NIDAL MALIK HASAN, DOCTOR TURNED MASS-MURDERER OF FORT HOOD!

'No faith justifies the killing of the innocent' and with those words, President Barack Obama led Americans as they mourn the 12 soldiers and one civilian police officer killed; and commiserate with the 31 wounded, in a senseless act of violence in the homeland, in Fort Hood, Killeen, Texas, United States of America! In President Barack Obama's own words, "It's difficult enough when we lose these brave Americans in battles overseas. It is horrifying that they should come under fire at an Army base on American soil." Icheoku mourns alongside and blames this act of cowardice on the political correctness of our society which tries to accommodate every faith, including those which in their traditional native lands, persecutes and even kill people who profess other faiths? But should the Muslim faith be prohibited or banned in America; no, not when we have freedom of worship enshrined in our constitution; but if only these other countries will be held to reciprocate our magnanimity in allowing freedom of religious worship?

But as is being suggested, this murderous extremist army major, prior to his dastardly massacre, manifested series of anti-American sentiments while simulteanouesly benefiting from America? Icheoku says, he should have long ago been put under surveillance and peradventure his terrorist-act would have never come to fruition; but rather nipped in the bud. But his was not the first as we have had occasions in the past where crazed-out soldiers opened fire on their colleagues in uniform? In April 2005, Sgt. Hasan Akbar, another Muslim, of the 101st Airborne Division, was sentenced to death for a grenade attack on his comrades in March 2003 in Kuwait, at the beginning of the Iraq war. Sergeant Akbar was convicted of premeditated murder and attempted premeditated murder after he threw grenades into tents and then fired on soldiers, killing two officers and wounding 14 at Camp Pennsylvania in Kuwait. Akbar was a Muslim fanatic, rogue member of the United States Army deployed in a forward operating base inside Kuwait. In June 2009 another Muslim convert targeted a US military recruitment center in Arkansas killing a US soldier. Icheoku asks, what else does anyone out there need to see, to understand that these Muslims are on a mission to infiltrate and harm America from within. Their hatred of our ways and means of life is so deeply entrenched that neither good education nor life's exposure could change their mindset for the better? The killings at Fort Hood, by an army psychiatrist, who also is a Muslim, seriously begs the question:- why are these guys so hateful and violent towards anything and everything America? While agreeing that 'suicide bombing is an Islamic version of Japanese kamikaze', since both involves someone sacrificing his/her own life to take others' life/lives, fuelled by whatever they believed in which motivated such self condemnation; we make strong exception that unlike the Japanese Kamikaze, Islamist suicide bombers are surreptitious and are not easily clearly identifiable through the apparatus of uniforms or a state, for the purposes of activating any and/or all available defenses which may be available for the attacked victim, to checkmate such attack.

Eight years down the road since Operation Swift began and inside a United States military base in Fort Hood Texas, another fringed out Muslim, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, once again acted out his 'vengeance' against the United States by violating the sanctity of their military base. Armed with two handguns, he strolled casually inside a unit where unarmed soldiers were getting their final briefing preparatory to deployment to Afghanistan and unleashed another Islamic violence against their fabled 'SATAN?' Icheoku says, and these people still live here among us and tormenting us, instead of moving back to wherever their brand of lunacy called religion holds sway; maybe somewhere in the Middle East?

Regrettably, indoctrination of any kind is such a mind-altering hallucinogenous drugs, which when taken, fanatically, and despite the taker being a medical doctor/psychiatrist, turns loose the animal in that person and converting him into a ravaging beast. This was what Major Nidal Malik Hasan transformed into last Thursday November 5, 2009, a murderous dog, who himself was a victim of Islamic brain-washing? How could such a highly educated man methodically and coldly execute his fellow comrades in arms who are getting ready to ship out to a battle theater in Afghanistan? What went wrong and caused a psychiatrist who ordinarily should be helping soldiers through their traumatic conditions and now himself sick beyond repairs, that he chose to let off his fatal steam on his colleagues? Icheoku asks, why didn't this guy commit suicide or just go AWOL? Why didn't this murderer pretend or act to be insane and be excused from deployment by reason of insanity; rather than the abominable approach he took? The many whys are just too numerous to enumerate here, but permit Icheoku to say that this rabid-dog, fully weighed his available options but the boiling anger and hatred of a country that gave him the most breaks out of life, made him do it. Simply put, Major Nidal Malik Hasan was blinded by a misplaced rage which his psychotic mind holds against America!

What could make a highly educated PhD holder become so convinced that his Allah wants him to take these innocent lives that armed with two short guns, he started blasting away is fellow soldiers? Except of course he buys into the notion espoused by the Islamist terrorists which sees America as the problem, hence anything and everything America is a fair target. Army psychiatrist, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, whose duty is to treat mentally depraved soldiers, found himself afflicted with such a great mental disease and a breakdown which he cannot and could not treat himself of. But unlike other similarly situated mental patients, he did not or refused to seek counselling, treatment or sought the desired help that would have possibly prevented the oddity of what was witnessed at Fort Hood, Texas!

That Major Hassan was chanting some invocations of "Allahu Akbar," during his mayhem in Fort Hood, as he opened fire with two handguns on clusters of soldiers who were waiting for medical examinations and other processes in the base's Soldier Readiness Processing Center; preparatory to their deployment to Afghanistan, translates the tragedy into a religious one! Icheoku says, it is the pig Hasan who introduced religious element into this incident and if any Muslim suffers any backlash as a result, he is the only responsible party to take the blame. The good news however is that Muslims make up less than 0.3 percent of America's 548,000 active duty military forces, with 2,500 Muslims, 1,500 of them on active duty. Compared to 105,000 Roman Catholics, 99,000 Baptists, 1,800 Jewish, 2,500 atheists and more than 101,000 without any religious affiliation.

President Obama succintly summarized the mood of many Americans when he said, "It's difficult enough when we lose these brave Americans in battles overseas; It is horrifying that they should come under fire at an Army base on American soil." It is instructive to note that soldiers at Fort Hood don't carry weapons unless they are doing training exercises, otherwise killer Hasan would not have easily had his way to kill as many as he succeeded in killing. Also it is the same neck of the wood where on Octeober 16, 1991, George Hennard smashed his pickup truck through a Luby's Cafeteria window in Killeen, Texas, and opened fired on the lunchtime crowd with a high-powered pistol, killing 22 people and wounding at least 20 others; before taking his own life. No other shooting at a military base in the U.S. has been anywhere near as deadly as It is also the most deadly shooting in any recorded history. In 1993, a gunman at Fort Knox shot five civilian co-workers, killing three, and then fatally shot himself. Located half-way between Austin and Waco Texas on a 339 square miles space, with 52,000 stationed troops, Fort Hood is the largest active duty armored post in the United States. Fort Hood, opened in September 1942 as America geared up for World War II, was named for Gen. John Bell Hood of the Confederacy. It has been used continuously for armor training and is charged with maintaining readiness for combat missions.

Major Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, a 1997 biochemistry graduate of Virginia Tech University and a PhD in psychiatry lived at 11300 block of Connecticut Avenue in Kensington, Maryland. He is an orphan, single and had no children; he has two brothers and is admittedly straight not gay. But he is also a fanatical Muslim who got his brainwashing at the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring, Maryland. Hopefully this is not evident that Al-Queida has finally and successfully infiltrated the US army through these Muslim-soldiers in the US army! Should they be fired or re-assigned to merely office duties, Icheoku does not know the answer, but a far-reaching action need to be taken to forestall such dastardly act from ever happening in the future; not on America soil or any other place. Also talk-radio show hosts should reduce their rhetoric of hate so that these non-American Americans can feel fully Americanised enough, with vested interest herein, not to hate Americans with so much passion as to motivate this type of daring high scale violence. And if according to stories making the rounds that Major Nidal Hasan "was making outlandish comments condemning our foreign policy and claimed Muslims had the right to rise up and attack Americans;" Icheoku asks why didn't the authorities do something drastic about him before this tragedy which would have since taken care of this emblematic Major Murderer? Why have Muslims not risen up against all those tyrants in the Middle East whose despotism forced the likes of Nidal Malik Hassan and/or their parents to escape to America for safety and freedom? Why didn't they rise up and overthrow their despotic leaders and stay back there in their native countries, instead of violently abusing our hospitality in this way? How so deranged this killer is, that he forgot that the Iraq war is now almost over and that US troops have since withdrawn from the cities of Iraq? Where was his sorry arse when Saddam Hussein was grinding his fellow Muslims in Iraq in meat grinders for daring to open their dirty mouth to complain about his regime's atrocities? Where was Nidal Malik Hasan and his spirit of uprising?

