SHEHU OF BORNU, ANOTHER ONE DIES IN A FOREIGN HOSPITAL!

Last month, it was the former governor of Yobe State that died in a Florida USA hospital, this time around, it is another high-up in Nigeria, the Shehu of Bornu, Mustapha Umar El-Kanemi! The ruler of Kanem-Bornu died in an Egyptian hospital at age 85, on Saturday, February 21, 2009.

Although of advanced age, but were there to be a working medical facility in Nigeria, may be the time wasted in flying a "comatose-patient" from Maiduguri to a Cairo hospital would have been avoided. Also an immediate medical attention soon after he collapsed, could have prolonged his rather fragile life for the people of the former Kanem-Bornu empire to continue to cherish? But no, as the evil-spirit holding Nigeria down, will not let her government do something to revamp the moribund health-care in the country. Icheoku says, shameless as they are, these officials fly to hospitals around the world for medical attention like a beggarly people; instead of spending some of the money they steal to provide a world-class health care system and center in Nigeria?

The late ruler was flown to Egypt on Thursday February 19, 2009, following a "cardiac-arrest" which led to his collapse at his palace. He ascended the throne of his fathers in 1974 and remained the king for thirty-five years until his death in 2009. He was the fourteenth Shehu of Bornu of the El- Kanemi dynasty of Kanem-Bornu empire? Icheoku says, sleep on Shehu and may Nigerian government feel ashamed in having their high-ups die in foreign hospitals?

YOUR SUNDAY, WITH PROPHET MKO TIBETAN!

TOPIC:- YOU CAN NOT DO IT ALONE!

You can not do it alone, please read Genesis 1:26; from what we read here the Lord made us to know that we cannot do it alone, - because he said let us come together and make man in our own image. God knows exactly what he wanted to do, yet he still called on others to make man? God knows us, - he says he is closer to us than the vein of our neck. Just like Jethro advised Moses in Exodus 18:13-23, God also called Abraham and because he was a stammerer, God chose Aron his brother to assist him.

Therefore brethren in Christ go back to God because you can not do it alone. When Pharaoh and his people observed the growth of the Israelites, he view for the support of his helmsmen to reduce the population of Israel Exodus 1:13-22. Also in 1 King 18:10, the Lord picked up Elijah to appoint Elisha who put aside the canal work to join Elijah, Acts 13:1-3, where the first recruitment was made when Barnabas was chosen, people call themselves into the vine-yard to give false doctrine and convert church fund.

Even in Nigeria, America and the world at large, there is no dignity in the job again but the Lord knows whom he employed because they want to do it alone. Acts 1:12-23. In John 15:5 the bible said when the Holy Spirit shall come, it shall comfort us but when it come he also said emphatically that without me you can do it nothing. Amos3:3, Eccl.4:9-12, Genesis37, 1Sam.17:45-50, if David could stand before Goliath, the Lord was with him; so who or what is the Goliath of your life that you believe cannot fall, if you attack it with the name of God? In verse 46 he says “the Lord will deliver thee into my hand and that I will smite thee”! Until next Sunday, churn these words and God keep and protect you, in Jesus name, Amen!

MUGABE, LOOKING DANDY AT 85?

One of Africa's foremost dictator Robert Mugabe recently turned 85! Icheoku says, happy birthday Bob; and asks, are you going to pass on, a sitting president of Zimbabwe?

A few years of retirement would have been ideal to rest your tired old bones, preparatory to the ultimate journey beyond to meet with your ancestors? But only you knows why you have glued your butt, with super-glue, on the seat of the government in Harare. Be that as it may, Icheoku wants to recognize your coming of real golden age and in a fairly good condition!

If I can look as good at 85 then I don't want to die at 70! Aside of Lady McCain, the mother of Senator John McCain of Arizona, USA; at 95, Icheoku must admit you are one heck of a good-looking old person. Bob, you are in a very good-condition for any old person at your age. Hopefully you will be the first head of state and/or government to attain the magical 100 years? How about a centurion president of Zimbabwe? That will be a very difficult, if not impossible record to break? Anyway, happy birthday, Mr. President for Life of Zimbabwe!

EZE-IGBO, ILOMUANYA'S COUNCIL OF RULERS GOT IT WRONG?

The chairman of South East Council of Traditional Rulers and Obi of Obinugwu Autonomous Community in Orlu Local Government Area of Imo State, HRH Eze (Dr.) Cletus Ikechukwu Ilomuanya, recently called for the abolition of the office of Eze-Ndigbo world-wide, in every community where it exists? Icheoku respectfully disagrees with His Royal Highness (HRH) and states, it was probably a product of a seemingly royal-incomprehension of the real purpose of the office of Eze-Ndigbo? Hopefully, it was a mere royal-gaffe, made in the heat of passion due to the intractable Igbo-infighting in matters of ascension and succession throughout their world?

The office performs creditably well for every Igbo community in their land of sojourn and hence is too beneficial to be simply waved-off as nonsensical and irrelevant. Moreso the office is merely ceremonial, limited in jurisdiction to the local "foreign" land where it exists and is in no way, a threat or competition to the traditional rulers or their domains in the South East of Nigeria? So, Icheoku asks, why abolish an office of such immense value and which is merely complimentary, and in no way threatening to the traditional stools in Igbo-land? Instead of seeing it as a competition, please see it for what it truly is, - merely holding forth for the Igbos as their "honorary ambassador" in their Diaspora or land of their forced economic/political exile?

Icheoku says, such ceremonial office should not be "giving the traditional rulers in the South East sleepless nights" as it means no harm. It merely represents Igbo interest in such foreign lands where it exists and does not necessarily translate into paramount "King of Igbo-land"? According to HRH, “a major desecration of the culture and tradition of Igbos in Nigeria is the rampant and illegitimate installation of Eze Ndigbo, meaning kings of Igbo in foreign lands.” To which Icheoku responds, there is no ground to start questioning the legitimacy or otherwise of the so called Eze-Ndigbo as it lays no claim to any domain, territory, land or subjects in South East Igboland; but exists simply as a point-man for the Igbos in such locality or area of residence outside traditional Igboland. According to the traditional ruler, "most of these parallel traditional rulers are mostly found in the North and South West of Nigeria", adding that, “they are neither recognized by the people of their home towns nor their State governments". Icheoku rebuts this assertion of His Royal Highness and says, there is no parallels between the Eze-Ndigbo and the bona-fide traditional rulers of the South East; they both have different, distinct and defined functions.

