LIBERIAN TERRORIST GOES AWAY FOR GOOD!

Like father like son and so goes all despots! From Iraq's Saddam Hussein and his sons Uday and Quasi to Liberia's Charles Taylor and his son Chuck; it is the same despotic blood flowing in their veins. Luckily the American justice system has once again risen to the occasion and stopped this despicable low-lifer, mad son of Liberia's madman, cold in his tracks and die he will in the big house. Charles "Chuckie" MacArthur Emmanuel "Terror" Taylor, 31, bastard son of the former executioner-in-chief of Liberia, Charles Ghanskay Taylor was put away for good and for a very very long time, where he can no longer cause grief to the good people of Liberia! Chuck has been de-plumed and will forever not be able to do any harm again to the good people of Liberia.

In short, Chuckie will only know freedom again stretched out cold. Only in the land beyond, as he can only leave prison on a gurney - dead as a door knob! When, after staying 97 years behind bars! He is 29 now and by the end of his 97 years term should be 126 years if lucky enough to wear the toga of the world's oldest living person then. Kudos to the American fearless judiciary whose justice system is no respecter of criminals and criminal master minds! Chuck Taylor's offense includes torture, maiming, rape, mutilation, murder, summary executions without trial of innocent Liberian citizens. Chuck was simply speaking, a clone of the other once lived, mad son of Saddam Hussein, Uday!

According to presiding Judge Cecilia Altonaga, it is hard to conceive of any more serious offences against the dignity and life of human beings than what Chuckie visited on the Liberian people. While handing him the sentence, Judge Altonaga said, "1,164 months in prison" is the appropriate sentence for crimes of a universally condemned torture that was witnessed in Liberia under the watch, supervision and sometimes execution of Charles "Chuckie" Emmanuel Taylor".

As head of Liberia's "elite" paramilitary unit that doubles as anti-terrorist services unit during his father's 1997-2003 despotic rule, Chuckie was solely responsible for keeping his father in power by viciously cutting down every opposition, both imaginary and real. Before sentencing, Chuckie fearfully pleaded for forgiveness, saying "Sorry to my brothers for what happened during the 14 years of war in Liberia. My sympathies go out to all the people who suffered in the conflicts in Liberia and Sierra Leone. I will meet my obligation no matter what it would be". Icheoku says, Chuckie failed to take responsibility for the mayhem he wrought on Liberians but merely mouthed a shallow apology without any contrite heart; which apology was borne out of fear and a ploy to mitigate his sentence. Here was a man who gleefully hacked off children's limbs with their parents forced to watch the gory macabre with their own very own eyes and for 14 long years, now pretending to be sorry for his crimes? Icheoku says this beast has no heart at all and if any, is made of cold steel!

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Chuck Taylor was taken into custody in Miami Florida on March 30, 2006, while trying to enter the United States illegally from Trinidad. He was initially charged with passport fraud and pleaded guilty. On the day before his sentencing in December 2006, he was indicted on torture charges based on the agitation of some Liberian victims representatives, living in the United States. That indictment included graphic detail of brutal killings and tortures Taylor allegedly ordered, supervised and in some cases personally carried out himself between April 1999 and July 2003.

One of his victim was placed naked in a pit as stinging fire-ants were shoveled over his body and later buried alive. He also tormented his victims with molten plastic, electric shocks, spear, lit cigarettes, hot clothes-irons, bayonets, fire-ants, scalding water, sharp metal-rods and water-filled holes topped by iron bars and barbed wire. He personally shot several men and ordered one man to be castrated before being beheaded. Prosecutors initially sought a 147-year prison term but the Judge was lenient enough to give this marauding beast of Monrovia, just 97 years prison sentence.

And who is his daddy but the petty dictator pictured left, now cowering before the court of justice at the Hague for crimes against humanity. His name, Charles Taylor! The notorious former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor, is on trial at The Hague, Netherlands before a UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone, where he is facing 11 count charges for war crimes and crimes against humanity. A verdict is expected in the case, this year 2009.

Icheoku says if only Nigerians will learn to cash in on available provisions of law in America, hounds like Olusegun Obasanjo could be arrested and tried in America, for his crimes against the Odi and Zaki Ibiam people of Nigeria! The people of Liberia made this 97 years behind bars outcome possible. A Liberian Human Rights and Refugee Welfare Organization (LIHRRWO) based in the United States petitioned for Chuck Taylor's indictment and launched a campaign that planted his feet deeper into the quicksand of law; after his initial arrest for passport violation. LIHRRWO, based in Minnesota, earlier notified the then US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales through a letter asking the Justice Department to hold Chuckie for more investigation unrelated to the passport fraud for which he was arrested and detained.

In a subsequent press release the group revealed that it has dispatched letters to the Director of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Emilo Gonzales, and Department of Homeland Security Bureau of Justice Assistance through Secretary Michael Chertoff requesting the prolonged detention of Chuckie Taylor. According to the group, Charles Taylor, Jr. needed to be kept in detention so that he would be questioned about his role in the abuse of human rights when he served as commander of the Anti-Terrorist Unit (ATU) in Liberia between 1998 and 2003. LIHRRWO said it would use the United States Tort Act to bring a lawsuit against Chuckie Taylor in the US for his involvement in the death of Liberians when he served as “head of his father killing squad, the so-called Anti-Terrorist Unit (ATU).” Icheoku says, if Liberians can do this why not the Odi and Zaki Ibiam people against Olusegun Obasanjo or don't they have representatives in the United States?

Icheoku says, this beast of Monrovia is a deplorable and abhorable animal who deserves to serve every second of the 1164 months behind bars prison sentence. This animal was born in America and having grown up in the United States of America, one would have expected him to know better; respect the rules of law but never, instead he was bit by the same bug which generally bite every African man of power; he became afflicted and immediately morphed into a ravenous killing mad-dog which he became. If I were the judge in the case, a big needle in his vein while strapped down, would have been my preferred instrument of punishment but 97 years is no picnic either.

Thank you American judiciary, for holding this animal accountable for all the atrocities he committed in Liberia. Icheoku wants to let you know that there are still hundreds of Chuck Emmanuel Taylor in Africa and such fate as was handed out today should be their awaiting portion! God bless America!

