ORGANIZED RELIGION: A BAGGAGE SO HEAVY FOR NIGERIA - MODIU OLAGURO

Lately, I've found it irritating when I meet people and they ask if I'm Muslim or Christian. Could they be so shallow not to know that -- at least in this era -- religion has had absolutely no effect on our morals, conducts, and dispositions? The reality is glaring for all to see. From the civil servant with no holes in her ear to the trader with loose clothing, its the same story of deceit and hypocrisy. Call it false generalization if you want. 

Some illiterate "kobonaires" who can hardly feed quote the revealed text to justify the perversion of their dangling testicles while the nation keeps bearing the brunt through spiraling hooliganism and brigandage. At the other end of the line -- as with the former -- it's their way or no way; every commercial bus is an altar, all the classes in the university are pulpits! These go on while the enemies of the people keep destroying the nation. Till 1999 or thereabout, Christians still eat our Sallah Ram; my family also enjoy the Christmas Chicken. 

Presently, from north down to the south, we have allowed religion to destroy our socialization so much so that the Sheep and Goat now toss their compasses at us. Love between a lass and lad -- the purest form of socialization is most hit in this regard. A Jehovah Witness fella must never marry an outsider -- that includes everyone without a witnessing bag; Aishah cannot date Raphael. Are we not in soup? We are no longer human beings first, but Christians or Muslims. To be a traditionalist is to receive a wink of eternal condemnation. 

Our sense of justice has become so perverted and tainted that truth now undergoes a semblance of Einstein's relativity theory via rationalization under spiritual lenses. With 85 million Christians and 85 million Muslims, Nigeria became and remains the most corrupt nation on earth. With over 1000000 Churches and 1000000 Mosques, the killings keep increasing. The injustice in the land is so widespread you would think that all the inhabitants here are Children of the Satan. 

The Human Brain was supposed to perfect us as superior creatures. With 100 billion cells within it, the termite should be learning from us,  not the other way round. I've laid bare my thoughts as a confused creature who believes, as Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, that "there are no facts, only interpretations." For the first time, I'm not being critical over an issue of serious importance. It pains me to see us divided over what ordinarily should unite us as descendants of Adam -- or Monkey. We cannot move forward as a people with a baggage this heavy. We cannot.

OUR SENATORS MUST WEAR UNIFORMS - an article by ABIMBOLA LAGUNJU.

The members of Nigerian parliament have developed a penchant for wasting public funds on irrelevant things that do not add any quality to our lives. They waste our money, they waste our time and they play with our collective intelligence. We do not get any value for the money we spend on them. They have a short attention span on any matter. Different mundane things easily catch their attention while matters of national importance are quietly and deliberately kept off their radar. 

They have now taken a fancy to uniforms. They like uniforms. They like Police, Army, Customs, immigration, Civil Defense uniforms. Uniforms! Our honourables and senators have turned uniforms to an issue of national importance. They want to see as many as possible in uniforms. They are not interested in the person, just the uniform he wears. The servile retinue of police aides in uniforms who waste our taxes guarding them from us, their employers has conditioned them to look down on service uniforms. They feel that they are superior to the wearer of any kind of uniform; after all, their police guards clean their shoes, carry their bags, escort their wives to the market and play the servants to their children. Appearing in anything but a uniform is considered an affront by these members of parliament. They send you out of their presence. They disgrace and humiliate you. Ask Hameed Ali. They were irked to see him in their parliament without his uniform. They wanted him to deck up like one of those police officers that carries their bags. He refused to oblige them. They walked him out. They hammered Hameed. They were not interested in hearing him on the performance of his charge or the reason why he dreamt up payment of  import duties on old and tired vehicles which his own men allowed into the country. They were not interested in Nigeria. They were interested in their ego. They invoked a redundant law to prove their point. Where on this God’s earth do parliamentarians waste taxpayers’ money on discussing in which clothes an employee of the State must appear before them? Hameed Ali did not come in his skin. He came in a decent and non-flamboyant outfit. But these senators wanted to see him in uniform by all means.

Their obsession with uniforms has limits however. They want others to wear uniforms, but not them. They dread the idea of changing their babarigas and agbadas for any kind of uniform. Just a couple of days ago, a tailor who sews uniforms for greedy politicians passed by their senate to ask them for confirmation of his appointment. He wanted them to confirm him as the official tailor for their future uniforms. They were horrified. They mugged Magu the Tailor. They did not hear him. They could not. They were deep in mental imagination of themselves in badly sewn short uniforms. They all know that Magu the Tailor already has their sizes. They also know that he has already purchased the cloth to sew their uniforms. They knew that if they confirmed his appointment, they would sooner or later be obliged to wear their short Made by Magu uniforms.  Individually, under their breaths, they muttered, “I reject it”…”this is not my portion”. Collectively they chased Magu, the EFCC chief tailor out of their presence like a demon. They exorcised him from their collective system.