Further, the Eze Ndigbo does not function at the behest of or for their native local governments or state of origin, but is simply the arrow-head of the Igbos in such territory of their primary residence. He is the alter-ego of the Igbo community. He serves as the go-to-man on all Igbo matters or issues of concern affecting the Igbos in their host community. He is effective and needs to be encouraged, instead of the unnecessary war of superiority currently going on in the minds of certain traditional rulers in the South East. Continuing, HRH said that "the crises which Igbos residing in non-Igbo States are facing today are mainly due to the struggle for the "illegitimate Eze Ndigbo stool". To which Icheoku says, there is crisis in Oha n Eze, World Igbo Congress as well as other organizations and position-fillings in Igboland, so why single out Eze-Ndigbo for a specific mention? If there is crisis in the manner or process in which the Eze-Ndigbo comes into office just like everything else with the Igbos of the World, the traditional rulers as well as other Igbo organizations and parties with interest, should rally round to see how they can best arrest the situation. They can set down "rules of engagement" for interested parties for the office and officially coronate and recognize a duly elected or selected Eze-Ndigbo of the area under advisement, rather than the rancid rancour of the present seeming face-off?

There is no such thing, contextually and strictly speaking, as an Eze-Ndigbo and Icheoku stands to be shown one. It is a misnomer to even try to suggest or ascribe real importance to this Eze-Ndigbo office as he has no authority anywhere in Igboland, so why bother discussing a none issue as that? Igbo people are too republican that not even a traditional ruler has such a broad authority, talkless of an Eze-Ndigbo in a foreign land? There is no single Igbo monarch that presides over the entire Igboland, as every traditional ruler have their own respective domains; including Eze Ilomuanya, whose domain apparently is a new creation judging from its name, autonomous community? So why the ruckus? Also there is no one central authority that speaks for the entire Igboland in the South East except if the present chairman of the council could be subsumed as one such speaker of all (Okwulu-Oha/Ora). Nomenclature should therefore not be allowed to create a wedge-issue out of nothing, afterall even Odumegwu Ojukwu is an Eze-Ndigbo and Mommer Gaddafi is "King of the whole Africa"? So now what?

Eze-Ndigbo in the Diaspora of Igboland and overseas, represents the Igbos in such foreign geographical area where they reside and does not in any way, pretend to represent the enitre Igbo speaking people of the world or of Igboland of South East. As far as Icheoku understands Eze-Ndigbo as just a title, - like "Ebekuodike", "Ogbuefi", "Omenka" etc, the reason they are so many of them representing the thousands of Igbo enclaves throughout the world. Icheoku says, the office is merely complimentary and not supplementary of the traditional rulers of the South East; and queries why can't the Igbos sometimes disagree without being diagreeable? Why can't the Igbos have different opinions on the way forward without such being interpreted as rivalry? Instead of restraining such ceremonial "foreign" Igbo chiefs, an organised management of the process that springs them forth should be explored to ensure that a befitting Igbo son or daughter is flying the Igbo-flag of identity in such a foreign land? Eze-Ndigbo performs a very important function for the widely traveled, nomadic, easily-settling and highly dispersed Igbos of the world and should be supported rather than despised.

This office of Eze-Ndigbo is akin to having a president of a town's union or community outside the primary domain of a group's core habitation. What happens then when there are several of such towns from the same race, in such a foreign land that are desirous of forming one association for projection of strenght in numbers? What is the best name for the head of such association, other than the "Head of the Association" and when the association is of Igbo people it reads "Head of Igbo people"? But the Igbos known to Icheoku would rather "Igbofy" or "Igbonize" such a headship to read "Onyeisi" or "Eze-Ndigbo" of the particular area? But for semblance of power and authority, and to project great presence to the host community, "King or Eze" is preferable. The Jews have Rabbi in every city and country of the world where they live, but that does not water down the powers of the rabbi in Jerusalem? The muslims have their sheiks and Imams in every city and country in the world where they live, but that does not make the one in Jeddah to lose sleep? Nigerian Northerners living in South East have their Sarikis who does not attenuate the office of the Emirs or the Sultan? Americans have in addition to their ambassadors, heads of Americans living in every country of the world, so what is wrong in Igbos having a point-man in every corner of the world where they reside? The name Eze-Ndigbo is very appropraite to reflect their Igbo`ness, period!

HRH querried, "Is somebody who claims to be Eze (King) but cannot come home and sleep in his community for just a night, a king"? To which Icheoku retorts, this shows the depth of HRH comprehension of the office of Eze-Ndigbo. The village in the South East is not his primary domain or domicile, and therefore, it will be very presumptous for him to herald his arrival or entry to such his maternal/paternal community with much fanfare since he is not its traditional ruler and in due deference to the community's duly crowned ruler or king or Eze, period! So as often as he can, he queitly returns to be with his kindred and without notice to anyone but that does not mean he does not "come home and sleep in his community"? Icheoku says, it is very condescending for HRH to appeal to the Northern traditional rulers to "help in flushing out these Eze Ndigbo in their domains" because Eze-Ndigbo was not crowned by the Emir; he does not owe allegiance to the emirates and he is not in hiding! Icheoku says, to further solicit denial of privileges by the host government and/or institutions is acrimonious and to say that such Eze-Ndigbo does not mean well for Ndigbo both at home and Diaspora is a royal-denial of the obvious. Whatever HRH may personally have against the office of Eze-Ndigbo should not be allowed to subjectively influence the freedom of association represented in the central authority of an Eze-Ndigbo, which serves to protect Igbo interest all over the world, whereever they may be settled and thriving. If there is a single Eze-Ndigbo, somewhere, who His Royal Highness may possibly have some beef with, let it be an isolated case; but to condemn such a good office for the dump-yard is and should be frowned at by all men of good rationality.

One the raised issue security of lives and property of Igbos living in the Northern region and their general welfare, Icheoku asks HRH, around whom should such revolve? Who is to ensure compliance or who will the Emirs go to on matters affecting the Igbos as a people or will he have to come down to Orlu before it can be resolved? Some of the sundry problems enumerated by HRH can better and effectively be dealt with where an organized central "government" of the Igbos is in place such as represented in the Eze Ndigbo? Better protection, love and care for Igbo people in the North and elsewhere, can only be effectively gurranteed where there is one channel of representation of which Eze-Ndigbo factors in and very eminently too. Eze-Ndigbo is the father-figure of such Igbo community wherever they may be found and serves as the chief liasion person for the Igbos. Igbos need a go-to person in their land of domicile and HRH cannot be in Orlu and expect an Igbo resident in Birnin Kebbi to await his personal intervention in a matter which a designated Eze-Ndigbo in Birnin Kebbi would have solved immediately?