NIGERIA, A REQUIEM OR NUNC DIMITTIS?

Are these signs of the times or the things yet to come? Icheoku is talking about the status of Nigeria? The unity of Nigeria? To remain an entity or not? To be or not to be? Whatever finally becomes the resolution, one thing is clear - the present high agitation is very ominous! Yakubu Gowon, a former head of state of Nigeria was the first person, chorusing the Sarduana of Sokoto Ahmadu Bello refrain, to question the continued existence of Nigeria as one entity. In his famous diatribe, the Plateau State born army man, posited that there is no basis for the continued existence of Nigeria as one entity.

Odumegwu Ojukwu took up arms against the rest of Nigeria because it was his understanding that Nigerians, through their inordinate actions, no longer want the Igbos within "their" country, Nigeria. The father of the recently slain NYSC member, Pa Josiah Akande empathised that the recent mayhem in Jos poses a major threat to the touted unity of the country. According to him, the leadership of the country should re-examine the workability of the said Nigeria unity. Simon Kolawole of Thisday Newspapers commenting on the recent Jos riots, wrote, "Nigerians once again, are questioning the very essence of our union."

"There is no hope for Nigeria" was how a one time senator, Francis Spanner Okpozo who represented Delta South Senatorial District in the Senate during the General Ibrahim Babangida’s transition to civil rule programme, put it. According to the senator, there are a lot of irreconcilable fundamental differences among the various ethnic groups that make up the present Nigeria. Continuing, the senator said, the people of Nigeria are merely pretending on the unity question and unnecessarily delaying and avoiding the evil day.

The former Nigerian Petroleum Minister Tam David-West has it that a very dark cloud is gathering over Nigeria. According to the ex-minister, Nigeria has an illegitimate presidency - Yar'Adua is a legal president because the court has made him so, but the court cannot confer legitimacy on anybody. Continuing Mr. West said, "We have reached the worst; I have never seen Nigeria as corrupt as it is now, and if we don't take time, this country may not survive the next sixty years."

Now that the agitation for Nigerians to go their separate ways has gone a full circle, from the north to the west to the south to the east, Icheoku asks, what is then holding it up? Let the truth be told, none of the component constituents which make up the present Nigeria is impressed with one another - no, they resent each other and very much. They hold one another with a contemptible suspicion and will not hesitate to stick it to one another whenever the circumstance present itself. The supposed harmony and peace of the grave-yard in Nigeria is based on the existing leech-like relationship between the arid north and the richly-endowed south. The lazy parasitic north depends on the resources in the south south to survive, hence will not accede to balkanization of Nigeria because they will starve to death. But should the rest of the country be continuously held hostage by the selfish northern oligarchy? Only time will tell!

Icheoku commends the present bravery of some southerners who are now beginning to openly discourse south's discontentment with the present status-quo of things in Nigeria; and prays that it will not take up to the Tam David-West's projected sixty years before it could bear fruit. The north is singularly fuelling this flamed agitation for "separation" due to their crass arrogant usurpation of what belongs to all Nigerians. All the key parastatals and ministries of the federal government of Nigeria including the customs and excise, the supreme court, the appeal court, the EFCC, Abuja FCT, works and housing, agriculture, justice, finance, defence, national planning, petroleum, are all appropriated by the north; leading one to ask, what then is left for the rest of the country? Nothing but scraps! And who says this condition will remain tolerable and for how long in Nigeria anyway?

The northerners bleed the same blood as the southerners, so why should the south be so afraid to bleed some blood that they concede to the north all that their arrogance desires? The north are brigands who populated the military and uses it as an instrument of cohesion to keep the south in perpetual subjugation and servitude in Nigeria. Enough should be enough of this imbalance as Icheoku would rather, these mallams are stopped either through a peaceful dialogue or using whatever means necessary.

The south shouldn't be the one making all the concessions and all the time, no, things have to change and should change! How can a Fulani man from far away Katsina State be tele-guiding the resources in Bayelsa State when no Bayelsa man has ever had a voice on how the cattle in Katsina is reared? It is a complete absurdity and smacks of stupidity on the part of the south to continue to tolerate this lopsidedness in Nigeria.

Why would the south or some of their leaders be content with just receiving simple handouts from these mallams who blatantly arrogate to themselves the rights to every resources in Nigeria including the oil which is in the south? If this is not a conquered and vanquished state of siege of the south by the north, then nothing else so qualifies. It recently came to Icheoku knowledge that Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida once paid a 250,000 pounds Sterling medical bills of a sick southerner in London and you ask yourself, how much is left from where that one came from? If a panhandler asks you for a quarter and you oblige him, that leaves you with 75 cents plus whatever other money you are with. To the panhandler, he got his 25cents but he was oblivious of the depth of the pocket of his benefactor. This is gradually becoming the fate of the southerners in Nigeria and the matter gets even more maddening when it is the panhandling-south that rightfully owns the source of wealth of the benefactor-north; but is deprived of it by shere brigandage. Icheoku says, Southern Nigeria, it is time you stood up to the north and reclaim your God given natural resources and its concomitant wealth! Any other approach is simply slavish!

A DALMATIAN AND FERTILITY TREATMENT?

Eighteen puppies from one litter, this Dalmatian from England has set a new world record as a puppy-factory. Icheoku says, it sure will make an average Jane rabbit jealous!

However, Icheoku is not in a position to confirm or deny the type of fertility-treatment this extremely procreative dog went through, but we are confident to report that it paid off handsomely. From report reaching us from England, mother Dalmatian and her eighteen puppies, delivered through C-section, are doing just fine; although the toll on her breast is forcing the owners of the Dalmatian to supplement with some improvised dog-milk! Congratulation Madam Dalmatian!

BATISTA, WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT?

Now, as he ruefully regrets the gift of life which he gave to his object of affection, his former wife; did this love-reject do what any other person in the circumstance would do for a loved one? Also is his current demand for restitution of his kidney reasonable?

Dr. Richard Batista, 49, (right) of Ronkonkoma, a prominent vascular surgeon at Nassau University Medical Center, Long Island, New York is demanding the return of a kidney he donated to his estranged wife, Dawnell Batista, 44 (below) or in the alternative, the payment of $1.5 million dollars in lieu of the kidney, as a reasonable price or value for the said body-part. The couple is currently embroiled in a messy divorce.

