BUHARI SWORN IN: A PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURATION WITH A TWIST.

ICHEOKU says it could easily pass for the proverbial King who crowned himself, as every living former heads of State and presidents, except for the infamous genocidal murderer, Yakubu Jackal Gowon, shunned the event. Their action, telegraphed an unspoken but strongly loud message that it will not be in their name nor with their support, would a "stolen" mandate confer legitimacy on the president. 

It could have been much gracefully better and ICHEOKU strongly feels that the president also shared in the sentiments, had these former leaders showed up to support the president. That Gowon was there could be a result of lost in translation or that the memo which communicated the decision of the former leaders to stay away from the inauguration did not get to him on time. It is also possible that Gowon showed up in order to remain above the fray, curry favor and retain his place in the good books of the president and by extension, the Caliphate. 

Overall, the event of May 29th, 2019 was comparatively mediocre at best and lacked the pomp and pageantry, as well as the grandeur and glamour, usually associated with such presidential inauguration ceremony; especially for a president on his way out, who was being sworn in for his last and final term in office. The uneasiness was palpably noticeable; and the humiliation suffered by being abandoned by all the former heads of State and presidents was also noticeable. No president, given a choice, would like to be so shabbily treated as irrelevant, abandoned on his great day as a pariah by his predecessors in office. 

The ramification of such a national embarrassment will be consequential, as the president will see it an unforgivable sin and an affront on his presidency. In other words, those former leaders who did not honor the president's invitation to his inaugural ceremony might as well kiss goodbye to whatever camaraderie that hitherto existed between them and the president. But the good news is that, like they say in Hollywood and Nollywood, the show must go on and the show went on. The president was successfully sworn in for his second and final term in office, and it was without a hitch, leaving many wondering what these former leaders actually achieved with their boycott, other than making a statement of their displeasure at the president.

However, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida and Ernest Shonekan's absence could be excused as they are both medically indisposed and otherwise couldn't be available, even if they had wanted. But Abdulsalam Abubakar, Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan had no excuses whatsoever to justify their boycott of the president's special day. Theirs was a conspired absence, orchestrated to humiliate the president, but whether they succeeded, the jury is still out on that question. They were not sick and it could not have been because of any prior engagements, because the date for the presidential inauguration was literary set in stone, scheduled  several years in advance and nothing else should have trumped it, regardless. 

What the five former leaders, particularly the last three, did, was in fact, calculatedly deliberate. They intentionally wanted to humiliate and embarrass the president; so, they should be made to pay a hefty price for it. May be the president should consider taking away their pensions and other accruing privileges, including the withdrawal of their security details or even denying them access to Aso Rock, by placing them on a permanent do not visit Aso Rock list of abhorable deplorables.

Their action was probably another evidence of corruption fighting back, as some of them were involved in large scale corruption during their time in office, for which they are currently being investigated. Abdulsalam Abubakar and Olusegun Obasanjo were involved in the $16 billion white elephant power project; while Jonathan was involved in the $2 billion Malabu Oil deal scandal, for which he allegedly pocketed $450 million as his own share of the booty. So, it is understandable if the decision by President Muhammadu Buhari to curtail corruption in the country, by investigating these former leaders, led to their protest boycott of the inauguration; their way of vehemently registering their displeasure at being investigated by the president.

It is obvious that corruption is mounting a counter offensive against the president, using everything, including shunning a presidential inauguration, to make a statement that they will be unrelenting in their effort to stop the president from succeeding in his war against corruption. ICHEOKU is emphatic that corruption in Nigeria will not abate until some of these corrupt former leaders are made examples of, held accountable for their own corruption. They need to start facing consequences for their corruption, including being publicly named and shamed, paraded where necessary, arrested and prosecuted for being the criminals which they are. Once this is done, every other person below them will understand that it is no more an open season for corruption in Nigeria, because a masquerade which beat an elderly person will make a mince meat of a youth. 

ICHEOKU says that no former Nigerian leader has ever won the Mo Ibrahim Foundation Award for Excellence in Leadership in Africa is a great testament to the depth of their corruption. Their penchant for kleptomania is legendary and they stole with reckless abandonment; including the coward of Otuoke who made himself superbly rich from the office and also made out like bandit from the Malabu Oil scandal. ICHEOKU gleefully awaits the the day the president's joker on these former corrupt leaders will drop like it is hot, including putting them in handcuffs. Hopefully the president will follow through with his many promises to fight corruption to a stand still and not sparing any of these bandits in the process.

Anyway, while Atiku Abubakar is still dreaming about a phantom mandate, which was purportedly stolen; the man who actually holds the mandate has been sworn in for his second final term in office. So, while Atiku and his co-travelers to a laland presidency are still salivating about what would have been, lost in the jungle of distorted facts, President Muhammadu Buhari has officially begun his second term in office and there is nothing anyone, including 1000 Obasanjos, can do about that. ICHEOKU says congratulating President Muhammadu Buhari on his second term inauguration and also the people of Nigeria, who chose wisely on February 23rd, 2019, to reject the globally acknowledged face of corruption in Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, by sticking with the proverbial devil they know, having already adjusted to the hardship in the land, is therefore quite in order.

ICHEOKU says could care less that the president won his reelection and was inaugurated for a second term in office, despite the hardship, anger and disillusionment in the land. What is imperative here is that the president, by his election victory, stopped the gathered vultures, led by Nigeria's most crooked and corrupt person and the world recognized face of corruption in Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, who were waiting to carry on with their feasting on the carrion of Nigeria. This was the single most important factor for ICHEOKU during the period leading up to the last presidential election 2019, for which all stops were pulled to help stop Atiku Abubakar and his army of ravenous scavengers from ever again descending on Nigeria's resources and feasting on them like swarming locusts. 

