GUN VIOLENCE IN AMERICA: FOR WHO THE BELL TOLLS NEXT.

Just five people shy of Sandy Hook elementary school mass shooting incident that claimed 26 lives, the Uvalde Texas Robb elementary school mass shooting at 21 victims, now ranks among the highest grossing gun carnage in America. It is sad that such frequent blood spilling has tragically become part of our culture as a society. May the souls of the killed now rest.

25th AMENDMENT: ITS NOW ALL CRICKET.

Madam Speaker Nancy Pelosi once questioned former President Donald John Trump's fitness to remain in office due to what she claimed was his declining mental capacity. Does anyone know what Madam Speaker presently thinks about the incontrovertible case which America is now saddled with? Just curious!

WHO WILL REBUILD UKRAINE?

The West should convert frozen Russian assets, both state's and oligarchs' owned, into a full seizure and set them aside for the future rebuilding of Ukraine. Like the Marshal Plan, call it the Putin Plan.

A HERO IS BORN.

I am staying put. I will not run away and abandon my people. The fight is here in Ukraine. What I need are weapons and ammunitions, not a ride out of town like former Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani - President Volodymyr Zelensky.

IT IS WHAT IT IS.

"There is too much hate in America because there is too much anger in America." - Trevor Noah.

WORD!

A life without challenges is not a life lived at all. A life lived is a life that has problems, confronts problems, solves problems and then learns from problems. - Tunde Fashola.

NOW, YOU KNOW.

When fishing for love, bait with your heart and not your brain, because you cannot rationalize love. - Mark Twain.

JUST THE FACT.

In our country, you can shoot and kill a nigger, but you better not hurt a gay person’s feelings - Dave Chappelle

DO YOU?.

“What you believe in can only be defined by what you’re willing to risk for it." - Stuart Scheller.

HEDGE YOUR CRISIS.

Never get in bed with a woman whose problems are worse than yours. - Chicago PD.

PROBLEM SOLVED.

'The best way to keep peace is to be ready to destroy evil. If you Pearl Harbor me, I Nagasaki you.' - Ted Nugent.

OUR SHARED HUMANITY.

Empathy is at the heart of who we are as human beings. - Cardinal Matthew Kukah.

WORDS ON MARBLE.

"Birth is agony. Life is hard. Death is cruel." - Japanese pithy.

REPENT OR PERISH - POPE.

Homosexuality is a sin. It is not ordained by God, therefore same sex marriage cannot be blessed by the church - Pope Francis.

CANCEL CULTURE IS CORROSIVE.


FOR SAKE OF COUNTRY.


MAGA LIVES ON: NO RETREAT, NO SURRENDER!

TWITTER IS BORING WITHOUT HIS TWEETS. #RestorePresidentTrump'sTwitterHandle.


WORD.

"If you cannot speak the truth when it matters, then nothing else you says matters.” - Tucker Carlson.

#MeToo MOVEMENT: A BAD NEWS GONE CRAZY.

"To all the women who testified, we may have different truth, but I have a great remorse for all of you. I have great remorse for all of the men and women going through this crisis right now in our country. You know, the movement started basically with me, and I think what happened, you know, I was the first example, and now there are thousands of men who are being accused and a regeneration of things that I think none of us understood. I’m not going to say these aren’t great people. I had wonderful times with these people. I’m just genuinely confused. Men are confused about this issue. We are going through this #MeToo movement crisis right now in this country." - Harvey Weinstein.


RON DELLUMS: UNAPOLOGETICALLY RADICAL.

"If it’s radical to oppose the insanity and cruelty of the Vietnam War, if it’s radical to oppose racism and sexism and all other forms of oppression, if it’s radical to want to alleviate poverty, hunger, disease, homelessness, and other forms of human misery, then I’m proud to be called a radical.” - Ron Vernie Dellums.


WHAT REALLY MATTERS IN LIFE - STEVE JOBS

“I reached the pinnacle of success in the business world. In others’ eyes, my life is an epitome of success. However, aside from work, I have little joy. Non-stop pursuing of wealth will only turn a person into a twisted being, just like me. God gave us the senses to let us feel the love in everyone’s heart, not the illusions brought about by wealth. Memories precipitated by love is the only true riches which will follow you, accompany you, giving you strength and light to go on. The most expensive bed in the world is the sick bed. You can employ someone to drive the car for you, make money for you but you cannot have someone to bear sickness for you. Material things lost can be found. But there is one thing that can never be found when it is lost – Life. Treasure Love for your family, love for your spouse, love for your friends. Treat yourself well. Cherish others.” - SJ

EVIL CANNOT BE TRULY DESTROYED.

"The threat of evil is ever present. We can contain it as long as we stay vigilant, but it can never truly be destroyed. - Lorraine Warren (Annabelle, the movie)


ONLY THE POOR WISH THEY HAD STUFF?

“I’m not that interested in material things. As long as I find a good bed that I can sleep in, that’s enough.” - Nicolas Berggruem, the homeless billionaire.

