BABANGIDA SEEKS TO OUTFLANK JONATHAN THROUGH THE SOUTH-EAST?

With a promise of an Igbo South East presidency in 2015, the devil incarnate Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida is testing the waters of the South East to see if it is conducive for him to launch his moribund boat and set sail for the Nigerian presidency in 2011? Icheoku asks but can anybody give to another what he does not have or possess? Except such a promisor is living in the la-la land of make-believe and wishful-thinking like Ibrahim Babangida, the answer is an emphatic resounding 'NO'; and Icheoku wonders the worth of such a boastful and empty promise to the Igbo nation of South East Nigeria.

Once again, the fabled Igbo peoples' lack of political adroitness and/or cohesion when it comes to taking a firm position on matters affecting them and protective of their collective interest in Nigeria and elsewhere in the Diaspora, is being tested by a motley of presidents wanna-bes including the infamous murderer Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida. They have queued up, severally courting the Igbo nation with different heavily promises, both realistic and unrealistic ones as they scheme their evil way to the presidency of Nigeria in 2011. Left in the lurch is an Igbo nation which like a deer caught up in the headlights is still bamboozled, as they debate and rigmarole over which side of the divide to pitch their tent of support. First they agreed to support Jonathan, then recanted themselves and seem now to be undecided; and you ask yourself, has Babangida also bribed them as he did with Nigerian journalists that any of them is even considering his candidacy? Icheoku decries this indecisive seating on the fence by the Igbos as an unhealthy non-beneficial political puerilism which serves them no good; and hereby call on them to forthwith and without further ado, cast their lot with one of the presidential camps before they become irrelevant in their permutations. The Igbo nation should not wait to be courted by any of the grooms this time; they should force themselves on one of them; and by forcing the issue, tell the groom what it is that they want and that attracted them to him in the first place.

Icheoku wants the Igbo nation to know that the ability to make up one's mind and take a decision when it matters most marks out a real man from the wussies of this world. Further borrowing a leaf from the evil-one Babangida, history will always forgive a bad decision than no decision at all; so let the Igbos decide today whose presidential interest they will serve and pitch their tent accordingly and stop waiting for all the heavy lifting to be completed by others before playing a second fiddle for whoever secures the trophy. Notable presidential candidates are again at the usual 'on and off' romance with the Igbo nation, using them as a pawn in their yo-yo political game of trying to outwit one another other. The fabled late Zik of Africa and Owelle of Onitsha, Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe once described this peculiar Igbo position as their being the usual beautiful bride who every political suitor in Nigeria woos, courts and dumps as soon as she looses her virginity and delivers the child of destiny - the presidency. In 2010 prelude to 2011 presidential election, it is again same old same old; of using a people whose inability to really and properly articulate what it is they want out of Nigeria's unholy wedlock has bedeviled their gaining their rightful position within the Nigerian polity.

Today this wish-washy Igbo nation's inability to take a firm position and stand by it has reduced the once very proud and respected Igbo stork to the lowest and most derided newest minority group of and in Nigeria. Is Icheoku pissed off at what has become the fate of the Igboman in Nigeria, you bet. Is Icheoku mad at those inept Igbo leadership that had supervised this decay, yes and rightfully so; for it is beyond pale the degradation to which the Igbo race has been reduced to in today's Nigeria. The once proud owners and occupiers of the table of power in Nigeria are the new beggarly prostitutes of today, genuflecting and cowering for whatever crumbles that might fall from their new masters Hausa/Fulani, Yoruba and now even the South-South's table. Who is to blame for this descent into near political irrelevance and obscurity but the Igbos themselves, whose crass infighting amongst themselves and their fabled crab-mentality have conspired to deny them their rightful place in Nigeria. The Igbos are supposedly educated but yet not learned or well informed; the Igbos are wise yet foolish; the Igbos are clever yet dumb; the Igbos are smart yet inarticulate; and above all they are grossly disunited and possessed of an unruly mob mentality which makes it utterly difficult for any one of them to emerge as their guiding light to chaperon their destiny. The result, the aground to which their ship of nationhood have ran in today's Nigeria; and whenever it resumes sail, is most likely to be marooned again in a island of nowhere since a vessel without a designated captain lacks any meaningful voyage direction or destination. Is this the fate of the Igbo man in Nigeria or the best they could wish or aspire for themselves within the polity or can they do better?

The evil-one and self-confessed evil genius of Nigeria, a double badness, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida having failed to jump-start his dead on arrival presidential campaign from the Yoruba South-West have now turned South East as a plan B - to use the Igbos of the South East as a life-saver to his comatose and imbecilic presidential ambition. His bait of choice, the dangling of Nigeria's presidency in 2015 before the Igbos as theirs for the asking, conditioned on their playing alongside his team from hell to realize his own presidential ambition? Icheoku is convinced that Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida honestly believes and hopes that the Igbos will bite his poison bait and follow him to commit a mass political suicide in Nigeria, the Reverend Jim Jones Guyana example? Icheoku asks, when did this mad man of Minna, in his delusional state, think up the possibility that 2015 will again present another situation for the accommodation of another Ernest Shonekan from the South East, who he can again install as the interim head of government of Nigeria? Failing which, Icheoku condemns this petulant display of crass arrogance by Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida as self aggrandizing thinking that he alone can make the Igbo man president of Nigeria. What an idiotic statement of high fallacy and falsehood, coming from the very windpipe of the Nigerian Maradona, a man to who evil means good such that he prides himself as the evil genius of Nigeria.