Finally Icheoku would rather HRH Eze Cletus Ikechukwu Ilomuanya engages his energies in more profitable and productive Igbo-causes that would benefit the Igbo-man in in general. Such causes like who will be the Igbo consesus candidate for Nigeria's presidency come 2015; the continued Igbo marginalization in Nigeria; the problems facing MASSOB; World Igbo congress in disarray; Oha-n-Eze; political harmony and astuteness in Igboland; criminality of bank-robbery and kidnapping in Igboland; corrupt Igbo governors and elected officials who privatize money meant for development of Igboland; River Niger bridge; lack of good roads in Igboland; resuscitation of Oji power station to supply power in Igboland; lack of any international airport in Igboland, disputes-resolution in Igboland; how the Igbos can become much savvy and effective player in Nigeria political terrain etc. The list of such goal-directed prime-endeavour is endless, rather than the present divisive-road HRH wants to travel now? This time in Nigeria is not for the Igbos to be waging war amongst themselves and for no just cause? They need every cohesion they can muster and according to Jesus Christ, he who is not against us is safe with us, so why not let Eze-Ndigbo be?

Icheoku says for a race, so mobile and easily setling and very assimilating like the Igbos of the World, not to have a rallying head in their land of sojourn, is simply foolhardy and its suggestion or likelihood, a reflection of a not thought-through outburst by a person who should know better. His Royal Highness Eze (Dr) Cletus Ilomuanya, Icheoku says, please retract your present course of travel as it is very unpopular among the majority of non-power seeking or grabbing Igbos; those Igbo men and women who simply want a fair shake from the society. As for politicians, they can dine with the devil to hold unto power and those of them in Abuja, what have they done for the Igbos lately? Please pick and fight only the good fights in the future! As a potentate ruler and now chairman of the whole South East council of traditional rulers, you must avoid like a plague, very highly-charged divisive subjects like the issue of Eze-Ndigbo and try to be a rallying center of gravity for the entire Igbo race.

SOCKS, THE FIRST CAT PASSES ON!

It is with shock and a deep sense of loss that the Clintons announced the passing away of their beloved cat, Socks. He died today, February 20, 2009 of cancer; at the age of 18 years - which in human years translates to about 126 years! What a ripen golden age, and she was the First Cat.

Socks adopted parent, Betty Currie, former Bill Clinton's personal secretary confirmed the death today in Hollywood, Maryland, USA.

According to a statement released by the Clintons on the death of the former First Cat, "Socks brought much happiness to Chelsea and us over the years, and enjoyment to kids and cat lovers everywhere. We're grateful for those memories, and we especially want to thank our good friend, Betty Currie, for taking such loving care of Socks for so many years."

Socks was fondly called the tuxedo cat, a derivative from his mostly black with white down the front and belly and on his feet, suggestive of a fashionable dandy in a black evening jacket with a white shirt peeping out?

While alive, Socks enjoyed sun-bathing and his most favorite food of choice was chicken dinners. He had no apparent survivors as he was, most likely was spayed. Icheoku says, sleep on Mr. First Cat!

SUICIDE, IN A CATHEDRAL!

A faithful "parishioner" tired of living in the global economic meltdown, believing that God is all forgiving, went into a church, knelt down in front of a cross at the alter and blew his brains out. Before he pulled the trigger, he prayed God to please forgive him what he is about to do and then a cracking-pop sent him out of this world. Icheoku asks, would God forgive such an act? Also what types of sin does God forgive?

According to our reading and understanding of the scripture and Christianity, God forgives only an already-committed sin (past-sin) but not a yet to be committed sin (future sin). God does not forgive a prospective sin as nothing has, by then, be done to warrant His forgiveness. Suicide is only an act upon completion, hence a suicide-intendee has not done any transgression for which to ask for or receive a forgiveness of sin? Upon commission, such suicide is no longer alive to so ask for forgiveness and hence no such petition really went before God, strictly speaking. On this premise therefore, this parishioner will not likely be forgiven if our understanding of the teachings of Christianity is good enough.

But the question needing an urgent answer is, is suicide really a sin? The 6th commandment says "thou shall not kill" but was silent on the taking of one's own life; so the act forbidden by God is the depriving of another of his or her right to life. It therefore appears that if one chooses out of his or her free volition, to terminate his/her own life, that no sin was committed in doing so? This is correlative to individuals right to property of which one's own life could be subsumed to belong to that individual. This argument is the single most cogent reason why a successful suicide is not a crime known to law; admitted that some jurisdictions might compel medical observation or institutionalisation for its attempt. Logical? It is debatable, depending on one's christian faith as well as morality.

The church chosen by this suicide to display his bloody cranial-content was the Crystal Cathedral of Reverend Robert H. Schuller in Anaheim, Orange County, California, United States of America. The man in his forties shot and killed himself in front of a cross inside the televangelist church on Wednesday, February 18, 2009. Before carrying out his carefully orchestrated exit from this earth, inside the temple of the Most High, the man handed a note and his driver’s license to an usher, then in a piety-manner, walked to the cross, knelt down as if in prayer and shot himself in the head. The usher at the sanctuary, confirmed that she greeted the man when he entered and that he handed her a note and two identity cards, with instruction that “You may want this.”

The glass-walled 10,000-member Crystal Cathedral, has been described as the Ark of Noah, magnificent, grandiose, edifying and opulent; and is home to the “Hour of Power” evangelism world-wide broadcast.

MUZZAMMIL HASSAN, A PHARISEE?

When Jesus Christ warned the people about the pharisees, he was not mincing word then and today, that warning still holds true. And so is the founder of the Islamic Bridges Television station, Mr. Muzzammil Hassan, pictured here right. "Do what I say but not what I do" and so the man desperately trying to build bridges between violent Islamic extremists and the West, today, proved that certain types of violence is ingrained in certain peoples' DNA. The apostle of tolerance could not himself tolerate his wife walking away from him and so he beheaded her instead. What an irony of life and a self-inflicted injury?