Whether a kidney is a returnable gift or marital property or an asset which can be returned or for which there is a price tag for purposes of distribution following a divorce decree, will constitute part of the litigation in this messy divorce. If the court agrees with Dr. Batista that his interest in the donated kidney is still subsisting, it will then take necessary steps to determine what would be a fair price for the kidney for purposes of determining the reasonableness of the $1.5million dollars being asked as an option of keeping the kidney?

Admitted that it is unethical and illegal to sell or use an organ as a bargain for instrument or exchange it for anything of value; under Dr. Batista's circumstance, is it possible to infer that his donation was not freely made? The question should be, why did he do it? Because she was his wife, a good inference is that the donation was conditioned on her remaining the object of his affection, period! Dr. Batista was one (1) out of 700,000 whose kidney was a match to his ex-wife's; so it was a very expensive and invaluable piece of body-part to just give away. Were Dawnell not his wife, would the doctor have made the donation? The answer is obviously NO! So if the condition subsequent to the kidney donation fails, then there is no longer a subsisting valid donation; hence the subject matter donated must be returned to the rightful owner, which in this case is Dr. Give Me Back My Kidney? It is also admitted that donating an organ is considered a gift but it should equally be noted that some gifts are conditional-gifts; which in this case, by necessary implication, was subsequent to her continued love and affection. Dr. Batista gave to his better-half his body part first because she was his wife (condition-precedent) and secondly because she will continue to remain his wife (condition-subsequent). So when a condition attached to a gift fails for lack of performance or occurrence, the whole gift fails as in this case.

Icheoku says, it appears this claim is not necessarily about a kidney but about a grieving husband who is emotionally having a great deal of difficultly coping with the loss of a wife's love and affection. He wants the world to partake in his heart's agony and hear him out before it is too late. From some statements credited to Dr. Batista, the doctor appears to be a man who is really agonising about losing the love of his life. Icheoku advises the good doctor who is out of luck with love and also appears to be irretrievably out of his kidney, to just calm down and move on with his life, rather than be tempted to join the retinue of the Scott Petersons of this world. Love is impetuous, hurts, and most times does not think properly. According to this whining doctor, "there is no deeper pain you can ever express than betrayal from someone who you loved and devoted your whole life to. I saved her life and then, to be betrayed like this, is unfathomable; It's incomprehensible, but the pain is unbearable! I feel humbled and betrayed and disregarded; this divorce is killing me.” It would appear that Dr. Batista is trying but woefully failing, to cope with his life of a broken heart. At the same time, it is quite obvious from his quest for a pound of flesh, that he is determined not to let his cheating ex-wife go with his healthy kidney!

The once-happy couple met two decades ago when Dr. Batista was a resident and Dawnell was a training nurse at North Shore Hospital. They were married in August 1990, and have three daughters celebrating with a lavish Long Island reception, and were soon living in a $1 million Massapequa home.

Dr. Batista's kidney was the third kidney Dawnell would receive; as a child, she received a kidney from her father which failed and later another one from her brother which also failed as her body rejected both kidneys. Then it was Dr. Batista's turn to donate his kidney which proved to be the kidney the doctor ordered. With a match of 1-in-700,000 Dr Batista gladly donated one of his kidney, allowing Dawnell to skip a waiting list of 6,748 people awaiting kidneys transplant in the State of New York according to data from the New York Organ Network. The transplant of the contentious kidney was successfully performed at University of Minnesota Medical Center on June 28, 2001. Dawnell Batista survived the transplant, but their marriage lasted only four more years thereafter, as Dawnell filed for divorce in July 2005.

According to the narrative, Dawnell Batista viewed the kidney as a new lease on her life. She returned to school to earn a master's degree in nursing and took up karate as a hobby. Icheoku asks, but why karate? Was she an abused wife trying to equip herself against further abuse by learning the act of self-defense, martial arts? Continuing, after an injury suffered while trying to earn her black belt, she began physical therapy - which evolved into an affair with her therapist. Icheoku adds, and she is a nurse? According to Dr. Batista, "this affair put a hole in my heart that still exists. To this day, I'm a man of pride. To be betrayed that way, humiliated - I can't even began to say."
One other interested observer rated Dr. Batista's chances at recovering his donated kidney at somewhere between impossible and completely impossible. Icheoku strongly disagrees with one other analyst who is of the opinion that when you give something, you can't get it back; but says, that certain gifts are conditioned upon the occurrence or performance of certain act. So when there is a failed performance or non-occurrence of the act or event then such gift fails as may rightly be the case with the kidney here.

Icheoku says, Dr. Batista is entitled to his kidney. The court should order Dawnell to give Dr Batista back his kidney as the bargained for love and affection has gone out through the window, with the winds. His intention in making the donation in the first place was to bequeath his body-part to someone he loved and believed was part of him; so now that the center can no longer hold, to each should be his own. Without his gift, Dawnell would probably be dead by now, so she would not have had the opportunity to even jump the fence of Dr. Batista's love. So who is wrongfully benefiting from the failed bargain but DAWNELL who is trying to reap where she did not sow! Icheoku says, this re-echos the popular aphorism, only fools fall in love, and Dr. Richard Batista?

NIGERIA, WHAT A HELMET?

The thing wrong with this picture is that the motorcycle (popularly called Okada) rider in blue T-shirt, has an available helmet which he could have worn but choose otherwise. Instead, he decided to make a statement of either defiance or stupidity with an improvised empty container or bucket of possibly used paint as his preferred helmet. Very visible on the front-end of the motorcycle between the two bar-handles is an orange-colored helmet which he ignored to wear, but instead chose to dramatize the new helmet-law in Nigeria with his strange-looking plastic bucket!

This is one example why Nigeria is ungovernable as people do not usually obey laws but most times, choose to make mockery of them. What stops this mallam, pictured in Ijeshatedo area of Lagos, from simply throwing his helmet on his head instead of the plastic bucket he is wearing; and knowing fully well that the helmet-law is meant to cut down on his losses in event of an accident? The tragedy of this picture is that some policemen who are supposed to enforce the helmet-law, possibly saw this motorcyclist with his bucket-helmet driving around the Itire council area of Lagos State without arresting him. Icheoku says, they were all possibly, smiling and making jokes about the new "foreign/homegrown" helmet?