Babangida's latest gambit of love for the Igbo man and professed scheming for an Igbo presidency in 2015 flies in the face of known evidence of his penchant anti-party to the Igbos and his constant sabotage of everything Igbo; despite eloping during the war with one of Igbo's most beautiful lady, the late Maryam. First Babangida and his fellow bloody mallams from the north and few disgruntled Yorubas led by Obasanjo, Akrinade and Adekunle conspired to scuttle Igbos march towards self determination during Biafra; when they marched mercilessly through then Biafran land of Asaba executing the massacre of every young and able Asaba man in 1970 under the supervision of the satanic worshipper, the late Muritala Mohammed. Till date no one ever in authority in Nigeria has deemed it fit to raise the issue of compensation for this wanton and unnecessary destruction of lives of Igbo men of Asaba stork and Babangida had eight years as a power hijacking despot of Nigeria between 1985 to 1993 to do so if only he wanted, but refused to do so or even tender an apology in that respect. The same Babangida it was with Gowon and co, who decided to checkmate a surrendered Biafra into a landlocked territory by depriving them access to the sea with a lopsided states creation which succeeded in cutting the core Igbo nation off from the Atlantic Ocean; yet he is professing his love for the Igbo man and expressing a desire to "install" an Igbo man president in 2015? Babangida it was who created states in Nigeria and not only refused to equalize the number of states in the present South East to be at par with the rest of other zones; but also failed to give the Igbo people on the west of River Niger a full fledged state they can proudly call their own. Instead, he decided to force-lump them into a permanent minority status in Delta State with the majority Urhobo and Itshekiris, leading to the Delta State Igbos not being able to produce a governor of their state' governor ever since; yet Babangida professes his undying love for the Igbo man. It was Babangida with Buhari and Abacha who planned and thwarted the prospective emergence of Alex Ekwueme as president of Nigeria in 1987 when they forcibly overthrew the government of President Shehu Shagari to subvert Ekwueme's prospective presidency in 1987 under the guise of stemming the economic dysentery and diarrhea afflicting Nigeria in 1983.

Icheoku says and warns every Igbo man and woman entertaining the proposition of the evil one concerning Igbo presidency in 2015 to please revisit the archives of history and ask him/herself whether he is really buying this white elephant kite being flown by Babangida and for what reason? The Igbo man's greatest undoing is their childlike behavior, of usually running after a candy held out by other races in Nigeria without themselves aspiring or desiring with all the sinew in their body to be the managing director and gatekeeper of the candy store handing out those candies themselves.

Icheoku says, Babangida must be smoking a lot of pot lately and thinks that every Nigerian especially the Igbos are also too doped and hallucinatory to remember his antecedents and well documented anti-Igbo people record. Any Igbo person in doubt should first check with Ebitu Ukiwe and hear his story of what he went through under Babangida and his anti-Igbo policies including the surreptitious membership of Nigeria in the OIC not caring a whiff that over 99.9 percent of Igbos are non Muslims. As Babangida's chief of staff (second in command), Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe was relegated to the background and at one time, courtesy of Babangida's instruction, was to come after Abacha, an army chief under him, in a procession. So Icheoku calls on every Igbo man romanticizing with the idea of a beneficial Babangida's presidency for the Igbos to first consult with his inner minds and juxtapose it with known antecedents of Babangida anti-Igbo records before buying the evil one's fantastical and nonsensical promise of a 2015 Igbo presidency.

Usually when someone tells you where he wants to go, you ask him where he was coming from in order to level off his prospect of reaching the new destination. A leopard' spots does not easily change and the last time Icheoku checked, Babangida has not become a convincing camelion either; and is only deploying this 2015 Igbo presidency as one of the last weapons of his mass destruction of Nigeria against President Jonathan; trying in vain to drive a wedge between the peoples of the South South and their South East southern neighbors. But this should not be misinterpreted as Icheoku's endorsement of President Jonathan's attempt to appropriate north's four more years of a zoned presidency, no; as our position still remains unchanged that Nigeria's unity will be better off served if the zoning arrangement of the PDP is maintained, That way, every sectional groupings in the country can have something to look forward to, a shot at the presidency; and not the dividing indifference by certain hitherto perpetually marginalized minorities of Nigeria who feels they are being exploited for no returns by the majority.

As far as Icheoku is concerned the question of how many terms Babangida would rule post 2011 is moot; since he cannot and shall not be elected president of Nigeria to start with; not in 2011 and not anytime thereafter. Nigerians have since resolved that never again shall an evil person rule them again; especially when that evil person is an evil genius himself - a double evil. Babangida, a drowning man reaching out for every straw he can lay his flopping hands on was via a proxy at the recent World Igbo Congress (WIC) in Philadelphia Pennsylvania USA preaching his newly found gospel of Igbo 2015 presidency. According to this toothy monster of Minna, his impetuous desire is to "see that power moves from the North to the South-east to demonstrate the full integration of the Igbo into the mainstream of the country in order to put an end completely to the 30 months civil war"; and you ask yourself, when he was in charge of Nigeria what did he do to better the lot of the average Joe-Igbo man in the south East. Did he build their roads, no! Did he build an international airport in Igboland, nope! Did he build a second bridge on the River Niger which his sadistic Nigeria troops destroyed during their genocidal war against the people of South East of Biafra, no! Did he rehabilitate Oji River power station that hitherto supplied power to the entire South East, he did not! Did Babangida build industries in the South East Igboland, no! Did Babangida dredge the River Niger to make it easier for Onitsha and Aba importers and traders to use the navigable water ways to reduce cost of doing business, no! So now tell Icheoku what stupid intergration this toothy fairy of Minna is talking about when he refused and failed to implement same when he had the opportunity as a maximum ruler of Nigeria.

