THE HIT LIST - our incredible but true story series: - SERIE 2

1. Very expensive high-end Hamburgers!

Are you rich enough? Can you afford America's Most Expensive Hamburgers? How much could you spend for a hamburger? Do you know that dozens of restaurants across the United States of America serves Kobe-beef burgers topped with truffles and foie gras. The price tags on these wallet-busting burgers can reach $175. It's a chance to try the ‘ultimate’ example of something edible, and because it's a burger — well, who doesn't want to eat the ultimate burger?” In Pictures: America's Most Expensive Hamburgers

Another burger gimmick comes courtesy of the kitchen at the Palms. They'll pair a $6 Carl Jr.’s hamburger with a 24-year-old bottle of French Bordeaux. This ultimate combo meals costs $6,000. Not content to let the West Coast take the lead, New York City-based steakhouse chain Olde Homestead got in the race. They recently decided that their original $41 20-ounce Kobe beef hamburger wasn’t enough, and introduced an $81 burger. It's made with 14 ounces of 100 percent “Grade Five” Kobe Wagyu beef — with a four-ounce medallion of Kobe sirloin tucked inside. That still doesn't compare to DB's Double Truffle burger, served with 20 grams of shaved black truffles—and a $150 price tag. Believe it or not, there's an even more expensive burger — dusted with gold — also served in New York. Icheoku says, what a price to pay for a piece of bread and beef patties? Anyway, you only live once, so why not if you can! Incredible? You bet!

2. His body will not decay!

The body of the bearded Capuchin monk, Padre Pio was exhumed from a crypt on March 3 and found to be in good condition after 40 years of his death. A poll in 2006 by Catholic magazine Famiglia Cristiana found that more Italian Catholics prayed to Padre Pio than to any other figure, including the Virgin Mary or Jesus. His picture is stuck to the dashboards of many taxis and cars throughout Italy. In the sepulcher, he was dressed in a brown Capuchin habit and wore fingerless gloves he used to absorb blood from wounds on his hands. Among the stories that surround the monk, who died at the age of 81, is one that he wrestled with the devil one night in his monastery cell and emerged bloodied and bruised." Icheoku says a saint of our time? Really! Is it not incredible that Italians, the custodians of the Roman Catholic Church are praying to an ordinary mortal more than to blessed Virgin Mary or even the Lord Jesus Christ? Is this heresy or what?

3. The rocking Monk!

Dressed in his traditional brown robe, sandals and twirling the rope around his waist, this 62-year old Friar Cesare Bonizzi is no ordinary heavy metal rocker. But as guitarists around him grind out heavy notes, the long-white-bearded Capuchin, a former missionary in Ivory Coast, has no qualms bobbing his head and shouting lyrics about alcohol, sex, tobacco and life in general into his microphone.Describing himself as a "preacher-singer," Bonizzi has been singing for over a decade, and last month wowed heavy metal fans at Italy's "Gods of Metal" festival, where he performed with his band Fratello Metallo (Metal Brother) alongside groups such as Iron Maiden. A member of the Catholic Capuchin order in Milan, Bonizzi began singing heavy metal after having first started with what he calls "light music with slight rock influence."You can see Friar Bonizzi in action here. Icheoku says, rock on reverend! Who says you have to become a destitute and self-deprived absolutionist in order to serve your God! God loves the cheerful one so why not indulge yourself in whatever puts a smile on your face and maybe on another's; that way you may live long! Truth!

4. Obasanjo abandons electricity problem to God

The medicine man of Otta, Babalawo Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo is a despicable person. He said Nigerians should take their electricity problem to God, adding that they should take to God anything they do not have which they wished to have or cannot get. Icheoku says that this deranged incestuous monster of Otta Olusegun Obasanjo was rescued from the gallows and sent to Aso Rock by God to give Nigerians electricity among other things. He disobeyed God and eight years after his ignoble reign over Nigeria, he is today opening his wide dirty mouth to insult Nigerians. What a country? Icheoku says this monster should be arrested and put away for all his crimes against humanity and also since he is unable to explain to Nigerians why the $16billion dollars USD he misappropriated for electricity did not add even a single mega watt of electricity to the national grid! Isn't that incredulous? At best let Aremu Obasanjo spare Nigerians further pains from the memories of his atrocious regime and please SHUT THE F**K UP!

5. From Grace to Grass - disguised ex-president of Serbia!

When Saddam Hussein was fished out of a spider hole in a farm in Baghdad by the brave United States of America military, Icheoku thought we have had the last of such desperate act by former men of authority to evade justice by eluding capture from a manhunt. But we were proved wrong. The fugitive ex-president of Serbia, Bosnian-Serb President Radovan Karadzic proved that he was a good student of Saddam Hussein and while the whole world was busy traversing the rugged Serbia country-side looking for him, he took a page from Saddam Hussein and grew beards with an alias; living in the city suburb of Belgrade as a commoner - a traditional homeopathic doctor! What an irony of fate that a once demi-god president of Serbia stole an identity of a rural gardener and hid behind face-covering beards and for about thirteen years!