The headless body of Aasiya Zubair Hassan, 37, pictured left, was found at the said Bridges television station in Orchard Park, Buffalo-New York. The accused, Muzzammil Hassan, 44, has been arrested and charged with second-degree murder of his previously soon to be ex-wife. Muzzammil Hassan turned himself in when he went to the police and reported that his wife was dead; following which he led officers to her body at the television station. Late Aasiya had filed for divorce on February 6, 2009 following several episodes of domestic violence and obtained an order of protection barring her husband from their Orchard Park home. He killed her during the week of Valentine's day, on February 12, 2009; exactly six days after learning of the impending divorce. Instead of crying her a river to forgive and take him back; buying her a banquet of roses; buying her one heck of a present; taking her out to her choice restaurant for a candle-lit romantic dinner to profess his endless love and thank her for the two beautiful children she gave him, it was her head that was being sawed-off her body by the callous hands of this maniacal eunuch? Muzzammil Hassan, Icheoku says, you deserve a slow, tortuous and painful death and in some cultures, you will be tied at a stake in the wilderness for the birds of prey to dis-bowel you and feast on your entrails.
The couple worked at Bridges TV, a satellite- distributed news and opinion channel, which they founded in 2004 in an effort to counter and negate impressions of Muslim violence and extremism in America. Icheoku says, these Muslim stereotypes prevalent in America and the West generally has now been made whole by Muzzammil Hassan's infradig`nous act of terror. His heinous beheading of his wife tells the remaining story of a supposed stereotyping and fills necessary gaps? This criminal misbehaviour is speculatively linked to attitudes in Muslim societies which sanction terrorist honor-killing, founded on cultural notions that women are subordinate to men and could be disposed at their whims? It is believed that Muslim men in general consider divorce a dishonor on their family and fanatical Muslims, like Muzzammil Hassan, believe further that “honor-killing” is justified as a punishment to a woman for bringing dishonor on a family; so he cut off his wife's head to maintain his stupid "honor"? Icheoku says Muzzammil Hassan should be hung by his genitals until he is disgorged and dishonored! How this sub human-specimen still holds tenaciously to such mundane belief after several years of sojourn in America defies every logic. Needless to say he graduated magna cum laude with an MBA from the Simon School of Business at the University of Rochester in 1996?

The couple above right, seen in a picture taken inside their television studio when the going was good, lived at Big Tree Road in Orchard Park Buffalo New York. They are from Waziristan, Pakistan.from where they migrated to the United States several years ago. They have been married for eight (8) years and have two children together, a 6 year old boy and a 4 year old girl. The accused Muzzammil Hassan also has two older children, ages 17 and 18 from a prior relationship. Icheoku asks, what happened to the mother of the two grown-ups or was she also a victim of "honor" killing? Some investigation should commence in that direction, to also unearth the fate suffered by the other woman.

Beheading is real as this recently separated body and head of a sixteen year old Indonesian school-girl shows. Decapitation is not a folk-lore and this is what the scumbag Muzzammil Hassan has caused to happen to his wife, the mother of his two beautiful children? So why should we allow such horrendous murder to be imported to the West disguised as culture? Icheoku says, such barbarism has no place in our western civilization and the book should be thrown at this vermin Muzzammil Hassan. This will say to other would be "honor-killers" that we have zero tolerance for such medieval practices. There is no justification whatsoever to slaughter a fellow human-being with a sharp knife and if this lunatic is not drastically dealt with, other fanatics lurking in our midst, might consider such an option in settling their domestic family disputes in the future. The other day it was in London, then Canada and now New York, which goes to show that these fanatics have no respect for our way of life, our rule of law and must therefore be stopped now, before they bloody our system! Icheoku heretofore declare Muzzammil Hassan the unofficial al-queida terrorist in our midst and says, Enough of this imported terrorism!

Play Video Video:Police: Man beheads wife who filed for divorce AP

RE-BRANDING NIGERIA, A LIPSTICK ON A PIG?

The government in Nigeria recently embarked on a make-over, project "Re-brand Nigeria"! Icheoku asks, is this necessary since it is not the name of the product or its packaging that is the problem. No, the problem is the product itself, which is not good! Hence, no amount of make-over or dressing up, absent a total gutting of the entire system, will ever make it palatable!

Dora Akunyili can try all she may to re-paint a painted-sepulcher, but still within its bowls, lies very stinking morbidity. Icheoku has written severally on the "problem" with Nigeria and possible solutions thereto; but until there is some seriousness of purpose by the coordinators of the Nigeria-Project, to look inwards and see that the thing eating the kola-nut is inside of it, there can never be any meaningful resolution of the myriad of problems militating against Nigeria. Regrettably most of them, if not all, are self-inflicted by a rudderless leadership leading a highly aloof and desensitized populace.

Nigeria is like a dilapidated house being put up for sale by this new effort; but for there to be any serious buyer, it has to be put in a saleable condition. It has to be completely gutted-out and re-fixed, starting from the top down. Merely putting a coat of paint of "re-branding" on it, will not suffice to cleanse Nigeria and Nigerians. What image is still left of Nigeria/Nigerians when a South African common-criminal, shot and killed the reggae-artist Lucky Dube, and in a confessional statement, said he shot him "because I mistook him for a Nigerian"? Icheoku asks, have Nigerians descended to such rock-bottom that they are now used as practice-ducks for targeted shooting? Has it gone so bad that they are now fair-game to be simply wasted and even by a South African petty criminal? And Nigeria is still wasting money maintaining an embassy staff at Pretoria or Johannesburg? From the smallest country in the world to the biggest, Nigeria and Nigerians are treated with the same levity as a nation of crooks and a people with high penchant for crimes? Today it is either Singapore executing a Nigerian in a firing squad, then tomorrow it is Saudi Arabia's turn to cut off the head of another Nigeria; next day it is an African country killing and maiming Nigerians; and prisons and jails around the world have their fair share of Nigerian inmates. But what does one expect from a country whose president was imposed on the country, hence never prepared for the challenges of governance? Whose governors are bandits being arrested all over the world with millions of looted dollars belonging to her citizens? Whose former heads of states and presidents are billionaires without any meaningful source of their sudden wealth? Whose police Inspector Generals are criminal master-minds with some of them being paraded in hand-cuffs? Who in Nigeria, especially the leadership that is not a thief? Admitted some of them who have not had the opportunity yet, pretend otherwise to be a Mother Theresa? Nigeria is re-branding? What a breaking news indeed!

The ineptitude of various Nigerian administrations since independence has not helped manage the crisis of confidence facing Nigeria and Nigerians; instead they respectively exacerbates the condition. Leaderships stealing unabashedly from the public coffers that they have become the poster-boy of corruption world-wide, with many of them seen as quarries to be nabbed by many countries of the world criminal justice system. If it is not Atiku Abubarkar and William Jefferson in the United States, it is Olusegun Obasanjo and KBR or James Ibori and Scotland Yard and the list goes on. Nigeria is known as a nation whose leadership is made up of criminal and fraudulent people; and the current administration is not an exception. The headship of the senate, David Mark's brigandage at NITEL was so damning that were Nigeria a decent society, he would be in prison rather than leading the senate of the most populous black country in the world. And what will a re-branding do to correct this anomaly of a senate president who is a thief? A country being led by a bunch of thieves might as well be assumed to be populated by thieves? The most recent $579million dollars bribery-scandal involving three past heads of state/president of Nigeria with America's KBR is still smoking-hot, but the authorities in Nigeria, instead of prosecuting the implicated fellows, are trying to sweep it under the carpet, yet they want to re-brand Nigeria? Elections in Nigeria is a glorified selection where the nastiest and the most callous always have their way and an Umaru Yar'Adua who did not win an election was imposed on Nigeria as her president; yet Nigeria wants a re-branding? Virtually all past governors stole their states' money and the only meaningful attempt at holding them accountable was sabotaged with the removal of the nemesis of corruption, chief investigator Nuhu Ribadu; yet Nigeria wants a re-branding? A once siting attorney general and minister of justice of Nigeria Bola Ige was brutally murdered by the state and no serious investigation has been made to uncover and hold accountable the murderers; yet Nigeria is itching to re-brand? Icheoku asks, what type of re-branding is this, being sought by the authorities in Nigeria? The more you look, the less you see type of re-branding?