The bottom line is that Babangida's mind is playing tricks on him and has taken his entire thought process hostage. For Babagida to think that the Igbos are not sophisticated enough to read in between the lines and will fall prey to his ice-cream of a 2015 Igbo presidency and come out in droves to support his already failed presidential bid is hallucination in an overdrive.

In summation, Icheoku calls on the entire Igbo people of Nigeria not to fall for the bait of the corrupt fisherman of Minna, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, who might as well be so dead long before 2015. At 70 years old now, reaching 75 in 2015 might be such an uphill task judging from the life span of an average Nigerian and a Minna man for that matter. But assuming he does not die and is still sane enough in 2015 and chooses not to retire but instead to remain the eyesore he is before many decent Nigerians; Icheoku asks where are the guarantees from that the scumbag who took Nigerians on several years of a jolly ride to an endless transition to democracy and also an election which he annulled will perform his side of the bargain? What guarantees can a criminal master-mind and operative give, who as a defence minister went up against his boss Buhari and overthrew his government. What guarantees are there left in a man who killed his best friend forever and his wedding's best man Mamma Vasta based on a phantom coup? What guarantees are there in a man who blew Dele Giwa away with a parcel bomb in order to forcefully stop a story of his drug complicity with Gloria Okon from ever making it to the news stand? What kind of guarantees are the Igbo people looking to get from a man who snubbed Justice Oputa's investigative panel and the last time Icheoku checked Oputa is an Igbo man from Oguta Imo State; adding to the litany of chronicled Babangida's disdain for the Igbos.

What Icheoku is saying is that the gratuitous promise of a 2015 Igbo presidency in return for Igbos supporting Babangida realize his 2011 presidential fantasy is as worthless as the saliva wasted while spitting it out since the man making the promise cannot give what he does not possess or own. Nigeria's presidency is not Babangida's nor his for the asking and/or to give or bestow; otherwise he should not be running for it but would have just grabbed it. For any Igboman to buy into this phantom promise is to similarly believe that elephants can fly especially the white species; therefore the Igbos must distance themselves from the Babangida's DOA presidential dream and run away as far as their legs can carry them from the evil genius. Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida is toxic and such an unwanted piece of garbage should not be embraced by the Igbos of the South east not even for the illusory promise of a 2015 presidency.

The latin maxim "nemo dat non quod habet" aptly applies to this grandiose promise of a 2015 igbo presidency since Babangida does not own Nigeria's presidency and therefor cannot give to the Igbos that which he does not possess in 2015. Lastly Babagida going to the WIC is a wrong move since the said body no longer speaks nor hardly ever spoke for Igbo Diapora; it long ago lost its mojo and gravitas as an umbrella Igbo Diaspora organisation and neither have any influence abroad nor even among the Igbo market women back home in motherland. So how about that Babangida for the plane ticket and hotel accommodation of your delegate to Philadelphia; and Icheoku believes a lot of such opportunists are lined up throughout the Hilltop mansion in Minna waiting to collect part of the looted stash based on one thing or the other; but hey it is Nigeria's money and so Icheoku does not begrudge any Nigerian who lies his way into Babangida's evil and wicked heart to collect part of it. All said and done, this latest manuover based on some military training received at Fort Bening Georgia will not be sufficient to conquer Aso Rock and a wise man knows when to cut his losses and scamper; but regrettably Babangida is merely brutish but not wise and his wild goose chase continues!

NIGERIA IS BROKE AND CANNOT PROPERLY FUND ELECTIONS 2011?

Icheoku says surprise, surprise; the news that the Federal Government of Nigeria is broke and cannot properly fund the coming 2011 general elections as well as some ongoing projects in the country! Why won't the country be broke judging the intensity of the draining of its meager financial resources especially by the buccaneers parading themselves as members of the National Assembly, whose take-home pays/allowances is shrouded in topmost secrecy. It was Olusegun Obasanjo who first raised the outcry that at the rate the National Assembly members are pillaging the national treasury that very soon it will become impossible for Nigeria to continue to sustain its democracy. Now less than two months after one minister was demoted for letting the cat of Nigeria's near insolvency out of the bag, another top government source is putting Nigerians on a grim alert on the near insolvency state of their country.

Yet President Goodluck Jonathan is carrying on as if there is nothing to worry about; and speeding up to spend a whopping 50billion Naira celebrating Nigeria's 50th independent anniversary; and you wonder what is there to celebrate? President Jonathan is celebrating a 50 years white-washed penury, corruption, crimes, joblessness, lack of good roads, electricity, health services, housing, water, education, food etc? The tragedy of it all is that some of the invited officials of foreign government would themselves be wondering whether the extravagant foolery and revelry is worthwhile, judging from the decay in the country which would have benefited more from having the 'wasted' fund invested in them. But no, not in a country that never gets its priorities right and which has never been able to figure out the way forward and out of its state of near total malaise. Icheoku says the 50th anniversary celebration is symptomatic of a government without a clear vision of its goals or any well defined mission statement which would have forced its hands to a more goal-directed priorities, towards achieving very meaningful palliative objectives for the people. In short, it is a misplaced priority by the Jonathan's government which increasingly is manifesting traits of an Obasanjo's third term and have surrounded itself with the same discredited people that helped Obasanjo ruin Nigeria. Their latest project is the drunken sailor like profligacy of a 50 billion 50th independence anniversary celebration, to celebrate nothingness; yet there is no money for INEC?