And just down the road, in the House of Representatives (of themselves), the honourables are considering a bill to nominate their own tailor. They do not want to hear of Magu or any other tailor chosen by Mr. Buhari. They want one of their own to be their tailor. They want well-made agbadas and babarigas, not the kind of ill-fitting shirts and shorts built by Magu who learnt the trade from Ribadu. They believe they can pull it off. They know from history that Ibori built his own High Court in Asaba where Justice Marcel Awokulehin gave him favorable verdict for an unprecedented list of economic crimes. The honourables know that it is possible in Nigeria to eat your cake and have it. And they know that Nigerians will just take this intended coup against decency in their stride. After all we had Waziri and Adoke and nothing happened. We have had all sorts of nightmarish people in important places and nothing happened. We just wring our hands in the face of unimaginable crimes against us and our country.

But what is Mr Buhari going to do now about Magu the Tailor? Is he going to oblige the senators and find a more merciful and compliant tailor? Is he going to tell Magu to burn the block note of the sizes of the senators that he has diligently compiled? Will Mr. Buhari ask that the clothes that Magu bought to sew the uniforms be burnt? Mr Buhari should understand that none of these options is open to him. Magu does not know any other trade than to sew clothes for politicians with sticky fingers. See what happened to tailor Ribadu when he was sent out of his shop by Jonathan & Co. Ribadu lost his bearing. He is still reeling from the shock.  Ribadu, like Magu is a dedicated specialist tailor. Both cannot practice any other trade. Therefore, Mr. President Buhari, Mr. Magu cannot be sacked by those to whose wardrobes he wants to add more clothes. Magu has exposed more thieves of our commonwealth than the combined total number exposed since our independence. He has shamed them even if the courts are dragging their feet to send them to jail. Mr. Magu deserves a national honour and not a disgrace.

In the case of Hameed Ali, Mr. Buhari should let these senators understand that it is not the uniform that makes the brain. They should look elsewhere to massage their egos. Mr. Buhari needs to make it clear to the clients of Magu that if Hameed must wear a uniform to appear before them, they also will have to wear their own uniforms to appear before the people, Magu or not, and sooner than later.

APOSTLE SULEMAN: ADULTERY IN THE PULPIT an article by BAYO OLUWASANMI

The adulterous affair between the founder and General Overseer of Omega Fire Ministries Apostle Johnson Suleman and 23-year old Canadian-based singer Stephanie Otobo has become news staple for many days, so much that it needs no retelling. 

One of the great epidemics of the Christian Church today is adultery. The plague of sexual immorality has made Christianity a mockery. These days, people feel Christians, and particularly pastors, are nothing more than heathens who go to church on Sunday to socialize. Pastor scandals have been happening for a long time. It's not new. The Christian world is full of such reports. Since the beginning of Christianity, pastoral failings stretch as far back as Christian history. The Bible is replete with such stories. Sex and adultery show the so called “men of God” as big-time hypocrites. The call to priesthood is more than having the oratorical gift, sugar-coated tongue, and the persuasive marketing skills of a salesman. It is as much as about thoughts and temptations. Adultery is one of those temptations. 

Adultery is like a fire that can and in fact consumes the clergy as well as the parishioner. However, there is a higher bar set for pastors and church leaders. As self-professed earthly representatives of God, pastors must be held to a higher standard. Some people feel adultery among the “men of God” is treated with levity and approval because the sin of adultery doesn't attract the degree of sorrow and shame from the pastor-offenders. 

Apostle Suleman is like the rest of us. He's human. He's frail and fragile. He's not the only one who indulges in sex or adultery. Pastors are not different in make or in value, but in responsibility and expectation. Being a pastor attracts a higher level of criticism because of the higher standard expected of them. Many pastors believe they are above criticisms by quoting verses in the Bible that says you cannot touch the “anointed.” These pastor-hypocrites believe that disagreeing with them means disagreeing with God. 

What are the implications of Apostle Suleman's alleged adulterous affairs? 

Spiritually, his alleged adultery means Apostle Suleman has chosen Satan over Jesus, death over life, and hell over heaven. It is impossible to be an adulterer and a pastor or “man of God” at the same time. They are mutually exclusive. 

Other ministers who are not involved in adultery are tainted by being in the same profession as Apostle Suleman. The pastor's victim or victims have been wounded and their families have paid a price. The guilt from the act will haunt Suleman the rest of his life. His congregants will doubt and question and invariably find out whether he was “called by God' or by men and what he really believes. Those who believed in him and supported him feel betrayed. People whom he was trying to reach for Christ now have a convenient excuse to fall away. His family is wounded, perhaps irreparably. Atheists and others hostile to the Christian faith have a field day. In the future, his ministry is more limited – a miniature version of what it used to be and what it could have been. 

Apostle Suleman's enemies will take his sin gleefully: “Oooh, he was so righteous! But look what he's doing. He's worse than us!” His influence over his congregation will be slim to none. His humiliation will be severe. The shame will be a heavy burden to bear. 

Now what for Apostle Suleman?