Like the popular aphorism goes, this doctor could not heal himself, and hence the carnage at Fort Hood, Killen Texas! His name even remind us of the notorious hijacker, Abu Nidal of the PLO. Major Nidal Malik Hassan was simply put, an enemy within, a green snake in a green grass who was lying in wait for the right opportunity and moment to exact a vengeance; which he saw and took on Thursday, jumping with joy at the opportunity to get at America by shedding the blood of her defenders?

If we buy into his warped, twisted logic that America should not have been involved in the war in Iraq in the first place and that was his primary beef; Icheoku queries since when did Major Nidal Malik Hasan transmutate from being an army-man who robotically carry out the wishes and orders of the Commander-In-Chief, to now, a policy wonk formulating policies and deciding which wars America should fight? Nobody forced Nidal Hasan into our all-volunteer United States military; so why the complaints about America? That such a wacko who had openly contemplated strapping bomb on himself and detonating same in Times Square was allowed to still remain in the military, after such remarks and demonstrative antagonism towards the United States, was a serious case and cause for concern, typifying where the oversight supervisory function of the military authorities failed the military! Why did Hasan dread going to Iraq so much that he would rather kill his fellow soldiers as a diversion to stop his ship-off? Why was going into the real thing for which he freely enrolled into the military, accepted their scholarships through college and the university, and post-graduate PhD, trained for now such a nightmarish experience for this uncircumcised mallam? Was it out of cowardice or his delusion that the war was against Muslims and not terrorists? Icheoku asks this murderer, are those people being blown up in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan not all Muslims and who is doing the blowing up? Muslims nay, terrorists Muslim brothers aka Mujahadeens? May be Major Nidal Malik Hasan is just a lilly-livered girlie man, who could not man-up at about the hour his training and the investment made on him was called upon for service aka pay-back time? Since Major Hasan was born in the state of Virginia, a U.S. citizen, of Palestine-Jordanian descent and having never lived outside the United States, one wonders how, where and why the legs of his anti-American fanaticism sprouted from? What founded his fanatiscism? The answer is simple, Islamic brain-washing.

It is rather an aberration for a sick demented mind, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, to equate suicide bombing with the heroic example of a US soldier who used his body to shield his comrades from a lobbed grenade. While in the later, the soldier sacrificed to save lives; in the case of suicide/homicide bomber, the bomber selfishly used his body as a weapon of mass destruction to take lives. Icheoku strongly disagrees that the war against terror is tantamount to war against Islam. Admitted the 19 terrorists that brought down the world trade centers' twin towers as well as part of the Pentagon are all Muslims from the citadel of Islam Saudi Arabia; yet Saudi Arabi was not attacked? So where is the war against Islam being waged without first striking at the heart of Islam? The United States found out that there was no official approval from the house of Saud, custodians of the Muslim faith, hence removed 9/11 from Muslim agenda hence the decision to just isolate and destroy only the terrorist master-minds. So America is just going after the bad guys who are also slaughtering their same faith brothers and sisters in Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan and God knows where; but definietly not waging any war against a religion. It is as ridiculous as it is laughable for a man with so much knowledge like Major Nidal Malik Hasan to try to equate or link the war against terror to a war against Islam. But permeating the mind of a killer is such a difficult task that Icheoku surmises, 'when a supposed healer turns into a rabid-killer, who then shall save mankind from itself and his environment? In the words of one commentator, 'the 39-year-old Army psychiatrist emerged as a study in contradictions: a polite man who stewed with discontent, a counselor who needed to be counseled himself, a professional healer now suspected of cutting down the fellow soldiers he was sworn to help.' Icheoku says, halla!

Whether Major Hasan was harassed, teased or taunted for who he is, is just not sufficient enough reason for his taking of so many lives in revenge as he did? Icheoku does not buy either that a 39 year old man, a PhD in psychiatry will so easily fall and become so bewitched to a crass brainwashing of Islam; to the extent that he will commit such heinous murders as was witnessed in Fort Hood. But you never know with these fanatics; and now Nidal's action has been praised by one of them - the radical American imam of Yemen origin, Anwar al Awlaki. In his words of praise for Nidal, Awlaki said, "Nidal Hassan is a hero. He is a man of conscience who could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people." Icheoku says, what a stark lunacy in display, calling a bloody murderer a hero? That shows how messed up the brains of these people really are! The fallacy of the Islamic religion, a religion of hate that approves and supports such tragic, bloody and horrific outburst of violence that killed 13 and wounded 31 of our finest and bravest friends of freedom. May God help us all get through this madness that was the massacre at Fort Hood.

Among the killed were pregnant Francheska Velez, 21, of Chicago Illinois; Captain John Gaffaney, 56, of California; Pfc. Aaron Thomas Nemelka, 19, of Salt Lake City Utah; Pfc. Michael Pearson, 21, of Bolingbrook, Illinois; Spc. Jason Dean Hunt, 22, of Frederick Oklahoma; Michael Grant Cahill, 62, of Cameron, Texas; Sgt. Amy Krueger, 29, of Kiel, Wisconsin; Pfc. Kham Xiong 23, of St. Paul, Minnesota; and Juanita Warman, 55.

KEN SARO WIWA, HIS LESSON WAS LOST IN THE NIGER DELTA STRUGGLE?

When on November 10, 1995 the then Foreign Minister Tom Ikimi was confronted by a journalist in far away Asia, demanding to know why his government hurried the execution of Ken Saro Wiwa, his mouth dropped in awe as he was totally sidelined and left in the lurch over the execution? But did he resign in protest for the embarrassment of being informed of such a high profile execution in far away Asia? No; such an idea is an aberration and a very strange option for Nigerians and anyone who shares in their DNA!

It was the midget of Kano, Sani Abacha who ordered Ken Saro Wiwa hanged for daring to raise his voice against the oppressive Hausa-Fulani controlled central government of Nigeria which has been pillaging resources from his people of the Niger Delta ever since 1958 when oil was discovered at Oloibiri Rivers State? A trumped up charges of murder were levelled against him and eight others, tried before a kangaroo military tribunal, convicted as scripted and summarily executed in the middle of the night; without regard to his right to appeals or overall fair trial in deference to due process? However those are but historical facts and nothing can bring him back to life; the world that remembers him can only have him immortalized in their memory. Ken Saro Wiwa is long dead, his body allegedly dissolved in sulphuric acid and dumped in an unmarked grave; but on this occasion of the 14 anniversary of his gruesome state murder, Icheoku joins the millions world over in remembering a man who stood up for what he believed in and in defence of his peoples' right to their resources and paid the supreme price for it! Today, November 10, 2009 marks the 14th anniversary of that November 10, 1995 ugly incident.

Should Icheoku be mad at this guy for his atrocities against the Igbo people of Biafra during the civil war and continuing immediately thereafter, when he championed with a fury from hell, the abandoned property saga on behalf of the Nigerian federal government to get at the Igbo nation? No, because it is a waste of time fighting with a dead man who cannot rebut or defend himself. Moreso his pettiness then and supposed romance with the feudalistic north did not pay him any meaningful dividend, as he who rode tigers over the whole place against the Igbo was eventually, himself eaten up by the tiger. Ken Saro Wiwa, for instigating and taking sides with the Nigerian government during the Biafra struggle, against his rightful people have earned him a not too favorable place in the hearts and minds of so many Nigerians of the South East as well as the South South. He was a renegade and a traitor whose sins against Biafra is now forgiven since a dead man should be left alone? In this tribute to his memory, we shall try to foray into his trials and tribulations, examine his life and times; querying if the present lacklustre, disjointed and uncoordinated activism in the Niger Delta as presently championed by the motley of militants, truly represents what a living Ken Saro Wiwa would have identified himself with? Would Ken have approached the struggle differently or accepted amnesty and turned tail against his people?