Where is the sacrifice of the leadership, especially those of them in the National Assembly, such as taking a pay/allowance cut to ensure that INEC got the money it requires to conduct the coming elections. No, they would rather a broke INEC is rendered incapable of conducting a free and fair elections, so that they can see an opportunity to rig themselves back into office for the looting party of the national treasury to continue. But hey, a country deserves the type of leadership it gets; so until Nigerians decide to take their destiny in their own hands and chase out all these mongrels in power, and instituting real peoples' leadership in its place that are accountable to the people, it is going to remain the same - a Nigeria under the vice-hold of creeping plundering thieves. Finally Icheoku says the latest development that Nigeria is on the threshold of becoming the bankrupt Greece of Africa is shuddering in view of the receipts taken in as revenue by the same government over the years.But the election must hold and money must be found or borrowed if need be to ensure that INEC is not purposely encumbered by election riggers set to rig themselves back into office in 2011. Nigerians must therefore say no to these election riggers and condemn their latest antic of trying to deprive INEC the resources it needs to conduct a meaningful election in 2011. This "Nigeria is broke and cannot fund the elections" sounds like an act taken out of election riggers play book, hence it must be resisted as an already in progress election rigging!

ISRAELI-PALESTINE UNENDING PEACE PROCESS NUDGES AHEAD!

"We cannot and will not impose a solution. Only you can make the decisions necessary to reach an agreement and secure a peaceful future for the Israeli and Palestinian people." - Madam Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Icheoku says well apportioned summation; and it is now left for both parties to truly desire to make a success out of this latest effort at a peace treaty.

While Icheoku watched the leadership of both Israel and Palestine make their opening remarks, one thing particularly caught our attention - the reference by Bibi Netanyahu to the Bible and its account of Jews and Arabs shared heritage. According to Netanyahu, Isaac and Ishmail, Jewish and Arab sires respectively, came together when the moment called and joined hands to bury their father Abraham at Hebron. Netanyahu used the biblical reference to show that both Israel and Palestine can still rise up to the occasion in the manner of their forebears and together bring about a desired outcome. Icheoku thinks that Netanyahu sincerely spoke from the heart and is ready to make peace this time. We encourage and support his desire to deliver some tangible result this time and urge the Palestines not to be unduly obstinate or too rigid with some of their positions as would ordinarily thwart this effort, not this time.

However, Israel must be prepared to play the lead role here as well as swallow some very painful and difficult pills necessary to get to the destination of peace; and must be ready to make those needed concessions even if unilaterally. They are the more rational, more invested and the people who stand to lose more should the Middle East unravel again; and so must be prepared to stoop down to accommodate whatever BS that may be thrown their way by all the Arab nations who are the puppet masters pulling the Palestine 'say no to peace' strings. Israel should Just secure the peace treaty and then like every nation on earth, can enforce their security later as no one will question their right to use any means necessary to protect their citizens and territory from any foreign aggression. As for Jerusalem, it was nice watching Netanyahu admit to the historical and biblical fact that both Jews and Arabs descended from one man, Abraham; therefore it defeats every logic then the Israel attempt to go against the grain and try to exclude their brother, Palestines, from the family property.

The solution therefore is a meaningful division of Jerusalem between these two Isaac and Ishmail's descendants, who inherits the land and Jerusalem from Abraham through their respective fathers, Abraham's two sons - Isaac and Ishmail; case closed and the peace will thereafter endure forever! Icheoku wishes both parties goodluck as they resume their unending peace process; provided othet Arab nations will this time free Palestines from their shackles and permit it to honestly negotiate their peace terms with the Israelis.

DR. JACQUELYN KOTARAC'S DEATH INSIDE A CHIMNEY, CRAZY IN LOVE OR CRAZED OUT IN LOVE?

Love may be blind some people say, but to many other more reasonable minds, it sees with a 20-20 vision and sometimes with an additional eye. Love may be unconditional to some people, but to many other more rational human-beings, it is heavily conditional, front and back; the reason why there is pre-nuptial agreements. Love is also said to be always forgiving; but we beg to qualify it as not in all circumstances such as when it leads to the death of the offending spouse/partner in the hands of the unforgiving one.

But of all the things love may be, there is one thing love certainly is not - it is not idiotic or imbecilic. A Bakersfield California USA lady medical doctor who wanted to prove love wrong on this last count, just found out the hard-way as she suffocated in a chimney trying to catch her boyfriend pants-down in the act? Icheoku says if only the dead medical doctor had taken some breath, paused for a moment to convince herself that what you don't know does not hurt; instead of playing an infamous detective who barreled herself through a smoke chimney stark just to spring on a boyfriend who she was not even married to. What a control-freak this daughter of Eve was who would even think about such an invasion through the chimney; and you wonder why so many men have hung on to their bachelorhood for so long or better still became celibate or even turned gay. Unfortunately too, it appears that this medical doctor forgot the lessons she learnt in her Chemistry 101 class about carbon-monoxide and its killer-potentials; or did she not think or was not even thinking that her boyfriends chimney has capability of producing toxic carbon monoxide as well?

If a street-whore had done this, or even a less educated and/or little informed love-crazed woman, pursuing her boyfriend, not even her husband; may be Icheoku would begin to attempt an understanding that sometimes you have to be crazy to be in love? But for an M.D. - a 49 year old medical doctor with a somewhat thriving family practice, who was described by people who knew her as "a superb internist who often provided service and medication free of charge to her patients"; then Icheoku wonders out aloud how she passed her psychiatric evaluation before she obtained her medical licence? How can such an emotionally deprived woman be allowed to treat patients, if she did not possess the soundness of mind to distinguish between rationalism and stupidity as to jump into a working chimney with its attendant health hazards and/or carbon monoxide poisoning? Every attempt at finding some plausible ground to tilt the argument on the deceased medical doctors' side only succeeds in one thing only - condemning her for her irrationality and crazed out stupidity; since no reasonable person, especially one with her background would just jump off the cliff expecting that some magical hands somewhere will just reach out and save her sorry arse from a certain death. Even chimney rats and firemen who foray into chimneys treat is as a hazardous place and wear proper protective coverings to thwart the effect of carbon compounds found in abundance therein especially firewood-burning chimney like the one under advisement here.