Like all Christians, Apostle Suleman struggles with sin. The sin of adultery disqualifies a pastor from his role of spiritual overseer of his ministry. Suleman needs the correction and accountability of his congregation. He needs clear speech, direction, and repentance not sentimental sweets or braggadocio. The ball is in the court of Apostle Suleman. Let him come out of his closet today like his accuser Otobo did, and confirm or deny the accusation of adultery. Truth is the greatest disinfectant.

MARITAL PRIESTHOOD IN THE FUTURE OF CATHOLICISM - THE POPE

ICHEOKU says this particular Pope Francis is an agent of change and he is moving the Catholic Church in an entirely different direction and at such a dizzying speed that it is quaking the church to its foundations. His transformational agenda is such that by the time his papacy ends, he would have succeeded in tilting the church's axis so faraway from where he met it to something which even Saint Paul would hardly recognize anymore. His latest idea is to have married men ordained priests and you wonder what changed to make the church finally become responsive to the rapidly changing demographics and a society which seem to have since moved on without the church, thus leaving the church behind, still stuck in its old ways. 

ICHEOKU says but the reasoning behind his delineating or rather limiting the marital priesthood to only those who are married and wants to be ordained priests; and not also allowing those who are already ordained priest who would like to be married is the 64,000 dollar question needing an answer. Whatever wisdom founds this apparent discriminatory disposition remains to come to the surface. Whether the pope is technically bribing married men and lobbying them to join the priesthood with the carrot of marriage and somewhat "punishing" those who already made the sacrifice of celibacy, albeit unwilling because they had no choice, is another puzzling matter. 

But regardless of how this question is finally resolved, it would appear that marriage is not necessarily what priests wants; they just want to be allowed the right to get laid, period. Icheoku says it is sex and not the commitment of matrimony that discourages entering into vocational priesthood by able bodied men, who cannot imagine a life of celibacy, completely devoid of sex and without a periodic humping. This is the crux of the matter and not necessarily marriage; a fact of consequences which has seen the urge for priesthood further decline, with the new awareness about pedophile priests and what they subject alter boys to. Even gay priests are also finding the restriction on sex intolerably too difficult to bear that they too are turning their backs against ordination; which has invariably affected enrollment for the vocation. 

The imperative is sex and not marriage as those able bodied men in white cassocks are human beings with biological impulses and cravings too. They want to indulge themselves and experience periodically, the spasmodic good feeling which comes with good sexual intercourse. They need to relieve themselves every once in a while and quench the animalistic fire burning inside them and in between their groins; but not necessarily to be encumbered by the demands of marital commitment and relationship. They want to have the ability and choice to get it when they want it; and the pope should be properly apprised of this and then tailor his new to be canon in such a way as would achieve the objective of allowing sex, with marriage as an option. Taking the step further, ICHEOKU says priests and sisters can as well pick and choose among themselves and even start marrying themselves too. 

It is arguable that pedophile priests do what they do because they prey on the least resistant innocent children who would hardly out them or complain in their quest to satisfy their sexual cravings. A predatory sexual problem which the pope can and could have solved  by letting priests love and get sex whenever they can; instead of forcing them underground and into all manners of pervert practises including molesting innocent alter boys. Icheoku therefore says that marriage is not the problem nor the thing which priests desire or which keeps would be priests away from the priesthood. No, they just want to get laid and this is the driving wedge between them and the priesthood. This matter could easily be solved by encouraging priests to date sisters and making it possible for Reverend Fathers and Reverend Sisters to get together, date each other and and if they want, to marry each other. 

ICHEOKU says even 1Timothy 3:2 similarly commanded on the marital status of bishops and since a bishop must first be a priest before graduating to a bishop, it technically follows that the command also appertains to priests. What a new day it will be to see reverend fathers who are husbands and fathers to real children and then deservedly earn their title fathers. What pope on a mission to demystify Catholicism and bring it up to date and not be yoked to centuries old dogmas. ICHEOKU says time for so many people who would like the added benefit of being married or at least getting laid without the scorn of society or a church that will deadlock them, to consider priesthood might have eventually come and hopefully the pope can put it into action sooner than later. The reason it is said that if you live a long time, you will be a witness to so many things and in this century, a catholic priest could also be a married family man. But how about allowing sisters to be ordained too; why not. If female could be doctors, lawyers, engineers, astronauts etc, why not priest. 

WIRE TAPPING PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: UNACCEPTABLE NIXON-LIKE ILLEGALITY.

Icheoku says Obama's White House's wiretapping of then presidential candidate Donald John Trump's Trump Tower's campaign headquarter is to say the least unacceptable and calls for a thorough investigation. With the level of involvement of then President Obama in Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, it is safe to say that the wiretapping might as well have been carried out by Hillary Clinton herself, because it is likely that Obama used whatever information mined as a result of the wire tap to advance the campaign of Hillary Clinton. President Richard Nixon was impeached and forced to resign and later preemptively pardoned by President Gerald Ford for a similar scandal, the Watergate scandal; which is not any different from what Obama's White House is now accused of doing, tapping the headquarter of a presidential candidate who was contesting the presidency against a candidate who President Obama was supporting and campaigning for. 