Icheoku says, such conduct as displayed by this motor-cyclist is not laughable and should not be condoned by anyone. In as much as it elicits laughter, being so hilarious, the rider is apparently making a mockery of the new helmet-law and should have been stopped cold. He should in addition, be made to take full responsibility for his action, as he broke an existing law of the land and ordered to pay a very steep fine/penalty as a deterrent. The term deterrent is what is missing in Nigeria's law enforcement lexicon, otherwise all these in-fractures of existing laws would not exist. On the new helmet-law however, Icheoku says, it is a welcome step towards mitigating motorcycle-accident victim's losses. Helmet saves lives as it protects the head upon contact with the pavement. Icheoku's one other concern is the possible transmission of head-lice (pediculus humanus capitis), dandruff, ticks, odour, eczema and other head-hair and skin contagious diseases from one passenger to another through sharing of one helmet.

The African sun could be so intense and easily heats up the human-body including the head-hair; thus makes head-lice very uncomfortable that they become so agitated and jumpy and could easily stick unto a helmet waiting to be transferred to the next passenger's hair. If every passenger is to share one helmet, shouldn't be a requirement also that some disinfectants be sprayed in the helmet before the next rider's use? Whatever happens, Icheoku says, riding "OKADA" with a plastic rubberised empty bucket "helmet" is not COOOOOOOOOL!

A GERMAN BILLIONAIRE COMMITS SUICIDE!

For just losing a few hundred million dollars of his fortune to the global economic melt-down! Icheoku says, if a billionaire should kill himself because of the bad economy, what would a pauper do? May be jump into a pot of boiling hot-grease and fry to hell? Who says the rich do not also cry? After reading this or hearing about it, do you still want to be rich, super-rich, stupendous rich? Who still wants to be a billionaire?

A German billionaire, Adolf Merckle pictured here top left, committed suicide after his business empire, which included interests ranging from pharmaceuticals to cement, ran into trouble amidst the current global financial crisis. His weapon of choice, a fast moving train similar to the one pictured here below, which he threw himself in front of and was crushed to death near his villa in Blaubeuren-Weller. Blaubeuren-Weller, in the state of Baden-Württemberg is about 100 miles west of Munich in southwestern Germany.

Adolf Merckle, 74, was ranked as the world's 94th richest person in 2008, with a personal fortune, estimated at $9.2 billion, according to Forbes magazine.

According to his family's statement announcing his death, "Adolf Merckle lived and worked for his family and his firms; the distress to his firms caused by the financial crisis and the related uncertainties of recent weeks, along with the helplessness of no longer being able to handle the situation, broke the passionate family businessman, and he ended his life.” The police in Ulm confirmed that his suicide note has been found but has not made the contents public.

A native of Dresden, Mr. Adolf Merckle made his way to Western Germany after World War II, where he parlayed his family business in chemicals into one of the biggest pharmaceutical concerns in the world. He built his family’s small pharmaceutical business into a 120-firm conglomerate employing 100,000 people. He was regarded as a modest man who frequently bicycled to work. His business empire also included HeidelbergCement, the company that bought the once mighty British conglomerate Hanson with more than €10 ($15) billion in sales, Ratiopharm, a recognized generics-drugs maker that became a brand unto itself with about €2 ($3) billion in revenue and Phoenix, a drugs wholesaler with about €20 ($30) billion in revenue. Mr. Adolf Merckle also owned stakes in companies that made a wide array of goods from all-terrain vehicles, software to textiles. In addition to his personal worth estimated at more than $9 billion by Forbes magazine, his companies’ combined turnover was in excess of $40 billion, making him Germany’s fifth richest man!

The last weeks of his life were spent with his holding company, VEM Vermögensverwaltung wrangling with a consortium of banks for a bridge-loan that would secure credit for his companies, following the global financial meltdown. He was to lose some of his company holdings as a result of the restructuring but which outcome he would rather not see; - his businesses being consumed as a result of disastrous investments and the global financial crisis. Mr. Merckle also lost several hundreds of millions of dollars last year in a misplaced stock-market bets in Volkswagen AG, in which he wagered that the stock price would fall. According to people with knowledge about the matter, the stock instead skyrocketed in what market participants have described as one of the most dramatic short squeezes ever. As Mr. Merckle grew increasingly desperate to keep his empire afloat, he lobbied the regional government in his home state of Baden-Württemberg late last year for temporary financial backing but to no avail; culminating to his death by suicide on Monday, January 5th, 2009.

Icheoku asks, did Adolf Merckle sell his soul to the devil of his vast financial empire? How could a billionaire who came to this world with nothing be so distrust that he cannot survive on a few hundreds of millions of dollars less, that he would rather jump in front of a fast moving train? Even if it had meant liquidating or winding-down, any option would have been better than smashing oneself in front of a moving train. That he was facing the possibility of an imminent dismantling of his vast financial and business empire as well as the sale of major holdings in one of his flag-ship company is not a sufficient justification for what his family is now being forced to deal with. According to one analyst, who like Icheoku, could not understand why a billionaire should kill himself because of economic downturn, Mr. Adolf Merckle probably had other issues bothering him and the current economic crisis provided him with the much needed tipping-point to go over the cliff's edge.

Mr. Adolf Merckle was survived by his wife and four children. Icheoku does not understand the justification for this suicide as there is nothing to try to understand; however to the bereaved family, we say, seek the face of the Lord for solace as you bear the loss of your patriarch! Please accept our condolence!

STEVE JOBS, NEEDS A MIRACLE OF HEALTH?

Have you ever marvelled at awesome piece of wonder the IPhone is? What about the Mac? Have you seen the envelope-fitting "Air" laptop computer? What about the Ipods - from the nano to the something? Still want more, please visit any Apple store or their website to voluptuously feed your tech-junkie appetite. Regrettably, the man behind these tech-wonders of our 21st century is ill; with some saying he is gravely ill? Please dear God, spare us our beloved SJ as the world need him very much longer, so that we can continue to enjoy many more sharp products of his beautiful mind.

