HILLARY CLINTON IS PART OF THE PROBLEM - DOUG J. TICE

In the winter of 1996 at Keene State College in New Hampshire, then First Lady Hillary Clinton spoke forcefully about policing and criminal justice on behalf of her husband's re-election campaign.

The “challenge,” Clinton declared, “is to take back our streets from crime, gangs and drugs.” Boasting of the administration’s putting more cops on America’s mean streets, she called for “an organized effort against gangs, just as in a previous generation we had an organized effort against the mob. We need to take these people on … They are not just gangs of kids anymore. They are often the kinds of kids that are called superpredators. No conscience. No empathy. We can talk about why they ended up that way, but first we have to bring them to heel.”

The president, she promised, had ordered “a very concerted effort against gangs everywhere.” She urged Americans “to be a part of this anti-crime, anti-gang, anti-drug effort.”

Times have changed, and Clinton has changed with them, although she still likes the ring of “concerted effort.”

But in a debate last month, what the now-presidential candidate called for was “a concerted effort to address the systemic racism in our criminal justice system.” Beyond finding it “incredibly outraging to see the constant stories of young men … who have been killed by police officers,” Clinton was appalled that “one out of three African-American men may well end up going to prison. … [A]nd very often, the black men are arrested, convicted and incarcerated … for offenses that do not lead to the same results for white men.”

Today’s bestselling crises are no longer “crime, gangs and drugs.” Today’s crowd-pleasing concerns are “systemic racism” and “mass incarceration.” And a lot of the same politicians who wooed voters a couple decades ago by vowing to “take on” the “superpredators” — brushing aside softheaded talk about “how they got that way” — now seem shocked (shocked!) that “these people” turned out to include many young black males, and that “bringing them to heel” often meant sending them to jail.

Fact is, Hillary and Bill Clinton both have admitted to some regrets, or anyhow reconsideration, regarding their tough-on-crime stances years ago, and particularly regarding the big 1994 federal crime bill that did much to swell U.S. prison populations. But it wasn’t just them. The Clinton crime bill passed with overwhelming Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress.

(And yes, Bernie Sanders, who today deplores our “broken” criminal justice system, voted for it.)

All over the country in the 1990s and beyond, no-mercy politicians cracked down on crime with “three strikes” laws and mandatory minimums and broken-windows policing tactics and sex offender civil commitment laws and on and on — and sent prison populations soaring.

Today, politicians and great thinkers all across the spectrum find the results of yesteryear’s anti-crime, anti-gang, anti-drug efforts, well, “incredibly outraging.”

This massive shift in attitudes and policy prescriptions on crime has of course tracked a stunning decline in crime rates in America. The rate of violent crime has plunged by half over the past 20 years. On its face, that happy development might explain many changes of heart and make a course correction reasonable. Tough-on-crime politics peaked not long after (we now know) crime levels themselves peaked in the early 1990s. Now that we’ve largely taken back the streets, it may, in fact, be time for a cease-fire and an assessment of where our concerted efforts went too far.

But seldom do we hear that sort of cautious, measured reflection. The anti-crime rhetoric of 20 years ago was extravagant (“superpredators!”) and so is today’s anti-criminal justice rhetoric (“systemic racism!”) We seem to have gone from suffering a catastrophic crime epidemic two decades ago to suffering a catastrophic injustice epidemic today — with no social health in between.

If so, maybe this lurching from one imbalance to another has something to do with unbalanced leadership.

One difficulty in making sense of America’s wild ride on the crime issue is that we don’t know how much of a role sending more criminals to prison has played in reducing crime. Numerous researchers have concluded that more incarceration has made only a trivial contribution; others think it may account for a third of the crime decline. What’s clear is that crime is a bafflingly complex social phenomenon, and we just don’t know.

Two decades ago, politicians far and wide sounded pretty sure that throw-away-the-key policies would help. But today, with prisons full and streets more peaceful, they are not claiming credit but proclaiming a shiny new outrage — one somebody else must be responsible for — that is a fine a new reason to vote for them.

What makes all this so frustrating is that crime on the one hand and injustice on the other are two horrible evils that we have to rely largely on government to combat. But this record of serial demagoguery makes it hard to have confidence that those who lead us are up to these tasks.

The best advice for citizens is simply to listen skeptically and critically to everything politicians and ideologues of any variety say about crime and criminal justice — and to keep one’s eyes on facts. Here are a few of note, from the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics “Prisoners in 2014” report:

• Slightly more than 1.5 million inmates were held in state and federal prisons in 2014, the large majority (87 percent) in state facilities.

• Black males were incarcerated at a rate nearly six times the rate of white males, and also at two-and-a-half times the rate of Hispanic males.

• Minnesota’s overall incarceration rate is the fourth lowest in the country (behind Maine, Rhode Island and Massachusetts) and well under half the national rate.

• Nationally, among all state prisoners, 53.2 percent are incarcerated for violent crimes. Drug offenses account for 15.7 percent. Drug possession accounts for 3.6 percent.

• Among federal inmates, just over half are incarcerated for drug offenses. Combining the state and federal populations, all drug offenders make up 20 percent of the grand total.

It is likely that county jail populations and offenders under other kinds of supervision (probation, etc.) increase the overall role of drug and other nonviolent offenders in the criminal justice system. 