The task these apostles of "re-branding Nigeria" should rather occupy themselves with is to put their Nigerian-house in order. Prove yourself and people will love you; earn your respect and people will respect you. Icheoku says, no one ever respects a thief, especially when the thief is a thief of state who steal entrusted peoples' money. The first order of business should be to find out the root-cause of the Nigeria's skunky-image? Rephrasing, why does the mention of Nigeria draw such a flak or revulsion among the peoples of the world? How can a country be respected when her heads of government regularly fly into Switzerland in their private jets with loads of dollar-bills to deposit in some private coded safe-deposit boxes while her citizenry are dying of common malaria and starvation? It is this thievery of state resources by the state managers that has cost Nigeria the respect of the world! It is the endemic corruption which has metastasised through every fabric of the Nigeria society that is costing Nigeria her image? It is the lack of security in Nigeria that is tasking Nigeria's image; - as security votes meant for security personnel and weapons-procurements are hijacked by the leadership of the various security outfits without question. Icheoku recalls that a former Inspector General of Police Ehindero made away with over 23 million Naira meant for the police and the matter has since been swept under the carpet, Nigerian style; yet a re-branding is the song of the present? It is the over 61 percent jobless rate in Nigeria which has forced its so many of its population to all corners of the earth and doing whatever it takes just to survive that calls for re-branding? It is the incessant military interventions and banditry in Nigeria wherein the generals loot the treasury dry that calls for re-branding? Look at Babangida's Minna mansion? Look at Obasanjo's Hilltop mansion? Look at Abacha's loot? And Babangida also has a private jet? These abnormally is what calls for re-branding and not necessarily Nigeria.

It is looting-unlimited amongst the ruling class with every leader trying to out-loot its predecessor that calls for re-branding! It is the inability or lack of the will to provide power in Nigeria that calls for re-branding! It is the lack of motor-able roads that calls for re-branding! It is lack of medical care in Nigeria which makes her leadership to fly to other countries of the world in search of cure for simple headaches while the average Joe Nigerian dies of illness which an ordinary procedure would have cured; that needs a re-branding! A country with such a putrid resume does not need to burnish her image for the rest of the world as the drove of her citizens trying to escape such a hell-hole, will be her biggest nightmare. So those countries in the cross-hair of this re-branding effort will ask, if Nigeria is all that, why then are her citizens running away from it? Therefore, Dora Akunyili and co, your job should be addressing some of these enumerated internal problems instead of wasting resources trying to baptise Nigeria for the international community. As they say, charity begins at home, so instead of embarking on an un-win-able obtuse project, do some introspection and start today by meaningfully fighting corruption, the root-cause of everything that is wrong with Nigeria. Should you succeed with this, then the world will stop seeing Nigeria as the unsafest place on earth or the riskiest place to invest or do business or where the leadership demands and receives a $600 million dollars bribe before they can sign a $6billion dollars LNG contract?

To show the unseriousness of this effort, the thieving Senate President David Mark is proposing a re-launch of the national flag? Icheoku says, such a pedestrian suggestion shows how shallow this Oturkpo midget is. Is the Nigeria national flag the problem? What did the green white and green color do to tarnish the image of Nigeria? It is rather the David Marks of Nigeria who dragged the image of Nigeria to the gutters! It is David Mark who bought an 18-hole 33 million pounds sterling golf-course near Dublin Ireland, with money he stole from NITEL that is bleeding Nigeria's image? Who has not passed through an international airport immigration desk/counter and see the opprobrium the green passport attracts? Sometimes these people wonder the constitution of an average Nigerian who does not see evil in the likes of David Mark to not only elect him a senator but tolerate his senate presidency. Icheoku says to David Mark, there is nothing wrong with the flag as one can only be proud of a flag if what that flag represents is good and inviting! Icheoku says, may be Nigeria should start this "re-branding" effort by putting David Mark away in prison for looting NITEL dry and for all the coups he participated in. That way the international community will start to see Nigeria as no longer tolerant of a criminal senate president? What about that for a start?

Also, the name you call the effort whether "Heart of Africa Project" or "Re-Brand Nigeria Project" is irrelevant; only the real meaning you bring to it that counts. Whether it is "externally-driven" and "not people-oriented" or "home-grown" and "people-orientated" is not the core here; provided it is focused towards actualizing its objective. Until the real issues militating against Nigeria is properly addressed, it does not matter the nomenclature attached to such make-over effort; as the stigma shall remain, hanging around the neck of Nigeria like the sword of Damocles! What an albatross? According to David Mark, "No nation can make progress unless it can keep to time", to which Icheoku retorts that the better phraseology should be "No nation can make progress until it starts electing her leaders and such leaders who are not state-thieves, while also putting those looters of states parastatal like NITEL in prison"! What ground does David Mark have to be speaking about "re-branding Nigeria" when NITEL has never recovered from the comatose which David Mark's pillage forced it into? Nigeria is equally to regain consciousness from the repeated dislocations David Mark criminality of coup d`etat vandalism perpetrated on her? Simply put, David Mark is one of the reason why Nigeria has fallen off the wagon in the eyes of the world and should, if he cannot do right by leaving the scene, just hush!

The government in Nigeria must through its policies and actions make every Nigerian feel wanted and have a sense of belonging to the entity called Nigeria. A situation where some group of people are marginalized so wantonly that they begin to feel unwanted in Nigeria does not make Nigeria's emancipation any easier. What is needed is a reality check towards a meaningful integration of all the peoples of Nigeria into patriotic citizens with equal rights to any office in the land including choice and juicy government ministries and institutions. Icheoku says, other countries do not brand Nigeria negatively but are merely reacting and reporting on what they are witnessing in Nigeria, such as the $16 billion dollars spent to provide a non-available power? Where on earth, can it be told that a president spent a whopping sixteen billion dollars on a white-elephant project and it is ok with the society? The authorities in Nigeria usually forget that other countries of the world have ambassadors and attache-es` in Nigeria whose job is to monitor political and social developments in their host country and report accordingly to their home-countries. So how does a "re-branded" Nigeria fair in these circumstances of gross idiotic looting of state funds by state officials? Also the world is now a global village and with just the click of a mouse, a person in Greenland can monitor what is going on in Nigeria and/or how Olusegun Obasanjo stole his heart's delight from Nigeria's coffers, without suffering any consequence as a result.