However, Icheoku like many other gadget-loving folks, is commenting on the subject of SJ's health because of the varying statements on the nature of sickness afflicting SJ, coming from Apple regarding their CEO. This is now particularly fuelled by the no-show SJ pulled at the opening of his annual Mac-World exposition in the city of San Francisco California, United States of America, today, January 6th, 2009! SJ's unusual absence in his baby's event, being a fixture hitherto, is very ominous and a reason for concern for many of us world fans.

Pictured right is the then normal looking SJ wearing eye-glasses, looking his resplendent self. The other time SJ was in Japan feasting at one of the finest sushi restaurants in town with some of his inner business executives, he informed them that his pancreatic cancer/ colon problem appears to be in remission. The last time he appeared in San Francisco to launch the G3 IPhone, SJ said that his abnormally thin frame was diet-related and normal; and should not be a source for concern of the technological-savvy world. This year, rumour has it that SJ is so Nicole Ritchie-looking that he decided to completely abandon appearing at his company's this year's MacWorld ritual in San Francisco. The new line now concerning his state of health, is that his frighteningly emaciated frame is a result of abnormal hormonal firings? Just some hormone imbalance? Icheoku says, give me a break; as we and many other fans, do not buy this latest attempt at spinning what is ailing the Apple's Chief Executive Officer to acceptability. SJ and Apple should come clean and level with the world of technology on what is awry with our gadget wizard!

Icheoku says, now that western medicine appears to have failed to resolve what is wrong with SJ, it may be time to explore other alternatives, including homeopathic medicine, holistic medicine and spiritual healing. There is no harm in trying all and every available possible panacea since the current approach appears to have bottomed-out as merely speculative. For there to be a cure for an ailment, that ailment must first be identified - there has to be a successful diagnoses before a palliative medicine can be applied. Non seem to have worked so far or appear realistic any longer.

It could be a spiritual attack that SJ is going through and such could only be resolved with similarly concerted same-kind projectile being fired at the problem. There may be some divine or spiritual answer to the question, what is ailing SJ? Should this alternative be palatable to SJ or his managers, Icheoku is aware of a particular man of God who professes to have Divine powers to successfully petition such a cause as SJ to a resolution. Our contact remains facilitator@Icheoku.com and we look forward to offering our assistance, if solicited. Above all, it is a free service; although some appreciation, at the end of a successful intercession is always welcomed!

Until then or a healthy rebound of health, we at Icheokudotcom wishes our dear SJ a speedy recovery. Please get well for the world of technology, our STEVE JOBS!

NIGERIA, AN ANTI-SAME SEX COUNTRY?

Once again, northern Nigeria have displayed their intolerance for something unique, something different and something alien to what they are used to. The last time it was the hosting of the Miss World contest in Nigeria, that they successfully fought off, now they have commenced a total war on gays, lesbians and trans-genders in their police force.

Ruth Simon and Clementina Jerome, two police-women serving with the Nigerian police force in Sokoto State were recently dismissed from the police for allegedly engaging in lesbianism or somewhat lesbian acts of affection.

Their supposed acts of affection were interpreted by the Sokoto Police Command as a ‘discreditable conduct’ for which they were immediately fired from the police force, under an existing "police code"?

Icheoku says, Nigeria is gradually but surely being forced by these northern mallams, into an Islamic country with zero-tolerance for some modernity. It is either sharia law today, stoning-sentence tomorrow, cancelling a beauty pageant there and now the sacking of some alleged "lesbian" police couple? This intolerance is not healthy for any developing society as we all should learn how to accept or better tolerate each other's differences for a stronger union. Let us leave the judgment as to what is right or wrong for the Almighty God to be the judge.

Icheoku calls on the Nigeria Inspector General of police, Mike Okilo to review the firing of this two police ladies with a view to recalling them. If however the Islamic intolerance of the north will make it impossible for them to continue serving their father-land, may be a redeployment to a more tolerant southern state should be explored. But to have them remain sacked for just their sexual-orientation or its suspicion is not a welcome sign of a progressive country.

OMO OMORUYI, DOES IT PAY TO SERVE NIGERIA?

In this op-ed Icheoku asks, is what Professor Omo Omoruyi currently going through, after 40 years in public life with many of them devoted to a meritorious service to Nigeria, worth the sacrifice?

Professor Omo Omoruyi, 70, was a founding father and former Director-General of the now defunct Nigeria Centre for Democratic Studies (CDS), Abuja. His effort at the CDC which he founded in 1989, culminated in the Option A4 electioneering system that successfully engineered the election of M.K.O. Abiola as president, from the first ever free and fair election conducted in Nigeria. Several years after the said election was mischievously annulled by Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, this professor of Political Science is in a very sorry state of health and the government of Nigeria which he dutifully served seem to have told him, you are on your own!

This elicits the question, "what is then the incentive for serving Nigeria honestly, if such a past "good-servant" is now so desolate that he cannot even afford to pay his medical bills? Icheoku says, this may be the reason why public officials in Nigeria are endemically corrupt because they know that nobody will ask about them once they are out of power. Put in another way, does this mean that Professor Omo Omoruyi was not corrupt, otherwise his stashed millions of dollars/pounds would still be available at his pleasure? It is also instructive to note that the Professor is from Niger Delta area of Nigeria and yet, despite their natural resources, his state of Edo cannot afford his medical treatment while virtually all his counterparts from the north who similarly served Nigeria, are swimming in abundant wealth assisted by their states.

Now Professor Omo Omoruyi has prostate cancer and needs financial assistance to fight it. The government is lukewarm in providing assistance. The Professor acknowledged there is a health-care delivery crisis in Nigeria where he spent a week at the National Hospital at Abuja, misdiagnosed and being giving ordinary painkillers and muscle relaxers for his excruciating pain symptoms. Prior to which he was an off and on outpatient of the hospital manifesting pains with leg pain, back pain, body pain etc. The Professor noted that nobody at the National Hospital was able to correctly diagnose his seething body pain and his inability to move his legs as something more serious than requires mere pain relieving drugs. Continuing, Professor Omoruyi lamented that even the doctor who admitted him did not bother to see him again throughout his one week admission at the hospital? Sounds scary, you bet; but that is the Nigeria way! Professor Omo Omoruyi also regretted that he was still poor at 70 and after so many years of selfless service to Nigeria. Icheoku now asks Professor Omo Omoruyi, would he have stolen to his heart's delight knowing then, the realities of his life today? It is also important to point out that the Professor took some bullets in Nigeria in a 1994 failed assassination attempt in Benin, from bandits who possibly targeted him for his perceived role in the 1993 annulment.