HOW OBAMA GAVE US DONALD TRUMP - MATT LASLO

Just as Barack Obama was the reaction to George W. Bushin 2008, Donald Trump is looking more and mote like a reaction to Obama's presidency. 

It may feel wrong to even utter the names “Obama” and “Trump” in the same sentence, but: there would be no ascending candidate Trump without President Obama. Trump is the anti-Obama. Sure, as the decades roll on, Obama will be remembered for helping usher through historic healthcare reform, salvaging the US auto industry, rewriting the rules that govern Wall Street and overseeing economic growth that hasn’t been witnessed since the Great Depression ended. But now that President Obama is starting to unfurl his sails and head towards the sunset, what’s being left in his political wake looks less like his soaring campaign promises than it does like Donald Trump and a bitter American electorate. 

Trump has changed American politics. He is, as you may have heard, bombastic, vacuous (at least from what he’s produced when it comes to actionable policy proposals) and has used the billions he made in real estate to ensure Kardashian-like fame for himself in the living rooms of millions of Americans. Compare that to the cool, reserved, thinker-in-chief Obama. No comparison you say? Au contraire. 

Don’t forget, in 2008 Obama was the anti-Bush. No one would deny that then-Senator Barack Obama’s rode to the White House was paved on the ashes of George W Bush’s presidency. Opposition to the second Iraq war became the wedge Obama used to separate himself from his Democratic opponents before his message of hope and change ignited a fire in Americans who previously felt locked out of the nation’s political system. Just as Wall Street was on the brink of collapse in the waning days of Bush’s watch, so too is a trusting, empowered national electorate on the brink on Obama’s. The housing market bubbled until it burst under Bush, which had roots in the illusory monetary and housing policies of the 1990s. That crisis pales in comparison to what we’re witnessing today. 

Voters’ faith in government has withered away. Even if the contemporary, deep-rooted mistrust in government started decades ago under Nixon and then was fanned under Bush, we’re still on Obama’s watch. 

Trump’s energetic, if disjointed, base exemplifies the American people’s disgust with the political class. The blistering battles Obama and his aides stoked with Congress, most recently in the form of bypassing Congress with executive orders, enlivened a sleeping part of the public. 

It first reared its head in the form of the Tea Party, which many pundits dismissed as merely a racist reaction to the nation’s first black president. An unquantifiable part of the opposition to Obama has always been over race, but it’s deeper than that. People across the nation don’t feel represented in Washington – they’ve gone through a rough patch of joblessness, wage stagnation, being settled in debt, often in the form of student loans, and have been spooked by the specter of Isis. All the while, Washington politicians keep screaming past each other in order to bank roll their campaigns rather than speaking to the needs of middle America. And Trump has tapped into that vein of discontent. 

Democrats rest in their assertions that the Republican party is to blame for the rancor that’s defined Obama’s presidency. But their party is going through its own convulsions: the rise of Bernie Sanders’s electrified progressive base further highlights the dissatisfaction with the status quo that’s spread across the nation under President Obama. 

Remember when Obama promised to eradicate that mistrust? Well, the hope of election 2008 has turned into a newfound national fear in election 2016. Yes, Obama has ushered through his promised change, but it’s not rosy. Instead it’s a change in the tenor of Washington – bitter partisan politics have gotten petty, and the knives are out in both parties.  

The forces – or a reaction to them – that gave us one historic first in Obama’s presidency have given us another, harder to stomach for many, historic first: an entertainer-in-chief. Where the evolution of American politics goes from here is anyone’s guess, but it feels like it can’t get much lower than the rut we’re all stuck in right now. 

Who knows what Obama could have done to change the tenor of Washington. Maybe he could have consulted Congress more. Possibly he could have reshuffled his agenda to make the American public feel included. Maybe he could have carried through on promises to have a transparent White House, instead of the seemingly impenetrable fortress he and his aides erected. If any of these things happened maybe we wouldn’t have Donald Trump dominating the nation’s political conversation. Thanks Obama

THE REAL HILLARY CLINTON IS INDEED VERY SCARY

1. “Hillary attacked her husband’s 

rape victims and 

destroyed them in public”

Last month, the New York Times ran a story about how Hillary Clinton’s swift, aggressive efforts to shush the multiple women accusing her husband of sexual assault in the 1990s present an image of the former First Lady contrary to the feminist icon brand she’s crafted for her 2016 presidential campaign:

“We have to destroy her story,” Mrs. Clinton said in 1991 of Connie Hamzy, one of the first women to come forward during her husband’s first presidential campaign, according to George Stephanopoulos, a former Clinton administration aide who described the events in his memoir, “All Too Human.” (Three people signed sworn affidavits saying Ms. Hamzy’s story was false.) 

When Gennifer Flowers later surfaced, saying that she had had a long affair with Mr. Clinton, Mrs. Clinton undertook an “aggressive, explicit direction of the campaign to discredit” Ms. Flowers, according to an exhaustive biography of Mrs. Clinton, “A Woman in Charge,” by Carl Bernstein. 

Mrs. Clinton referred to Monica Lewinsky, the White House intern who had an affair with the 42nd president, as a “narcissistic loony toon,” according to one of her closest confidantes, Diane D. Blair, whose diaries were released to the University of Arkansas after her death in 2000. 