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

ORJI KALU Vs. ORJI UZOR KALU, A TESTAMENT AGAINST POLITICAL GOD-FATHERISM?

orji

Icheoku says any observer of the Nigerian political landscape, particularly as it appertains to Abia State, would have noticed the cut-throat rivalry or rather intolerance of one another that is existing between the current state governor Orji Kalu and his erstwhile mentor and former governor of the same state Orji Uzor Kalu. This fact of consequence has so perturbed Icheoku that Icheoku wonders what in the hell is wrong with Igbo people that they cannot easily get along together with themselves? Their penchant for always wanting to be in the lead and never to be led; as well as their never submitting under the authority of one of them, especially one that knows better, is an issue of grave concern and a militating factor against their political progress in Nigeria. Icheoku asks Igbo people and their republicanism, to please tell Icheoku how far this their attitude has led them and how many leaders can a people have at the same time? 

Icheoku is writing this opinion piece because ever since the present governor was smuggled or "elected", straight from where he was locked up in jail to the government house in Umuahia, there is no love lost between him and the very man that supervised that feat. Well meaning Nigerians, including none biased Igbo people as well as Icheoku ask in bewildered amazement, what is this beef between the apparent mentor and his mentored, that cannot be settled? Whatever it is, does the present governor not ever advert his mind that without the former governor's help, that he would not have become the governor of Abia state? Further, that irrespective of how personally popular he might have been during that election,  that being physically in prison,  drastically and automatically constrained his chances of being elected governor? Yet he won and someone made it possible; but suddenly that facilitator is now the governor's worst enemy? This baffles many conscientious and objective observers of the politics of Abia State and they want an answer as well as a resolution of whatever it is that tore this people apart.

Why, Icheoku asks, cannot this governor let bygones be bygones and let all Abian PDP politicians move forward as a one united partisans? Plateau State Governor Jang just showed an example of how to carry all the people along by reconciling with all hitherto disenfranchised Plateau State PDP politicians, including former governor Dariye. Icheoku emphasizes that at least, Governor Orji Kalu should show some respect to his former mentor, Uzor Orji Kalu, and allow him some political space to operate in his Abia State. As his predecessor and the man who once held fort therein, it is a good political gesture and laudable magnanimity and by necessary implication, precedent setting. Governor Orji Kalu himself will soon become an ex-governor and Icheoku asks would he accept what he is presently dishing out to the man he succeeded from his successor? Icheoku says their latest dirty fight over the refusal of the governor to let the former governor go to the senate is otherwise avoidable, were the governor a thinking politician who craves a place in history.  The smack down which has forced the former governor to demand refund of his deposit and incidental fees for declaration of interest,  shows that their family feud has no end in sight and has only become more asinine. Icheoku condemns this unforgiven spirit of the governor and maintains that Orji Uzor Kalu has suffered enough political isolation in the hands of the man he helped become governor of Abia State from where he was in prison and deserves some reprieve. 

The only good lesson derivable from this Abia State impasse  is the utility or otherwise of sponsoring or endorsing anyone to any political office in Nigeria. As has been shown with the current governor of Abia State who later turned around to become his sponsor's worst nightmare, such is an effort in futility. A nemesis of some sort, who would readily brand such sponsor his worst enemy number one that must be politically crushed or caged, isolated, banished and emasculated completely. Icheoku strongly believes that on hindsight, Orju Uzor Kalu must be regretting his action, ever sponsoring a man who is in prison custody to the governorship of Abia State. That the same man was an Alusi Okija deity worshipper did not matter to Orji Uzor Kalu then, nor deterred his action to "elect" him as governor to occupy the government house in Umuahia? But hey, Icheoku has no dog in the fight and so could care less who Abians decided should governor them or how they went about arriving at that decision. What a hard, bitter lesson to learn, that sometimes your well intentioned action often turns out to be your worst nightmare. But illegality is illegality and if it begets illegality, so be it, who gives a damn? 

Lastly, because humans do not necessarily learn from history or allow past experiences to guide their present action, the present crop of soon to be ex-governors are busy endorsing and sponsoring candidates to succeed them as well to other legislative offices of their states. Icheoku asks what is the guarantee that they will not similarly suffer the same fate which they are exposing their former mentors to; assuming what goes around still comes around?  Are these soon to be former governors not thinking that possibly their new political god-sons might someday suddenly grow up, following their inauguration, and begin to chastise them to the extent of even chasing them away from their states? But only time will tell the treachery hidden in the hearts of men. Icheoku and the elements "dey laugh" at the follies and foibles of man, as presented by these current lords of manor in these states, who presently see themselves as demo-gods, before whom every person in their state must bow and tremble. But one good thing with time and which time only does very well, is human humbling. Icheoku says sooner than later, it will be deja vu pay back time, with these now beloved political god-sons dealing the then former governors the same very back hands these governors are presently dealing their own predecessors. What indeed are we humans, that we are this daft, not to correctly imbibe history and apply it as our guiding compass to all our future actions? 

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