Are they doing the memory of Ken Saro-Wiwa, Adaka Baro any good with the way they are bargaining with the Hausa-Fulanis over the resources underneath their land? Icheoku says, no; and reiterates that it is a sign of weakness to negotiate with a stranger over what belongs to you. It was an American general who once said, give me liberty or give me death but this guys chose to mortgage their freedom and they still are visited with deaths. In other words, their cowardice emboldens their oppressors who have now denied them a say on how their resource would be allocated and appropriated. So on this day, November 10, 2009 we urge the people of the Niger Delta to unite and be more organised for the future of the Niger Delta and for the sake of their children and children's children. It is for the future and no amount of militants camps and fractious militias without a central political authority will be able to bring about the type of change desired in that neck of the wood in Nigeria. Should Ken Saro Wiwa be allowed to die in vein by not continuing his fight for equitable participation by his people of the Niger Delta in the distribution of what belongs to Niger Delta?

He founded the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) in 1990 which brought the Shell’s destruction of the Niger Delta environment to international audience. A year later the Ogoni nine were arrested on what were widely regarded to have been trumped-up charges. The men were tortured, beaten and then put on trial in front of a military tribunal and without recourse to regular courts or legal representation. They were sentenced to death and executed in the middle of the night. Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others were hanged for what is generally agreed to be trumped-up murder charges by the military dictatorship of General Sani Abacha. His real crime was leading a group that was protesting the devastation of the Ogoni people's lands by Shell Oil and the oppression and marginalization of the Ogoni people themselves by the military government who profited from Shell's oil business. Peradventure, Ken Saro Wiwa lives on , taller in death than the midget of Kano who killed him and whose own death, no one remembers now. But is there no one to hold accountable for the sins of that ignominious government? Icheoku says, Jeremaih 'Jerry-Boy' Useni is still alive, the governor of Rivers State then, Oladipo Diya as well as Abdulsalam Abubakar, are all alive and these are people who served and partook of the evil that was Sani Abacha! They should all be taken in for questioning and purposes of holding accountable for the madness of November 10, 1995? May Nigerians hold these guys accountable on behalf of their master, Sani Abacha for their sins of omission to stop the extra-judicial murder of Ken Saro Wiwa and the Ogoni 8!

With over 90 oil fields across the country, Shell which have been in Nigeria since 1958 impacts the local environment adversely through their unfair oil exploration and exploitation practices which is decimating a people who depend on fishing and farming for sustenance. Also affected by their activities is the world's third-largest mangrove forest which they clear indiscriminately just to make way for their pipelines without regard to the suffering of the indigenous wildlife and a gravely endangered ecosystem as a result? There were frequent oil spills and oil flares which devastated the countryside and made it barren? But conversely Icheoku does not entirely blame Dutch oil company, Shell, for their role in precipitating the hanging of Ken Saro Wiwa and co? The culprit here is the Nigerian gestapo military junta regime of Sani Abacha who had to kill his people just because a foreign oil company said so. How can a sane head of a people kill his citizens because it fits the desire of foreign oil mercenaries who have no interest of the country at heart and would rather kill off the citizens just for what lies beneath their lands? It is as absurd as it is abominable and should be condemned by all men of good conscience. The problem with African leaders is that they do not care about the people they govern as they do not love them, otherwise why not tell the instigating oil company to take a hike or go to hell or even revoke their license for musing that idea?

Finally as we end this tribute to a freedom fighter and a man who died defending his peoples right to a meaningful existence in Nigeria; a people wallowing in poverty amidst their God-given natural resources which is denied them by the feudalistic cabals up north, may we share with you two of his statements. One was made in pursuit of his fight to stop the ecological disaster which is Niger Delta of Nigeria and the other as closing statement before a dead-set tribunal which formalized his conviction and eventual hanging. According to Ken Saro-Wiwa, "Whether I live or die is immaterial. It is enough to know that there are people who commit time, money and energy to fight this one evil among so many others predominating worldwide. If they do not succeed today, they will succeed tomorrow. We must keep on striving to make the world a better place for all of mankind - each one contributing his bit, in his or her own way."

Before the tribunal that sent him to the gallows, thus read his closing statement:- "We all stand before history. Appalled by the denigrating poverty of my people who live on a richly endowed land, distressed by their political marginalization and economic strangulation, angered by the devastation of their land, their ultimate heritage, anxious to preserve their right to life and to a decent living, and determined to usher to this country as a whole a fair and just democratic system which protects everyone and every ethnic group and gives us all a valid claim to human civilization, I have devoted my intellectual and material resources, my very life, to a cause in which I have total belief and from which I cannot be blackmailed or intimidated. I have no doubt at all about the ultimate success of my cause, no matter the trials and tribulations which I and those who believe with me may encounter on our journey. Nor imprisonment nor death can stop our ultimate victory. With the preceding Ken Saro Wiwa registered as a man of letters, brave even to the point of death, and ridiculing his traducers in the process. Icheoku therefore says, sleep on brave one and may what you lived and died for not be in vain; hopefully the Niger Delta activism will take on a new lease of life someday with a clearly defined set of uniform objective, direction and means of achieving same, under one unified central political authority. So long KSW!

THE TWO GLADIATORS ARE AT IT AGAIN, OJUKWU AND GOWON SPIT FIRE!

The unfinished business that is the Nigeria-Biafra civil war got a new lease of life recently, as the two protagonists in chief of the war stoked embers of violence once again? Such personal antgonism forces the question, has the Biafran war actually ended or have this two personalities now so personalized their animosity that an ordinary harmless statement by one will attract a rabid response from the other rival? Animosity which started since their days together in the Nigerian army and which technicaly led to the Biafran war, now seems to be continuing and subsisting in their golden years; which begs the question, does old wound really heal?

Icheoku says, the answer appears to be no; and that has been buttressed by the recent exchange of fiery rhetorics between these two old foes, who have since personalised more what it was between them that first led to the Biafran war? Their bitter exchange shows that the long gone but still smothering civil war has the propensity to rekindle anytime, someday and possibly not in too distant future. Icheoku says, the only way this war could conclusively come to an end is for the issues that led to the war to be fully addressed or for the principal protagonists thereto to make their transitions out of this world and leave Nigeria alone. But until then and as long as they live, so shall little flashes like the recent war of words continue and possibly someday, it might spark off another confrontation. As always, war of words usually precedes war of fire-fight?

Icheoku asks once again, did the Biafran civil war ever conclusively end? This question has become more imperative with the spitting of fire by two old Nigerians, nay a Nigerian against his Biafran old nemesis; men who are now jostling and repositioning themselves for yet another opportunity to go at it, and somehow finish an unfinished business? A final showdown, the mother of all confrontations, may be? Ikemba Nnewi Odumegwu Chukwukwuemeka Ojukwu and Birom-man Yakubu Gowon who squared off during the last Nigeria/Biafra civil war, are once again, barking and threatening another showdown! But will Nigeria allow them? Icheoku does not think so, more-so since both men are nearing their graves and are even too old now to lift AK-47 rifle? But why are they personalising a struggle that encompassed so many millions of people including non Igbo Biafrans and none Northern Nigeria, then Nigeria? Our theory is a bloated ego run amok; which suffers both men greatly as to make them completely delusional as to their followerships and abilities?