Ms. Lewinsky later called the comment an example of Mrs. Clinton’s impulse to “blame the woman. 

2. “Hillary Clinton was on the board of Walmart, the nation’s largest discriminatory employer who paid women 70 cents on the dollar” 

Between 1986 and 1992, Mrs. Clinton was a member of Walmart’s board of directors. As ABC News reported, Clinton’s years on Walmart’s board were some of the company’s worst, during which the conglomerate squashed workers’ efforts to organize for better wages and working conditions.

“I’m always proud of Wal-Mart and what we do and the way we do it better than anybody else,” Clinton said at the company’s annual shareholders meeting in 1990.

According to the National Organization for Women (NOW), 57 percent of Walmart’s employees are women, but a majority of its managers are men. And in 2001, the company paid women an average of $5,200 less per year than its male employees. NOW also found that to this day, thousands of female Walmart employees are still trying to get the company to pay them equal wages they were denied: 

In Dukes v. Walmart — the largest class action gender discrimination lawsuit in U.S. history — 1.5 million female employees accused Walmart of discrimination in promotions, pay and job assignments. The case included 120 affidavits relating to 235 stores. When the Supreme Court heard the case in 2011, it ruled that “[e]ven if every single one of these accounts is true, that would not demonstrate that the entire company operate[s] under a general policy of discrimination.” Today, many of the plaintiffs are in the process of filing smaller suits against the corporation.

3. “Clinton called single mothers

 ‘deadbeats'”

As First Lady, Clinton pushed hard for her husband’s bill aimed at cutting welfare benefits to appease white, working-class voters while he was running for re-election. US Uncut has written extensively about how Clinton’s welfare reform disproportionately impacted women and people of color, and that even the black poster women Clinton used as a backdrop at the bill’s signing were harmed by its passage. This isn’t just speculation — Buzzfeed dug up a 2002 interview with the Gettysburg Times in which Hillary Clinton cavalierly referred to welfare recipients as “deadbeats.”

“Now that we’ve said these people are no longer deadbeats—they’re actually out there being productive—how do we keep them there?” then-senator Clinton said.

4. “Clinton called black men

 ‘super predators'”

In January of 1996, while stumping for her husband’s re-election in predominantly-white Keene, New Hampshire, Hillary Clinton compared black youth to animals. Two years prior, her husband had signed a sweeping crime bill into law that allocated billions of dollars for new prisons and created the notorious “three-strikes” provision that punishes repeat offenders with harsher jail sentences. In Keene, Clinton used dog-whistle racist language when talking about gang violence, calling them “super predators” and saying they needed to be “brought to heel,” as one would a dog. Watch:

Bill Clinton went on to win the New Hampshire primary with a whopping 84 percent of the vote.

5. “She and her husband traveled 

first-class to execute a black 

man with an IQ level of 70”

Mark is referring to Ricky Ray Rector, whom Clinton executed just before the New Hampshire primary in 1992. Rector had committed two murders, then shot himself in the head, causing permanent brain damage. A judge then ordered Rector to stand trial despite his mental condition. A Yale professor studying the case wrote about how Rector honestly believed he would live to be able to vote for Clinton in the November elections: 

That afternoon, after Clinton had refused all final entreaties for clemency, Rector sat with one of his attorneys watching, on a TV outside his cell, news reports of his impending execution, two hours away, intermingled with accounts of Clinton’s travail over the Flowers charges, and he abruptly announced, in a thick mumble, “I’m gonna vote for him, Gonna vote for Clinton.” It had always been his habit to put aside his dessert until bedtime, and after eating his last meal, of steak and fried chicken in gravy, with cherry Kool-Aid, he carefully set aside his helping of pecan pie, to finish later. One of his attorneys had earlier stated that Rector “thinks he’ll be back in his cell on Saturday morning.” 

6. “Clinton said marriage should only exist between people of the opposite sex”

As a U.S. Senator from New York, Hillary Clinton was a staunch opponent of marriage equality. In a televised interview from the capital city of Albany, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews asked then-Senator Clinton if she would support government recognition of civil unions and gay marriages. Clinton didn’t even blink before saying no, drawing boos from the audience. Her reaction to the boos was simply to smile and laugh.

MATTHEWS: “Do you think New York

state should recognize gay marriage?”

HILLARY CLINTON: “No.”

Given the disconnect between Clinton’s record as a First Lady and U.S. Senator, it’s not hard to understand why a majority of voters in swing states say she’s neither honest nor trustworthy. It remains to be seen whether or not she’ll win over women and people of color in Nevada and South Carolina, where Democratic voters will choose between her and Sanders in the coming two weeks.

"SHAME ON YOU BARACK OBAMA" - HILLARY CLINTON

Icheoku says she thinks that black Americans are imbeciles who are incapable of memory retention and that their memory is rather very porous to remember her anti Obama attacks just a few short years ago. Now the woman who hardly makes eye contact is pretending to be the best thing to ever happen to Barack Obama since his mother gave birth to him. Icheoku queries, why the sudden pretentious show of affection and love, to a president whom she disdains; and was against everything and anything his policies brought about until just very recently. Now all the things she was previously against about President Barack Obama's policies and accomplishments, she is now suddenly all in for them? Icheoku says if John Kerry was Mr Flip Flopper, surely he has a Ms Flip Flopper in Hillary Clinton. Enough of the Clintons and the Bushes as America does not belong to just the two families.

