UNDERSTANDING WOMEN, ANY APP FOR THAT?

Icheoku was at an event some weeks ago and had a chat with a midlife crisis-laden lady who told of her recent divorce. According to her, she just ended her marriage after seventeen long years and "my four boys to show for it." Icheoku interjected to know why she ended the marriage after such a long invested time and love? She answered 'irreconcilable differences' did us in. Icheoku then asked what was the nature of the irreconcilable differences? She retorted that "He is Filipino and am Mexican". Icheoku then followed the questioning up with "but he was and always has been a Filipino before you met and married him?" She responded 'I just woke up to the fact and I can't do it, not anymore; am done and that is what matters most.' 

Icheoku prodded her still further to know if she is dating again and she replied, nope. Icheoku asks why not and she said because all men are the same. Icheoku baited her further by asking if she has ever considered dating women since "all men are the same? That should just switch to a lesbian and start dating females for a change?" She said nope, that she likes the real thing; she likes men EXCEPT that men suck and she does not want to keep them anymore. Icheoku pushed further to know how she now gets her groove on and she said she just makes her self flirtatiously available either at a bar or the office or even at the mall and one stupid dog would coming running, tail wagging and the rest as they say is better left to the imagination for completion. Icheoku says this is atypical of a case of 'want them but don't want them' and you wonder who is in denial here? 

Icheoku then remembered the song of Fela Anikulapo Kuti "Dead body get accident, yee kpaa; na double wahalah for dead body and the owner of the dead body!' So Icheoku asks, is it the way they are made or were they purposely put here just to keep men rattled, unsettled and perpetually on their toes and not to have the peace of mind to think out how to live forever? Or is it a case of when a woman is fed up and any reason, whether imaginary, hallucinatory and/or fantastic becomes good enough? Here is a woman who met and married a guy and for seventeen long years ONLY to wake up one day and discovered that she shouldn't have married a man from the guy's country and ended the marriage pronto? Icheoku asks whether she was hypnotized by him or he had a spell cast over her that made her hopelessly out of her senses and for seventeen "agonizing" years not to know she was married to a Filipino? 

A philosopher once said that whenever a woman is tired of a man, she can walk away for reasons going from the most frivolous to the utterly mundane; and that there is no point gained in trying to make sense out of some of their actions most of the times? 

Icheoku says I don't know about you but it does appear that 'some' of these daughters of Eve are indeed CRAZY and in certain cases, horn-mad crazy too. Woman are crazy and they themselves know it, the reason they think men are stupid for putting up with them? They can hardly put up with each other because of their craziness and will readily tear themselves apart if left unchecked. It is in their nature, they are wild and certainly belong to a different environment where the the wild things live; but it is men's burden to tolerate them, admitted they do so with utmost reluctance. Imagine ending a seventeen year marriage because your husband is from a country you don't like or you no longer like? Icheoku is not a chauvinist, far be that; but certain things sometimes make Icheoku wish that a very big chasm existed between planet women and planet men? That they literally live in Venus while men live on Mars; and that the two will always go to a great length in trying to visit, see and be with each other and for a very limited time - the duration of their visiting visas or passes? In that way, both would be forced to place proper value on what they have, passionately enjoy it while it lasted, instead of just walking away because another 'lap dog' is wagging its tail down the corner in the neighborhood? 

But hey, is there anybody out there who understands WOMEN, please the world of men could use some advise! Icheoku was getting nearly exasperated trying to rationalize the sack of rock offloaded on the people gathered at this fora by this woman when suddenly Jack Nicholson's line in "As Good As It Gets" came rushing to mind. According to JN, on how he successfully relates to issues of women being such a chronic bachelor, he said, 'just take away rationality and taking responsibility for one's action and you have a woman!' On this note, Icheoku rests; but laments that this age-long problem of men trying to understand women might remain with mankind, an intractable problem, until the end of time. Under the circumstance, Icheoku asks is trying still an option or should men just follow the advise of one other philosopher who admonished that 'all of them will give you shit, just find the one whose shit you can tolerate and deal with it? I am Icheoku and like most men, am scared-stiff paralyzed; please call the doctor!

FERGUSON BURIES MICHAEL BROWN, ANY GOOD FROM THE TRAGEDY?