The genesis of the spitfire was Odumegwu Ojukwu figuratively expressing the resistance that will follow, should the Nigerian cabal through the aegis of the Court of Appeal, try to forcibly foist Andy Uba as governor of Anambra State; a state in which he has so much vested interest and wherein he comes from. Ojukwu said, such action will force a civil war in Anambra State and which he will gladly lead as a commander in chief? But as dumb as Yakubu Gowon is, despite holding a supposed doctorate degree, he jumped into the affray, boisterously beating his chest on how he starved Biafrans into a scripted surrender in 1970? A genocidal maniac who sent several millions of Biafran children to their untimely graves through an earth-scorching blockade of the area then known as Biafra and who refused even very essential goods including medicine and infant formulae from reaching milions of malnutritioned mouths in Biafra? The famed Kwashiokor set in and the rest is now history.

The enveloping hardship and deaths forced the hands of leaders of Biafra to decide to end such a vicious, atrocious and heartless Yakubu Gowon's vengeful prosecution of his war against unarmed men, women and children of Biafra. For this particular ignoble line of action, Icheoku has not forgiven and will never forgive Yakubu Gowon as well as his then economic adviser and later finance minister Obafemi Awolowo, who prescribed 'starvation as the best instrument of warfare' which the scoundrel Gowon bought and gleefully implemented to a crushing bitter end? But Biafra survived and Niger Delta part thereof, is today once again proving to Nigeria that they did not actually win that war and that nobody is afraid of the north! Not then, not now and not in the future. But does Icheoku support another civil war in Nigeria; not this time as the polity has become so much fragmented that the regional bonds holding entities together no longer exists or are too distended to form any meaningful cohesive platform to achieve a given objective like secession? So why start what you cannot finish and why a war when the objective is almost non-realistic or cannot be easily realisable?

But Chief Odumegwu Chukwuemeka Ojukwu was only being figurative with his referenced 'civil war' and here lies our beef with Yakubu Gowon for flying the kite of animosity once again? Icheoku expected all intelligent observers and watchers, including a PhD-holder like Yakubu Gowon to see it for what it is - a mere figure of speech called hyperbole; but he chose instead to play to the gallery of hatred! What did Ojukwu say to trigger such a response from this known bully of Birom, Yakubu Gowon? A man who perpetually reminds Icheoku of that everybody's most hated high school bully, who usually will not hesitate at any given opportunity to remind one how he is the head honcho here and how you are subject to his taunting and many a times, smacking? Gowon has a dog-catcher mentality and he has been short-changed for it in today's Nigeria where the real northerners, the Hausa-Fulanis are riding the rest of the minorities of the north, including Yakubu Gowon like donkeys. They have not fully forgiven him for his role in the coup that killed their Muritala Mohammed? Also the other good news however is that Yakubu Gowon is even hated more in his native Birom Jos chiefdom, which made him lose woefully to an ordinary high school teacher during Babangida's Option A4 presidential primaries? Yes, what did Ojukwu say to deserve Gowon's uncalled for acerbic response?

Yakubu Gowon, like a bird of prey waiting to strike, lost his deranged head again, (the first was during Biafra) stating that 'he was ready to rise up and defend the unity of the country if any body or group of persons threatens to cause disunity or another round of civil war in the country.' Icheoku says, shame on you Gowon as your hurtful wish can never again come to pass in today's Nigeria where your Birom people are part of the latest new minorities in Nigeria, with your Solomon Lar recently declaring that you guys might start your own version of a civil war or secession; and you wonder along which lines of geography? The configurations are so fundamentally changed now that should another unfortunate war erupt, it will surely not be the same result as was in 1967 as so many Biafrans are now in Diaspora ready to breach whatever economic or political blockade your ilks might contemplate imposing once again. But there will not be another war, no more wars Nigeria! Nigerians have too many yokes holding them together now and the Igbo of Biafra have also grown too smart now to let another group in Nigeria reap where they did not sow, as was the case with abandoned property saga of yore! All Nigerians shall tough it out together as one nation state, undivided and still hating each other with passion!

Icheoku takes strong exception to Yakubu Gowon, not because he fought against Biafran secession, no, but for the starvation of millions of Biafran women and children through a forced blockade of the region called Biafra during the civil war. This blogger was a victim and was flown to Gabon as a refugee; so he knows for a fact and first hand, what went down in a blockaded Biafra; all courtesy of the evil machination of Yakubu Gowon, who technically started the war by assuming a position which he was not rightfully entitled to being a very junior officer and could not but encouraged the genocide against the Igbo ethnicity? It was very callous of him to starve millions of unarmed and hapless women and children to death, and may God remember this for him when finally he takes his last breath on earth. Now hear this Jos man speaking, "I am ready to fight him as I did in 1967," adding that Ojukwu's statement was an empty threat from an old man. Icheoku says, look at a pot calling kettle black, a Yakubu Gowon who also is also being priced by Mr. Death, here calling Biafran war-lord and Igbo hero, Ikemba Nnewi, old? Gowon, it shall not be well with you! Also remember that your promised 3Rs of reconciliation, rehabilitation and reconstruction has not yet been fully implemented forty years down the road since armed hostilities ended. Nigeria since 1970 has not witnessed any reconciliation but mere tolerance of and by the different tribal ethnicities therein; no rehabilitation as the people of then and still Biafra are still being treated as strangers in their supposedly native country Nigeria; and there is no meaningful reconstruction as infrastructures, especially roads and bridges, are at their most dilapidated condition in Nigeria's south east, the area formerly known as BIAFRA.

Now share with Icheoku, a very intelligent piece on the ongoing maelstrom, generated by the lack of understanding of what Ojukwu actually said. According to the piece, "War is not only when you carry arms. War comes in different forms. Ojukwu was only speaking in hyperbole. How can these dullards and buffoons think that Ojukwu can engage in lethal war with the federal government when he does not command any battalion of armed soldiers? These so called PDP members should examine their knowledge of English. I deeply sympathize with them for their ignorance. What is wrong on what Ojukwu said? Anambra people will never change. The bad name we the Igbos have today is because of the people of Anambra. Anambra people don't have conscience. They don't have respect for any authority except worshipping ill-gotten money. Andy Uba is going nowhere. This man and his brother made Anambra ungovernable for eight years, now he wants to be the governor of the state. Yet people are supporting him. I wonder the kind of children you people have and their future. (Armed robbers, Kidnappers, drug barons, assassins, etc.). Ojukwu seems to be misunderstood by ex Biafran warlords and PDP. He didn't call for a civil war. He was only envisioning the implication of a court of appeal ruling against the highest court of the land- Supreme Court. What Ojukwu saw 40 years ago is what is being addressed today. Ojukwu is a visionary. We should stop castigating our very best. We should not equate the issues of the civil war with that of the Niger delta. Finally, let us pray that the Enugu appeal court will deliver good judgement". Icheoku doffs our heart to men and women who know how to correctly and properly string the words of the English language together; and this writer wrote well.

Finally Icheoku advises all those pontificating in Nigeria, who are now playing the devil's advocate, being both umpire and judge over the statement credited to Biafran warlord and Igbo hero, Dim Odumegwu Chukwuemeka Ojukwu and Ikemba Nnewi, 'to just back off!' If they have nothing else to do, they should go back to school to get more conversant with the English language; and get used to the art of nuanced contextual speaking, which literature still accommodates. They should also be aware that they are differing rules of interpretation and that literally rule is not the only one; and that figures of speech include hyperbole. For example, that someone said he/she saw hell does that mean that the person paid a visit to Lucifer and came back to earth? If someone said he/she will kill you, it does not mean that the person have suddenly metamorphosed into a serial killer like the nidget of Kano, Sani Abacha? It is just a figure of speech and it would appear that this Eton College scholar, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu has again fooled his arch enemy, Yakubu Gowon, into making a fool of himself once more. Gowon literally assumed what was not contemplated and prematuredly challenged his old nemesis to another duel, based on his erroneous understanding of the purport and intent of what Ojukwu really meant with his statement. Icheoku will like to assure Gowon that Ojukwu is not the enemy and the earleir he gets out of his head this phobia, the better his sanity will be. Ojukwu has since moved on with his life, away from the distractions of a Yakubu Gowon that Gowon should look for something to dot or hate but definitely not a Ojukwu!