DONALD TRUMP AND ELECTION 2016, GOOD YEAR FOR GOOD OLE WHITE BOY.

Icheoku says among so many things going well for Donald Trump in this election season, all the ducks lined up, he has bankrolled his campaign without ceiling; he has the message - the anger message which is resonating very well among Americans; he has the energy and above all he has the right skin color, acceptable last name and global identity. Icheoku says Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are both Hispanics and this is their greatest albatross as Americans are not ready for another minority in their White House. This all American boy identity is the biggest selling point which Donald Trump has and which is part of the wind driving his current sail.

This election 2016 is stars-lined for a white boy, particularly that white boy who is angry at the establishment and angrier at the nigger presently in hostile occupation of their White House. Icheoku says any doubter still out there, questioning the electability of Donald Trump, is simply setting himself or herself up for a very rude shock. Donald Trump has started some fire in Americans and emotions are running on high octane. Americans are going all the way to put him in their White House and no pinhead two horn monster will stop him. Donald Trump is no longer just running a campaign but have started a movement and that movement will sweep him right through and into the White House come November. Icheoku says congratulations Donald on the Nevada win, Go Trump!

NIGERIA SUFFERS AS DROP IN OIL PRICES EMPTIES COFFERS - BLOOMBERG

When Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari came to power in May vowing to mend the economy, fight terrorism and end corruption, Kola Karim was upbeat. Oil prices had sunk, but Buhari's arrival made him believe his company still had a chance to prosper in Africa's biggest crude producer.

Shoreline Group, the third-biggest Nigerian oil and gas producer, decided to forge ahead with a $500 million Eurobond to expand drilling operations. Then prices fell below $50 per barrel last year. The bond sale was suspended.

One hope was to rely on income from Shoreline's construction and power-generation businesses. Except that the central bank's refusal to devalue the currency meant Nigeria was starved of foreign exchange, crimping business operations. Now, with prices hovering around $30 a barrel, Shoreline plans to cut 35 percent of its nearly 2,000 staff.

"It's a double whammy," Chief Executive Officer Karim, 47, said in his Lagos office, where two enormous bronze reliefs by artist Bruce Onobrakpeya leaned against the wall. "Getting dollars to bring in raw materials is very tough. If Nigeria was earning enough from its oil revenue, we wouldn't have that." 

Karim's struggle mirrors that of the wider Nigerian economy, Africa's largest. And his difficulties show the challenges faced by Buhari, a 73-year-old former general who ruled Nigeria as a military strongman from 1983 to 1985. His task when he came to office was to push Nigeria to reform. Now he must help it survive.

The government, which in 2014 relied on oil for two-thirds of revenue, can't pay many teachers or finance infrastructure projects. With the economy growing at barely half 2014's 6.3 percent, a recession can't be ruled out this year, according to Morgan Stanley. Nigerian stocks have fallen 16 percent since the end of December, the most in sub-Saharan Africa.

Buhari and central bank Governor Godwin Emefiele have imposed currency controls that encouraged capital flight and suffocated businesses dependent on imported supplies. Emefiele, with Buhari's backing, has pegged the naira for almost a year at 197-199 per dollar, even as major producers from Russia to Mexico and Canada have let their currencies slide. Dangote Group, Nigeria's largest company, has called the foreign-exchange situation "extremely tight."

This week, the black-market rate fell to a record 350 per dollar, 76 percent weaker than the official rate. Former central-bank governor Muhammadu Sanusi II in October told business leaders that Buhari and Emefiele were "in denial" over the currency. 

The president says critics will have to "work much harder" to convince him ordinary Nigerians will gain anything from a devaluation that foreign investors from Ashmore Group Plc to Investec Asset Management Ltd. think is inevitable. The central bank says a weaker currency would only accelerate inflation already at a three-year high of 9.6 percent.

"People were expecting the Buhari dividend and that never really materialized because of the policy inertia," said Ronak Gopaldas, a Johannesburg-based analyst at Rand Merchant Bank. "There's still the perception that currency has to be devalued. But you're getting this stubborn resistance at the top."

Buhari's spokesman Femi Adesina said the president and his government have already responded publicly to questions about economic management. 

"There is no perfect policy," Kayode Fayemi, minister of solid minerals development and former policy director of the ruling All Progressives Congress, said in a Feb. 8 interview. "We have an independent central bank and the central bank should do its job to convince the stakeholders" if a change in policy is needed.

Nigerian authorities say they realize they need to diversify the economy.

"For us, this is an opportunity," Emmanuel Kachikwu, a petroleum minister and head of the state oil company, said last month in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Officials want to broaden the tax base by 5 million individuals and 500,000 companies this year, mostly by tightening enforcement. Nigeria's government-revenue-to-GDP ratio is about 8 percent, the second-lowest level in sub-Saharan Africa after war-torn Central African Republic, according to the International Monetary Fund. South Africa collects 29 percent; Kenya 20 percent.

The government says the tax measure, along with $9 billion of new borrowing from local and international investors and multilateral lenders such as the World Bank, will ensure the government can plug a fiscal deficit set to be a record $15 billion this year. Debt-service payments will be more than three times what is spent on education, and six times the expenditure on health.