As Ferguson inters their police-killed young black American male, Michael Brown, Icheoku asks is there any possibility whatsoever that at least some good will come out of the tragedy that was his avoidable killing? Like a Phoenix rising from the ashes of Pompeii, can something palliative inure as a result of his death to assuage hurt feelings and light the way forward in American race relations? Michael Brown's killing is not the first nor would it be the last nor the beginning of the end of police shooting to death of unarmed black males in America; but Icheoku's prayer is that it should be a watershed in fixing a broken institution which is unfairly tilted against black people. Although the one noticeable thing about his death is the colossal life it took that pivoted it into a global event that saw major television houses and newspapers and other media worldwide, making it their headline story and for a long time. Now to the gist that was Michael Brown's killing.

It is  becoming increasingly very clear that unless  some speedy and meaningful intervention is taken to stem the tide of disaffection and disillusionment which black people hold against their white counterparts in America, an uprising or even an outright revolution is in the very near future of America? The only question is when will the bottled-up tension rip the seams open and spill over or even explode and engulf the country? The projected outcome does not look good and forebodes of grave danger to the United States of America; as its unintended consequences will make Detroit race riot, Chicago race riot, Martin Luther King riot and even Rodney King riot appear ordinary and like a mock up rehearsal in comparison. This bleak forecast is avoidable and will definitely cost less now to prevent, than it will cost to pursue the bull once it had bolted from the barn. The scenario looks ugly and America the beautiful would rather remain beautiful.

Every black person you talk to or listen to, in every city, in  every county and in every state in America, the story is the same. The feeling is also the same that - 'these white folks are not treating them right and things have to change for peace to reign!' To say that there is palpable tension and mistrust between the two Americans is understating the situation. Any white person in doubt should find him or herself stranded or lost in any black neighborhood and see how the story goes. The same goes to black people who happen not to pace themselves out of "sundown" suburbia neighborhoods, cities and in some cases even states. Admitted that in most cases, while black people will literally take the matter of avenging their 'persecution' on any such stranded white person, in their hands; their white counterparts have the telephone numbers of their hatchet-men police and sheriff officers ready on a speed-dial. In some white neighborhoods, a black person may find himself explaining to the enforcer why you are "loitering and casing a joint for commission of crime" or why you are "racing away from a crime scene" depending on how fast or slow you were found walking in "their neighborhood"? Remember this was the reason Martin Trevon was shot and killed in Florida because he 'strayed" into their neighborhood? Just recently too in Michigan, a black lady who got a flat tire in the middle of the night and walked up to white man's door for help, was shot and killed for being a "nuisance?" 

However, it seems that black American people are gradually getting tired of being treated with levity? They are becoming tired of being ignored and marginalized? They are frustrated that their problems are being given little or no attention whatsoever? They are getting tired of a future that is bleak and which is neither certain nor guaranteed? They are tired of burying their children, some of whom are shot and killed by the police that is meant to protect them? They are tired of being treated as sub-humans when they are even so acknowledged and not totally looked down and looked through as though invisible? They are also tired of hopelessly praying and waiting in vain for the elusive new dawn and are beginning to complain and their complain is getting louder. This gathering of storm is what was rehearsed in Ferguson and the echo is reverberating throughout America as well as the entire world. 

Black Americans are complaining. They are growling in pain but unfortunately, their cries for help are equally falling on the same deaf ears that have refused to listen to their concerns all these past centuries? Like in a chemistry experiment, when you force too much gas into a container, over and above its psi holding strength, it will explode. This appears to be the future assured fate of America where black Americans are nearing their saturation point when they cannot take it any longer and are hissing loudly for some relieve. All the world witnessed in Ferguson Missouri is a continuation of this cry for help, a continuum of the Rodney King's Los Angeles riot as well as Oscar Grant's Oakland riot. These protests are precursors or rather micro-rehearsals of what the great upheaval will look like when it eventually makes a touch down. Icheoku prays it never makes a landfall and that some sensible resolutions of the myriad of problems facing black people of America and in America will take place to preempt and abort it. Black people in America are tired, they are despondent, they are despaired, they are disillusioned and they are nearing a state of hopelessness that their concerns will ever be addressed. Such state of anomie begets desperation and the lack of desire to go on living and its attendant unfathomable consequences. Icheoku says the situation is reaching a crisis point and may God forbid a total meltdown.

Any rational observer knows that all is not well in America between blacks and white communities; a result of years of perceived and discernible continuing oppression of the black minority by their oppressive white "majority?" In practically every sphere of life, be it employment, good-education, life-opportunities, economic empowerment, choice-neighborhoods, other privileges, law enforcements as well as in other social climbing-ladder structures, everywhere you turn there is a roadblock mounted against you if you are a black person in America. 