Icheoku says that the feeling of abandonment which Professor Omo Omoruyi is experiencing today is not encouraging at all; as this will only spur corruption amongst public servants who will become more desperate to stash away enough money for their own rainy days. Such experience breeds corruption and something must be done to checkmate it, in the spirit of fighting corruption. The Nigerian government must find a way to provide for the health care needs of such "patriotic" elder-statesman who was willing to forsake the cushions of life abroad to return home to Nigeria to try to help out. If the government cannot provide for the primary and secondary care needs of such deserving citizen, at least it should be able to under-write his tertiary catastrophic health care needs.

Icheoku says, dialysis, cancer, HIV/AIDS, open heart surgery, brain surgery and such other high-dollar cost medical needs, that are too crushing for an individual's pocket, should be borne by the government. Professor Omo Omoruyi has cancer and so ordinarily, is eminently qualified for such government assistance, especially in view of his contributions to the development of democracy in Nigeria. The Center for Democratic Studies which he founded and nurtured was a success, admitted it later went the way of so many other things in Nigeria.

GHANA, CONGRATULATIONS ON THIS MILESTONE!

To President John Akufor, Icheoku says this one is for you - the election of Professor John Attah Mills, pictured left, as president in waiting of Ghana! For remaining that erudite British-trained lawyer whose respect for the rule of law now extended to respect for the wishes of the Ghanaian electorates! For respecting the wishes of the Ghanaian people who preferred the opposition candidate as opposed to your own government party's candidate, despite your stellar performance in office! You are a pride of every blackman particularly in Africa whose leaders' penchant for sit-tight, poll manipulation, imposition of candidate or annulling a free and fair election because the outcome did not meet up with their pre-ordained expectation, or sometimes, even trying to change the horse mid-stream to elongate their tenure and when all their dribbling fail, imposes a sick weakling on a country.

To you, President John Akuffor, pictured here right, be all the glory of Ghana's successful election. You stood firm as the decent man you are and respected the wishes of the Ghana people. By this singular act of political decency, you have transcended into the realm where Nelson Mandela hitherto, was a lonely occupant. You have become a shining beacon of hope for Africa, by becoming an elected African leader to voluntarily allow a free election to take place in your country; you did not try to thwart the wishes of the people or perpetuate yourself in power either directly of by proxy and this is very commendable of you!

To the people of Ghana, Icheoku says you should be proud of the milestone accomplishment in democracy, you achieved today. You are now the only truly functioning democracy in Africa and we are proud of the decency of your president and electoral commission chairman. Please Ghana, do not ever drop the ball but keep the flag of democracy which you have hoisted, flying! It is for all Africans!

To President-elect Professor John Atta Mills, 64, of the opposition party National Democratic Congress, Icheoku says congratulations on your victory and please do not let the fire of democracy which President John Akufor has lit quench under your supervision. Your victory was possible because there is a sitting president who cherishes honor more than all the golds in the former Gold Coast. Know ye that you are now the president-elect of all Ghanaians and you should not disappoint the sacred trust which their vote now confers on you. The baton which President John Akufor has handed over to you must be passed on to the next guy when the time comes. Icheoku has no doubt that being the very educated gentle man you are that you will not be found wanting at the end of your term in office.

Professor John Attah Mills was born on 21 July 1944 at Tarkwa in western Ghana (see map of Ghana right showing Tarkwa). He graduated in law at the University of Ghana in 1967 before further legal studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. He won a Fulbright scholarship at Stanford Law School in the US and later returned to Ghana where he taught law for nearly 25 years at his Alma mater the University of Ghana. He became a national tax commissioner under Mr Rawlings before being promoted to the vice-presidency. He is a keen hockey player and at one time was a member of the Ghana hockey national team. John Attah Milla also enjoys swimming and is married to his wife Ernestina Naadu Mills and has one son, Sam Kofi Atta Mills.

To the current government's New Patriotic Party's candidate, Attorney Nana Akufo-Addo, pictured here left, who have already congratulated President-elect John Attah Mills for his victory at the polls, Icheoku says, you are a civilized gentle man, who understands that politics is not a do or die affair. Thank you for choosing the part of honor and for placing Ghana above your personal interest. If all non-victorious candidates in every election will be as gentlemanly as you displayed, may be more decent and honorable people will find politics attractive.

To the monster Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, Icheoku says you should now cover your horrifying face in ashes and hide it under a sack-cloth filled with shame, for the sham election, nay selection in Nigeria that imposed Umaru Yar'Adua on Nigerians. Look at Ghana and be very ashamed of yourself for not living up to the calling when duty called; because your devilish third term ploy was thwarted, you imposed a very sick weakling Umaru Yar'Adua on Nigeria and today, the result is a Nigeria that has almost stalled completely. Shame on you Olusegun Obasanjo.

To the other Nigeria despicable fellow, Nigeria's INEC chairman Maurice Iwu, Icheoku asks, do you now see that the word integrity still exists as examplified in Kwodo Afari-Gyan of the Ghana electoral commission, pictured here right? With 50.23% of the votes, the electoral commission today January 3, 2009 declared the opposition candidate Attah Mills the winner of a tight presidential run-off in Ghana. In his glorious voice, Afari-Gyan declared, on the basis of the official results given, it is my duty to declare Professor John Evans Atta Mills the president-elect of the Republic of Ghana"! The present government party New Patriotic Party candidate Nana Akufo-Addo, 64, secured 49.77% of the votes.

With Kenya's Mwai Kibaki, Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, Nigeria's Olusegun Obasanjo/Umaru Yar'Adua, the coup de tat in Mauritanian and Guinea as the poster-boys for undemocratic governance in Africa, Ghana has now proved that there is still some glimmer of hope in Africa. Icheoku says, congratulations to all Ghanaians!