According to the story, internist Jacquelyn Kotarac, M.D. fury as hell, rushed to her boyfriend, 58 year old William Moodie's house, following an argument or a tip-off (investigation is still continuing) to personally confront him over whatever their beef was. Sensing danger and tired of her constant bitching and for fear of his life, the boyfriend locked himself inside the house and refused to open the door to let her in. What did the incensed doctor do, she got a shovel and tried in vain to pry the door to the house open with it; but when her shovel measure did not yield the desired result of letting her hands get hold of her boyfriend inside the house, another dumb idea crept into her medical brains. She found a ladder and climbed to the roof of the house to the chimney; she removed the chimney cap and in she went, in a her very last ever bad decision in life. Her plan was to slid into the house through the fireplace, James Bond 007 or even CSI style, and land a surprise mother of all attacks on her boyfriend? It appears that she must have watched too many Hollywood make-belief stories and now Icheoku really understands why her boyfriend was running so far away from her in the first place and avoiding a confrontation by all means possible. However, her luck ran out as she suffocated inside the shoot before she could make a landfall in her boyfriend's fireplace and her now slumped body got wedged inside it. It is instructive to note that the victim-boyfriend who she was probably planning to assault had earlier given her the slip while she was trying to shovel the door open; as he escaped through a discreet exit not covered by her trespassed and 'murderous' home invasion.

Since no one saw her go inside the chimney nor taught that such a senseless act was possible her dead body was not discovered until few days later when nature had already gone to work on the cadaver with manifest early stages of decay. Her body was discovered when a house-sitter, traced the source of a stench in the house to the area of the fireplace where she also noticed some fluids dripping down unto the fireplace mantel. She further investigated the shoot with a flashlight and noticed a body, which later turned out to be Dr. Jacquelyn Kotarac's, wedged about two feet above the top of the interior of the fireplace opening. Arriving Firefighters and rescue/recovery team extracted the body from the chimney which they took apart to access the body. Admitted she was reported missing when she failed to show up for work but no one ever adverted their mind on the possibility that the chimney will be the prime suspect in her disappearance; although her car remained parked within the vicinity of the boyfriend's house.

According to one sympathizer, "Dr. Jacquelyn had her issues — she had her demons"; and Icheoku concurs that only a possessed human-being in dire need of an exorcism could so irrationally tunnel herself into a chimney just to catch-up with a disagreeing boyfriend. One also wonders if it was a case of her trying desperately to force her love on a disinterested and forlorn boyfriend; she was afterall 49 years old and unmarried, and may be pushing the issue of marriage to a breaking point. It reminds Icheoku of a story of one guy who was hitting on a girl and when this girl was becoming so unyielding with her refusal of his love supplications, had this boy bark, "anyway whether or not you like it, if you do not want my love, I will force my love on you". So was this doctor forcing an issue and accidentally misjudged her action to go inside the chimney or was it a deliberate act of suicide for not getting the bargain of her affection? Hopefully the investigation will provide the answers or at least clues to these questions and until then, Icheoku says, what a way of love and its unending tales of drama, woes and sorrows. Although no amount of rationalizing can explain what this medical doctor did as it is beyond pale for a thinking human-being to play a chimney-ninja in this manner, not being a professional. But out of the ashes of a ruin usually comes some moral lesson, which in Doctor Jacquelyn Kotarac's case is that she was not a good study of a person being 'crazy in love' as contemplated by Beyonce Knowles; hers was rather a person crazed-out in love in a strange case of a love gone awry.

PRESIDENT GOODLUCK EBELECHUKU JONATHAN PLEASE EXERCISE CAUTION, DO NOT RUN IN 2011.

Icheoku's position may not be popular with the current trend in Nigeria now but at least it is not sycophantic nor masses-driven. It is a position founded on candor and rightness; and history will vindicate the just. Babangida had people (ABN) urging him during his murderous regime to stay on in 1993; midget of Kano Sani Abacha also had his own band of town-criers beating the drum of a life presidency; the deity of Otta Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo had his own third term apostles who wanted him to continue his inhumane autocratic stranglehold on Nigerians, so it is not surprising that some people are now displaying the same pedantic traits once again, goading President Jonathan to do what is wrong simply because he is in a position to do so and they stand to reap therefrom as potential beneficiaries of such infra-dig. Admitted these apologists seem to be in the majority now, but Icheoku says that sometimes the majority are sometimes wrong as was the case with the demand for the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ by the Jewish mob. But a smart person would always know when to check the excesses of these buccaneers and we urge President Goodluck Jonathan to be smart and rise up to the occasion and do what is right. Please President Jonathan say no to the temptation of the 2011 presidency. It is not the turn of the South-South yet to secure the presidency since the North ought to be allowed to serve out the remainder of their eight years term in the interest of fairness, equity and good conscience respecting an existing gentleman's agreement. But can Jonathan be trusted to overcome the sweet aromatic allure of power or is he going to push his proverbial goodluck beyond reasonableness; we shall soon find out.

ROMANIANS EXPULSION FROM FRANCE, A FRENCH-STYLED NAZISM COME ALIVE?