Richard Nixon did his eavesdropping at the Democratic Campaign headquarters inside the Watergate complex to secure an undue advantage against the Democratic Party and likewise President Barack Obama's White House which had sworn then that then presidential candidate Donald John Trump can never be elected president under his watch. So common sense dictates that the then President Barack Obama would go and did in fact go to the ends of the earth to make sure that his dream of not having Trump elected came through, admitted they were sorely disappointed. Icheoku says the former president and his minders can deny all they want, but the appearance of it, even if not in fact true, collaborates what many had suspected all these months, considering the passionate investment of both time and emotion of President Barack Obama into the flunked Hillary Clinton's presidential election campaign, that Donald John Trump was being monitored and likely wiretapped to trap him. 

ICHEOKU says never in the history of American presidential politics has a sitting president inserted himself in a presidential campaign to elect his successor like in the last presidential election which saw President Barack Obama taking it personal and campaigning for Hillary Clinton in what people later termed his third term. It saw then President Barack Obama declaring that his legacy was at stake and that he will consider the election of then candidate Donald John Trump as a personal insult on him as well as his fabled legacy. He also severally swore that Trump can never be elected president and not under his watch. However, American people ignored him and elected a candidate who they believed is what America needs right now and behold some of the antics of that period is beginning to effervescence tot he top, leading to all these denials and counter denials. Icheoku is not interested in the validity of the allegation since the Democratic Party has now resorted to making allegations which is not substantiated nor backed up with evidence. 

So if the Democrats could boldfacedly accuse President Donald John Trump of having illegal liaison with the Russians and without a scintilla evidence of any such thing, then it is all well and dandy for them and their president Obama to be prepared to nurse the allegation of wire tapping, whether or not there is evidence in support thereof. What good it serves is for them to also feel how hurtful it is to accuse a president who won an election fair and square of colluding with the enemy. An allegation which President Trump has since repeatedly denied but which the still sulking Democrats are not prepared nor ready to concede that they lost the election because of a heavily flawed and irreparably damaged candidate, which they fielded in the election who American people did not have trust in and thereby rejected. But to the Democrats, American people were influenced or rather forced by The Russians to vote as they voted. 

What an insult to the intelligence and candor of the millions of American voters who voted as they were convinced, that they could not have voluntarily decided for themselves to vote as they voted but had to wait for the Russians to direct them on how and who to vote for. ICHEOKU says if only the Democrats know how hollow they sound each time they mouth off this allegation and how insulting the narrative is to the American people who voted to elect Trump, they would have since apologized for the continuing insult that the Russians hacked the election and moved on. They would have found a way to properly rejig their party towards navigating a pathway that will possibly lead them back to future electoral victories. ICHEOKU warns that should they continue to thread on their current path of being perceived as sore losers who could not accept the peoples will and move on, it will be hard for them to ever smell the White House again, especially not with the current crop of leadership who are still running the Democratic Party. 

The irony of of it all is that whereas the Democrats are ready to accept President Obama's denial that he did not authorize nor had anything to do with the alleged wiretap, because according to them, President Obama speaks the truth; the same Democratic party is not willing nor ready to accept President Trump's repeated denial that he and his campaign had nothing to do with the Russians because according to them, Trump must has no capacity for speaking the truth and must first convince them on his innocence before they will accept his innocence - guilty until proved innocent. So why the double and disparate standards of proof required of the two presidents? 

The same crop of losers had earlier latched on Attorney General Sessions alleged meeting with Russian ambassador to ask that he resign the office, until their own photographic evidence of meeting and cavorting with the Russians came to deflate their balloon of holier than thou egotistic tripping. ICHEOKU says does not know about you, but these Democrats are increasingly becoming irritants who are always ready to point at the specs in other peoples eye as in this case President Trump and his cabinet, but chose to ignore the big Russian logs covering their own eyes. Further, if only the Democrats are Christians enough and ever bothered to read the Bible to understand our Lord Jesus Christ's admonition in John 8:7 that he who has no sin should cast the first stone, they would have done some introspections before casting an aspersion on Trump. But for the photographic evidence of them and the Russians, they would still be shouting themselves hoax that Jeff Sessions committed treasonable felony because he met with Russian ambassador in his capacity as United States Senator and not a Trump's surrogate. 

Now they have hushed, forced by their own contacts and winning and dinning with the Russians to beat a retreat into their mourning dark corners, where they have been confined since the November 8, 2016 shellacking. In the manner of "I did not have sex with that woman Ms Lewinsky", all of them had lined up to to denounce Sessions, claiming too that "they did not meet with the Russians nor had any contacts with the Russians." But the Gods are wise and there is a reason historical records and photographs are kept an dit came to the aid of Jeff Sessions and by extension the Trump administration which they were ready to force off the cliff. ICHEOKU says no one trusts the Democrats anymore and nobody is believing their defense of Barack Obama over the latest wire tap fiasco; and so, until a full investigation reveals what exactly truly happened, Americans would believe their President Donald John Trump that something fishy happened during the last campaign and that it was authorized  by the then White House, including wire tapping the campaign headquarters of then candidate Donald John Trump at the Trump Tower. 