Buhari can claim progress for his anti-corruption drive, said Cobus Claassens, managing director of security company Pilgrims Africa Ltd. The president has sacked executives at the national oil company and ordered the new management to clean it up, while starting probes into whether the last government siphoned off billions of dollars meant for the military fighting Islamist militant group Boko Haram in the northeast.

"Buhari is beating a drum that's scaring the living daylights out of every corrupt guy," Claassens said. "That doesn't stop them from being corrupt, but they're not so in-your-face. The offensive side of corruption -- extortion -- is dying out."

Some investors are also benefiting from gains made against Boko Haram, which has been dislodged from swathes of territory it held early last year.

Buhari "has opened the north up a bit more," Alex Kanellis, chief executive officer of PZ Cussons Plc, a U.K. soap maker that gets more than a third of its sales in Africa, said on an earnings call last month. "It's helping improve our distribution."

Still, the president's economic policies are worsening the pain caused by falling oil prices, says RMB's Gopaldas.

"The anti-corruption and security drives are positive, but they need to be matched with clear, unambiguous economic policies," he said. "At $30 a barrel, there's no getting away from the fact it's going to be really tough." - 

- An article by Chris Kay and Paul Wallace with assistance from Yinka Ibukun. 

A NIGERIAN WIFE/MOTHER PROSTITUTE, MURDERED IN THE UK.

Icheoku says all for the love of money and what money can purchase, that a married mother of a four year old boy, would, unbeknownst to her husband, be turning tricks to maintain a lifestyle of keeping up with the Jones. Now tragedy has struck as she was murdered during one of her clients calls.

Nigerian born, British married, self employed business woman, specializing on Brazilian hair and allied beauty products, was slaughtered during a date gone wrong; and left her husband wondering how she flew under the radar for so long, hawking herself, without his having an inkling of what his wife actually did for a living. A living and lifestyle of Gucci and Armani designer bags and shoes and other high-end ensemble; as well as numerous international trips and tours. The police were called to an apartment in Aberdeen Terrace Scotland where they discovered the lifeless body of the victim. They arrested her date, 25 year old Bala Wadzani Chinda and charged him with her murder. Jessica McGraa, 36 years old was married to Gareth McGraa 44 and the couple have a four year old son. 

What a double-agent 007 she was, that was capable of doubling as a sex-seller cum Brazilian hair seller; and successfully kept a lid on the illicit part of her life without even her husband knowing about if and for ten long years. She successfully led her secret life as a fly-in, fly-out sex worker and purveyor of sex which only her death just turned up. Like a traveling nurse and other workers who travel for work, Jessica traveled to wherever destination her client is, that wants and can afford her services of "the ultimate girlfriend experience." She had recently relocated from Aberdeen Scotland to Manchester Britain but still flies back to Scotland for work, servicing her clients in Dundee, Edinburgh and Inverness. She used trade names Ebony Bianca, B Bianca and Kelly Weston for her escort services; describing herself as “classic, stylish, naughty, horny, sexy” and promised to leave clients with exciting memories of the “ultimate girlfriend experience”. 

Her husband Gareth lamented that he 'thought he knew her and it hurts to find out how much she held back from him.' According to him, he did not know that Jessica was turning tricks, selling sex; but said she liked to be the center of attention, was not cheap and likes all the good things of life. She also wanted all her dreams to come through.

It also appears that she was good at what she did for a living as attested by one of her clients who described his experience with her as "The stuff fantasizes are made of." But regrettably the lady who likes the good stuff of life and who once posted on her web page that "None of us will die unfulfilled' and that 'we all shall make a formidable impact in this world', did not seem to have ended up as she planned and anticipated? It does not appear she was fulfilled or made a formidable impact in this world before she died? What an irony of life that all her dreams and ambition came to a sudden halt and shall be interred with her bones. Once again, Icheoku queries whether all these money-craze is worth it afterall? But your guess is as good as mine as it all boils down to what the preacher said in Ecclesiastes 1:2,  vanity of vanities, all is vanity. May her soul now rest.

ANOTHER NIGERIAN MAN KILLS WIFE IN THE US, AN UNENDING TRAGEDY.

Icheoku says in what now seems to be a recurring decimal, domestic violence is ripping Nigerian Diaspora to shreds, leading to increased brutality and spousal killings. Adding to this tally, another Nigerian man, in a murder-suicide, shot and killed his estranged wife and mother of his two children, before turning the gun on himself and blowing his brains out. Icheoku says is this needless fight over nothingness including the almighty dollars, worth the taking of anyone's life including committing suicide? Icheoku does not think so and once again call on Nigeria community, especially those in America, to learn to take the high road and avoid this avoidable shedding of fellow country men and women's blood.

To all these murderous Nigerian men, Icheoku admonishes that before your woman became a nurse, you had a life and so what if she decides not to share her toiling income with you? To the women, please be more careful and prayerful and learn to avoid pushing your men off the cliff of frustration in order to save the community from all these sad developments. 

In Middle River Maryland, Jeremiah S. Igomigoh aka Muhammdu Igomigoh (possibly converted to Islam) 49 years old shot and killed his wife and baby mama Nnenna Ogbonna 44 years old over alleged financial dispute and then turned the gun on himself, thereby rendering their children complete orphans. A gruesome act made more horrifying as his visiting mother inlaw and mother of his wife, who came to baby sit their newly born four months old child, witnessed the macabre display of anger. Icheoku says it is not worth it and prays the good Lord to show mercy and give all these feuding couples the grace to know that there is more to life than dollar bills. May their souls now rest. 

