glaring evidence; which sparked a riot that would leave in its trail 55 people dead and more than 2,000 injured with a billion dollar worth of properties destroyed. According to Rodeny King, while the being pulled over by the police, he said "I saw all those apartments over there, so I said, 'I'm gonna stop right there, If it goes down, somebody will see it.' And true to his prophesy an amateur cameraman caught the pummeling scene as it unfolded yet they were found not guilty by an all-white Simi Valley Los Angeles jury?