PDJT DELIVERS FIRST ADDRESS TO CONGRESS: GREAT SPEECH

A great speech by a great man with a vision and on a mission to Make America Great Again. 

PDJT ADDRESS TO CONGRESS: OUR VISION, OUR MISSION.

Our vision. Our mission. But we can only get there together. We are one people, with one destiny. We all bleed the same blood. We all salute the same flag. And we are all made by the same God. The time for small thinking is over. 

The time for trivial fights is behind us. We just need the courage to share the dreams that fill our hearts. The bravery to express the hopes that stir our souls. And the confidence to turn those hopes and dreams to action. From now on, America will be empowered by our aspirations, not burdened by our fears; inspired by the future, not bound by the failures of the past and guided by our vision, not blinded by our doubts. Everything that is broken in our country can be fixed. Every problem can be solved. And every hurting family can find healing and hope. Our citizens deserve this and so much more –- so join forces to finally get it done.

I REPRESENT AMERICAN PEOPLE NOT GLOBAL ANYTHING - PDJT

ICHEOKU says charity begins from home is a trite saying and President Donald John Trump is merely reiterating it.

DEMOCRATS ELECT NEW PARTY CHAIRMAN, TOM PEREZ.

Icheoku says unable to shake off their monkey of entrenched and establishment party politics and political lineal patronage; continuing their culture of rewarding only party insiders and royalists and keeping insurgents at bay; coupled to their penchant for recycling old and disused party operatives, the Democratic Party has elected one of their own real insider as their new party chairman. 

A man whose middle name might as well pass for the establishment culture that breeds corruption within the Democratic Party, a former Secretary of Labor under the now gone President Barack Hussein Obama government, Thomas E. Perez, backed by the entire Democratic Party hierarchy as well as the apparatchik, defeated Keith Ellison by 235 votes to 200 votes. ICHEOKU says Keith Ellison did well, the mountain of opposition and backers of the victorious Perez considered. it is akin to during the primaries when the whole establishment was on Hillary Clinton's side against Bernie Sanders leading to leaked questions and internal memos to work against Bernie Sanders. Thanks to WikiLeaks the world became aware of Donna Brasile's leaking of debate questions to Hillary Clinton ahead of scheduled debates to confer undue advantage to her. Whether this election was similarly rigged and several arms twisted to achieve a stated objective is a great possibility, their record of fixing election results considered. 

The troubling thing with the Democratic Party is that they are impervious to correction and seemed not to have learned anything from the shellacking of last November 8, 2016. They also seemed not have introspected on why they have been losing so many elections this past eight years and why so many of their younger voters flocked to Bernie Sanders. Instead, they are continuing the same party politics of patronage which their voters have rejected and which sent them into political doldrums and near a political abyss. A practice which alienated a lot of their voters and which saw the party losing more than 1000 seats nationwide, now have only 18 governors and controls non of the three top political offices in Washington DC - the presidency, the senate and House of Representatives. So why continue with the same mindset and pattern of administration which supervised such huge loss of grounds, one would ask? But it is the Democratic Party and inside the party, there is really no democracy strictly speaking as they are democrats in name only. 

Icheoku admonishes that a thinking and forward-looking party with interest and intent to reposition the party and make it competitive again, would have taken the message of these past elections very seriously and forged ahead with fresh set of eyes and brains to see if their fortune could improve. But to be stuck on the mire that sent them down the drain of the current political near irrelevance where they currently inhabit, suggests that they are a "deaf and dumb" party, which is not listening to its constituents or have move on without their electorates. But hey, Keith Ellison's loss is loss for the party as the insurgent Bernie Sanders supporters will not come home simply because Tom Perez was elected to lead the party or told them so. These disinterested democrats were looking for a reason to come back home to the party; they were looking for a new leader they can gravitate to; but Tom Perez is definitely not it, his Hispanic ancestry notwithstanding. Anyway, like Jesus said, let the dead bury themselves and on this note, Icheoku says congratulations to Party Chair Thomas E. Perez and may your term help Democrats recover at least some of their severely lost grounds. 

PRESIDENT DONALD JOHN TRUMP AT CPAC, EXPLAINS WHAT DRIVES HIM.

"We will not answer to donors or lobbyists, or special interests, but we will serve the citizens of the United States of America, believe me. Global cooperation, dealing with other countries, getting along with other countries is good, it's very important. But there is no such thing as a global anthem, a global currency or a global flag. This is the United States of America that I'm representing. 

I'm not representing the globe, I'm representing your country. There's one allegiance that unites us all, and that is to America. America, it's the allegiance to America. No matter our background or income, or geography, we're all citizens of this blessed land. And no matter our color or the blood -- the color of the blood we bleed, it's the same red blood of great, great patriots. Remember, great patriots. We all salute with pride, the same American flag, and we all are equal -- totally equal in the eyes of almighty God, we're equal." - PDJT.