In America, the white people and other light skinned people are far more privileged than their dark skinned counterparts. But the sad part of the situation is that some people choose to pretend that racism does not exist in America or rather would swat the story away as not their problem since according to them, they are not themselves racists? Then you confront them by asking them how many black people do they have in their employ, NONE. How many black people live in their owned apartment or neighborhood, NONE. How many black people attend the same school with their children or how many of their children attend a black school, NONE. How many black people do they have as friends, NONE. How many of them go to a black church or how many black people attend their church, NONE. Ask them how many black people they know and they reel out that OBAMA is black, Micheal Jordan is black and Oprah Winfrey is black, how about that? 

So tell Icheoku what other definition of racism exist short of these situations as described and the story is practically the same among some of them if not most of them. But unfortunately for this type of "selective amnesia(ed) unaware racist" white people, they forgot that revolutions are usually blind. They forgot that revolutions are also irrational to know who did what to provoke or perpetuate the situation, provided they share the same skin color? In William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Cicero the poet was mistakenly killed by the mob for being Cicero the conspirator, admitted his killing was later 'justified' because "he wrote bad verses anyway?" Revolutions also could be literally 'deaf and dumb' and often times illogical as was with the French Bastille's, where the mantra was just take them to the lamppost and if you cannot hang him or her fast enough, just chop off their heads; which macabre orgy led to the invention of the guillotine to push forward the process faster. Ditto the Bolshevik revolution and the list goes on ad infinitum.

Icheoku says it is about time the white folks of America started looking inward, to do some serious soul searching introspection and begin addressing the underlying reasons why "black folks of America are angry?" Instead of perpetually being on the edge, concerned for their safety, because of these 'gorillas in their midst' are horn-mad angry,   these white folks should apply their energies proactively in understanding the root causes of this 'anger in black Americans' and try to address them. Icheoku bemoans a situation where these white folks are complaining about the symptom of a disease rather than diagnosing the disease itself and properly treating it and with it will go the symptom. Complaining that a whole race of people are "ANGRY" without caring a hoot to understand why they are ANGRY is rather not solution orientated mindset. How can you kill my child and expect me to love your own child? How can you not give me job and expect me not to help myself with your stuff whenever I can? How can you not let me provide for my child and expect me not to seek ways or other alternative to buy diapers and milk for my own kids? Icheoku strongly believes that there is some elements of human being's survival instinct in black crimes in America.

The other unnerving thing about the situation is that these "angry black people" are embedded with the 'happy white people' and cannot be easily isolated for any "decisive" action to be meted against them, such as a "complete annihilation" or shipment back to Africa, which some of them had canvassed in the past. Also unlike those 'terrorists' Al Queida or ISIL or Boko Haram or Magrebs or Yemeni or Talibans, whom  drones and bombs can take care of in some God forsaken desert countries overseas, these "angry black folks" are here in America and number in several millions and droning them will be extremely very difficult if not impossible? The reason being that there will be millions of white people who will share in the fate as collateral damage and no American wants to entertain such nightmarish thought. Icheoku says a more superior argument and more appropriate line of action would be for the white folks to open a dialogue with these "angry black folks" on why they are "angry", and then do something about it to assuage their anger. 

The growing fear in America which Icheoku shares is that while past generations of these "angry black folks" approached the problem with stoic perseverance and prayers, with occasional outbursts which were easily contained by the brute force and intimidation of the white police, the present crop of 'APP' generation "angry black folks" might decide to approach the problem more differently? They might become more militant and with it world terrorist organizations would have a pool of disaffected and disenchanted "angry black people" to harvest in their trade of terror? Icheoku says may God forbid and forestall such ugly outcome and may God also soften the hearts of these white people to understand that their dreams of happiness are also shared by these "angry black folks." May God also persuade these white people to make necessary and needful accommodations accordingly for these "angry black folks", so that they too may also become happy and partake of the American happiness which is currently almost exclusively enjoyed by their "happy white counterparts".  