Icheoku says, no one appreciates a thief and if Nigerians desperately want to be appreciated by the comity of nations, they should first wash themselves clean; starting first by electing their own leaders and not allow some cabals somewhere to impose a sick leader on them. Nigerians must take back their government and chase away the likes of the thieving David Mark out of government. Admitted that the leader of this effort, Dora Akunyili is a woman whose beauty, brain and industry is every-body's delight, but this task is one heck of an impossible one to take on and hope to accomplish. Our fear is that it will fail and become yet another still-born, the way of so many other purpose-driven meaningful endeavours in Nigeria, such as the Nuhu Rubadu's EFCC attempt at sanitizing the very corrupt Nigeria polity! Icheoku says, cosmetics alone will not cut it!

Icheoku says, until the fundamentals are changed, eliciting a complete exorcism of the internals of Nigeria and Nigerians in general, the current effort at re-branding Nigeria will be merely putting a lipstick on a pig! The trouble with Nigeria is that there is no continuity of policies or programmes by succeeding government no matter how lofty the idea. For instance, take a look at Jerry Gana's MAMSER and Idiagbon/Buhari's WAI, two very noble goal-directed programes that paid off while they lasted; that were they to have continnued till today, would have taken Nigeria to the promised land of a disciplined society. These programmes should be reinvigorated and reinvented immediately, if the effort at "re-branding Nigeria" is ever to remain focused; they went a long way in introducing discipline to Nigerians. They also proved that Nigerians are governable people awning for a directed leadership. Nigerians' biggest albatross is lack of discipline, which is the central hob upon which every other thing revolves. So let the re-branding start here, get discipline back to the Nigerian society!

Former vice president Atiku Abubarkar while lamenting the problems with Nigeria recently, urged Nigerians to live an upright life whenever they travel abroad as a way of building the image of the country. To which Icheoku adds, it must not only be when they are abroad that upright life is required of them, they should also do that while at home because charity begins at home. There must be a complete soul-searching among Nigerians in order for this re-branding effort to stand a chance. Nigerians must not wait until they travel overseas to be "good" citizens in their host countries, since the world is now a global village and people peek into other countries to see for themselves what is really going on there. Icheoku suggests, in addition to the preceeding, the renaming of Nigeria just like Gold Coast became Ghana, Ivory Coast became Cote-Voire; Dahomey became Benin Republic, Zaire became Congo etc. That way all the stigmas currently attached or associated to the name Nigeria will completely disappear with the defunct name. Also justice must be done and seen to be done to all Nigerians and this includes in several government policies such as the census. For instance, there is no way in hell Kano can be bigger or more populated than Lagos so this anomaly of a fuzzy-census must be corrected as part of the re-branding of Nigeria effort; from a country where figures are doctored by the government to where fairness reigns supreme. Once every Nigerian is made to feel Nigerian again, then the job is one third done as together what is left can easily be finished.

FYI:- However if there is something you will like to contribute to this dead on arrival effort, you may contact the protagonists via rebranding@nigeria.gov.ng

OLUWOLE ROTIMI, WHAT A FRIGGING BASTARD?

Icheoku says, if the tirade attributed to the former Nigerian Ambassador to the United States of America, Oluwole Rotimi, is true, then he deserves not only to be fired but seriously reprimanded for damaging the home-country that sent him to Washington. What an insurbordination to a duly constituted authority? Possibly he is another one of Olusegun Obasanjo's hack and got the posting through Obasanjo's insistence; the result is this heart-wrecking utterance concerning the noble struggles of Biafra! Icheoku would ordinarily not have taken sides in this fight, but when this Oluwole Rotimi threw his hat in the ring against an entire people, by dragging Biafra into this melee, he definitely crossed the line and should be called to order.

How can a representative of the Nigeria government of which the former Biafran tax-payers' money is being used to partly sustain, turn around to boast against the section concerning his "heroic" strangulation of Biafrans during the civil war? What manner of a public servant would rekindle the memory of this old Nigerian/Biafran hostilities and in such a blatant public way that elicits outrage and condemnation, being an ambassador of the supposedly now "unified" country? Icheoku says, this person is the reason why Nigeria is still adrift, several years since the end of the civil-war because of a perculiar mindset that the civil war is a continuum. Icheoku recalls that Oladipo Diya once asked similar "war-victor" question when he demanded to know whether "that should be rewarding the Igbos for loosing a war", in questioning why the Igbo is so entitled to a position in Nigeria? The Igbos are now convinced beyond doubt that their really antagonists in Nigeria are not necessarily the Northerners but some very parochial people from the Yoruba, South-West.

Who is now the tribalist in Nigeria but that apostle of the Awolowo school of economic-strangulation theory who actively participated in the most vicious genocide ever, against the Igbo people of Nigeria during the Biafran war? Who is a tribalist but Rotimi Oluwole who starved over one million Igbos to death by the asphyxiating blockade which he imposed on Biafra? Who is a tribalist but this senile old mad-dog, Oluwole Rotimi, who is now boasting how he dealth with a "rag-tag Biafran army"? Unfortunately this Oluwole Rotimi was economical with the truth in not reminding himself that Biafrans had the war trust upon them and hence had no time to equip and train for the war; but only fought to remain alive? This is the same man who was once governor of the whole Yoruba Western Region of Nigeria and added to the previously known anti-Igbo disposition of Obafemi Awolowo, the Igbos are once again being reminded who their real antagonists in Nigeria are. Oluwole Rotimi and his ilks are the reason Nigeria is yet to fully stabilize as a nation. Oluwole Rotimi is a very divisive and toxic Yoruba man whose latest guffaw could be attributable to the entire race, were it not for some decent men and women of that race. First it was Obafemi Awolowo and his betrayal of Nnamdi Azikwe's mandate in Ibadan followed by his "starvation is the best instrument of warfare" weapon-of-choice against Biafra; then came Olusegun Obasanjo's eight years anti-Igbo governance between 1999 and 2007; now add the disgruntled "alzheimers-striken" Oluwole Rotimi and the cirlce is 360 degrees! What other prove does the Igbo-man need to conclude that there is no real love lost between them and Oduduwa kingdom, since three leaders of Yoruba have consecutively professed their anti-Igbo sentiments?