24 LEGACY, WHERE IS JACK BAUER?

ICHEOKU says the fact of the matter is that there can only be one Jack Bauer and Keith Sunderland is that Jack Bauer and no other person can ever be Jack Bauer. Jack Bauer can only be imitated but can never be duplicated or replicated. Icheoku says millions of fans know Jack Bauer and Jack Bauer is our heroic 24 icon. The current super hero guy Eric Carter, is no Jack Bauer, admitted he is trying mightily to fill such a very big giant shoes left by the real Jack Bauer. His personality and demeanor, especially coming so soon after the relationship many fans had developed with Jack Bauer, an alpha macho male numero uno, is to say the least not a convincing enough fit for the role he is currently playing. 

Jack Bauer is a bad guy who goes after bad guys as it takes one to know one and feet same out. Jack Bauer that goes to the end of the earth to protect us against enemies, both foreign and domestic; terrorists who want to do us harm and he is ruthless and likes to whack people - he shoots first and then ask questions later. Hie mien and looks has attached him to us and no 24, whether Legacy or not, can ever be complete without Jack Bauer playing his role and doing what he does best, tracking the bad guys and putting a hole right inside their head or puck-shot them through their hearts. The only consolation many fans all over have is their conviction that Jack Bauer will be reintroduced sometime down the road after a negotiated release from the Chinese or is it the Russians. It has been such a long time since the last episode aired. 

ICHEOKU says the new fill-in guy is okay, just that he does not have that masculinity appeal that Jack Bauer has; and he runs like a sissy, girlie man rather than a chivalry who is leading or charging with the cavalry. Eric Carter is tall, handsome and fires his guns right, but he does not have that killer instinct personality and demeanor. Icheoku has tried ceding to him a smooth operator, mean and ruthless killer; but Jack Bauer's larger than life image is on the way and try as Icheoku may, this guy is not cutting it, may be not just yet. He does not possess that picture of a fighter who is ready to do whatever it takes to keep us safe from those terrorists. Jack Bauer had such a presence that many people were beginning to attach to him a real life person actually fighting a real war against  terrorists. He assumed a real life hero status as many actually thought that what he is acting is actually a real life situational issues. 

Icheoku had a 24 Legacy discussion with another fan who suggested that even Eric Carter's drug dealing brother would have been a better fit for the Jack Bauer's role; and agreed with Icheoku that Eric who has a funny sissy way of running might even be gay. But hey, a fan of 24 Icheoku is and remains; and regardless of who is saving us from those wild-eyed terrorists, will always tune in every Monday 8.00 pm on Fox television to stay thrilled and be amazed. Icheoku likes the shooting scenes a lot and Eric Carter is one expert shot; and also the cat and mouse game of deception and magical elusiveness of those terrorists from the dragnets of security. Did that student die on the hospital bed? What happened to the senator's dad who betrayed those soldiers? Was that list recovered before they were activated? All the answers will ensure that Icheoku tunes in to find out; but overall and so far a good 24, provided Jack Bauer will come back or at least make even a cameo  appearance.

IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT: SELF DEPORTATION A GOOD OPTION?

ICHEOKU says at least it will give one time and opportunity to properly order his or her affairs and put things in order rather than being picked up from either the workplace or shopping mall or on the streets or nightclub/bar and straight to the airport, adios. Any person who is not assured of his or her residence status should make haste to consult his lawyers to be properly briefed on their current immigration status and if in doubt or falls within the likely to be deported category, to plan on leaving on their own volition while the window is still open. 

Everyone knows that President Donald John Trump is a promise keeper and so far has not disappointed anyone who voted for him based on what he promised to do as he has been checking those promises one promise fulfilled one at a time. He promised enforcing the laws on immigration and so far, it has been rubber meets the road and there will be no letting off or cooling down until his safe country objective is achieved. As a result, instead of perpetually looking over one's shoulders or remain in permanent state of fear of the inevitable which will impact one's psychological wellbeing as well as routine, a better option would be to plan to self deport, to voluntarily remove oneself and return to one's own original country before the now unchained and extended arms of the immigration officials nabs one. As things stands presently, it is no longer a question of if but when as an increased enforcement officials will translate to reaching persons previously considered too remote or too deep to reach. 

Previously it would have been much easier to successfully play the cat and mouse game and hope that mother luck remained on one's side until the officials tire out or move to some other more promising deportables; but not anymore and not since PDJT took over office as president. People rat on people and a time like this, the mad ex-girlfriend or wife or ex-boyfriend or husband might see it as a good opportunity to draw blood and cut his or her pound of flesh. Reports abound of even close family members such as a brother's wife or sister's husband ratting out an unbearable in-law or a friend who has become a pain in the behind to the Immigration officials. Sometime co-workers have turned in fellow workers who either made them mad or whose position they covet. Neighbors and landlords too, especially for difficult tenants or in high rent neighborhoods who want to recover a tenement and rent same to a higher rent paying tenant. Business partners or employers might also turn someone in just to appropriate the entire business or not pay what is owed. In construction industry, such a sword of Damocles might be foist by an unscrupulous supervisor or owner to keep undocumented migrants obedient and use them without ceasing. 