This enveloping fear environment has led to the constant strong-arming and quelling with crushing force, of any scintilla of resistance in form of protest by a heavily militarized state security agents. Icheoku says the American police force today is so well or even over-equipped that they can successfully take on so many countries' army.  Afraid of their misdeeds, the white folks are constantly upgrading and arming their police to intimidate and quash with brute force, would be agitators and provocateurs and to protect themselves, their children and their properties from any harm from these "angry black vandals" from the  African jungle? But human short memory makes these policy-wonkers to forget that all revolutions world over were wrought against oppressors with large army and armament. From the most recent North Africa's Orange revolution to Soviet Union 'Perestoika' Revolution led by  Boris Yeltsin to French Bastille revolution to Bolshevik revolution, just name it, all are living proof that sometimes armored tanks and battalions of soldiers and heavily militarized police are not often sufficient to protect the oppressors when the oppressed finally reaches their tipping point. Icheoku says rather than wait for this barrelling-down showdown to take form, it would be better a conversation is started between these two communities, to at least reduce the pervading tension that leads to such result that thrust Ferguson in the front page. White Americans can and should find ways of addressing all or at least some of these recurring complains that seem to lack traction in redressing thus far. 

What happened in Ferguson Missouri and the resultant protest did not just drop from the blues like a bolt of lighting. Majority of people protesting there were probably not protesting simply because a Michael Brown was shot and killed. No, they were protesting their own experiences as black people in America in the hands of the police as well as other areas. They channeled their frustrations through the vent provided by the killing of Michael Brown, who merely provided an outlet for them. Icheoku says the story is the same from coast to coast and from cape to cape. From north to south, east to west, blacks in America are constantly being marginalized, oppressed, denied of opportunities, treated as second class citizens and when they complain, are forcibly shut up. Icheoku makes bold to also state that the young black man in America is increasingly becoming  an  endangered species that somewhat needs some special protection in order to survive and thrive. It also does not matter which part of the country he is in - if the gang does not get him, the drug turf war will; if the prison system does not get him, the police and other law enforcement agents will and so goes the ever fluidly life of a young black American male. A life of perpetual perdition, caught between the rock and the hard place on one side and the devil and deep blue sea on the other simply because he was born with the wrong skin pigmentation. 

The white racist police killed Michael Brown and the whole world is glued to the television coverage, unaware that within the same period, they have also killed many other unarmed young black men in America. They strangled Eric Garner, the "I can't breathe" guy, a black man to death in New York on July 17th and it was captured on video. On August 5th, another black man John Crawford was shot and killed in Ohio. They shot and killed another black man Ezell Ford in Los Angeles California on August 11.  Few months ago another black-man was shot and killed while laying on the pavement face-down and already handcuffed or piggy-tied in Oakland California by another one of these racist white police man. In Florida, their vigilante wing member shot and killed another unarmed black man for straying in their white neighborhood.  On August 20th, in Saint Louis Missouri just four miles from Ferguson, they increased the tally of black men killed by white police by yet adding another trophy to their bag as they killed yet another black man. Just like the days of their 'skin-heading' of American Indians, today, hunting down of black men in America appears to be the newest trend. It is in session and because non of the past killers received adequate justice, it now seems OK to just continue to hunt them down. Their strategy seems to be, just keep depleting their numbers and in that way when they eventually revolt they would be more easier to contain? 

The fact of the matter is that "some" of these white police are very mean and do not care about black people. Imagine pumping six hot leads into an unarmed young black man in the middle of hot summer afternoon in Missouri and the victim was not an apparent danger to the police man? Query, couldn't the police have used other less lethal means to thwart the "danger" since Michael Brown was not armed or obtrusively threatening? Couldn't the police have called for back up since he had time to do this,  afterall the victim was not armed or an immediate flight risk? If worst came to worse and the police man must shoot a black person that day, why didn't he at least shoot to disable him him by firing below the waistline? But no, he shot to kill him, firing targeted shots at his head, eye, arm and upper torso. Worst still, the police did not immediately call for ambulance or summon help for his victim, but left him dying and lay dead on the pavement like a dog and uncovered? 

Initially Icheoku did not want to do this story because the frequency of such senseless killing by police and vigilantes are just overwhelmingly too many that writing about another one would be akin to preaching to the choir. Such killings and the lack of deterrent prosecution of those perpetrators have become somewhat a recurring decimal in America that it is no longer a big deal or seriously news worthy.  But surprisingly though, the Ferguson killing took a life of its own and the world witnessed a little snippet of a long festering and simmering racial animosity in America.  