HILLARY CLINTON EKES OUT A WIN, BUT NOT GOING ANYWHERE.

Icheoku says if the aging woman who wants to be the first American female president cannot convincingly trounce a 75 year old, frail looking, silver-haired grandpa, how is she going to fair when faced with the political bulldozer that is Donald Trump. The Democratic Party will be making a very serious huge mistake fielding Hillary Clinton as their candidate in this election for all the reasons which has thus far made her unattractive to the American people. As shown this far, from Iowa to New Hampshire and now Nevada, the American people have continued to reject her and at best given her a very lukewarm and tepid reception on the campaign. 

Hillary Clinton is not the first female candidate Americans want and it is showing in the polls. Icheoku urges the Democratic Party, if indeed they stand a chance at retaining the White House, to please harness into the new energy Bernie Sanders have brought to the election campaign, the youths, and nominate him their candidate. If they fail, Donald Trump is going to easily run away with victory come this November. Simply put, an untrustworthy fast aging woman, who hardly makes eye contact, is not the the type of first female president Americans deserves, desires and wants; and therefore Americans will not have her. Just like another Bush has been forced to turn tails, any other Clinton will suffer the same faith and if not now, in November. Please Americans, say no to another Clinton in the White House. I am Icheoku and I approve this message.

DONALD TRUMP, SIMPLY UNSTOPPABLE.

 

Icheoku says with yet another state in the bag, the man who will make America great again, is apparently now speeding through the autobahn to the White House. South Carolinians overwhelmingly voted to affirm the current momentum in the country and Icheoku agrees that The Donald is what America needs right now. There is wall in Vatican City; even Jericho had its great walls, ditto China, so why not America? Anyone visiting someone usually comes in through the door, so why support anyone jumping into your house through the window and America is a macrocosm of our respective homes. Donald Trump is not saying do not come to America; only that you have to come the correct and right way - through available legal migration channels, period. The little boy agrees and Icheoku concurs that we should build that wall and together help make America great again. Congratulations Donald on your fat victory in South Carolina; GO TRUMP.

DONALD TRUMP FEUDS POPE FRANCIS, CROSSED THE LINE?

Icheoku says this is coming from the same pope who not too long ago told the world 'who is he to judge' of people who choose to love and marry differently?  Then the politically-correctness pope deferred to the powerful world gay community but now suddenly is ready to judge and adorning the garb of a judge is now making pronouncements as to who is or is not a christian? Judging a brave, bold and courageous American who is standing up firm against politics as usual; against politicians not doing their job to secure American borders from illegal migrations and infiltrations; and promising to make America great again. 

Query, why does the pope lock his doors in the Vatican City or are those four walls of his apartment not a form of wall to fence off unwanted and uninvited trespassers and intruders alike? Why is the Vatican city walled off and why does entry into the Cistern Chapel regulated and its doors locked as and at when due? Some would argue that it is for the safe keep of the frescoes and artworks dotting the whole place. So what is then wrong in trying to also keep Americans and what is in America safe with a wall? This then leads to the question why does the pope and his church keep their treasures here on earth? Why did they not listen and heed the provisions of Mathew 6:19-21; Matthew 19:21 and such other many verses of the Bible that warns against earthly possessions. So speaking of who is not a christian, does the fact that the Vatican owns properties and assets valued at over $35 billion while many God's children all over the world are languishing in abject poverty and starvation still make them christians? 

Does this their attitude of keeping stuff, including those their Father Mbaka of AMEN Nigeria did not know what to do with upon his transfer, not negate these biblical injunctions against accumulating earthly treasures and possessions; especially when millions of God's children are languishing of hunger and abject poverty from India to Africa to Latin America to even the United States of America? Icheoku asks what has the Vatican done to help out these millions of starving Kenyans, Ethiopians, Eritreans and other impoverished African countries who are suffering from famine, starvation, wars and other disasters. Yet the Vatican is awashed with billions of dollars and you wonder who are they stashing the money for and they are Christians? The good news however is that no one tells Americans what to do or who to chose to lead them. Therefore, the Vatican should stop trying to influence the outcome of the upcoming  American presidential election because it is not their business who Americans chooses to lead them. 

Moreso, Americans do not try to influence the outcome of Vatican's election or concave, when they decide who they want to lead them as pope of their church. Lucky enough, Americans are always wary of the Vatican and it nearly cost John F Kennedy his election and subsequently hounded John Kerry, another Catholic divorcee, who unsuccessfully ran for United States president because Americans do not trust Vatican and do not want their president beholding to the pope. The pope's uncalled for outburst can only help consolidate Donald Trump's ongoing revolution to make America great again; because in matters of American welfare and issues, Americans come first before the pope. Americans cannot take orders or allow their election to be influenced by just one religious leader out of the so many other religious leaders of different religions which the world has. The pope is leading about 1billion people in a world that has over 7 billion people. so?

