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, October 13, 2021

PETER OBI'S PANDORA PAPERS SCANDAL: WHY IT MATTERS.

ICHEOKU says the issue is not whether he is a "wealthy" man or "a very big trader" or the "sole importer of Heinz salad cream" or brings Ovaltine in container loads into Nigeria or is the chairman and/or board member of so many banks, nobody is questioning or begrudging him of his riches. The issue is that he turned out to be just one of them, another hypocrite who preached one thing while doing the other. He harped against corruption but ended up engaging in corrupt practices, hiding assets in offshore tax havens to avoid paying taxes on them. He also owned foreign bank accounts against the code of conduct for public office holders as a former governor of Anambra State. 

He portrays himself as squeaky clean, an image which he cultivated through many economic theory themed speeches and which he markets himself to Nigerians with, as the only authority on the solution to Nigeria's multifaceted problems. He painted an image of an incorruptible personality, the quintessential embodiment of a saintly politician, the moral authority of exemplary leadership and someone possessed of the clout of an ideal Nigerian leader, something which have eluded the country until Peter Obi emerged on the scene. It is this image which he created for himself and sold to Ndi Anambra and which he is also trying assiduously to sell to Nigerians that has now been sullied and besmirched by what the Pandora Papers revealed. 

So, if Nigerians cannot trust him to be honest with his assets declarations and compliance with set rules of code of conduct of public office holders, what else can they not trust of. He is approaching the issue with responses and reactions which are off tangent by proclaiming his innocence and declaring how rich he is. Therefore, no matter the length he goes to protest his innocence and/or declare that he acted based on advise of professionals, including international lawyers who had assured him that he did nothing wrong by incorporating companies in tax havens and in his children's and wife's names, it will not cut it. He acted to avoid being directly identified as owner of the companies and to avoid paying taxes on them. It impeaches his character for trustworthiness and this is the only issue that should concern him which he should work to restore. 

The mere fact that he was ready, willing and able to participate in such a money/assets hiding scheme goes to show his character for dishonesty and if he did it, what else he is willing, able and ready to do just for the sake of money. It is his conduct that is on trial alongside his character for deceit. Recall that many of those rich and wealthy individuals implicated in the Pandora Papers are leaders of some countries whose citizens are suffering from all manners of crass deprivations, including the King of Jordan and his $100 million hidden assets. These are heartless people who do not care nor necessarily love their people that they would rather stash millions overseas than invest in their countries and with jobs creations, help their people earn their living. People are dying in their countries from hunger and starvation while they have millions hidden in money laundering havens. 

Anyway, Peter Obi is one fella who ICHEOKU does not particularly care for especially following the Ezu River 23 floating dead bodies of IPOB and MASSOB members who were massacred when he was the governor of Anambra State. The extra judicial murders of these young Igbo men were not investigated and as their governor, he failed to throw his weight to ensure that their killers, the State, took responsibility for their murder and the culprits were prosecuted and punished and compensations paid to their families. He simply acquiesced to it and the murders were swept under the rug of Ezu River and it was acceptable to this Peter Obi. That callousness cost him a lot of goodwill which he hitherto had both in Anambra State and Nigeria. To say that he speaks funnily, in a small, witchy, shrill voice, unfit for any fully grown adult to possess, especially a man, adds to his general weirdness. 

There is something about him that significantly questions his sincerity and trustworthiness; or should ICHEOKU say something eerie feeling about his general demeanor and personality. He could be an accomplished businessman, scholar, administrator and what have you, but there is something unsettling about him that any clear eyed, unbiased and disinterest person can easily see of him even standing hundreds of feet away. So what the Pandora Papers claimed is not the surprise here, the surprise is that there were not many more of such accusations in the papers as appertained to him. 

As an advocate of good, transparency and open governance which he claims, like Caesar's wife, he should have been above board in every facet and flank. He should not  have given anyone including many of his detractors any reason to throw mud at him and say, you see he is just one of us, big on saying things but small in doing them. Like the Pharisees, he does not practice what he preaches. The veneer of corruptibility is sufficient to sully his reputation and for a man who has pontificated and preached values of a holier than thou person since leaving office as Anambra State governor a few years ago, it matters that he was implicated in the Pandora Papers scandal. He is damaged no matter from which angle or perspective it is viewed as the Peter Obi of yore is no longer the Peter Obi of now.

Peter Obi should understand why many Nigerians, especially his fans are angry at him, worried and concerned about the assertions in the Pandora Papers, which he has since admitted, claiming that he did nothing wrong by what he did. It is because of the trust which they hitherto reposed in him but which has now somewhat be shaken or diminished or completely wilted away as a result of the disclosure. They are unhappy with him that their idol and symbol of honesty and good stewardship is no more; and now questioning if he has been just a great pretender all these years. An Igbo adage has it that 'a good face does not deserve to be scratched'; and being above really means being completely above board, regardless. 

That pedestal of incorruptibility and honesty which Peter Obi had placed himself on have been compromised, it has caved in as a result of the Pandora Papers disclosure and so much so that his once colossal political height have become diminished and he no longer stands as tall as he once stood in the eyes of Nigerians. He should therefore channel any damage control to finding ways to repair it and reinvent himself as the man with candor and character who shuns everything and anything corrupt. He can start this by first shutting down those secret foreign operations, then apologize to Nigerians for the mistake, with a promise to be better going forward while simultaneously denying knowledge of ever being aware that such practice is wrong. He needs humility and not defiance, nor using the opportunity to proclaim how "wealthy" a businessman he is, as his riches is not the issue but his sharp practices of secreting assets overseas. 

Once he can appreciate the distinction, he might recover some of his political capital and standing before Nigerians, otherwise, he has gone off the political cliff and with it whatever chances he formerly had at ever berthing himself in Aso Rock. With Atiku Abubakar's avowed notoriety for being acutely corrupt and now Peter Obi's questionable overseas business sharp practices, imagine what would have been the faith of Nigeria had the duo won their ticket's election in 2019. It is possibly the reason the almighty God intervened and prevented their anchor from dropping in Aso Rock. Just imagine how many jobs his $15 million stashed in overseas' bank accounts would have created in Nigeria and helped put food in so many hungry stomachs. It is that Peter Obi is infallible or that he did something which no other Nigerian has done before, but that Peter Obi should have lived the expectations from Peter Obi and not be just one of them. It is sad. 

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