Now to the vampire, Yakubu Gowon, Icheoku advises you to take a course in the English language literature so that you may be better and more properly grounded in the art of a more nuanced speaking. It will help you appreciate communications better and not take everything literally on its surface. Look for another foe to pick your fight with but please know that the Ojukwu of 1967 has for long accepted his membership of Nigeria when he vowed to fight the next time only to keep Nigeria as one. If you remember correctly, no one from Biafra wanted the war then which was forcibly trust upon them by your misteps as juvenile head of state and they only defended what was dealth to them?

Be that as it may, Icheoku posits that Nigeria will not fight another civil war because circumstances are now completely different than it was in 1967 when regional bases existed; also that Nigeria will never break up because there is no clearly defined fault-lines along which it could properly break and achieve its objectives? Imagine even your Plateau State now contemplating the idea of a civil war and secession and you wonder what was Solomon Lar thinking? Admitted, Nigeria will not forever remain as it is now, something must be done to address the apparent inequities and injustices militating against a more cohesive Nigeria where all the tribal ethnicities will feel wanted and very desirous of its membership! But until that el-dorado comes to fruition, Icheoku says, Yakubu Gowon should just hush or die off; but must stop reminding Biafrans of the millions of their women and children he starved to death! What a callous blood-sucking beast of burden he is, one not deserving of any meaningful high place in today's Nigeria! This is a man who maitained studied silence when the war of foreigners and natives between the Fulanis and his Birom people broke out and was raging in Plateau State not too long ago? He was probably too afraid to speak lest the lords of the manor, Fulani/Hausa, will revoke his pardon for his alleged role in the coup against Muritala Mohammed; all of a sudden this mogrel now jumped at an innocent speak of Ojukwu? What a bastard son of a desolate mother and despondent father!

NNAMDI IHEANACHO UCHE, DEATH OF A NIGERIAN YOUNGSTER IN USA!

MR. NNAMDI IHEANACHO UCHE

(August 26, 1978 – October 18, 2009 )

May his gentle soul rest in peace, Amen!

Signed:

www.Icheoku.com

for and on behalf of our friends in Abia-State-Union, USA!

ANTHONY SOWELL, LIVING WITH DEAD AND DECOMPOSING WOMEN!

Sounds like a plot in a Stephen King's novel, may be; but this time it is not a dramatic fiction but a true life story in Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, USA! Weird, the stuff Halloween tales are made of. Eleven dead and decomposing women stowed away inside a home in a residential neighborhood of Cleveland with only their male host, Anthony Sowell!

Icheoku says, if this man is not acutely mental, with a burnt-out olfactory lobe, fried by hard drugs; then the whole world must be filled of happy, caring and loving people? But how could a neighborhood not have perceived the stench of death, oozing out of this dwelling place and for as long as it lasted? The putridity of death was so overpowering that a neighborhood that could not sniff it out might as well be a highly dysfunctional neighborhood, populated by stoned-out crack heads who zones-out from facts under their nose? How can any piece of humanity be this indifferent to a his neighborhood that a pungent smell coming out of the next door house was not taken cognizance of and hence did nothing? Addicts, who are daily, merely levitating through a life of mystery and hardship; to whom death smell meant nothing but instead have become their new normal?

Many of the bodies are in various stages of decomposition, yet nobody smelled any foul in the air? It is most improbable? Icheoku says, this is the real life 'Little House of Horror' in Cleveland Ohio. Several decomposing bodies scattered around the three story house from upstairs bedrooms, the living room, a crawl space, a shallow grave in the backyard and another grave in the basement? What a strange infatuation with morbidity by this crazed-out fellow, Anthony Sowell and why was his ghoulish activity not discovered earlier which could have saved some lives? According to the police, "the stench of decay was overwhelming, the closest I got was 15 feet from an open door, and it was more than bad enough. I can't figure out how the neighbors didn't know something was wrong." Icheoku says, if the stench coming from the house of horror was as overwhelming as alleged by the police, why didn't somebody smell it earlier?

Strangely-looking; a Tasmanian devil look-alike possibly? He is in short, spooky with those mean piggy eyes which pierces through anything? A cold heart of steel alleged murderer. Rapist-Killer Sowell, 50, was released from prison in June 2005, after serving a 15-year prison term for choking and raping a woman. He preferred to kill black women whom he strangled after having his way with them, using extension cords and neckties, his choice instruments of strangulation? The scene of the horrific murders is his cream-hued duplex premises, situated at Imperial Avenue and East 123rd Street Cleveland. It is in a blighted east-side neighborhood where gunfire and drug-use are part of the daily social landscape; a neighbourhood where most residents are not strangers to tragedy? What a life of a reversed American dream, unfulfilled and despondent!

Acting on a woman's complain that she was raped by Sowell, a convicted sex offender, inside his home on Sept. 22 2009; the police had gone to Sowell's house last Thursday, October 30, 2009 to investigate. But Sowell was not home. However the officers were caught by the pungent smell coming out from Sowell's house, which prompted their curiosity to explore the source; which in turn yielded the carnage. They uncovered six decaying bodies of women who were strangled - and the number subsequently swelled to 10 on Tuesday and the police continued their investigation in Sowell's home culminating in Sowell being taken into custody on Sunday. Icheoku wonders why the police had to wait for almost one month before they moved in on the suspect on October 30 for a reported case of rape of September 22? Some neighbors also claimed they thought the odor was coming from backed up sewers or that a nearby Ray's Sausage company was producing the foul smell. But none of them investigated any further?

Anthony Sowell was charged to court yesterday, Wednesday November 4, 2009 on five counts of aggravated murder, rape, felonious assault and kidnapping. He appeared in court shackled and wearing a blue jumpsuit, usually reserved for suicide risks. He was convicted for 15 years in 1989 for the rape of a three months old pregnant woman, whom he choked but who managed to survive, escape and told authority. Sowell was a former Marine!

According to the presiding judge, Judge Ronald Adrine, "In my 20 years of being on this bench, this is without question, the most serious allegations that I've ever faced." Icheoku concurs and adds, only a deranged monster is capable of proximately sharing his living space with several dead and decaying bodies; -what an insane obsession with morbidity! Anthony Sowell is indeed one strange freakish fellow! To the victims, may you never rest until a lethal injection brings justice to this monster, Mr. Anthony Sowell.

NOVEMBER 4 2009, ANNIVERSARY OF THE DAY HISTORY WAS MADE!

It was exactly one year ago today that Americans rose up in unison and did the unexpected, they put a 'nigger' in their White House! Millions of Americans who, believing in the 'Hope and Change' themed campaign of then candidate Barack Obama, trooped out enmass to give him the much needed tail-wind that pushed him into the presidency. Their only motivation, a young, ebullient and eloquent African-American with an exotic sounding name, who talks like someone well intentioned to carry out what was promised this time around? However, one year down the road, people are beginning to wonder aloud whether they gambled wisely or got a lemon in the bargain?

Icheoku says, President Barack Obama will only have himself to blame if he fleets away the goodwill of the American people that propelled him into the White House. His Democratic Party has controlling majority in both House of Representatives and the Senate and no one can ask for anything more to perform? The president's handicap is that he seems to defer so much to so many people, who he considers his political senior or who he feels somewhat somehow indebted to? Icheoku says, President Barack Obama, you do not owe anybody anything as the American people unconditionally voted for what you represented; and will not buy into any contrary argument for any possible failure or your none performance. The president have no reason not to deliver on his mandate and must be prepared to break some legs if need be, just to deliver on the 'Change We Can Believe In' as the American people cannot 'HOPE' forever. It is called having a 'BACKBONE' and if it means firing your present chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, or any under-perfoming member of your cabinet, so be it; but you must not fail or disappoint the many millions of Americans who hope and trust in you to bring the change they can believe in.