It is simply Orwellian to say the least, the French dispositive exclusion and selective deportation of the Romanian Diaspora in France. The guise of their nuisance or homelessness or even criminality is not persuasive enough since non of these people were ever tried and/or convicted by a court of law for their alleged crimes or social order infraction before the heartless order to exclude them from France. What happened to the legal tenet of innocent until proved guilty of the civilized world? We are talking about a member of the European Union unilaterally removing citizens of another fellow member country from its shores within the same European Union. Icheoku condemns the French arbitrariness in forcibly removing these group of Europeans from France - it is inhuman, un-European and capable of becoming the heat that will eventually melt the wax of the fragile European Union experiment.

Icheoku queries what is the cartoonish Sarkozy smoking when he suddenly woke up from its stupor to order the expulsion of the Roma gypsies out of France? Was the intermingling and co-habitation anywhere in Europe of every European not one of the cardinal objectives of bringing all the nations of Europe under the EU; or is Sarkozy adopting the Animal Farm principles that some animal are more equal than others? Is France Sarkozy saying by his action that Romanian gypsies are less European than their French counterparts and/or other nationalities from other European Union member states? It really does not bode well for the EU to standby and wacth its member France continue to carry out this selective deportation of the gypsies; including women and children who are in France in quest of a more meaningful existence in the spirit of one Europe of the European Union. For France Sarkozy to forcibly repatriate these gypsies Europeans back to Romanian to a certain fate of want and need, while the EU watches helplessly, shows that the European Union is a farce. Such action forces Icheoku to question whether the European Union is worth its charter if a member thereof could so shabbily treat citizens of the Union and in such uncaring and uncouth manner as the French Sarkozy just did with the Romanian gypsies.

If Adolf Hitler had a place to deport and ship off the millions of Jews in his Nazi Germany, may be he would not have embarked on the infamous course that led to the genocidal holocaust that wasted the lives of six million Jews; or in any event would not have waste his gas, manpower and other resources trying in vain, to incinerate and annihilate the Jews of this world. All he would have done was to arrest them in similar fashion as France's Sarkozy has done in respect of the Romanians who called France home, put them in steam ships and consign them to their certain fate of degradation in whatever land that was associated with them then. Contexed with the present and then the question, could Sarkozy have even thrown these gypsies into a gas chamber just to get rid of them like Adolf Hitler did with the Jews; and the readily answer would be, you bet; since it is the same disdain of a certain people that fueled both incidents. Icheoku says anything is possible for a man who could so lightly make a decision to send away women and children of Romanian descent just because he does not like the way their hairs or general appearance looked. But thankfully enough, today's watchful eyes of humanity will not permit a Sarkozy France to so incinerate the gypsies in a gas chamber; hence he settled for just throwing them out of France into the abject poverty and want chamber in Romania.

But try as anyone may to phantom an educated guess or put a handle on why Sarkozy's France should resort to such man's inhumanity to a fellow man, Icheoku could not but settle on the long existing man's dislike for his fellow man? The gist of what went down in Sarkozy's France is that humanity does not like each another - it hates one another and merely tolerate one another just because of civilization. Cannibalism, internecine feuds and wars, genocide, enslavement, forced labor, economic stagnation, unprovoked wars etc are such examples of man's hatred for each other that has been going on in this world and for a long time. So in a way Sarkozy's France just exhibited this age-long man's intolerance of each other with its forcible deportation of innocent European gypsies to Romania; a people who did not commit any crime but were merely running away from dire economic straits back in their native home-country to seek succour in France. But to their chagrin, France disappointed them as it turned them back to an assured hopelessness and abject poverty in Romania. France would have in the spirit of EU integrated them and allowed them to remain in France and provide them with minimum housing accommodation if their shanty-town tents were an eyesore; but instead they were bundled out of France, gestapo fashion, in the middle of the nights and the wee hours of the morning. Icheoku condemns this selective deportation of the Romanian gypsies and call on the European Union to do something about that; otherwise they should just come off the pretence of an integrated Europe or is Romanian gypsies not the type of Europeans in their contemplation when they embarked on the journey of unification or quasi-unification of Europe?

It was the Jewish community in 2002 - 2004, now it is the Romania gypsies; so who knows the next for whom the bells of expulsion would toll in intolerant Sarkozy's France? It may be North African descent Muslims or any other minority groupings; so it is very unwise for these presently unaffected people to just keep quiet and not speak up and out against the injustice being meted to the Romanian gypsies, preferring instead to just watch from the fringe. Professor Wole Soyinka of Nigeria once wrote that "the man dies in him who keeps silent in the face of tyranny" and so Icheoku urges every group of minorities in France to speak up condemning the fate which has befallen the Romanian gypsies as it might be their turn tomorrow to be on the receiving end of Sarkozy's France anti minorities measures. If the experimentation with the gypsies succeeds, Sarkozy's France might extend it to other minorities or even embark on a total purification of France project to get rid of non-French from France just in the manner Adolf Hitler attempted in Nazi Germany beginning with the Jews.

The argument of gypsies criminality is akin to the American far right Arizona legislators who embarked on their wild goose chase trying to legislate and de-legitimize Hispanic Americans as being responsible for all the crimes in Arizona. But such an umbrella lumping of a people of the same ethnic group together and hold them responsible for societal decadence is illogical and unintelligent since collective responsibility for crime is unjust. France Sarkozy is now guilty of the same thoughtless act which gave rise to Fuhrer Hitler and which American State of Arizona tried but failed with respect to their Hispanic population. Icheoku says it is simply idiotic and imbecilic for Sarkozy France to attempt to link every crime in France to immigrant Romanian gypsies, a people who just want to live as basically as nature meant humanity to live and not be disturbed. Scape-goating the gypsies is not right!

