Icheoku says President Good(BAD)luck Jonathan has defied analysis and only himself and/or his wife Patience are possibly capable of grasping the workings of his inner mind. A president who has not deemed it fit just yet to fire a none performing Inspector General of Police Ringim over the scourge of Boko Haram but who did not waste time in showing the previous IGP Ogbonna Onovo the door out just because of prevalence of kidnappers. Now the same president, despite the advise of his political godfather Obasanjo, has obstinately removed fuel subsidy without even having the decency of keeping the fate with the Nigerian people whom he had promised an April date for the removal. Icheoku queries, how can the Nigerian people be expected to still trust a president who says one thing and does another? As for Icheoku, we were never sold his candidacy like many gullible Nigerians; so technically, we have no sleep to loose over his blatant failure to lead; especially his lack of will to do the heavy lifting necessary to move the country forward.
Removal of fuel subsidy now, despite the best of intentions, does not seem to be the appropriate thing to do at this moment of great tension in the land. As a popular Igbo proverb says, the puppy which the gods want to kill, he first make it mad; so it would seem that a man who is chasing rats while his house is on fire has some loose joints upstairs that needs tightening or tying together. A country already clinging on the cliff due to the murderous activities of Northern Nigerian Islamic Terrorist group Boko Haram, needs no further provocative gasoline being poured on it. But an aloof and somewhat timid President Jonathan seems too far gone in lalaland to appreciate the magnitude of the doodle he and the country is mired in, hence the craving for yet another tinder. It is not wise, it is not smart and it is not intelligent to remove at this time, fuel subsidy; and if it must, then as Asiwaju Bola Tinubu articulated, it must be in a piece meal fashion and not in one helluva-bang style as the present. The masses, whose 18000Naira minimum wage are yet to be paid timely and in full are now being tasked with additional burden of expenses across the board. It is inhuman, harsh and irreconcilable with the "breath of fresh air" promised them by the president. Even in the United States, a bastion of everything capitalism, there is so many subsidies to make it livable for the downtrodden including agricultural subsidy, fuel subsidy, education subsidy, health-care subsidy as well as social security subsidy; so Icheoku is at a loss when the Nigerian government of President Jonathan decided to say to Nigerian masses, "you are on your own" and squeezed their belt much more tighter with the current subsidy removal.
In summation, Icheoku says the most militating problem now in Nigeria is BOKO HARAM and the president's attention and effort should be 1000% devoted and focused like laser thereat and nothing more including the present distracting fuel subsidy question. Seek ye first the kingdom and the rest shall be added unto thee' - so says the Lord and Icheoku does not expect any less from the president regarding the menace Boko Haram in setting up his priorities. Thereafter, let Nigerians decide the question of fuel subsidy and the manner of implementing it whether by increment or in one fell swoop. However, Icheoku still maintains that the principal problem facing President Jonathan is that he was not prepared for the job he is currently saddled with; hence had no clue what he is doing or the road-map to get him to any meaningful destination. Like a plague afflicting Nigeria, President Jonathan is yet another one of those reluctant president who was plucked away from his natural habitat, the academia, his perfect natural fit and mentored against his will to the presidency. If resignation was in the dictionary of Nigerian politicians, may be Icheoku would have added its voice to the growing legion of people asking the president to consider the option of stepping aside; but no such thinking ever cross their minds, so there is no need throwing that lifeline at his doorsteps. The Federal government should therefore and urgently reverse itself on the question of fuel subsidy and if it must. may be at a later date and gradually implemented and not otherwise.
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Christy 'Apena' Essien-Igbokwe , the wife of Jegede Shokoya of the New Masquerade and Nigeria's lady of songs is dead; she was 51years old. Although her family claimed that "brief Illness" killed her like so many Nigerians; Icheoku retorts that it was most likely AKwa Ibom voodoo and remote control that was used to arrest her. It is on record that she had fallen out with the governor of her native Akwa Ibiom State and have been having a relentless war for political turf with the governor? So who knows whether she was sacrificed to Ekpe cult or even Alusi-Okija as an offal; afterall African science is still very much alive and portent. May her soul rest in peace.
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