The American people are aware that efforts are being made by your government to fix the economy; but a jobless man cannot appreciate economic jargons until he can secure a job? A popular saying goes "show me the money!" Tangibles speaks more volumne than intangible projections and this is why it appears that your government is sleeping on the wheels of governance? Since these jobs are taking time to come and not materialising soon enough, may be you should adjust your strategy and focus on other areas that could easily translate to more visible and tangible results. Just order Guantanamo prison closed and let Americans see the gates shuttered forever? That is an example of a tangible achievement that journalists could fly down there to confirm that at last, President Obama had performed as promised with the closing of the terrorists vacation home in Cuba? Any terrorist that his home country cannot or refuses to take back should be flown to that country in the middle of the night and dropped off somewhere in the country to find his way. Just like the CIA infamous rendition; but this time a reversed rendition. if such marked terrorist is ever found again or captured in any battle field anywhere, let the operatives summarily deal with him. On Iraq, you can order the troops home now and let Americans watch their military start to bring their troops and equipment home; drastically reduce the stationed troop in Iraq to under 100,000 and do it now for effect. On Afghanistan, give General McCrystal his needed 40,000 troops and let him be the fall guy on that front; and in any event that mission fails or did not succeeded as envisaged, you can always blame that on the military since you gave them all they demanded and you cannot personally go down to the trenches yourself?

On the proposed missile shield base in Poland that is now scrapped on your orders, may be such was conceded without anything in return? The Iranian nuclear malady would have been extracted from the Russians as what the have to pay to play, before the final announcement scrapping the proposed missile shielf? It is called quid pro quo, trade off; what I get for what I give? May be some firm ultimatum could be given to the Iranians to behave or have some bombs dropped on those Natanz sites? Or the North Koreans could be told in a firm unequivocating terms that enough is enough with their bullshiting the world? Whatever it is , just do something that American people can visualize as your government doing something with the mandate they gave to you on November 4, 2008. Also, consider hiring someone like James Carville and give him the full authority to play the role of an attack dog for your government since your well-intended pacifist Washington seems not to have been well received by the other side. It is about time trenches are dug for the shooting-war for the hearts and minds of the American people to really begin? Shake up something, talk tougher, make threats, issue ultimatums and drop some bombs somewhere if you must; but let us see some movement from your government. If the health care reform is not working, summon the party officials and let them know what you promised the American people and the loss of face its failure will bring on everyone. Just do something?

You should also remember that you have no co-presidency with anybody, not Hillary Clinton, not Joe Biden, not anybody; the buck stops squarely on your desk. If you need to fire anybody, just do that but let the engines of your administration start to roll. Our greatest fear is that if this trend of appearing to be 'doing nothing' continues, President Barack Obama might regrettably, be another President Jimmy Carter waiting to happen, a one term president? But he still have the benefit of three more years to prove he can do what he promised the American people: - fulfil their hopes and bring about the change the can believed in, which motivated them to troop out exactly one year ago today to put you in the White House! Failure to fire up the engine of your administration and now, will make the possiblity of your one term very probable and a great may be? But never say never as President Obama may yet again survive a re-election, being the amiable masterful politician he is? However, these attempt at pleasing everybody must stop as compromises does not win elections; keeping and fulfilling election promises does and this is the only thing that matters now. President Barack Obama should look no further but to the promises he made during his election campaign and should strive to keep them.

The American people had previously weighed the options of Senator John McCain, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and a motley of others before deciding that you are the best and elected you as their president. You had no qualifying surrogate then and should not fear or feel like you have one now, just go full trottle and do what you were elected to do. Firm your back and start presiding as a duly elected democratic president of the United States of America and nothing more. Trying to woe the people who did not vote for you in 2008 is not a good strategy as they failed and refused to vote for you not because of the message but the messenger, who does not fit their template of 'their' White House occupant? As far as they are concerned, the message not withstanding, once it is coming from 'that one' makes it unpalatable and untouchable. Try as you may, they will always view you with jaundiced eyes as 'that one' and there is nothing anyone can do about it to change mindsets, already ingrained in the stone of skin coloration?

One year after, the hope we voted for is still just hope? The change we can believe in, is still incubating and who knows when it will hatch if ever? Remember, no drama Obama and please roll up your sleeves now and go to work as the days of pandering or trying to be too nice to too many people including the opposition should be over. You did not get into the White House with their approval and hence you do not need their approval to govern. If the baseball bat needs to come out, so be it; but Icheoku says, you must get back your mojo and start governing. Americans need tangible things they can point to as pointers that their Obama is delivering on his election promises. Whether you will pivot from your current approach to governing or win a re-election lies in the womb of time; but your once charged supporters are nearly crest-fallen, wondering what is holding their BO. As we wait for you to finally roll out full steam, may we felicitate with you on the occasion of the anniversary of your earth-shaking and all ceiling shattering, election victory of November 4, 2008. Happy one year anniversary President Barack Hussein Obama, and may the Almighty God continue to protect you and guide your actions, our dear 44th!

CHIDI UZOMAH, A NIGERIAN STALKER IN HOLLYWOOD?

Icheoku says, he was probably tired of the incessant phone-calls from motherland, always asking for MTCN without ever inquiring about how things are going on with him in America? For the phone-callers, he is after-all in America picking off dollar-bills from the tree-tops, and that's all that mattered? Now under enormous pressure to perform and show cause, a frustrated Nigerian, and a United States Army Special Forces reserve, decided to seek fortune and make it big in America?

For him, Hollywood is the key to the kind of fortune he seeks and must, he would force himself through their proverbial Carmel's eye gates? However his pursuit of his 'American dream' took him down the wrong road of infamy as he was arrested and is currently being held in custody for felony stalking? His victim is the talk-radio show host and television personality who also hosts American Idol, DJ Ryan Seacrest!

Mr. Chidi Uzomah was arrested last Friday, October 30, 2009 as he stormed inside the building wherein Ryan Seacrest hosts his daily radio/television program, demanding to see his secret crush, Ryan? According to sources, Ryan Seacrest was in the building at the time Uzomah invited himself to see him? It is equally instructive to note that this was his repeat attempt at meeting his 'darlying' Ryan Seacrest as he had accosted and allegedly choked Ryan Seacrest's bodyguard last month outside an Orange County hospital, where Ryan was hosting a charity event. He pleaded guilty to three misdemeanors battery, assault and possession of a switchblade; and was sentenced to 15 days in jail with 4 days credit for time already spent behind bars, ordered to stay away from the Children's Hospital and Mr. Ryan Seacrest and a three years probation.

According to the story, Ryan Seacrest had just finished making his appearance at the charity event when Chidi Uzomah approached him and asked for an autograph? Ryan obliged him and as he walked off to his car, Chidi Uzomah blocked his way. The security guard tried getting him off but Uzomah then started a fight, choking the guard in the process. He was however over-powered and the responding police took him away.

Icheoku says, but things of the heart don't always follow the way of any scientific calculated pattern; as not withstanding the previous restriction order, Uzomah once again set off to assuage his heart desire to have a rendezvous with Ryan Seacrest? According to the story, Mr. Chidi Uzomah, who is 6-foot-4 tall and weighs 200 pounds menacingly went into the lobby of E! building in Hollywood, demanding to see Mr. Seacrest; wherein the building security conversant with the previous stalking incident called in the police. A member of the fearsome US Army Special Forces is such a well trained awesome lethal machine that any seeming threat from such quarters is always taken very seriously. Icheoku says, a man looking as disturbed as these pictures shows, is rather crying for urgent attention for medical help and should be immediately checked into a lunatic asylum instead of a Sheriffs' custody. Mr. Uzomah would be a good candidate for the 'Cuckoo's Nest' assuming they are still presently auditioning; but he needs his faculties back?

Lt. Col. Nathan Banks, an Army spokesperson, confirmed that Mr. Chidi Uzomah is one of their own and had since apologised to Ryan Seacrest for the embarrassing incident. Chidi Uzomah is currently in the Army Reserves in Upland, California. He was trained as a front line soldier and assigned to the 426th Civil Affairs Battalion, a part of the Army special forces, which is attached to the Green Berets. Before that he had served in the California Army National Guard from April 2005 through April 2009. He was honorably discharged and then transferred to the Army Reserves.