Juxtaposing Ghana's President-elect, Professor John Attah Mills campaign slogan "I believe in Ghana" can any past and present leader of Nigeria so declare that he sincerely believes in Nigeria? However, Nigerians must not slumber but persist in their quest for the Ghana's example that one day, they may be able to elect a president-leader of their choice and stop being held hostage in a gulag by a cabal-imposed president. Another implication of the Ghana's election result is that Muhammad Buhari of Nigeria should not loose hope about winning the Nigerian presidency, since the President-elect John Attah Mills failed twice in his past presidential election attempts in Ghana. Until that day when Africa shall be free to elect her presidents, may what happened in Ghana be a symbol of hope that, that day shall one day come. Finally, Icheoku says, Ghana enjoy your well-deserved democracy!

IGBOS OF (BIAFRA) NIGERIA, WHERE ARE YOU?

Nigeria's President Umaru Yar'Adua has said that his Nigerian government will provide special security to seven of the country’s "major" cities. The president's special adviser on communication Olusegun Adeniyi listed these "major" Nigerian cities as Abuja, Ibadan, Kaduna, Kano, Lagos, Maiduguri and Port Harcourt! Icheoku screams blue-murder as to the paradigm or basis of selecting these "major" cities and asks, whether it is the volume of business being generated in those cities or their population or ingenuity that qualified them as such "major" Nigerian cities?

Who shall it be told that no Igbo city was pencilled down for this "major" city status, qualified for President Umaru Yar'Adua's Nigerian Federal government's national security blanket? Not Onitsha, not Nnewi, not Enugu, not Aba just to mention but a few! All of them were excluded from this so called "major" city status and you ask yourself why are they not "major" cities within their calculations? Tell that to the marines; let the truth be told - the rest of Nigeria is still fighting the long gone 1967-70 civil war against Biafra, which they see in their warped and jaundiced eyes as the Igbos. But these hedgehogs forgot that the present day Rivers State, Bayelsa State, Akwa-Ibom State and Cross River State were all part of the then self-preserving Biafra? Phillip Effiong who finally surrendered to the Nigeria Federal government was not an Igbo but an Efik from present day Cross River State. So why is the Igbo still, solely being persecuted for their role in Biafra, which hostility was trust upon them by the rest of Nigerians who wanted and desired to totally annihilate them in one of the world's worst genocide? Icheoku asks Nigeria, when did self-preservation become an unforgiveable sin?

At the inception of the Nigerian experiment in 1960, there were four regions - northern region with its capital at Kaduna, western region with headquarter in Ibadan, mid-western region with Benin and eastern region with Enugu as the headquarter. Today all the other regional capitals are being treated like an integral part of Nigeria city with the exception of Enugu. Since the end of fire-arm hostilities between Biafra and Nigeria, each successive Nigerian government has continued with this vanquished-mentality treatment of the Igbo people; which pattern was most felt during the tragedy of Olusegun Obasanjo eight years of ignoble rule in Nigeria; when he tried but failed to totally emasculate the Igbo people of Nigeria. Several of Igbo proprietary businesses were closed including Savannah Bank, Societe General Bank, Slok airlines, Ibeto cement etc just to mention but a few. Now President Umaru Yar'Adua has shooed-in to complete the decimation of the Igbo people of Nigeria - the sick man from Katsina has taken "project kill-off Igbo people" to the next level and it is becoming really very septic.

Now every political zone and region in Nigeria has a city and/or cities designated by President Umaru Yar'Adua as a top priority "major" city for his planned security condone except for Enugu and all the other key Igbo cities of Onitsha, Aba and Nnewi? What is going on, Nigeria? If you guys do not want the Igbo people any longer in Nigeria, let them go their way instead of the ever present very discriminatory treatment you continuously mete out to them?

Look at the bridge over River Niger at Onitsha, you refused to rebuild it or even build a new one because it will impact the Igbos of Nigeria positively? Look at Federal appointments, every Igbo was excluded from all plum positions in cabinets and even for the office of the Inspector General of Police which an Igbo man was next in line, the Igbo man, Ogbonnanya Onovo was sidelined for Mike Okilo. Look at the rate of seizure of containers/goods at the ports by the customs and you see that the Igbo importers fare worst, with their seized goods under-sold and bought by other Nigerians to the chagrin of their rightful Igbo owners. Needless to say that the custom and excise is also under the control of the northerners. MASSOB is a non-violent peaceful agitation of Igbo people yet they are being killed and dispatched to the world beyond at a rate higher than the other armed groups in Nigeria including the Ganiyu Adams led Odua' boys. Igbos of Nigeria are being continuously murdered every place in Nigeria for no reason whatsoever except that they are Igbos. Even at the recent Jos pogrom, where a domestic local politics triggered the conflagration, Igbos numbering 149 were murdered in cold blood just because they are the sacrificial guinea-pigs of Nigeria that can be butchered at the whims of the other Nigerians living in the north? If a people cannot feel safe to thrive in their so-called country, what then is the use remaining in that country?

When will the Igbo people of Nigeria say enough is enough and demand for their full integration in Nigeria or asked to be allowed to opt out? Yes, there are so many Igbo people in positions of "authority" as well as other supposed Igbo "leaders" whose relevance as such, in view of their stand in the face of the continued pressure-cooker marginalization of the Igbos in Nigeria, has since become somewhat questionable. Oha n'eze Ndi-Igbo, this is a wake-up call for you to take a stand and demand from President Umaru Yar'Adua the basis of his current rating of some cities in Nigeria as "major" cities while leaving behind every city in Igboland therefrom. Or is the menace of armed robberies/kidnappings in Onitsha, Aba, Enugu and Nnewi not enough to warrant the same security arrangement as are being planned for Ibadan, Lagos, Abuja, Port-Harcourt, Kano, Kaduna and Maiduguri? Enough should be enough! It is time to say it and mean it! Now is time for the Igbos of Nigeria to take a firm stand or forever cower at the feet of these other Nigerians who are gradually enslaving them. Icheoku says, the Igbos should say to these Nigerians' slave-masters, either you give us freedom or you give us death but the present state of slavery-limbo is unacceptable!

OLUSEGUN OBASANJO, SHOULD FACE FIRING SQUAD?