The somewhat Vatican's attempt at intervening in America's presidential election reminds Icheoku of Fela Anikulapo Kuti's song "Religion na (is) politics". it makes one to wonder what is the pope's business meddling in a purely internal affairs of America - the expressed intent to protect the borders of  an independent sovereign state of America. It is such meddling and always telling people what to do and how to behave and morality including their shifting positions on gaydom, divorce and now birth control that is continually depleting its follower-ship. People are smarter today than to be led by the nose from the Vatican City. Icheoku recalls that Britain broke away from the Catholic Church for among other things, the   payment and disbursement of Peter's pence; giving rise to  the formation of Anglo-Catholic (Anglican) church. 

Icheoku is delighted that the Donald told the pope to wait a minute, as his plans is merely to protect a sovereign territory's borders and that it has nothing to do with the Vatican or any other country for that matter. Good enough too, the Donald is a real man with two great steal balls in his groins and so took on the pope decisively. Like with the past battles, he took on the establishment and survived; he has taken on illegal immigration and survived; he has taken on the mighty Bush family and survived; he has taken on politics as usual and survived; he has taken on Muslims terrorists and survived; he has taken on all manners of interest and pundits and survived and will again survive the current pope's interpretation of who is a Christian.  A pope who has been engaged in active papal politics since his ascension and who is known, like the bouncer he once was, to bend hands until he mission accomplish an objective, will be told not this time. He did it with Cuba and Obama and suddenly fifty years old frozen relationship is being thawed. 

Now he wants the southern border to be thrown wide open for the country to be overrun by Mexicans; except that the pope did not ask Angel Merkel and the Germans how funny they are finding their own Syrian refugees experiment. Icheoku says for the pope to butt out from trying to influence the outcome of the coming American presidential election and to quit playing politics with America's national security interest, an initiative which Donald Trump has taken on strongly as protecting the borders will be his priority number one. Nobody is against anyone coming to anyone's house; but please do it through the door and don't try to jump in through the window, especially at night, otherwise you become a burglar who deserves to be treated as one. Finally, Icheoku says if it means Donald Trump taking on the entire world in order to make America great again, so be it; but the task at hand must be mission accomplished including building the wall, the Trump Wall. Donald Trump lets make America great again, build that wall.

SO WHAT IF DONALD TRUMP IS A RACIST?

Icheoku says please give me a break; who is not a racist in America? Which white skinned American, majority of who are descendants of slave owners including Hollywood Ben Affleck, is not a racist?  Since the last time Icheoku checked, a racist is defined as "a person who believes that a particular race is superior to another" and so now please someone show Icheoku that pale skinned American who does not believe in the white privilege? By extension, which of these candidates running for the presidency of the United States of America lives in a black neighborhood or black community? How many of them attend black churches? How many of their children go to black school or one in black neighborhood? How many of them even have a black friend?

Bill Clinton did not marry a black woman? Bill Clinton also, in his numerous dalliance, did not have sex with any of that woman who is black? Ditto Hillary Clinton, who none of her personal assistants is black and their daughter Chelsea did not marry a black man? In the neighborhood where they live and possibly the church they attend, there possibly does not a black person reside nor attend? Their antecedents, especially with Jesse Jackson during his run for the presidency in 1988 as well as Barack Obama's 2008 run did not establish their truly being in bed with black people. How many black friends do they even have, speaking about a white couple that loves black people dearly and are not racists? Who increased incarceration of blacks in America, Bill Clinton. Ditto the other guys in the other party as well as Hillary's challenger Bernie Sanders. But suddenly it is election season and Hillary is speaking and talking black, visiting Flint in solidarity with black folks being poisoned with lead; as well as visiting Al Sharpton and black churches to show her blackness. Icheoku says only the gullible is deceived and will be deceived. 

This responds to numerous inquiries by various people as to why Icheoku is supporting Donald Trump despite all the bomb-throwing, somewhat racially tinged rhetorics associated with him during this election cycle. Icheoku is emphatic there are two types of white people - those who show you their teeth in pretentious smile that they love you, only to drive the knife right through into your heart once you turn your back; and those who will tell you upfront that they are more comfortable with people who look like them and share their values. Any other thing in between is rare. So among all the racist white people running to succeed the nigger currently in a "hostile occupation" of their White House, Donald Trump does it for Icheoku, because he is at least honest and upfront with his feelings towards people who do not look like him nor share his white supremacy values. 

A popular aphorism has it that the devil one knows is always better than the devil lurking in the garb of an angel, only to strike you dead at any slightest opportunity. The worst enemy anyone could have is that enemy who is pretending to be a friend - the Brutus of this world. Julius Ceasar was stabbed severally but it was only the stab by Brutus that Caesar regretted with his now famous quote 'Et tu Brute?" Nigeria's late MKO Abiola once said that "with a friend like IBB no one needs an enemy." So it is not those already identified enemies which one is already guarded and protected against that constitute the problem; nope, it is those enemies pretending to be friends, who have access to one's inner recesses, while plotting how to drive that dagger right through underneath the rib cage. Icheoku listens to Rush Limbaugh too; another no go area for pretentious people, who brand him a racist; while disregarding their own appalling resume on race relationship in America. The wise listens to his enemy to know what the attack plans or flange of attack will be and then hone in his defenses accordingly. 