Until next week Sunday when we come your way again with our incredible but true stories; remain blessed and please continue to visit www.Icheoku.com! Our team of bloggers shall continue to strive to bring to you our best-effort editorials of social and political happenings around our world. So long!

OBAMA WOWS THE WORLD!

Icheoku says if only Americans can get it right this time, the world will be ready once again for America the beautiful! Things will definitely change; the indications are there for any discernible mind to see. From the arid mountainous Afghanistan, to Iraq, to Jordan, to Israel, to Palestine, to Germany, to France and finally to England the story is the same that the peoples of the world are ready for a BARACK OBAMA's presidency and America's rebirth back to the mainstream of the world! Where-ever he goes he holds out hope for everyone and many look upon him as the symbol of all possibilities and everything good about America! We must sustain this hope by electing Barack Obama President in November 2008. YES WE CAN make this happen! This dream can come through! This objective is within an arms' length and we must grab it and not let such a golden opportunity slip from our hands! Not this time, America! Even the confidential note he left at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem was published against known practice and it shows a man with a very meek heart! America, he is the one! Now enjoy the pictorial of Barack Obama's meet some world leaders tour as well as the compete text of the remarkable speech which he delivered in front of a crowd estimated to be in excess of two hundred thousand people, at Siegessäule (Victory Square), Berlin, Germany. Icheoku says it was yet another touchdown!

"Thank you to the citizens of Berlin and to the people of Germany. Let me thank Chancellor Merkel and Foreign Minister Steinmeier for welcoming me earlier today. Thank you Mayor Wowereit, the Berlin Senate, the police, and most of all thank you for this welcome. I come to Berlin as so many of my countrymen have come before. Tonight, I speak to you not as a candidate for President, but as a citizen - a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world. I know that I don't look like the Americans who've previously spoken in this great city. The journey that led me here is improbable. My mother was born in the heartland of America, but my father grew up herding goats in Kenya. His father - my grandfather - was a cook, a domestic servant to the British. At the height of the Cold War, my father decided, like so many others in the forgotten corners of the world, that his yearning - his dream - required the freedom and opportunity promised by the West. And so he wrote letter after letter to universities all across America until somebody, somewhere answered his prayer for a better life. That is why I'm here. And you are here because you too know that yearning. This city, of all cities, knows the dream of freedom.

And you know that the only reason we stand here tonight is because men and women from both of our nations came together to work, and struggle, and sacrifice for that better life. Ours is a partnership that truly began sixty years ago this summer, on the day when the first American plane touched down at Templehof.
On that day, much of this continent still lay in ruin. The rubble of this city had yet to be built into a wall. The Soviet shadow had swept across Eastern Europe, while in the West, America, Britain, and France took stock of their losses, and pondered how the world might be remade. This is where the two sides met. And on the twenty-fourth of June, 1948, the Communists chose to blockade the western part of the city. They cut off food and supplies to more than two million Germans in an effort to extinguish the last flame of freedom in Berlin. The size of our forces was no match for the much larger Soviet Army. And yet retreat would have allowed Communism to march across Europe. Where the last war had ended, another World War could have easily begun. All that stood in the way was Berlin. And that's when the airlift began - when the largest and most unlikely rescue in history brought food and hope to the people of this city. The odds were stacked against success. In the winter, a heavy fog filled the sky above, and many planes were forced to turn back without dropping off the needed supplies. The streets where we stand were filled with hungry families who had no comfort from the cold. But in the darkest hours, the people of Berlin kept the flame of hope burning. The people of Berlin refused to give up. And on one fall day, hundreds of thousands of Berliners came here, to the Tiergarten, and heard the city's mayor implore the world not to give up on freedom. "There is only one possibility," he said. "For us to stand together united until this battle is won...The people of Berlin have spoken. We have done our duty, and we will keep on doing our duty. People of the world: now do your duty...People of the world, look at Berlin!" People of the world - look at Berlin! Look at Berlin, where Germans and Americans learned to work together and trust each other less than three years after facing each other on the field of battle. Look at Berlin, where the determination of a people met the generosity of the Marshall Plan and created a German miracle; where a victory over tyranny gave rise to NATO, the greatest alliance ever formed to defend our common security. Look at Berlin, where the bullet holes in the buildings and the somber stones and pillars near the Brandenburg Gate insist that we never forget our common humanity. People of the world - look at Berlin, where a wall came down, a continent came together, and history proved that there is no challenge too great for a world that stands as one. Sixty years after the airlift, we are called upon again.