Chidi Uzomah was also training at the Secrets of Acting studio under coach Charles Tentindo to be an actor? According to the coach, commenting on his little knowledge of Mr. Uzomah, "he seemed very sad and depressed and had a sort of dark cloud over him?" Icheoku says, nobody really understands how the matters of the heart works, including this mad crush for Ryan Seacrest by Nigerian born Chidi Uzomah. However what he needs is series of dates with a shrink or even a psychiatrist to help resolve whatever conflicted personality that might be afflicting him; and not the penal system he is being processed through now. Oh well and dandy for a man in pursuit of his proverbial American dream in Hollywood now turned a convicted stalker!

BUHARI AND ATIKU, GIMMICKRY OF A NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT?

Nigerians, Icheoku urge you not to believe the hype that these two despicable and desperate men are what the doctor ordered for Nigeria at this particular time. Whatever you do, please do not fall into their trap, do not buy the fake goods they are selling because both are spent corrupt people who can only do more harm than good to Nigeria! Their souls are restless and a restless mind cannot direct a restless Nigerian society; therefore they must be stopped by any means necessary before or at the gates of Aso Rock.

According to Governor Aliyu Babangida of Niger State, it is an Islamic tenet, perspective and guidance on the selection of leaders, that those who desperately seek leadership should not be considered for leadership positions!” Icheoku says, Governor Babangida spoke very well for Nigerians and Nigerians must hearken to him and reject this duo as too desperate for any leadership position again! We categorically state that 'never in the history of Nigeria has anybody been this desperate for power as is the case with Muhammadu Buhari and his fellow traveller, Atiku Abubakar? Regrettably, both are supposedly Muslims but chose to ignore the injunction on leadership desperation. The crucial question is why the desperation, especially of Muhammadu Buhari whose 'terroristic-tenure' at Dodan Barracks left so much to be desired and the memory is still sore. What about Atiku Abubakar, who was described by a person who should know and a former boss as "too corrupt to be allowed to preside over the affairs of Nigeria?" What a damning referral indeed. As for Atahiru Bafawara, Icheoku will not waste precious time discussing such a localised politician of Sokoto State without any tangible or reasonable national stature and/or presence. We shall therefore, confine our discussion here on Buhari and Atiku; and their mad quest to wrestle power once again. The premise being that they were once there but did not render any worthy account of their stewardship.

So we ask, what is the hullabaloo that these two conniving and contriving despicable men are once again scheming to weasel their way back to power. Should Nigerians allow them to again get hold of the levers of power? The answer is a resounding big NO, except of course they want to do it at a great peril to whatever holds and keeps them together as one state? The duo of Buhari and Atiku are not what any moderate Nigerian should wish for the country and particularly not this time when there is a continuing seismic movement on the tetronic plates of the Nigeria state. Icheoku warns Nigerians to be very wary of these strangely odd bed-fellas who are both as deceitful as they are conceited! They tried in 2007 to ride on the back of the South East into power but failed and they were advised against the futility of over-challenging the charade that put President Umaru Yar'Adua in office but they will not listen to any counselling until the resulting disgrace at the Supreme court. Atiku Abubakar is the worse of the two regarding the election challenge because he is himself a master-rigger who twice rigged himself with Obasanjo into power in 1999 and 2003; and you wonder why his complaint in 2007? Now that the election of 2011 is around the corner, both men have made a u-turn to the South West seeking their 2011 bride in the waiting. Where were both men when one of them, the midget of Kano, Sani Abacha was methodically exterminating the people of Yoruba of the South West? But for these men to now go back to the same land of Oduduwa seeking their hands in political marriage towards 2011 smacks of a desperate desire from Hell to step into Nigeria's White House or Black House aka Aso Rock, This should raise every Nigerian's sixth-sense and we shout from the roof-top of our existence, it is very ominous!

What Buhari could not do while he had all the dictatorial, unquestionable powers of a military maximum ruler, he now wants to attempt to do as a civilian president? A dispensation which must defer to the wishes of Nigerians, by listening to their representatives at the National Assemblies? Olusegun Obasanjo proved to Nigerians that once a dictator always a dictator, and that a soldier is always a soldier; which by implication, means that a Buhari will not be any different.

Which Nigerian wants to go once again, through the experience of the hellish eight years witnessed under Olusegun Obasanjo infamy? Definitely not those ones we know and we bet you are thinking the same. A man who would kill Barthlomew Owo and two others for an offence which they committed before it was made a death penalty offence? This highly emaciated-looking angry army man from Daura Katsina State, promulgated a death decree after Batholomew and co had already been arrested for illegal drugs dealing and retroactively applied same to their case; and executed them despite deafening outcry against the injustice of such retroactive death-decree? But like the trait he displayed when his political party ANPP counselled against going to court to challenge the election of President Umaru Yar'Adua, and went ahead anyway, he did not listen then. A typical Islamist fundamentalist, Buhari does not accommodate differing viewpoints since he believes he is directly wired to his Allah who talks directly to him and directs his actions. Nigerians you are warned, be very scared and wary of Muhammadu Buhari because he is not a civilian nor a democrat and desperation to get back to power tells a lot about his intention. He may not only embark on Islamisation of Nigeria but may re-introduce his signature draconian actions such that every Nigerian would desperately wish and pray for the "good-old" days of Olusegun Obasanjo to come back?

Buhari's co-traveller in this self-effacing journey of no convictions, Atiku Abubakar is another Nigerian, who were Nigeria a functional country, would have since been locked away and forgotten in a prison cell somewhere in Nigeria desert north. His friend in the United States, former Louisiana congressman William Jefferson is awaiting sentencing and possibly could go away for a very very long time for alleged business deals with Atiku Abubakar? Whether he has paid back his overdue bank debt to Nigeria banks, Icheoku does not know; but suffice it to say that any man who would use his privileged position to take out loans he did not intend to pay back until forced by the public odium that unearthed his indebtedness, might as well not be good for a Nigeria leadership.

Atiku helped rig Olusegun Obasanjo and himself to power twice in 1999 and 2003 respectively; and now he is preaching democracy and ganging up to steal power if need be? Icheoku says, if only President Umaru Yar'Adua had guts, he would have since arrested and tried these two men for breach of public peace or even treasonable felony for unnecessarily creating public tension in the land? Both men have severally increased apprehension in Nigeria by categorically stating publicly that Nigeria is a failed state which may soon cease existing? If this is not enough to cause apprehension and panic amongst Nigerian citizens, then nothing known to Icheoku has such capabilities. These two men's sordid past say a lot about the kind of bleak future they will bequeath on Nigeria if allowed or given the opportunity; therefore, they must and should not be allowed to venture back near the presidency! Both men have ulterior motive for so desperately seeking and coveting the office of the presidency of Nigeria and must be stopped forthwith.

While addressing his NDI, Muhammadu Buhari said, "The leaders of the new movement are propelled by the need to urgently salvage the Nigerian nation from collapse and are left with no option than to answer the call of duty “and accept the burden of history” and initiate and give leadership to a process of extensive consultation on the way forward. The emerging coalition is hinged on the principles of federalism and multi-party liberal social democracy and “we believe in and will always promote laissez-fair economic policy that is fully grounded in state welfarism.” Like the South Carolina hillbilly, Icheoku screams, You Lie!

First of all, you are not a known democrat but an unrepentant mean dictator who killed innocent people based on a retroactive decree. You also recently would not listen or accommodate a different opinion on your former party's way forward. You also allowed your then ADC Major Jokolo to bring into Nigeria 53 suitcases which content nobody knows; while you were pontificating and prosecuting your then war against indiscipline (WAI). Buhari, Icheoku says, may be you can start your democracy initiative and movement by first apologising to Nigerians for your coup against democracy in 1983? Thereafter, apologise for the affront on rule of law for killing three innocent Nigerians based on a retroactive decree? Following which you then pay compensation to the families of Bartholomew Owo and co; and finally explain to Nigerians the content of those 53 suitcases. Do this for your absolution, and then may be, Nigerians will be prepared to hear what you want to tell them.