What an insurbodination to a duly constituted authority? Imagine the insult to the Minister and the President who appointed him and who he represents; also to the Nigerian people who the president represents; capped by the entire Biafran people who once again is being provoked by such a gutter-statement by a Nigerian government official, Oluwole Rotimi? This uncalled for outburst is a grim-reminder that the Biafran-Nigerian war is still raging on, in the minds of some of the protagonists of the war, especially those of them from across the Niger, in Yoruba Western Nigeria. Look at the torture the Igbos suffered under Olusegun Obasanjo's government when all their business interests were intentionally grounded by a government driven by vengance and an unbriddled hatred of a people - the Igbos of Nigeria? By Oluwole Rotimi's uncanny misspeak, it is now confirmed that certain quarters of the leadership in Nigeria led by Olusegun Obasanjo and Oluwole Rotimi really know "how to deal with the Igbos and their rag-tag Biafran Army"? Icheoku says, it is the same "rag-tag Biafran Army" that stood firm and squarely faced down a raging genocidal Nigerian army and for three long years! Icheoku says, but for the support of Egyptian fighter pilots led by the current Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, Russian MIGS, British Falcons as well as other hired guns and mercenaries, this "rag-tag Biafran army" would have bled the supposedly well trained and equipped Nigerian army of Oluwole Rotimi to death. What a dog of revisionism he is, Oluwole Rotimi, that is?

Icheoku says the mindset that wrote the offending letter is not deserving of the office of a Nigerian ambassador to anywhere, USA inclusive, except the so "conceited" Nigeria excludes the Biafran-area of Nigeria? And this man is 71 years old? Could his be a case of demetia or early stages of alzheimers that made him to vomit such very offensive thoughts? As a Nigerian ambassador to the USA, what did this man achieve? Who in the USA knew that there was an ambassador called Oluwole Rotimi? Who has ever heard about this senility called Oluwole Rotimi? Oluwole Rotimi is simply a disgrace to the race that reared him; being the parochial bitter old-hag he is. Icheoku says, Oluwole Rotimi, SHAME ON YOU! Who has ever heard of this man within the diplomatic circle? What statement is attributable to Oluwole Rotimi that sticks to memory? What position has this man ever taken to quell or at least correct all the misgivings or objectionable commentaries in the USA media especially CNN, concerning Nigeria and/or Nigerians living in the USA? And he lives in Florida and commutes to Washington DC thrice a week for his duties? Is it possible that DC is rather too cold for his sorry wrinkly old arse? Icheoku asks, what is a country like Nigeria doing by sending a diplomat as old as 71 years to a country with a 47 year old president? What is the retirement age for civil servants in Nigeria or is the diplomatic corp different? An uncouth and colorless fellow who is not even cyber-savvy and who does not speak or understand nuanced diplomatic lingo, who is still trapped in the 1970s mindset, was Nigerian ambassador to the USA? Thankfully this blunder has saved Nigeria much further embarassment, as who knows what he could have been capable of getting Nigeria into. Nigeria, it would seem, never gets its acts right as this disgraced now former ambassador, has yet proved to be another proverbial square peg in a round hole!

"I know how to deal with your people, I have dealt with people like you in the past. I was the Adjutant General of the Nigerian army that thoroughly defeated your ragtag Biafran army.” With these written-words, Oluwole Rotimi has gone into historical infamy as one of those who do not mean well for a continous Nigerian unity. Such unwarranted outburst is highly provocative and a threat to the shaky cohension which is the Nigerian political structure. Now you understand the reason for the continous restiveness in Nigeria and why Igbo-owned businesses were specifically targeted for extinction by Olusegun Obasanjo and the likes of Oluwole Rotimi during his infamous rule. Ibeto cement, Slok Airlines, Savannah Bank, importation and exportation, just to mention a few; all fell victim of Olusegun Obasanjo evil machination against a people - the Igbos of Nigeria? According to a complaint memo filed by the Foriegn Affairs Minister Ojo Maduekwe to President Umaru Yar'Adua, in response, "this man, Oluwole Rotimi, has no temperament to be an ambassador of Nigeria in our most important mission. This is a strategic assessment of the situation. Anyone who has such a disposition may not be able to handle the Nigerian embassy in Washington", to which Icheoku adds, or any other embassy or thing which represents the entire country, Nigeria or Nigerians for that matter.

Icheoku commends President Umaru Yar’Adua for timeously approving the immediate recall of this disgraced Nigeria’s Ambassador to the United States, retired Brigadier-General Oluwole Rotimi! His utterance was a gross insubordination for which additional punishment should be meted out, if only to serve as a deterent and to prove to these Nigerian ex-generals that there is now a duly constituted authority in Nigeria, outside the baracks. And it is instructive to note that this vermin was kicked out of the Nigerian army, yet he brags about his "prowess" in dealing with the "rag-tag Ojo Maduekwe's Biafran army"? This altercation left the confines of Ojo Maduekwe when Oluwole Rotimi called into question the gallant resistance put forward by the brave men and women of Biafra, in a war to put to an end a terrible genocide against them, that time, which unfortuantely continues till today, though in somewhat subtle and subversive fashion but sometimes very overt.

Icheoku in researching this commentary, read an interview granted by this Oluwole Rotimi in 2007 wherein he was quoted as saying, "Whether you call it Northern Forum, Arewa Forum, South-South Forum, Yoruba Forum, these are all ethnic fora and I would have thought that in this day and age we should be talking more of Nigerian forum, Nigerian agenda". Icheoku says, this man Oluwole Rotimi must be the greatest living pretender to Nigeria's unity, otherwise how does one reconcile this his answer to a question bordering on Nigerian unity to his present outburst haranguing "Ojo Maduekwe's rag-tag Biafran Army"? The disparaging reference is inexplicable under any circumstance whatsoever. In the referenced interview, Oluwole Rotimi also explained that "those who perpetrated the counter-coup of 1966 said they would not have a southern officer to head the army or to head the country. That was how Gowon became the Head of State. Not on merit, not on seniority but purely because he came from the North". Yet this man knowing all he knew about the forced birth of Biafra, had the raw guts to make such a disparaging remark about Biafran army? Were he the statesman he would like to claim, Icheoku dares him to explain why his likes did not stand up to the northern army boys when they turned things upside down on its head in Nigeria? Why did his likes permit a junior officer like Gowon to take over the leadership of Nigeria when there were senior officers above Gowon, including Odumegwu Ojukwu? Yet he banters on his "brave-defeat" of the "rag-tag Biafran army"? Or was he too cowardly then to raise his voice only to feel comfortable now to harpoon on Biafran army? What a sacrificial offal, Oluwole Rotimi is!

YOUR SUNDAY WITH PASTOR MKO TIBETAN!

The sermon for today's service shall be taken from the book of Psalm 23 vs 1-4!

The Topic is "IF the Lord is your shepherd why are you still wanting"?

From what we have read so far from the bible the Lord has made promise for us but we found it difficult to follow it. According to the book of Genesis.4: 1-15, 6:1-5, Jeremiah.29:11 with what we have seen here when people has just few on the surface of the earth blonder never stop but now we were uncountable before men but countable before God ……… if we really believe God why are we running from poll to pillar? Why Africans are selling their father’s property to live abroad If you still believe he is your shepherd!