History has led us to a new crossroad, with new promise and new peril. When you, the German people, tore down that wall - a wall that divided East and West; freedom and tyranny; fear and hope - walls came tumbling down around the world. From Kiev to Cape Town, prison camps were closed, and the doors of democracy were opened. Markets opened too, and the spread of information and technology reduced barriers to opportunity and prosperity. While the 20th century taught us that we share a common destiny, the 21st has revealed a world more intertwined than at any time in human history. The fall of the Berlin Wall brought new hope. But that very closeness has given rise to new dangers - dangers that cannot be contained within the borders of a country or by the distance of an ocean. The terrorists of September 11th plotted in Hamburg and trained in Kandahar and Karachi before killing thousands from all over the globe on American soil. As we speak, cars in Boston and factories in Beijing are melting the ice caps in the Arctic, shrinking coastlines in the Atlantic, and bringing drought to farms from Kansas to Kenya. Poorly secured nuclear material in the former Soviet Union, or secrets from a scientist in Pakistan could help build a bomb that detonates in Paris. The poppies in Afghanistan become the heroin in Berlin. The poverty and violence in Somalia breeds the terror of tomorrow. The genocide in Darfur shames the conscience of us all. In this new world, such dangerous currents have swept along faster than our efforts to contain them. That is why we cannot afford to be divided. No one nation, no matter how large or powerful, can defeat such challenges alone. None of us can deny these threats, or escape responsibility in meeting them. Yet, in the absence of Soviet tanks and a terrible wall, it has become easy to forget this truth. And if we're honest with each other, we know that sometimes, on both sides of the Atlantic, we have drifted apart, and forgotten our shared destiny. In Europe, the view that America is part of what has gone wrong in our world, rather than a force to help make it right, has become all too common. In America, there are voices that deride and deny the importance of Europe's role in our security and our future. Both views miss the truth - that Europeans today are bearing new burdens and taking more responsibility in critical parts of the world; and that just as American bases built in the last century still help to defend the security of this continent, so does our country still sacrifice greatly for freedom around the globe. Yes, there have been differences between America and Europe. No doubt, there will be differences in the future. But the burdens of global citizenship continue to bind us together.

A change of leadership in Washington will not lift this burden. In this new century, Americans and Europeans alike will be required to do more - not less. Partnership and cooperation among nations is not a choice; it is the one way, the only way, to protect our common security and advance our common humanity. That is why the greatest danger of all is to allow new walls to divide us from one another. The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand. The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes; natives and immigrants; Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down. We know they have fallen before. After centuries of strife, the people of Europe have formed a Union of promise and prosperity. Here, at the base of a column built to mark victory in war, we meet in the center of a Europe at peace. Not only have walls come down in Berlin, but they have come down in Belfast, where Protestant and Catholic found a way to live together; in the Balkans, where our Atlantic alliance ended wars and brought savage war criminals to justice; and in South Africa, where the struggle of a courageous people defeated apartheid. So history reminds us that walls can be torn down. But the task is never easy. True partnership and true progress requires constant work and sustained sacrifice. They require sharing the burdens of development and diplomacy; of progress and peace. They require allies who will listen to each other, learn from each other and, most of all, trust each other. That is why America cannot turn inward. That is why Europe cannot turn inward. America has no better partner than Europe. Now is the time to build new bridges across the globe as strong as the one that bound us across the Atlantic. Now is the time to join together, through constant cooperation, strong institutions, shared sacrifice, and a global commitment to progress, to meet the challenges of the 21st century. It was this spirit that led airlift planes to appear in the sky above our heads, and people to assemble where we stand today. And this is the moment when our nations - and all nations - must summon that spirit anew. This is the moment when we must defeat terror and dry up the well of extremism that supports it. This threat is real and we cannot shrink from our responsibility to combat it. If we could create NATO to face down the Soviet Union, we can join in a new and global partnership to dismantle the networks that have struck in Madrid and Amman; in London and Bali; in Washington and New York. If we could win a battle of ideas against the communists, we can stand with the vast majority of Muslims who reject the extremism that leads to hate instead of hope. This is the moment when we must renew our resolve to rout the terrorists who threaten our security in Afghanistan, and the traffickers who sell drugs on your streets.