The consolation for Nigerians however is that none of these 'conspirators' ganging up under the National Democratic Movement (NDM) has any serious followership in Nigeria anymore; as would be a cause for serious concern? They are all marooned politicians trying desperately to find some degree of relevance in today's Nigerian polity and invent one if need be? Luckily enough, Nigerians have severally in the past told these two men, thanks but no, thanks! But like an old penny nobody wants they keep recycling themselves back into national discuss each time.

But just for the heck of it, lets sift through the pile of spent Nigerian politicians in this movement:- who is Atahiru Bafarawa, Olorunnimbe Mamora, Prince Tony Momoh, Tonye Princewill, Ben Obi, Olu Falae, Duben Onyia, Mike Ahamba, Great Ogboru, Usman Bugaje, Buba Galadima, Tom Ikimi, Lawal Keita and Supo Soyibare among the others to cause sleeplessness in Aso Rock? Our answer is none, as they all appear to be nomadic political leftovers seeking for some fodder and shelter? Of all the poeple in Western Nigeria, only old man Olu Falae of the the SAP notoriety could they mobilize? From the Niger Delta South-South, of all the people there only the man whose government killed Ken Saro Wiwa, while he was serviving as then foreign minister, Tom Ikimi and a coup plotter Great Ogboru are all they could mobilize? And when you check the people with some followership from the north, only Bugaje and Bafawara were their best options? From the South East, Dubem Onyia; and you ask yourself which followership does this Dubem of a man command in his Enugu State or even village, talkless of the entire South-East? And same goes with Senator Ben Obi and Lawyer Mike Ahamba too? The NDM conveners are really very serious indeed, except they only allowed 'yes people' who will not constitute a barrier to their selfish ambition to rule Nigeria at any and all cost payable? Echoing the PDP, Icheoku agrees that "these participants are adventurers and an assembly of bad loosers with unstable agenda and futility of ambitions."

Icheoku reiterates the alert of PDP "on the “instability of character of the principal conveners of this charade who have consistently displayed a lack of principle, discipline and patriotism by their nomadic political nature." Instead of trying to reinvent and rebuild their already formed and existing political parties the Action Congress (AC) with two states and All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) with five states, these charlatans, Muhmmadu Buhari and Atiku Abubakar are busy trying to create a private fiefdom where their words are the command and where they will not have any strong voice to question their dictates? Nigerians should first find out why these despicable men abandoned the ship of their respective parties AC and ANPP and are now venturing out again to form a new political party? What went wrong with where they were previously making the need for a new one suddenly imperative? Could someone out-there please help Icheoku tell these guys that democracy is about dissenting opinions!

Icheoku predicts that the NDM if it makes it into a full fledged party will eventually split into two groups, along the fault-lines of Buhari and Atiku? Like 'the moribund Mega Party idea that found itself embroiled in mega confusion,' the NDM will soon find itself being tugged apart by the irreconcillable conflicting interests of Buhari and Atiku? In the words of PDP national chairman Vincent Ogbulafor, “surely they shall gather, but surely they shall scatter because they are strange bed mates.” Icheoku says, the PDP chairman spoke wisely and correctly articulated both men as the strangest of all strange bedfellows ever to seek to forge a common alliance in Nigeria? Both Buhari and Atiku have different character, personality, temperament and political background; such are the glaring disparities that Icheoku queries, how can oil and water easily mix and very well?

Icheoku asks, what does these two men know which the rest of Nigerians does not about the "imminent or impending total collapse of Nigeria into a failed state?" May be the SSS and other security agencies of the government should invite them or take them in for questioning? If the country did not collapse during Biafra or when the infamous midget of Kano, Sani Abacha, attempt to kill off Nigerians of the South-West, Icheoku says, never again and not a million man army of Buhari and Atiku combined can accomplish that now. Their needless fear mongering is just to make Nigerians capitulate and in their fear call for their knight in shinning armour to come and rescue save them? What a weapon of fear-mongering being deployed by these men to force a concepted situation into play and for their benefit.

Icheoku says, the present shenanigan of the duo is not borne out of any patrotic zeal or sincere attempt to forestal a possible collapse of Nigeria; no, it is out of their selfish feeling of self-importance, which both men have arrogated to themselves, that they cannot be ignored or permanently consigned into the dustbin of political irrelevance in Nigeria. So, they have to scream lungful that Nigeria is on the verge of collapse; but does anyone in today's Nigeria really care if Nigeria goes to hell in a hand's basket?

Now listen to Atiku Abubakar addressing his NDM gathering, “That is why a number of us Nigerian leaders have come together to try to build a broad mass-based movement of committed democrats and patriots to save this country from imminent collapse. We must leave behind a country that our children would be proud of; a country whose best and brightest do not have to run to other countries in order to find good education and well-paying and professionally and personally fulfilling jobs; a country where citizens will be free to move about without the fear of being kidnapped; a country whose leaders understand the centrality of electrical power, education and health in economic development and job and wealth creation; a country whose citizens do not have to take up arms in order to secure justice and equity; a country whose leaders would be found in the company of other world leaders as they try to deal with the key challenges facing the contemporary world.” Icheoku says, easier said than done; this is the same Atiku Abubakar who with Olusegun Obasanjo sent Nigeria adrift for eight long hellish years, now trying to cash in on the very short memory Nigerians are notorious for? When was his epiphany, that he now preaches democracy that Nigerians can believe in? Icheoku says, do not believe the hype of a marooned politician still seeking relevance in his enstranged island of political oblivion! What a gimmickry of the highest order!

The irony of this gang up is that it is just Katsina, Sokoto and Adamawa that are represented in this "Operation Save Nigeria National Democratic Movement?" If indeed it is national in outlook as its name seem to suggest, why the geographical restriction of the major stake-holders to just north east and north west; with the remaining four geographical belts in Nigeria sitting in the lurch? Icheoku surmises that it is just another vanguard of divergent northerners desperately scheming for relevance and playing their usual political chess game against the rest of Nigerians? They are so infatuated with power that whatever gets it for any of them, is oh well and dandy and including the devil? If it is a national opposition to the seating PDP, what happened to the rest of the opposition? Why did they not invite Ikemba Ojukwu's APGA or Orji Uzor-Kalu's PPA or even the Labour Party to give them that sense of a Nigeria that is more inclusive? No, they are just looking for 'yes men and women' to dominate and ride their backs back to power. But they shall be disappointed as Nigerians have known what this two men, Buhari and Atiku represent and their gang-up shall not be allowed to prosper but shall woefully fail. Our advise is for this two men, Muhammadu Buhari and Atiku Abubakar, to just quit politics and disappear from the Nigerian political scene for good; they now constitute avoidable nightmarish eyesores just like Olusegun Obasanjo and Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida!

OASIS OF THE SEAS, A BEHEMOTH OF A CRUISE SHIP!

Icheoku welcomes the mother of all cruise boats, The Oasis of the Seas, the largest cruise boat ever made as it makes its maiden voyage to sea, en-route Florida. Just when you thought that it cannot get any bigger, science and technology says, not just yet!

At a cost of $1.5 billion and standing about 20 stories high, the ship is five times larger than the world famous ill-fated Titanic. It is nearly 40 percent larger than any present day biggest cruise ship still sailing the seas of the world.

Oasis of the Sea which was built by STX Finland for Royal Caribbean International Florida USA; has seven neighborhoods, an ice rink, boutiques, restaurants, bars, four swimming pools, a golf course, a 750-seat outdoor amphitheater, a 1,300 guests indoor theater, volleyball and basketball courts, a youth zone with theme parks and nurseries for children. It also has 2,700 cabins and can accommodate 6,300 passengers and 2,100 crew members.

Icheoku says, what a behemoth floating city on the seas, brought to fruition through the ingenuity of the human brain. Safe sailing Oasis of the Sea!