So, instead of such high risk exposure of being eventually nabbed and deported someday, and under circumstances one has no control, logic would dictate that any rational minded possible deportee should commence the process of removing self from the country before the law catches up with him or her. This way, money in the bank could be repatriated back to the new country; properties owned could be monetized through a moving auction and if there are things one would need in the new country, purchase same and ship them and simply tidy up his or her affairs in order to have some resources with which to cushion the new realities of the new country. As always things done in ordered fashion is always to be preferred than being rushed out of the country without time to say goodbyes or even withdraw money in the bank. That way, one at least cuts down on his loses and go back to his country with some dignity and something to live on before reestablishing withered roots once again. As always, fresh petition for reentry could be started anew and if fortunate, may possibly be approved at a later date. The fact that one self removed self might also count as a bonus point in future petition for re-admittance. 

As it stands now, it will be appear that every illegal aliens in the United States of America has been put on notice of impending deportation. Like Iran, hey have been served and waiting being picked up and shipped off. It will be much more difficult now to remain in the United States illegally as there will no longer be exempt classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement. The Department of Homeland Security personnel also has now been given full authority to arrest or apprehend any alien whom an immigration officer has probable cause to believe is in violation of the immigration laws. Further, it also expands the priority list for deportation, including for crimes related to illegal immigration such as the use of forged documents, people charged but not convicted of a crime etc. Icheoku says any mistaken belief by anyone that one will always be lucky not to be caught is rather foolhardy and at best playing with one's stability that could arise from being suddenly caught and removed without the opportunity to first tidy up one's affairs as well as say their goodbyes. But hey, election has consequences and PDJT campaigned on making America safe again and therefore the current removal of ungrateful criminal aliens is in order and should be encouraged rather than chastised. 

NORMAN MCCORVEY: THE ROE IN ROE V. WADE, DEAD AT 69.

ICHEOKU says akin to putting the Range in Range Rover, she put the Roe in Roe V. Wade and now she has gone. Norma McCorvey, the then invisible plaintiff in Roe v. Wade, the life changing 1973 Supreme Court decision which literally legalized abortion in the United States of America is dead. McCorvey aka Ms Roe was 69 years old. (Defendant Wade was the then Dallas Country District Attorney Henry Wade). 

McCorvey was five months pregnant and wanted a quick abortion which Texas did not allow except in special circumstances including to save the life of a mother. She sued Dallas County wherein she lived and the case traveled up to the Supreme Court, which ruled 7-2 that that privacy rights under the due process and equal rights clauses of the 14th Amendment extended to a woman’s decision to have an abortion in a pregnancy’s first trimester “free of interference by the state. But before the case would be decided she gave birth to a baby girl who she summarily gave up for adoption. 

ICHEOKU says whether McCorvey was an agent of murder in the womb and considering that a lot of children have been deprived their right to live since then, at a rate of 300,000 abortions a year and 44 years later, that will be a total of 13,200,000 babies killed as a result of her action. Hopefully this many children will be able line up to testify against her as she faces her maker to account for her social upheaval in helping institute the culture of abortion in United States of America. Although later in her life she did a somewhat somersault, became a pro-lifer and undertook to dedicate herself for the rest of her life, fighting to undo the law that bore her name. She once petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn the law but was dismissed as moot. She also once accused Obama of being a baby killer and you wonder if it was a case of the kettle calling the pot black, admitted she was the one whose action actually legalized abortions in the United States of America. 

ICHEOKU says as always, trying to put the genie back in the bottle is usually the difficult if not impossible part of any given situation. So many children have been killed as a result of her action and are continuing to be killed till today and possibly will continue to be killed till tomorrow and many more years to come because the Supreme Court in a subsequent petition to have it overruled, ruled that the matter is moot and it is a subsisting law of the land that women have fundamental right to terminate a pregnancy. Quoting Ms Roe, “I wasn’t the wrong person to become Jane Roe, I wasn’t the right person to become Jane Roe. I was just the person who became Jane Roe, of Roe v. Wade. And my life story, warts and all, was a little piece of history.” To which Icheoku says not just a little piece of history but a very big disruptive force of history which gave rise to baby killing in the United States of America. What a record for someone to have. May her soul figure it out. Adieu the face of abortion.

ADAMA BARROW: GAMBIA PRESIDENT FINALLY INAUGURATED.

Icheoku says after the high wire drama that was the former president Yahya Jammeh attempted botching of his election as Gambia president, Adama Barrow was inaugurated at last as president of The Gambia. In his remarks after the ceremony, he said:- "For 22 years, the Gambian people yearned to live in a country where our diverse tribes will be bridged by tolerance and our determination to work together for the common good," he said. "One Gambia, one nation, one people."

Icheoku says hopefully his will not be another ugly chapter of the many unfulfilled dreams of Africans, who excitedly elect a president hoping that they chose right, only to be disappointed down the road as it turns out that they only armed another criminal vagabond in power. ICHEOKU hopes too that he will be mindful of the many hope reposed on him including the effort mounted by Nigeria and other West African countries including the United Nations to validate his mandate and govern not to disappoint these people in addition to his Gambian people who elected him. Icheoku reiterates, NO DRAMA ADAMA. Congratulations. 