No one welcomes war. I recognize the enormous difficulties in Afghanistan. But my country and yours have a stake in seeing that NATO's first mission beyond Europe's borders is a success. For the people of Afghanistan, and for our shared security, the work must be done. America cannot do this alone. The Afghan people need our troops and your troops; our support and your support to defeat the Taliban and al Qaeda, to develop their economy, and to help them rebuild their nation. We have too much at stake to turn back now.This is the moment when we must renew the goal of a world without nuclear weapons. The two superpowers that faced each other across the wall of this city came too close too often to destroying all we have built and all that we love. With that wall gone, we need not stand idly by and watch the further spread of the deadly atom. It is time to secure all loose nuclear materials; to stop the spread of nuclear weapons; and to reduce the arsenals from another era. This is the moment to begin the work of seeking the peace of a world without nuclear weapons.This is the moment when every nation in Europe must have the chance to choose its own tomorrow free from the shadows of yesterday. In this century, we need a strong European Union that deepens the security and prosperity of this continent, while extending a hand abroad. In this century - in this city of all cities - we must reject the Cold War mind-set of the past, and resolve to work with Russia when we can, to stand up for our values when we must, and to seek a partnership that extends across this entire continent. This is the moment when we must build on the wealth that open markets have created, and share its benefits more equitably. Trade has been a cornerstone of our growth and global development. But we will not be able to sustain this growth if it favors the few, and not the many. Together, we must forge trade that truly rewards the work that creates wealth, with meaningful protections for our people and our planet. This is the moment for trade that is free and fair for all. This is the moment we must help answer the call for a new dawn in the Middle East.

My country must stand with yours and with Europe in sending a direct message to Iran that it must abandon its nuclear ambitions. We must support the Lebanese who have marched and bled for democracy, and the Israelis and Palestinians who seek a secure and lasting peace. And despite past differences, this is the moment when the world should support the millions of Iraqis who seek to rebuild their lives, even as we pass responsibility to the Iraqi government and finally bring this war to a close. This is the moment when we must come together to save this planet. Let us resolve that we will not leave our children a world where the oceans rise and famine spreads and terrible storms devastate our lands. Let us resolve that all nations - including my own - will act with the same seriousness of purpose as has your nation, and reduce the carbon we send into our atmosphere. This is the moment to give our children back their future. This is the moment to stand as one. And this is the moment when we must give hope to those left behind in a globalized world. We must remember that the Cold War born in this city was not a battle for land or treasure. Sixty years ago, the planes that flew over Berlin did not drop bombs; instead they delivered food, and coal, and candy to grateful children. And in that show of solidarity, those pilots won more than a military victory. They won hearts and minds; love and loyalty and trust - not just from the people in this city, but from all those who heard the story of what they did here.

Now the world will watch and remember what we do here - what we do with this moment. Will we extend our hand to the people in the forgotten corners of this world who yearn for lives marked by dignity and opportunity; by security and justice? Will we lift the child in Bangladesh from poverty, shelter the refugee in Chad, and banish the scourge of AIDS in our time? Will we stand for the human rights of the dissident in Burma, the blogger in Iran, or the voter in Zimbabwe? Will we give meaning to the words "never again" in Darfur? Will we acknowledge that there is no more powerful example than the one each of our nations projects to the world? Will we reject torture and stand for the rule of law? Will we welcome immigrants from different lands, and shun discrimination against those who don't look like us or worship like we do, and keep the promise of equality and opportunity for all of our people? People of Berlin - people of the world - this is our moment. This is our time. I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we've struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We've made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions. But I also know how much I love America. I know that for more than two centuries, we have strived - at great cost and great sacrifice - to form a more perfect union; to seek, with other nations, a more hopeful world. Our allegiance has never been to any particular tribe or kingdom - indeed, every language is spoken in our country; every culture has left its imprint on ours; every point of view is expressed in our public squares. What has always united us - what has always driven our people; what drew my father to America's shores - is a set of ideals that speak to aspirations shared by all people: that we can live free from fear and free from want; that we can speak our minds and assemble with whomever we choose and worship as we please. Those are the aspirations that joined the fates of all nations in this city. Those aspirations are bigger than anything that drives us apart. It is because of those aspirations that the airlift began. It is because of those aspirations that all free people - everywhere - became citizens of Berlin. It is in pursuit of those aspirations that a new generation - our generation - must make our mark on history. People of Berlin - and people of the world - the scale of our challenge is great. The road ahead will be long. But I come before you to say that we are heirs to a struggle for freedom. We are a people of improbable hope. Let us build on our common history, and seize our common destiny, and once again engage in that noble struggle to bring justice and peace to our world!"

Barack Obama at Berlin's Siegessäule on Thursday

NIGERIANS, LISTEN TO IBB!

The Evil Genius has spoken again! He recently called on Nigerians to consider adopting STAGGERED ELECTIONS as part of their democracy-entrenching efforts. Icheoku says that this is a wise call and Nigerians should listen to IBB on this point; because election is one area the Evil Genius had shown some expertise. "IBB, once upon a time conducted successful elections in Nigeria"! He did it once and quite successfully too, except that the grand-finale` was not well choreographed and a freely won election was annulled. However the ill-fated conclusion of an otherwise flawless election does not diminish the fact that Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida did a fine job with that election up until the annulment. So when he speaks concerning elections in Nigeria, every Nigeria should listen to this man from Minna, Niger State who is sometimes referred to by his admirers as the Prince of the Niger! IBB understands something about Nigerian elections and triumphed in conducting one, with his masterful OPTION A4!