According to the book of Isaiah 57 and James 5:17, Phill. 4:1-6, Proverb. 11:20-end, Proverb.23:7: if you go through all these verses in the bible God Almighty does not change but we “human being” are not sincere to ourself and we are easily carried away with things we see under heaven, the whole thing you see under the surface is a farm land owned by God he can take it away any time! Why don’t we believe now before its too late, Psalm 49, Mark13:1-2: therefore work on this sermon and try to make a change this place is not our place we are there for a very short time we need to make a change before its for late.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

To all lovers on planet earth, Icheoku says, have a wonderful and happy Valentine's day! As you exchange gifts, roses, rollicking and professing boundless love for one another, just remember that true love can only be described as one thing and one thing only - S A C R I F I C E !

It is total, it is unconditional, it is very demanding, it is selfless and nearly absolute. It entertains no 'whys' but demands total obedience. With it no question is asked and when you find one you will know! So take off the wool in your eyes that you may know whether what you see is what you feel. Remember, sex is not love otherwise prostitution will not be a thriving business!

A little secret however, if that your "heart-throb" gives you any reason why he or she will not be available to share the day and/or night with you, today, run to the mountains as she or he is another person's sweetheart. No amount of indisposition will suffice to excuse or accommodate the absence today of a partner, a spouse, a lover, a mate, a "friend" or whatever denominator you choose to reference your paramour with. And for you, "singletons", today is a good day to strike it hot as any lonely person you see has nobody, seriously speaking! Now you know, so go get some!

PREGNANT WITH OCTOPLETS, SO HEAVILY LADEN!

Icheoku brings to you the stomach of a woman carrying eight fetuses. When you hear about octoplets pregnancy, this is exactly what it looks like.

This picture of a rabbit-mom, Nadya Suleman, courtesy of TMZ.com, shows the Belfower-Los Angeles California area woman displaying her very heavily laden stomach. She recently relieved herself of this load, by giving birth to eight babies, (clockwise from top L) Josiah, Makai, Jeremiah, Nariyah, Jonah, Noah, Maliyah and Isaiah pictured below in their post-natal intensive care unit! According to available information, the two pictures were taken eight days to her delivery? Real-life rabbits must be jealous of this children manufacturing-plant, Nadya?

What a feat! Imagine the awesome wonder of mother-nature that kept this so very ballooned belly from exploding, distended as it did? Although Nadya is very pretty, Icheoku queries, could she possibly be out of her mind to have 14 children, with eight of them delivered in this one pregnancy?

Icheoku says, Nadya, please offer some of these little angels for adoption into some good homes where they can be properly taken care of. Also, you should consider being neutered just like other too-prolific animals or better still expunge your uterus completely! Six was acceptable but eight addition, is completely whacky!

KBR BRIBED NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS!

Icheoku asks, who are these Nigerian government officials that were bribed to the tune of about $600million dollars ($579 million dollars) being ten (10%) percent of the $6 billion LNG contract awarded to the United States of America company, KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton LLC? This is imperative because the company KBR has already admitted its complicity in the bribery-scandal when it pleaded guilty in a Houston-Texas courtroom on Wednesday, February 11, 2009 to bribing Nigerian officials to obtain contracts valued at more than $6 billion.

Kellogg, Brown & Root LLC pleaded guilty to violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by authorizing and paying bribes from 1995 to 2004 for contracts to build liquefied natural gas facilities on Bonny Island, Nigeria. Icheoku says, now that the Nigerian culprits implicated in this bribery-scandal admission of guilt by KBR, (as inferred from the henchmen in power in Nigeria during the period under advisement), has been identified to include Army General Sani Abacha (1993 to 1998), Army General Abdulsalam Abubarkar (1998 to 1999) and Army General Olusegun Obasanjo (1999 to 2007).

It is also instructive to note that the three men involved in the KBR bribery-scandal were all military generals who hijacked Nigerian government at one point or another; and were in office during the time of the proven bribery. Although it was during Olusegun Obasanjo second coming to office as a retired general, then president that he supervised the massive bribery while the other two, were as uniform-wearing despots/maximum rulers. Since the bribery was demanded and received from 1995 up until 2004, it means that Olusegun Obasanjo presided over most of the bribery and for a total period of five years! Mathematically, if you divide the $600million dollars bribe by the 9 years duration it took to pay it, it averages about $66 million dollars per year. The implication therefore is that Olusegun Obasanjo's five (5) years supervision of the bribery-scandal netted his government officials $330 million dollars in bribery proceeds. Nigeria, you now know who the number-one-thief-in-chief is - Olusegun Obasanjo?

Where is the Farida Waziri led EFCC on this matter or will your fear of the untouchables in Nigeria continue to tarnish the sullen image of the country? Did Icheoku hear that the Information and Communication Minister Dora Akunyili is trying to re-brand Nigeria? If so, get Olusegun Obasanjo arrested immediately to account for this high crimes of demanding and receiving bribery from a foreign company doing business in Nigeria under his legendary pay to play presidency of Nigeria! As for Abdulsalam Abubarkar, his was tenuous at best since he was in power for less than one year?

The successful prosecution of KBR in Houston United States, and its agreement to pay a penalty of more than $400 million, demonstrates that no one is above the law over there. Icheoku expects the Nigerian authorities to do the same with respect to those implicated Nigerian officials, as a positive step in their re-branding of Nigeria effort. Such will deter this kind of serious criminal misconduct and tell the world that Nigeria is now serious about revamping its image. Such action will be more far-reaching that all the pretences of re-branding as total gutting of the Nigeria society is what is needed and not mere lip-service of a make-over!

It is equally important to note that all the senior managers and personnel involved in the bribery scandal has since been fired from KBR; so Nigeria what are you waiting for to effectively clean your own stinky Augean stable? Also KBR and her parent company Halliburton was forced to pay back in addition the $177 million in profits it made from the scandal-tainted contracts. Further KBR's former CEO, Albert "Jack" Stanley who pleaded guilty in September to conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for his participation in the bribery scandal will be sentenced and sent to prison on May 6, 2009.

Icheoku says this is a test-case for the EFCC to show cause why it is still relevant in fighting corruption in Nigeria. The evidence is there, it is overwhelming and the officials in charge in Nigeria during the period of a proven-bribery scandal have been identified by the period of the bribery demand and payment. Fortunately two of the implicated heads of government Abudulsalam Abubarkar and Olusegun Obasanjo are still very much around; so move you must, against them or forever be consigned to the garbage-bin of an un-serious but "pro-corruption" agency! As for Dora Akunyili, Icheoku is awaiting your government response on this development or will it be another cover-up, ostrich-style?