Icheoku says every black man in America is a Michael Brown; every city in America is Ferguson Missouri and every police department in America is literally policed by the same type of people as the department whose police fired half dozen shots into unarmed Michael Brown. The only difference is in the optics - if it is not headline news, sweep it under the rug; hose off the blood and brain matter and hunt for the next victim?  That is the assured life of the black-man in America, who is always predetermined guilty until either killed or proved innocent; who is imprisoned for decades for a crime that needs to be solved quickly until DNA evidence finally proves him innocent? The story of their travails is know to many, forcing one Dominican Republic retired judge, who fell in love with a white American lady, to say, on why he cannot marry her because she had insisted on their living in America, 'that it is not good to be a black man in America.' To readers who may say how about President Obama? Icheoku responds that he is in power but has no real power and cannot do anything to change the misfortunes of the black man in America. 

Everywhere you go the story is the same - a black man cannot in certain neighborhoods be seen walking fast because he must be hurrying off or is likely trying to escape from a crime he just committed? A black man cannot be seen walking slowly either, because then he must be casing a joint for robbery or to commit a crime? Then you wonder what template exists that stipulates the pace at which a  black-man in America should walk or is allowed or authorized to use in certain neighborhoods? White people hate black people and do not care about them - a case of use and dump, one may say? They captured and enslaved their forebears for their free slave labor and now that they have invented machines to do those slave jobs, they no longer have a need for their brute sinew; they are now more of a nuisance that must either be got rid of or contained? Their line of attack is three pronged - first make their families dysfunctional by not giving them jobs and force them to steal and then lock them up in prison. Second - on the slightest provocation just shoot and kill them and just end it there and thirdly, confine them in camps called Hoods and let them get so frustrated that they take it out on each other? Either way their objective is being met - reduction of black population in America, where 1 in every 5 black man is locked up behind bars and where a mere 30% of the population now make up more than 75% of American prison population of over 3 million? Needless to add that majority of black children are being raised by single mothers or grandmothers or aunties and have no clue who their father is, either he is homeless crack-head or dead or slowly dying in prison locked up for life.  

Icheoku asks is there anyone out there who still needs proof why black American males are angry and then ask yourselves, who wouldn't be, faced with similar circumstances? One final note, Icheoku concurs that what unfolded in Ferguson is not the end, nor is it the beginning of the end but the end of the beginning, as America and the world await the final episode of the undeclared but ongoing war between black and white Americans. God save America and thereafter bless those that see reason to address the searing problem that is racism in America. Imagine a police force for a predominately 63% black Ferguson community is 97% white, with only 3 black members? This is a reflection of practically every establishment in America and someone please tell Icheoku this is just and not racism and that there can be peace without justice. 

Anyway, today the black community in Ferguson Missouri buried one of their police-killed dead, Michael Brown. It was not really a news that a white police man killed another unarmed young black man in America as such has become almost a routine-occurrence in the United States of America. Icheoku says what will indeed be newsworthy is if by Michael Brown's killing, the much desired change in race relationship in America sees the light of the day. Icheoku says also if by Michael Brown's death, white police stop killing black people and finally if his death brings about a c-change in black people of America, compelling them to unite for a common purpose and against their common foe. Were these or any of them at least to happen, then Michael Brown's death would not have been in vain. It would have been meritorious and productive in a case of some good coming out of a tragedy. But if peradventure, when the outpouring of grief ends and the situation defaults to the status quo ante, including black people committing unspeakable crimes against each other, then his death would just become another statistics of a young black-man shot and killed by white police in America. Adieu Michael Brown!  

EBOLA SCARE, A MANUFACTURED CRISIS?

Icheoku says if Ebola is indeed a naturally occurring virus and by necessary implication has subsisted on the African continent for eons and is not a laboratory engineered biological weapon of mass destruction, being presently tested on the continent, and considering that it is allegedly lethally virulent with no known cure, how did Africans survive thus far? Icheoku asks why has Africans, who has been running butt-naked wild in the jungle, eating bushmeat, plucking and chowing down wild fruits and vegetables, not been wiped out of existence by this killer Ebola before now? Icheoku asks if these allegedly Ebola-tainted food sources, which have provided nutrition for Africans all these centuries, now kill people, why didn't the same food sources kill people before now?

Icheoku says it is rather one HUGE surprise that Africans survived all these centuries of literally commingling with Ebola only to now become so vulnerable as to succumb to Ebola? Icheoku asks what hitherto provided Africans immunity from Ebola or put the other way, what suddenly compromised Africans' Ebola anti-body that they now easily succumb to it? Africans have always buried their dead by themselves; Africans have always mix and mingled in thousands in market places and public events including sharing  public transportations and Africans have always been in very close proximity of one another in virtually all their activities including in parties and other ceremonies. These activities are now what the West is telling Africans to avoid because they are possible vectors of Ebola virus and Icheoku queries why all of a sudden?