Until his self-destructive annulment of June 12th, 1983 Ibrahim Badamosi Babngida had otherwise put Nigeria on a trajectory to free elections and by extension, true democracy in Nigeria. It was this IBB's home-grown grass-root Option A4 for example which stopped Yakubu Gowon cold in his tracks at his local constituency in Jos with his presidential ambition. It was a proven successful primaries which empowered Nigerians for the very first time to actually participate in electing who governs them. Nigerians for the first time successfully exercised their right to a vote which produced Moshood Kolwole Oluwole ABiola as president elect, before IBB's tragic annulment deprived Nigeria's the singular opportunity to ever elect who governs them as a president. This satanic annulment of June 12th and the parcel bomb assassination of Dele Giwa will forveer remain the albatross of Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida till his last day on this earth. Both were despicable acts and atypical of a devil's May-care scheme designed to disintegrate Nigeria. These infradignous acts of IBB tarnished forever, an otherwise lasting legacy which Option A4 electioneering road-map would have bequeathed on him. IBB would have, by allowing MKO Abiola's election as president of Nigeria to hold, ingrained his name on the good side of history and by extension democracy would have been implanted in Nigeria for the long haul, courtesy of IBB. But like every tragic character of the Greek mythology or ancient Rome, IBB fell upon his own sword and disemboweled; and can never win any election to rule Nigeria again; not as long as any son or daughter of Oduduwa still breathes!

However, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida knows what he is talking about with this his recent call for staggered elections in Nigeria. This is a noble call and Icheoku fully and unequivocally supports the idea - an idea whose time has finally come, although belatedly. Nigeria does not have the necessary manpower to effectively police every election booth in Nigeria at the same time. Nigeria does not also have the logistics of conducting elections freely and throughout Nigeria at the same time, such as having to ferry election ballots and other materials to all the various remote and sometimes inaccessible areas in Nigeria timeously. The lack of needed infrastructure makes such as road network, haulage, airlifting etc makes a mockery of delivering election materials to needed areas simultaneously on a given election period. Because of the thuggery which mars elections in Nigeria, Nigeria cannot adequately man election booths to ward off these miscreants because of shortage of security officials who are over-task and over-stretched on a compacted election day. Also this will make it possible for a candidate of less means to be able to manage his campaigns as well as his elections without unnecessarily out-stretching himself to be in so many places at the same time on one election day. Additionally the pressure to win all and winner takes all will be reduced if not totally eliminated. Just like IBB suggested, it could be zoned geographical or like the present PDP six zonal arrangement or whatever other arrangement that is acceptable to the political parties. Whatever route they take, the relevant thing is the conclusion reached that staggered elections is it!

Icheoku will also like to add, that Nigeria's political parties including the ruling PDP should endeavor to avoid making Nigeria a one party state. The downsides are legion but suffice it to say that it breeds dictatorship, corruption and lack of accountability. Absolute power is anathema to development and corrupts absolutely! Can you imagine in the United States of America, if George Walker Bush was an absolute power-holder or his Republican Party an only state's party - what will the world say? Can you take four more years of GW's foreign policy or the recession-bound US economy? But today, Obamamania is spreading throughout the world and the world is waiting for America to get it right this time with an Obama presidency. This is the way a functioning democracy works - an option to vote out of office a discredited party/president. But from the way things are going in Nigeria, it appears more likely than not that Nigeria is headed in that one-party state direction with the ruling PDP not allowing any other dog in the fight! How can the PDP muscle themselves in, in every elections in Nigeria including the home State Adamawa turf of former vice president, Abubarkar Atiku? At least they would have left him that state to cushion his fall from power like in Lagos State with Tinubu and Abia State with Orji-Kalu. But PDP should put some brakes and not allow this to happen as that will be the end of democracy as we know it in Nigeria.

To protect against this, PDP should stop persuading the "runaway-brides" of the party to come back to their fold but instead, encourage their forming a strong opposition by making it easier for them to thrive, despite being out of power, through contracts, appointments etc. PDP should not forcibly "frog-match" otherwise unwilling parties back to their fold on the penalty of losing everything juicy! PDP's attitude of winner takes it all; you are either in with us or out there in the cold is not enviable and should be discouraged. Oppositions makes democracy to thrive and should therefore be encouraged by all including the ruling PDP. Let Nigerians be allowed to have the option to make a choice and the ability to change parties at Aso Rock should the need arise. In summation therefore, Icheoku says that it is free elections through open primaries, viable political parties (at least two) system and staggered elections as echoed by Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, that is the key to the democracy attempt being made in Nigeria. This is Nigeria's road-map to a thriving sustainable democracy! It must be free and it must be open! Posterity will forever sing the praises of the courage employed to see these indicators come through! Once again IBB is right on the money and Nigerians should heed his call for staggered elections!