Icheoku says but for the upcoming election, Hillary Clinton as well as Bernie Sanders would not have cared enough to give a hoot about the abject poverty bedeviling millions of black Americans in America. It is not just about the photo-op which Flint Michigan provided this two candidates as caring, they should as a matter of seriousness, travel through American inner cities and communities of color to witness first hand the level of poverty in which fellow Americans are living which even some poverty-stricken third world countries cannot be proud of. But this is America, the food basket of the world and the wealthiest nation on earth, yet some of her people are suffering abject poverty simply because the color of their skin is somewhat different and below par. Anyway, the campaign season is full stream and hopefully Donald Trump will clinch the Republican Party's nomination and go ahead to win the presidency of America. Then and after then will  Icheoku revisit his suitability for president of the United States of America, if need be; but please give Icheoku a break he is a racist because all of them are.

'PROPHET OF GOD AND MAN OF GOD' CHURCHES, CLAMP THEM DOWN - PUMZA FIHLANI

Some governments and organisations in Africa are starting to think churches should be held accountable to a being other than God. Of concern to many with interests in the Christian faith are the "prophet of God" or "man of God" churches. These are led by self-proclaimed prophets or messengers who are believed by their millions of devoted followers to have the power to perform a range of miracles from healing the sick, curing Aids and even raising the dead. But who dares take on these seemingly untouchable men? 

Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta recently called for the regulation of churches. The government there says the move is aimed at stamping out bogus churches. "They are thieves and not preachers. We have to consult and know how to remove them," the president is quoted as saying by Kenyan newspaper Daily Nation. When approached for comment on the skepticism around their sometimes bizarre practices, the response is often a variation of "we are being targeted" or "the Bible says the man of God will face opposition. Christ himself faced opposition". 

But the controversy is not unique to Kenya. Nigerian evangelist TB Joshua made news following a building collapse at his Synagogue Church of All Nations church in Lagos, which killed 116 people. A coroner's report blamed the collapse on shoddy work, saying the structure had not met safety standards but Mr Joshua's church denied this, instead blaming the collapse on a mysterious plane which had been flying above the double-storey building shortly before it was reduced to rubble. Of those killed, more than 80 were from South Africa, illustrating the international nature of some of the bigger churches. 

In South Africa, two churches - Rabboni Ministries and End Times Disciples Ministries - made headlines here when the churches posted images of their leaders feeding followers snakes and rats, or instructing congregants to drink petrol and eat grass. The images caused a nationwide outcry. At the time, the man dubbed the "snake pastor" by local media, Prophet Penuel Mnguni, said he was "doing God's work and didn't need to explain God's ways to people".  

Having tried to contact the prophet a number of times without success, I set off to locate him in the last place he was known to hold services. In the scorching Pretoria heat and after hours of driving, one resident, in extension 13 in Soshanguve, a township outside the capital, told me my search was futile. "It's Sunday but you won't find him anywhere here. He'll never come back here. We burnt his church and chased him away," he said. "Some people threatened to kill him if he ever returns. People here are angry at what he did - that's why he ran away." A few other people confirmed the "ban" and that seems to be the end of that. 

Some organisations are also curious about the business of the church. South Africa's Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities (CLR) which summoned 40 churches, said their wide-ranging sessions found that "commercialization is definitely there… and abuse of people's belief systems". "The sector needs to be regulated," CLR chairperson Thoko Mkhwanazi-Xaluva told the BBC. "We've found that other religions such as Islam and the Jewish religion are systematized for disciplinary codes and monitoring but Christianity, because of its volatility in terms of anyone being able to start up their own church, we feel there is a need for regulation, self-regulation," she said. The challenge though becomes - whose role this should be, the government or the church body itself? 

Pastor Conrad Mbewe, of the Kabwata Baptist Church in Zambia, says charismatic churches have a stronghold on the continent because "Africans are hugely spiritual". "Africans do not question the existence of God as in the case with many in the Western World," said Mr Mbewe. "It is believed that there needs to be a conduit that enables communication between humans of the various layers of spiritual beings, which include angels, demons and spirits. They see these prophets as messengers from God," he said. He told me that financial swindling and sexual abuse were a concern for church leaders in Zambia. "We have been made aware of incidents of sexual abuse, which is said to take place when they attend overnight church gatherings." 

There is evidence that bogus churches target vulnerable people, Ms Mkhwanazi-Xaluva told me. "Issues of poverty and unemployment are at the core of people's reliance on these types of churches. We've found this group is incredibly desperate and will do whatever they are told to do if promised that it will change their lives." This is not to say all evangelical churches are bad, the same way we cannot say all orthodox churches are good and without controversy. The majority of the Christian community and its leaders are well respected here. 

The South African constitution allows for "freedom of religion". This means the constitution protects everyone's religion, as long as it acts within the ambit of the law - this also makes it easy for anyone to start a church. Reverend Moss Nthla of the Evangelical Alliance of South Africa, which has more than three million members, accepts that the Christian family is facing many challenges but says the government cannot be called upon to address spiritual matters. "It is difficult to see how the government would regulate churches; we've got reports of politicians themselves being faithful members of some of these controversial churches - some of which are a law unto themselves." "There needs to be at the very least, a bare minimum standard that we as Christians can set and adhere to and any church found to be operating outside of that needs to be stigmatized  We would have failed as church leaders if we do nothing," said Reverend Nthla.