The aversion and revulsion to a possible Atiku Abubakar's presidency led to the avowal to stop him by all means necessary and however possible. Such was the intensity and determination, that anyone else, including Sahara Reporters' Sowore Omole, would have been a far much better and preferred choice than Atiku Abubakar. So, ICHEOKU was indeed grateful that the president accomplished this base mission and that Atiku was stopped cold from nearing the gate of Aso Rock. With this done, at least Nigeria will have something left in its tiller for the running of the country; unlike with Atiku, where every last penny would have been looted by a band of thieves, masquerading as dopey and droopy-eye politicians, whose only motivation in politics is to steal the country blind and make themselves stupendously rich and at the expense of the masses. So ICHEOKU is grateful and thankful to God for securing victory for President Muhammdu Buhari and for stopping a threatened looting on steroid that was lurking around and waiting to begin.

ICHEOKU says does not believe in medicine after death and since God does not give second chances or an opportunity for a do over, why would anybody? Nigerians must therefore learn to adapt to their self immolating circumstances, quit whining and stop the gnashing of teeth, because of their inability to vote President Muhammadu Buhari out of office on February 23rd, 2019.  They voted him into office on March 29th, 2015 and that is the only controlling authority that counts. By voting for Buhari on March 29th, 2015, Nigerians forever lost their right to complain about any hardship as a result of the Buhari's presidency, because they knew what they were getting into when they voted for Buhari in 2015. Buhari is as constant as Mother Nature that even the Northern Star does not meet his resoluteness; he changeth not; he was the same yesterday, today and will remain the same tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. So why does Nigerians expect water out of rock, especially when they are not armed with Moses staff.

This Buhari's truism was germane in 2015 and so it was four years later in office and so will it remain in the next four years. Buhari does not change; Buhari did not change and Buhari will not ever change. So, why the hyperventilating hysteria in the land over a fully resolved man who never hid his character or who he is to Nigerians. Or were Nigerians afflicted by the repeatedly doing the same thing while expecting a different result, which is insanity defined? Therefore it is hopelessly delusional for any Nigerian to pretend that the Dracula of Daura suddenly morphed into a monster or that he is surprisingly visiting the land with great chastisement, because he is not. He did not change in 1983 through 1985 and was the same fixated individual in 2015 and continuing till this day. So, anyone expecting a different Buhari or that there will be a different outcome from the same circumstances, needs to have their heads examined for schizophrenia.

The good mantra for honest living is to always have in mind that if you do the crime, you will also do the time. Nigerians willingly invited the minstrel into their homes and must not be heard now to complain that the music is deafening. So, to all those vuvuzelas who are chest-beating that Buhari has killed them, ICHEOKU says to suck it up and pray, on the authority of 2 King 12:21, that the NextLevel will not be a more excruciating experience. Utobo, the rhesus monkey, said that the death which is starring it on the face can never kill it; but Nigerians ignored this time honored advise and invited Buhari to their governance in 2015 and should only pray he does not convert himself to a life president when his term expires in 2023. 

ICHEOKU says if Buhari decides to tighten the screws more in his second term, so be it; as it is a well deserved and rightly earned rebuke of a society which always condemns its best and celebrates its worst. If Buhari becomes the whip that would whip Nigerians into sensibleness and reasonableness, so be it; but it is definitely about time Nigerians started reasoning rationally and not remain the wildebeests which they are, who stubbornly, spontaneously charges without first thinking the ramifications of their actions through and thoroughly. What made any sane Nigerian to prefer Buhari over Jonathan in 2015 was actually what made all the difference and in fact, when the cookie crumbled; and not at any other subsequent time, including last February 23rd, 2019 when they wanted to retrieve the cup after giving an enwe water with it. 

Anyway, the deed is done and Nigerians should brace themselves for whatever happens in the next four years, including massive arrest and detention of Nigerians and their former leaders. ICHEOKU can't wait.

ICHEOKU also congratulates Nigeria on becoming a nuclear power, as the president was seen carrying his presidential "akpa nwa dibia" handbag, where the nuclear code of the country is securely tucked away. What Americans call the Football, Nigerians call the Sharia bag; but let nobody make mistake about it because it is also as deadly. Inside that handbag is a direct live communication to the Fulfude only Fulani Radio and nobody should doubt the power of issuing directives on that frequency. Its destructive yield must not be in doubt and ICHEOKU prays the president never activates that code. 

As for the Adams Oshiomhole rude awakening, if only he had read Luke 14:12, he would have been properly guided on the wisdom of not self-inviting oneself to a party; because such gate crashing always leads to unpleasant experience and other unintended consequences, including being publicly humiliated. 

The inauguration also made history as the only presidential inauguration without an inaugural address, as the president failed to inform or share with his country men and women what to expect from his administration during his second term. May be because it will be more of the same, except on a higher level or is it Next Higher Level, one may add. ICHEOKU also was not impressed by the newly acquired presidential limousine because it is not beastly enough. The best of it all is Nigeria has a president and his name is not Atiku Abubakar. So until 2023, every other agitation and vituperative invectives are but inconsequential noisy hot air. ICHEOKU says congratulations President Muhammadu Buhari for stopping Atiku Abubakar from nearing the gate of Aso Rock; and as for Olusegun Obasanjo, the president can arrest and LOCK HIM UP now for being a security risk to the country and the heavens will not fall if he does.