NORTH KOREAN SIBLING RIVALRY: WHEN A BROTHER KILLS HIS BROTHER?

ICHEOKU says it will not be the first time neither will it be the last time that sibling rivalry has forced the drawing of blood of a brother by another brother. In Genesis 4:8 Cain killed his brother Abel and went on to retort that he is not his brother's keeper. Genesis 27:35-41 told the story of Esau and Jacob and how their mother helped engineer another sibling rivalry between her two sons. In Nepal, a brother murdered his brother King and his family, covetous of the kingdom which led to the abolition of the monarchy in Nepal. 

So if the current suspicion that the leader of the reclusive North Korea Kim Jong Un ordered the hit on his brother, Kim Jong Nam, it goes without saying that sibling rivalry is still very much a fact of life and has not gone away.

Kim Jong Nam, 45, was assassinated at Kuala Lumpur International Airport Malaysia by two female secret agents from North Korea's Spy agency Reconnaissance General Bureau, wielding poisoned handkerchief and poisoned needles. They struck following a security lapse between his bodyguards and Malaysian airport police at the airport. Kim Jo Nam was an out of wedlock child of the former leader of North Korea, their father, Kim Jong II and his South Korea mistress, Sung Hae-rim. 

The circumstance of his birth possibly explains why he was passed over by their late father in choosing his heir to the throne in Pyongyang; admitted some analysts would like the world to believe that it was his disgraceful conduct, caught traveling with a false passport in Japan in 2001 that did him in and cost him the throne. However, masking his anger at being passed over, he once said that he is not personally interested in being a leader of North Korea and urged his younger brother leader to do his best for the sake of North Koreans prosperous lives. 

But his luck ran out and not even his false identity, traveling under an assumed name Kin Choi when he was hit, could protect him. An advocate of political reform in the reclusive North Korean, was probably considered a threat which must be eliminated and he was in fact eliminated. Kim Jong Nam was previously targeted for a hit and run accident but the plot was preempted when the agent assigned to stage it was arrested in South Korea. But in Malaysia, a porous security did the trick; his luck exhausted and not being the cat with the proverbial nine lives, they got him. May his soul rest. 

PDJT TAKES ON FAKE NEWS MEDIA IN A MOTHER OF ALL PRESS CONFERENCES.

GENERAL FLYNN'S FORCED EXIT: IT'S CANDOR, STUPID !

Icheoku says trust, once lost, is hardly ever regained because once anyone's veracity for telling the truth is compromised, it Is often extremely difficult to ever trust that person again or take whatever he or she subsequently says without a grain of salt. This is exactly why the National Security Adviser of President Donald John Trump had to go,  relieved of his duties and asked to resign in order to save face. He misled the president by not truthfully telling everything about a telephone call he had with the Russian ambassador; which led Vice President Mike Pence to also misspeak on the issue, thus damaging the presidency's truthfulness to the American people. 

So having breached this foundational bedrock of every relationship, the ultimate test of loyalty, the president was left with only one option, to let Flynn go. Left with the president, whose loyalty to his friends is legendary, the general would have been left in his office, but the need for maintaining institutional truth telling forced the president's hand and he acted accordingly. It is not a rocket science and it does not require burning the midnight oil to understand why General Michael Flynn was fired or rather asked to turn in his security clearance and cease being the National Security Adviser to the president. He crossed that line and can no longer be trusted to tell the truth and in his special relationship with the presidency, his words should be his bonds and he flunked that test. 

What the truth or lie was about is irrelevant because if someone lied in a little matter, the propensity to lie in a major matter is highly probable. Therefore it is imperative to understand why Flynn was let go - it was not because he had a phone call with the Russian ambassador; nope, it was because he did not fully disclose the issues that came up during the telephone call including the Russian sanctions.  He was asked severally and he denied sanctions did not come up only to later claim his recollections were foggy before finally coming clean with an admission that it possibly did come up. By this time it was already too late as a politically charged atmosphere had called for his resignation and it got to fever pitch that the president had no other option but to relieve him of his duties. 

Icheoku says the attempt to misled is not something that should be tolerated because there is no way such a very important issue would not have stood out in his mind while responding to the inquiry. He knew but he choose to keep it secret and this intention supplied the animus of a deliberate effort to lie and conceal a fact of consequence. Therefore General Flynn was rightfully fired or rather forced to resign. ICHEOKU says will so do exactly the same if the president; and the same measure applies to a disloyal spouse, friends and/or family members. If they did it once, they could and will most likely do it again, the right circumstance permitting. Icheoku says it was a good decision by the president to let General Flynn go. It is also to send a message to other underlings that such behavior will not be tolerated by the president or in the presidency and will make everyone to sit up and do their job without any mischievous thoughts. Icheoku says General Michael Flynn is a good man and a great patriot who should be considered for other positions including an ambassadorial posting to possibly Russia and let him go to Russia with love.