Ebola is also not airborne but allegedly spread through bodily contact through bodily fluids and you wonder how someone who did not come in contact with either the saliva or blood or semen or sweat of a victim could become infected? How could Ebola suddenly become more potent and more dangerous than HIV/AIDS or is it because Africans are against homosexuals and therefore something more deadly than HIV/AIDS must be apportioned to them? In short there is  a lot of questions no one is answering or even asking and until there is some movement in that direction, Icheoku might as well start believing the school of doubters that say the Ebola scare is a manufactured hoax to drive an agenda only known to those propagating and spreading it.

Icheoku says if Ebola is organic and not synthetic then it naturally follows that it must be susceptible to some form of natural breakdown. As with any organic compound or matter, its demise could be accelerated and therefore being amenable to some form of rapid end of life, it is by extension curable? So it presupposes that when its life is terminated or taken by being killed, the victim is cured? But what does Icheoku know about the intricacies of international geo-politics and economics that drive most things in this world.

Icheoku says taking an in-dept look at the crisis of Ebola and the then Chibok girls abduction, it appears there is a correlation between the two? It seems that Nigeria's progress is the primary target of both scares and for a reason.  These conspirators want to stall what they perceive is Nigeria's lurch forward towards final emancipation and to put Nigeria in its place? They are afraid that Nigeria is finally beginning to shake off its stupor as giant of Africa and beginning to do certain things right;  and they figured she has to be rattled. Recall that both crisis are coming on the heels of Nigeria's revaluation of her GDP index, making her the fastest growing economy in Africa and surpassing their favored South Africa? Recall also that the revaluation came as a surprise to most countries in the West and startled, they queried how can we stop these guys? Recall also the number of foreign media that swooped on Nigeria following the orchestrated Chibok girls abduction and how the incident developed like wild fire. It took such a proportion that even the World Economic Forum hosted by Nigeria around that same time did not receive comparable mention in the international media.

Failing to achieve their objective of derailing Nigeria's march forward with the overblown Chibok girls abduction, they turned to chapter two of their playbook and here came Ebola virus disease? Icheoku says all these are in an effort to stop foreign business men and women from bringing their investment capital into Nigeria to buy into the new African largest economy. It is now Ebola - go to Nigeria and Ebola will kill you and you ask yourself which investor wants to die of a dreadful disease. Nigeria might as well be just too  risky to do business and you wonder if these people are succeeding or have already succeeded? Icheoku queries why would both crisis come in rapid succession and so soon after Nigeria declared her doors open to the world for business if the intended purpose of creating the crisis is not to shut the door by any means necessary by those who do not wish Nigeria well? Imagine despite the minimal implication of Ebola in Nigeria, yet the world is daily inundated with news of Ebola in Nigeria as if Nigeria is the epic center of the virus? Any casual news patron will think that there is more Ebola outbreak in Nigeria than Liberia, Senegal and Guinea combined and you ask yourself why? Icheoku can only guess that it is agenda driven scare and the purpose is to starve off the country of intending investors, period.

When the Chibok girls also generated crisis was beginning to lose traction, suddenly Ebola crisis emerged and an American became the vehicle of exporting the virus to the target country, Nigeria. Fully aware that he is dying of Ebola, Patrick Sawyer still lied to the medical personnel on the nature of his illness and succeeded in his mission of infecting Nigerians before he died. Icheoku does not often defer to some conspiracy school of thoughts, but certain things do not in the normal course of things just coincide. Putting on your thinking hat for a moment, why was it so convenient for Ebola, which has no known cure, to suddenly manifest in West Africa and readily an American company has an anecdote for it called Zmapp? Why did the two afflicted Americans survive but the Spanish priest, who was also administered with the Zmapp,  not survive? Who is being used here and by whom? Who are being made the scape goat guinea pigs used in testing the efficacy of a new biological weapon of mass destruction?