UMARU YARADUA: JUST ANOTHER SHEHU SHAGARI WITHOUT AN UMARU DIKKO!

Is it fate playing a game of Russian roulette again with Nigeria that within our lifetime two exact presidents who share the same traits are foist upon Nigeria to rule them? Their shared similarities are so glaringly apparent and legion that it could easily pass for a tragic Roman classic. These Presidents Shehu Shagari and Umaru Yar'Adua are metaphorical speaking, just two Siamese twins littered on the same day by the same mother. The foreboding is not a sweet melody - what it holds for Nigeria is not bright judging from the Shagari experience of 1979 to 1983. Also where both men came from and how they became presidents of Nigeria is all too concerted to be merely an accident of happenstance. It does not bode well for Nigerians and it is scary indeed. It does not look nice and smacks of an ill-wind that will blow no one any good. Over 365 days into office and counting, yet Umaru Yar'Adua is yet to figure out what it takes to govern Nigeria. That is what happens when an unprepared student goes to an examination - he fails; but Icheoku will like to be proved wrong by Umaru Yar'Adua.

Former President Shehu Shagari and incumbent "President" Umaru Yar'Adua are both from the Northwestern part of Nigeria, of formerly Sokoto Caliphate later balkanized into Katsina, Sokoto and Kebbi States. Both of them were handed power on a platter without winning 12 2/3 of the States as in the case of Shehu Shagari in 1979 election and in the case of Umaru Yar'Adua without any credible election whatsoever in May 2007. Both of them were anointed by the same man - the Babalawo of Otta Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo and given power without questions asked and answered. Both of these presidents are known weaklings - in the case of Shehu Shagari, Umaru Dikko took notice early enough and hijacked the presidency, constituting himself into the de-facto president of Nigeria while that government lasted; with the questionable rice contract scandals which led to his being forced inside a Lagos bound crate at Gatwick Airport but for the Scotland Yard. Then at least there was an apparent hijacker of governance but with Umaru Yar'Adua no one knows who calls the shots.

This apparent lack of a clear hijacker of the present government makes it extremely difficult to know who the go to-man is and in whom the power really lies; especially whenever Umaru Yar'Adua takes up his usual residency at his life-saver of a German hospital. The apparent grinding to a near halt of Nigeria under the present government has bequeathed on President Umaru YarAdua the unflattering nickname of "Mr. Slow-man". President Shehu Shagari and President Umaru Yar'Adua are both aloof Presidents and regarding the business of governance, they both seem very nonchalant and do not particularly seem interested in their job at the presidency. They both appear to be mere prop-ups of some other third party interest who has a lot to benefit with their stage-presence as "inactive, dormant Presidents of Nigeria. President Shehu Shagari and President Umaru Yar'Adua are both very humble men; somewhat too humble for the office of Nigerian Presidency that they both come across as timid men. Have you ever seen or watched any of these men at any international meet with other world dignitaries and see them practically genuflect and bow for other leaders. Both men it appears do not have independent mindedness and look very much like push-around Presidents. They lack guts! They look like deer in a headlight! They look lost in the maze of Nigeria shark-infested waters of politics! They look like marooned person on an isolated island somewhere in the pacific! They appear like they are afraid of something sinister! They look too fragile and does not in any way aspire anybody! They mental state of anxiety compares to a beached whale! Would resignation have been a preferred option?

What will Nigeria get in return for this reincarnated President Shehu Shagari of a President Umaru YarAdua? Nothing spectacular! The hand-writing on the wall reads that Nigerians will be shortchanged again as usual; and peradventure another General Muhammadu Buhari will be lurking somewhere in the shadows, to emerge one December 31st down the road to announce "Fellow Nigerians" with a marshal music in the background. However in as much as Icheoku is an ardent democracy advocacy, supporting and activism portal, the magnitude of docility of the present Nigeria's President Umaru YarAdua's government is such that needs to be prodded! If left in the present doldrums and it continues on its current trajectory for another year, Nigeria may come to a full screeching halt. Nothing seems to have gotten track ever since President Umaru YarAdua's misadventure unto the presidency and there is no light on the horizon to suggest that a change of course is in the offing. Only a true democracy and free elections will save Nigerians from this type of a foist, unprepared leader, who is not ready to be president on day one! They were so many other credible, well prepared and ready to be president candidates that attempted to run but the medicine man of Otta preferred a not well disposed and enthused President Umaru YarAdua for Nigerians! Now Nigerians are asking President Umaru Yar'Adua and demanding to know if the president has any policy-direction, template or blueprint for Nigeria? Icheoku will like to ask, does Mr. President plan to take Nigeria anywhere within the near future or is this present state of anomie the paradigm of his presidency? Will "Mr Slow-man" be the epitaph of his presidency? Will Umaru Yar'Adua be known as a mere reincarnation of President Shehu Shagari or what? Only time will tell but all indicators presently point at that conclusion. Prove Nigerians wrong, President Umaru Yar'Adua! Engage the gears of your presidency to a drive position and move Nigeria forward!