Icheoku says, may be France should really start this their anti-immigrant policies by first deporting their own President Nikolaus Sarkozy back to his native Hungary and then the whole de-naturalizing process can start in all honesty. When the world is trying to integrate into a one world order with Europe experimenting with one EU, some reactionaries in France led by their President Nikolaus Sarkozy is busy driving a sword into the fabrics holding the different peoples of France together with his selective deportation of Romanian gypsies out of France. Such targeted victimization of a people is not fair or is Sarkozy telling Icheoku there are no French people living illegally in other parts of the world, some of who may even be criminals; yet no other nation has embarked on such anti-people action as is currently being displayed by the French Sarkozy. Imagine not only is Sarkozy deporting these gypsies, but he is also dismantling their encampments including of those who are French citizens and has also proposed legislation that will make it more difficult for deported gypsies to ever return back to France. So what is this if not an anti-Romanians effort by Sarkozy to get rid of them in France and make France a Romanian gypsies free zone?

Icheoku reiterates the European Commission spokesman statement that “We are obviously, very concerned about any form of discrimination, our policies is always to promote full integration of the Roma population in Europe. Let me just remind that Roma people are just like any Europeans people, they are full European citizens, they have the right to free movement anywhere in the EU. These are the rights that they have and they need to be respected. And all member states need ensure that these rights are respected.” This is the meat of the deportation development in France and Sarkozy should explain to the world especially the EU his understanding of the EU charter or who the real European is as distinguished from the fake European; and also as between France and Romania which one is where in the European Union.

Imagine France requiring EU citizens of Romania descent to have work permit and prove they have the means to support themselves for them to live in European France, yet they make it extremely difficult for them to get these documents, resulting in their being forced to live "illegally" in Orwellian France which distinguishes on who real European is to benefit from EU free citizenship throughout Europe? If Sarkozy must maintain order and prefer for people not to riot and demonstrate, let him create equal opportunities for every French man irrespective of their skin colors or hair lengths; but to continue to discriminate against non-white French and expecting them not to react is akin to beating someone and expecting him not to cry or at least react. No country can legislate out criminality but a reasonable, more responsible leader embarks on policies meant to alleviate economic situations of their minorities and thereby draining the swamps which sustain such societal imperatives, since a hungry man must find a way to eat. Icheoku says it is just unethical and criminal for France Sarkozy to single out fellow European Romanian gypsies on the basis of their hippie-like long hairs and way of life and deny them rights granted to the rest of Europeans to live anywhere of their choosing in continental Europe.

This singling out of Romanians residing in France for a forcible exclusion from France, both countries members of the EU seriously questions the merit or lack thereof of the European Union charter of free movement and right of residency. It also shows France as an intolerant country and its president Sarkozy, who himself is not even a Frenchman technically speaking - afterall he is from Hungary, as incapable of having compassion for an already down on their luck nomadic gypsies of Romania. Icheoku says assuming Napoleon never allowed Sarkozy's father to migrate to France from the strangulated Hungary or even deported them back to Hungary upon their arrival as this Sarkozy has just done with the Romanian gypsies; where on earth would he Sarkozy have risen to become somebody today, talkless of the President of France. It is just a big pity that humanity are strangers to history, especially this President Nikolaus Sarkozy of France who seems to be suffering from the short-man syndrome which usually afflict people of his small stature, leading them to do crazy things just to stand out. Sarkozy was himself an immigrant Hungarian in France so how dare he deport and refuse other immigrant Romanian gypsies their right to live and possibly thrive in France or is it a case of let the bridge break off once I have crossed mentality? Anyway and for whatever reason France embarked on this inhumane forcible deportation of these Romanian gypsies, Icheoku says it is not fair, it is condemnable and it militates against the spirit of one Europe under the European Union charter. It left unanswered the sizzling question, where is the spirit of European oneness when a group of Europeans are singled out and sent out of an European country?

PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN, PLEASE DO NOT GO AGAINST THE GODS

"President Goodluck Ebelechuku Jonathan please place national interest above personal interest and save Nigeria from dire crisis and bloodshed by sacrificing your interest to contest for the presidency in 2011. Unfortunately Nigerians do not learn from history and Jonathan is their current leader. Goodluck Jonathan should not push his good luck beyond its limits. Everything has a limit. He should not try God and he should not play God either. He is not Nigeria’s messiah; God will raise a messiah, a man with the heart of a lion, who will cleanse the land and make Nigeria a country Nigerians will be proud of, and we are getting there already.” - Primate Theophilus Olabayo. Icheoku says those who the God's want to kill he first make them deaf and dumb; and the Igbo of South East says the dog that its god is about to kill does not smell feces anymore. So it is with President Jonathan who like all men who have tasted power is racing uncontrollably with Nigeria's destiny to Armageddon with his current desire to cling to power against all odds. President Jonathan, please inform yourself wisely and very carefully that your decision to go against the currents of a thundering waters does not bode well for Nigeria's unity and as its head, you will be entirely responsible for whatever calamitous fallout that may result from your listening to professional sycophantic political jobbers of Nigeria who will not tell you the truth or advise you correctly but will only mouth what they deem will be pleasing to your ears. Power is very ephemeral and only the greedy allows himself to be swept away by its current. If any confrontation results, the South West as usual will turn tails, the South East will be very reluctant to give their support and will wait on the sidelines as your South South will have yourselves alone to confront a ravaging North which will surely open its desert boarders for mercenary soldiers from Niger, Chad, Sudan, Egypt and all those other Islamic zealots out there who will brand it a jihad and then you go figure! It is a crime of conversion to appropriate the presidency in 2011; since admitted it came under your rightfully came entrustment for the remainder of the late Yar'Adua first term but not more. Please do not be Macbeth, wait for your turn!