Now Nigerians are being told that some quarantined victims of Ebola have beaten the killer disease and are being discharged; and you wonder how come they were able to beat such death-sentnece disease that has no cure? Did Pastor Adeboye lay hands on their heads or was it Prophet Joshua that wrought the miracle of they wellness one may ask? Icheoku says when all is said and done, the bottom line is that the world of commerce and politics is just too deep for any one mind to fathom a comprehensive understanding of the shenanigans that moves their wheels. It equally defies understanding the length people and countries can go to push an agenda including a product in the global commerce. Icheoku says while abundance of caution is in order and should be exercised, it will not be too far a proposition to infer that both Chibok girls abduction and the Ebola virus disease were both a manufactured crisis targeted at Nigeria? With 2015 Nigerian presidential election coming into view, and with people and countries having an interest in the outcome, as well as the emerging Nigeria's place in Africa, both scares were successively lined up to distract the Nigerian president and by extension force the voting hands of Nigerians towards voting for another direction. Anyway, just a penny for your thoughts, these wild thinking; but it seems like this Ebola scare was contrived! 

OSUN STATE VICTORY, NOT YET UHURU APC?

As Icheoku congratulates the winner of last Saturday governorship election in Osun State, Icheoku would like to sound the alarm bell that it is not yet Uhuru for the APC. They should be circumspect in beating their chest over the victory of their candidate Governor Aregbesola, the circumstance considered? Icheoku maintains that if the PDP's candidate Omisore, with all his alleged baggage, could record such a good showing in the election, who knows what a stellar performance and certainly different result  it would have been, were the PDP to have fielded a more flawless candidate in that election? If an alleged murderer, an alleged failed senator and a man whose tugs allegedly disrespected a high chief of former Oyo State by taking off his traditional cap, could stood for an election and was not defeated landslide, then imagine what a virtuous candidate would have done. 

That being said, Nigerians should not be surprised if the result in the coming Ogun State, Oyo State and even Lagos sways the PDP's way and hopefully the ever-crying APC would accept the defeat and not cry rigging! Icheoku also congratulates the Nigerian security officials for providing a safe environment for the electorates to freely exercise their franchise. Also President Jonathan must share in the success of the election for not putting himself into the middle of the election with a 'do or die' attitude unlike his erstwhile predecessor Baba Iyabo. Then the people of Osun State must be commended for trooping out en-masse to assert themselves. The president, Icheoku says maintained a high threshold of civility by letting Osun voters to vote their choice and allowed their votes to be counted and it counted. That the president and his PDP were magnanimous in the face of APC's provocations was commendable too.

Icheoku says losers in the election include Olagunsola Oyinlola for shamelessly losing even in his own voting booth, despite being the "Prince of Okuku". Like Baba Iyabo who lost his own voting booth in 1999, Olagunsola Oyinlola has shown he is a paper weight with no following in Osun State despite what he would like Nigerians to believe? Also the APC lost for earlier crying wolf of an election rigging but failed to subsequently congratulate and apologize to the organizers of the election for a successful outcome. Femi Fani Kayode also belongs to this category of losers because he had boastfully promised to deliver his home state Osun to the PDP but the result says otherwise and is now a long gone history.

Be that as it may, a win is a win and Icheoku hereby congratulates the APC and their Aregbesola on their victory. Whether the result is a testimony that "Yoruba Obas are useless" or that Bola Tinubu has found his lost mojo, the jury is still out and will remain out until 2015 when other Yoruba Southwestern States will conduct their respective elections. Until then, it is one Southwest State for PDP in Ekiti and one for APC in Osun. Admitted the Southwest is APC's primary turf, their proven grounds; and you wonder if the APC cannot sweep therein, where else outside this their primary constituency can they put up a spectacular showing. Anyway, Icheoku and other Nigerians await the answer in 2015.

EDUARDO SANTOS, IF BUHARI, WHAT WOULD APC/NORTHERNERS DO?

Icheoku often wishes that Nigerians as a people were more civilized and more sophisticated, politically, judging from some outlandish and unfounded allegations and wild claims which periodically emanate from the polity and which often leads to undesired consequences including rioting and needless loss of lives. Just recently Muhammadu Buhari was attacked by Boko Haram and fingers pointed at Aso Rock and you wonder what would have become of Nigeria, had those lunatics succeeded in getting the man they had once nominated as their role model and negotiator-in-chief with the government? Rwanda's civil war between the Tutus and the Hutus, which almost ruined the country, was triggered when accusing fingers pointed towards a particular tribe for shooting down a plane carrying a president from another tribe? 