SO MUCH FOR BRITISH LOVE?

And the Lord so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that who ever believes in him shall not die but have eternal life! What's up with this new found love of Britain for Nigeria? What suddenly changed that Britain now decided to come to the aid of Nigeria? OIL! OIL! OIL! That black liquid-gold bane of most African countries and other developing worlds with proven known reserves! Not this time Britain! Nigerians must resist the dictates of this colonial master who has never been a good news to all her former colonies including Nigeria. All for British love! With love from a formerly known as "Great" Britain!

Icheoku could not but laugh at the sudden British interest in what eminently qualified as Nigeria's purely internal affairs/matter. The same Britain who stood by and watched Olusegun Obasanjo perpetrate election-terrorism on Nigerians when he foist an unelected sick man Umaru Yar'Adua on Nigeria as their president; and later went ahead to recognise Umaru Yar'Adua as the elected president of Nigeria; stating that the election was purely an internal affairs of Nigeria and should be left as such. Britain treated the sham election as Nigeria's internal affairs; now they want to come and suck some crimson delight of Nigerians in the guise of assisting the Northern Nigeria government to "restore peace" in the Niger Delta? What an arrant nonsense - all the British is doing is to secure a source of their oil supply and preserve the jobs of the employees of British Petroleum as well as the Shell Oil's and also guarantee cheap heating energy for her domestic population back in Britain. That is what happens when no real patriot is in office or position of power in a country like Nigeria to tell these colonial masters that their colonial days are since over and that they should leave Nigeria alone! Umaru Yar'Adua has no real mandate to be the president of Nigeria in the first place, since he never won any election and hence is kissing every "behind" of every world leader for some sort of legitimacy with their recognition. His mentor Olusegun Obasanjo gave away Bakassi as a sacrifice, now his puppet Umaru Yar'Adua wants to give the people of Niger Delta as sacrificial offal to the bloody British; and their bloody Sunday in Ireland readily comes to mind. But it will not come to fruition, not this time, Britain!

Since the 1914 forcible "creation" of Nigeria through amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorates until Nigeria's "quasi" independence in 1960 and thereafter, what benefit has Nigeria derived from Britain? Nothing, Zilch, Nada in the real sense of it. Now they want to pretend that they are the knight in shinning armour coming to the rescue of the oil in the Niger Delta. Since all these years of ongoing suffocating and very subjugating oppression in the Niger Delta, where was Britain? Why have Britain not asked their Hausa/Fulani minions, why has their oppression persisted all these years and for such a long time now? Or is there a conspiracy between 10 Downing Street and Kaduna Mafia/Arewa Consultative Forum to hold other Nigerians hostage forever? Nigerians are daily starving to death; there is no motor-able roads therein; malaria sickness is becoming pandemic; HIV/AIDS is equally ravaging Nigeria; 419 and other related frauds are going on in Nigeria and sometimes with help from British Banks who accept deposits from these fore-sworn economic enemies of Nigeria that one is forced to ask, where was British abatement of these crimes? A resident of Britain or any other western country cannot make a one-time deposit exceeding ten thousand dollars without declaring the source of the income followed by a meticulous verification of the source; but the reverse is the case with "expatriate depositors" whose huge deposits are used to prop the British economy! There is no working telephone network in Nigeria until the recent "revolution" of mobile telephones; no drinking water; no power supply etc. Yet Britain did not offer assistance! Where was British help in any of these areas of dire need for the people of Nigeria? Now they are rushing to sell their weapons to Northern Nigeria like they did with Saudi Arabia and the attendant bribery scandal. Weapons with which to kill Nigerians but not British people? Why the sudden interest of Britain to gallop in on chariots to rescue Niger Delta! Tell it not in Garth. This cannot be out of love but for some mundane economic selfish interest good only for the people of Britain and if in the process, some hundreds of thousands of Niger Delta people are slaughtered, so be it. After-all they are just Africans? Where are British scholarships or visas to assist indigent Nigerians especially the Niger Deltans have a shot at life? Why haven't the British home office made effort to have their carrier British Airways change her evil-ways of treating Nigerian travellers in their airplanes like they are sub-humans each time they are passing through Heathrow or through their territory? Suddenly they want to help Nigerians by killing off some Nigerians of the Niger Delta origin? For the British, it is easier to just kill off some "black monkeys" than to waste resources trying to even feed them?