How much is really too much and enough to make Nigerians so mad to call for rendering of account by the former president, Olusegun Obasanjo? It is shocking and disheartening that despite all the atrocities Olusegun Obasanjo committed while in office, he is still cockily walking the grounds of Nigeria a free-man? What then challenges the moral fiber of a Nigerian when such a maniacal disaster as Olusegun Obasanjo could not be brought to account for his stewardship amidst a mountain of evidence of his culpability?

As the president cum oil/petroleum minister of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo's hold on the Nigerian economy was so enormous that Icheoku says he is solely responsible for all that went awry with Nigeria including the plummeting value of the Naira which went from 75 Naira to a dollar in 1999 to the over 148 Naira per dollar when he was forced out of his third term dream land in 2007. His regime's sanctioned numerous assassinations and political murders does not help with mitigation at all in the "guilty as charged" verdict by many Nigerians on Olusegun Obasanjo. Now the mother of all Olusegun Obasanjo's litany of corruption has been unearthed - he awarded several oil-blocks worth several millions of dollars to some thirty-eight (38) unregistered firms during his ignominious regime. Holly macro! And Nigerians are still waiting? What for and what other evidence is needed before this medicine man of Otta is tied to the stake and shot for economic sabotage and crimes against Nigerians? The Odi and Zaki Ibiam communities in Bayelsa and Benue States, respectively, massacres carried out by his regime is substantive in this effort too. When the cession of Nigeria's Bakassi to Cameroon is added to the trachea of Obasanjo's crimes, then may be, his head will be delivered hoisted in a stake and paraded in a macabre-style at the Eagle square in Abuja. This Olusegun Obasanjo is a bastard son of a bastard father whose mother is a whore and does not deserve to live a free man in Nigeria. What example is his continued freedom showing to the rest of Nigerian leaders - that it is ok to be a very corrupt tyrant, provided you choose a stooge to succeed you, if forced out of office? Any Nigeria not enraged by Olusegun Obsaanjo's continued freedom, after all the ills that he perpetrated on Nigerians while in office, is either part of the reason why Nigeria is stunted all these years since her independence or is completely insane! How can it be that this army mechanic from Otta should be allowed to get away with all that he visited upon Nigerians during his reign? It really smells bad. What a putrid scumbag, Olusegun Obasanjo is?

This earth-quaking revelation that 38 oil companies, that were not even registered, won interests in 23 oil blocks during the 2005 oil-blocks bids exercise under the infamous Olusegun Obasanjo regime is mind-numbing indeed. A report by the Nigeria House of Representatives ad hoc committee that probed the oil sector from 1999 to 2007 (Obasanjo presidency) also showed that $2,629,275,667 was realised as signature bonus through the sale of additional 36 oil blocks during the bid rounds and have not been duly accounted for. The committee went frther to criticise President Olusegun Obasanjo who was also the then minister of petroleum for all these discrepancies. It was also established that companies that did not even register for the bid process were pre-qualified, and eventually awarded blocks in clear violation of both the Internal Memorandum and the Guidelines of the exercise under the supervision and order and approval of Olusegun Obasanjo. Obasanjo, while in office came up with a "clever by half" initiative to entice National Oil Companies (NOCs) from Asia including China, Taiwan, India and South Korea to acquire oil blocks for the first time in Nigeria. These Asian National Oil Companies (ANOCs) were given the Right of First Refusal (RFR) and discounted signature bonuses on a number of oil blocks in return for their commitment to invest in downstream and infrastructure projects in Nigeria to the sum of US$20 billion. In short Olusegun Obasanjo battered Nigeria's oil and gas for some promised investments.

A research carried out by Dr. Lillian Wong, an Associate Fellow in Africa Programme at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House London titled, "The Impact of Asian National Oil Companies in Africa", concluded that Obasanjo's messy oil deals were initiated to generate funds for his failed Third Term Agenda. "According to Dr. Wong, "There are credible reports of large sums paid to Obasanjo to support an extension of his tenure by certain beneficiaries (who will remain nameless) of the oil-for-infrastructure deals. Further, it is also believed that officials who negotiated the deals compromised the arrangement by putting personal profit above the national interest". The researcher opined that the recent decision by Yar'Adua-led government to revise the guidelines for oil block allocation, has put a spanner in Olusegun Obasanjo's stated grand-design to achieve a "development dividend" through the oil-for-infrastructure scheme with ANOCs; which it would appear, has now "fallen apart". As a result numerous projects attached to the deal has been cancelled including the Korean gas pipeline projects and the Lagos-Kano railway contract with China. This cancellation has now made the total sum of US$20 billion of investment promised by the ANOCs in 2005/2006 to be at risk." It would be recalled that former President Olusegun Obasanjo had also in addition, acted as the executive minister of Petroleum throughout his tenure. All decisions on the sector solely emanated from him being the absolute dictator he tired to be. Also the NNPC and the Department of Petroleum Resources, responsible for organising licensing rounds which is supposed to be the controlling organs in charge, acted on Obasanjo's directives only.

Reading what one commentator wrote about Nigeria, every sane Nigerian should demand for an immediate panacea to Nigeria's problems, irrespective of the price. According to this narrative, "Nigeria is a very dangerous country to live in. And I am beginning to be truly afraid. I am not talking about armed robbery, assassinations, murder, epileptic power supply and all others of our well known troubles. My worry this morning is the creeping herd mentality I am seeing in this country. You will agree with me that a country where every body thinks the same way; acts the same way and where no one appears to have the courage to be different, is a very dangerous country to live in indeed. If things continue the way they are today, I am afraid I may soon become an émigré! With this kind of referral, what NNigeria needs to do is take a very drastic burnishing measure to try and shore up its fast-evaporating image. Icheoku says that a good place to start is to tie Olusegun Obasanjo at the stake and send some hot-lead right into him; for all that he did wrong in Nigeria during his reign of infamy. This will truly go a very long way in making the crooked road once again straight in Nigeria. By such a courageous display of zero-tolerance for tyranny, Nigerians will have a reason to hope again. So President Umaru Yar'Adua, can you keep hope alive in the new year with the arrest, trial and possible execution of Olusegun Obasanjo for his crimes against humanity, the massacres of Odi and Zaki Ibiam and for his unbridled corruption and wrongful enrichment. Nigerians are looking for a deterrent, they get it and case closed! This will be the best New Year present for Nigerians, Mr President! So lets welcome 2009!