Today in Santos Brazil, an opposition presidential candidate was killed when his private plane went down in the fog of bad weather during a campaign trip. Imagine the anarchy and ruinous state Nigeria would have descended into were Eduardo Campos, Muhammadu Buhari and the plane was Bola Tinubu's private plane? 

But in Brazil, admitted a third world country like Nigeria, the skies over Rio de Janeiro or San Palo or Santos is not falling down as a result of the death of an opposition presidential candidate because the people are civilized enough to understand that things, including plane crash do happen and can happen without their president causing it to happen or bringing it about? Brazilian President Djuma has done what any president would do by declaring a national day of mourning for the dead candidate and life will go on and is going on as we write this article. Icheoku prays that Nigerians will some day mature enough, especially politically, to understand the limitations of the man or any other person in Aso Rock and not behold him or her as having omni-power, omni-presence and omni-whatever you desire to name, to do or undo as he pleases. Icheoku sympathizes with the people of Brazil and the family of late Eduardo Santos on their loss; Adieu Eduardo.

ROBIN WILLIAMS, ANOTHER CRY FOR HELP GONE UNANSWERED?

Icheoku says yet again another American rich and famous person has killed himself; dead by hanging, in an apparent suicide escapism from this world of agony and so much trouble. When the world's millions, especially the have not, are jealously looking at the lives of the rich and famous and praying that they could someday attain such "glorious" status and enjoy what it has to offer, here makes an exit from that privileged world, one of such richly "blessed" persons? Comedian and actor Robbin Williams apparently has had enough of the 'glamorous' life and decided to end it and he  hung himself. Robbin was 63years old.

Icheoku laments the greatest irony known to man called life, which keeps people guessing and misjudging what it is that is really truly important; hence their dissipating of  energies wrongly, in pursuit of an elusive happiness which they think money and fame beget and/or guarantee.  Unfortunately, Robin Williams has once again shattered this myth and put paid to this delusion by taking his own life despite being so richly "blessed" with materiality and fame. Icheoku asks is it not yet another irony that a comedian who makes other people to laugh, could not himself find laughter and happiness in this world? Needless to add that his numerous mansions, exotic cars, fat bank accounts, privileges and access could not provide him the courage to carry on soldiering with this life? 

The moral lesson derivable from Robin Williams' suicide is that no matter one's condition or standing in life, what is most important or should be paramount in life is to find some meaning and fulfillment in one's life and by so doing have a reason to live for. Like Angelina Jolie-Pitt who loves children and is adopting them from everywhere and is also herself giving birth to many, and thus finds fulfillment in doing that, Icheoku opines that people, including the rich and famous, should always find something outside their boxed life to immerse themselves in and by so doing remain positively occupied, and will not have any downtime for depression to creep in. Psychosis, manic depression and/or such other psychological imbalances often times thrive when there is a vacuum in the sufferer's life? A rule of the thumb, because nature abhors vacuum, something will always fill in such fallowed spaces including sometimes mental disturbance. 

Robin Williams now joins other rich and famous American actors who decided to fast-tack their exit from this world this year including Philip Seymour Hoffman, Mikey Jagger's girlfriend L'Wren Scott and a host of many others. Icheoku says whether their deaths were ruled accidental overdose or suicide, it does not really matter. What is important is that they achieved their set-out objective which is to put an end to their pain and suffering of living? These 'cornered' people, call them victims if you like, desired one thing and one thing only - to just end their forlorn life of misery and escape their unhappiness. It is also instructive that taking their life is usually not the first option, but it comes after  various addictions could not help them get rid of their monkey; despite the illusion of "happily ever after" Eldorado of happiness and fulfillment which the uninformed world holds of their  lives. 

Icheoku maintains that these "victims" were internally disturbed, they were unhappy, they were lonely and in vain, silently cried out for help which never came and in some cases was a little too late in coming. In short these people were victims of a cruel world which they successfully made happy and which they made to laugh with their creative works, but which world could not and did not reciprocate their infectiousness. As a result, they felt betrayed,  they felt disappointed and they pined and panged away. Their cry for help was drowned out in the cacophony of the limelight and with it the gradual ebbing of their lives until they finally find the courage or cowardice to pull the trigger. Robbin Williams suicide by hanging once again shows that money or riches or fame does not buy happiness; or have you ever seen a happy person who is contemplating suicide? Icheoku says Robbin Williams has regrettably now  joined the annals of such lost souls, may he now rest; may he now find the peace, joy and happiness which eluded him here on earth in the life beyond, Adieu Rob!