The consolation is that the Niger Delta under the Geneva convention reserves the right not to be oppressed any further! They have the right to defend their existence and ensure their survival; and that includes the right to armed struggle to free themselves from the shackles of an going systematic oppression in the hands of the Feudalistic Northern oligarchy and all their British collaborators. Until Nigeria really secures her independence from Britain like the United States of America did with their 1776 war of independence, when they kicked the British butt, there is no hope for the ordinary people of Nigeria including the Niger Delta people. Britain will forever remain the puppet-master pulling all the strings in Northern Nigeria vice-hold like on power! Nigeria should be able to manage her affairs without any British interference or dictates; this can be so successfully done so as to make dependency on these foreign powers redundant. Also credible elections should be given a chance in Nigeria, so that a real patriot might one day emerge to lead Nigeria out of its quagmire to the promised land! President Umaru Yar'Adua is today being held hostage and blackmailed by the world including Britain, because of his status as a product of an election fraud or an election that was never held in Nigeria! So in his desperation for recognition, "President" Umaru Yar'Adua is ready to do whatever it takes! Whatever bidding the colonial Britain demands of him, including the slaughtering of his people of the Niger Delta just to have the semblance of legitimacy! No meaningful person especially a president should permit such a perversion, to surreptitiously massacre his people under the guise of protecting the oil resources of the Niger Delta. A good president instead, should say "No to British imperialism! No to the British coveting of Nigerian oil resources! No to the British military aid to "fight" Niger Delta activism! Icheoku calls on Prime Minister Gordon Brown to take his British troops to Afghanistan, Darfur-Sudan, Iraq, Somalia and Congo as well as other hot spots of the world, where they are needed and SHOULD PLEASE LEAVE NIGERIANS ALONE, especially the Nigerian peoples of the Niger Delta!

THE WAY TO GO, GOVERNOR ALIYU!

Icheoku says congratulations to the able governor of Niger State, Alhaji Mu'azu Babangida Aliyu for publicly declaring the total amount his administration has so far received and realized from internally generated revenue in the last 14 months. Icheoku says the way to go, Governor! There is nothing good like an open governance and the lack thereof is the bane of political office holders in Nigeria. According to Governor Aliyu, Niger State depends on Federal Government for about 95 per cent of their revenue with which to finance its expenditures. According to the governor, his administration had through prudent management been able to rejuvenate the state from infrastructural decadence, stagnation and bad administration for repositioning as one of the best three economies in the country.

"In the last 14 months, Governor Aliyu further said, his administration paid over 10,288,757,785.13 Naira salaries to civil servants and another 648,127,646.08 Naira on the allowances of political and public office holders. According to him, another 497,052 million Naira was expended on 2007 leave grants for 2007, while 713 million Naira was released in December as salary bonus for public workers. The sum of 211,958,831.69 Naira was released for the 2008 leave/transport grant, he added. others. The state, according to him, also received 31,306,906, 668:43 Naira from the Federation account for all the councils in the state in the period under review. The figure include 22,539,161,275.33 Naira from the statutory allocation, 3,135,213,693.34 Naira from the Value Added Tax and 5,632,585,699.76 Naira from the excess crude oil allocations.He said 13,307,465,993 Naira from the councils’ allocation was paid as salaries to local government staff, while 5,240,305,790.84 Naira was paid to the State Universal Basic Education (UBE) Board.Other expenditure by the administration in the last 14 months include 722,076,464. 03 Naira and 586,854.23 Naira to emirate councils and local Government Pensions Board".

From the early days of his administration's shopping for two credit facilities from banks totalling 3.6 billion Naira to offset pressing liabilities inherited from the previous administration in the state, Niger State today is debt free and marching on creditably courtesy of Governor Aliyu who has turned around its financial misfortune. The governor however lamented the sad situation where the state and the councils expended over 50 per cent and 40 per cent respectively of their collected revenue on the payment of salaries and emoluments leaving just paltry sums for capital projects for developments. The governor has since been commended for his good stewardship, steadfastness and diligent management of the state.

Icheoku says that this is the single most important weapon to check the excessive looting of various treasuries by the executive including Federal, States and Local Governments. It was one most important legacy of the Buhari/Idiagbon regime where for the first time, Nigerians were told of the income and expenditure of their government. In that way every person knows what is in the coffers and can easily cross-check it against developmental projects and expenditure which will trigger necessary alarm should any discrepancy suddenly rear its corrupt-head. It is called accounting 101 and it needs to be made the law of the land of Nigeria! Governor Aliyu of Niger State has set the ball rolling and Icheoku calls on all other governors in Nigeria to follow suit and throw their hats in the ring to become more accountable governors! A government's not rendering accounts of its returns and expenses, encourages, aids and abets corruption; as nothing will serve as a red-flag or an indicator whenever these despicable politicians dip their filthy hands into the public purse for their personal gains/benefit. Without returns and expenses accounting, no one will know how much the states received, so it will in turn be very difficult to know how much was expeditiously used for the benefit of the state and how much was embezzled! Nigeria Legislature, please pass this OPEN GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY LAW and now!