GOVERNOR THEODORE ORJI, PARTY-HOPPER EXTRA-ORDINAIRE OF NIGERIA!

Icheoku says the Alusi Okija worshipper Theodore Orji of Abia has again prostituted himself to another party. It will be recalled that the governor was "elected" while in detention and without ever mounting the soapbox, by his former boss and political godfather Orji Uzor Kalu on the platform of the now defunct PPA. They fell out, two pirates fighting over the distribution of their loot of state; and the governor jumped ship and landed in the APGA. Now just a few short stint in the APGA and before the ink with which his membership of the APGA was recorded could even dry up, the deity worshipper and party-hopper extra-ordinaire of Nigeria has again abandoned his new party and catapulted himself back into the PDP. Icheoku says with such men of no faith or conviction, whose political harlotry is becoming ridiculous, there is really no hope for Nigeria as these breed of politicians represented in the person of Theodore Orji are just there for what they can get. A man without core does not make Icheoku's day, so we are going to pivot from Orji and consign our effort at some more productive and meaning venture.

ABIOLA BETRAYED NIGERIANS, SOLD OUT ON JUNE 12TH FOR $800 MILLION?

Icheoku says, unbelievable; but if it is true that Babangida has evidence, both photographic and video, that MKO Abiola traded off the Nigerian peoples' mandate of June 12th for a block payment of eight hundred million dollars in full settlement thereof, then Abiola should, post-humus, be chastised for not consulting with Nigerians before he betrayed the sacred mandate, which he held in trust for them. Icheoku therefore calls on Babangida to immediately make an absolution and publicly disclose all and/or any of such evidence which he may have implicating MKO Abiola with complicity in the June 12 debacle; since this will provide him with the quickest exit from the haranguing by Nigerians for his infamous June 12th annulment. We also learnt that some top heavy sons and daughters of Oduduwa as well as some of their custodians of their heritage were also privy to this incriminating informational evidence which led some of them to scream 'holly-molly" during a 1993 meeting with Babangida, in awe urging IBB to, "Jail him, kill him, he is a thief, he is a foolish son of Yoruba land”. IBB, Icheoku calls on you to produce and tender the claimed recorded tapes to Nigerians and use it as the magical trump card to jump-start your sputtering campaign! If it is true that MKO Abiola sold out on June 12th, then Abiola should have "E" for Esau added to his initials.

PRESIDENT JONATHAN, A DOCTOR WITHOUT PHILOSOPHY? - an article by Salisu Suleiman

I am a strong believer in the virtues of education and its unparalleled capacity to broaden minds, create opportunities and leverage social and economic barriers. I am also of the firm conviction that anyone who genuinely passed through the four walls of a university has an enhanced capacity for a logical and analytic approach to problem solving, better social skills and ability to communicate ideas.

It has been reasoned that part of the intractable leadership deficit in Nigeria may be because we have been consistently saddled with leaders with undistinguished academic credentials. So it was with great expectations that we watched the inauguration of the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua as the first university educated executive president of the country.

It is hardly worth repeating that those expectations were crushed by what turned out to be the most lethargic, provincial and uninspiring government in Nigeria. When Yar’Adua was inaugurated in 2007, there was hope that his academic credentials, exposure and broadmindedness imbibed in university would transmit into better decision making, policy implementation and good governance.

Of course that never happened. It may be argued that without the debilitating and ultimately terminal illness Yar’Adua, might have been a different president. That, unfortunately, is something we will never find out. But as fate would have it, Yar’Adua’s successor, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is one notch ahead on the academic scale - he is a doctorate degree holder. Jonathan had another chance to prove that Yar’Adua was a fluke and that academic qualifications do have a bearing on constructive governance.

After spending about the same time as Gen. Murtala Mohammed spent in office,

President Jonathan is yet to make any meaningful landmark. The president is relatively young and has no known illnesses. I definitely expected him to bring some semblance of exposure, self-confidence, charisma and creativity in the conduct of governance. That has not happened. And with his preoccupation with remaining in office beyond 2011, it never may.

Even if the president has no constructive ideas, he should at least communicate with us intelligently. As a former university lecturer, public speaking should not be a challenge. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, PhD, must have defended his graduate and doctoral theses before internal and external examiners and would have presented seminar papers, participated in symposia and other activities associated with teaching and learning.

So how come public speaking is such a difficult task for him?

Apart from the absence of a clear vision since assuming office, why has it proved so difficult for the president to speak with any conviction, even when reading from prepared texts? Assuming for any reason that he failed to communicate effectively with his students as a teacher, what about his days as a civil servant? Granted, this species are trained to be inconspicuous and granted, the work of bureaucrats in these climes require little or no intellectual input beyond the metronomic repetition of chores, he must have carried out public functions to have risen to the directorate cadre.

But notwithstanding how he got his doctorate degree and the kind of academic or bureaucrat he was, the moment he joined politics and emerged as a deputy governor, it is inconceivable that no effort was made to burnish Jonathan’s dour demeanour, diction and delivery. It may be that that behind the facade is an astute and sharp mind. I used to believe that until Jonathan began to eye the presidency.

I have no quarrel with Jonathan’s ambition, just the way he has gone about it and the charlatans he has assembled to actualise it. Gen. Murtala only spent six months in office, but at the time he was assassinated, his approval ratings (had anyone cared to measure) would have been over 90 percent. If Jonathan had the depth expected of a PhD, he should have borrowed a leaf from history and embarked on a highly populist agenda to sell his ambition.

A good starting point would have been demystifying Nigeria’s recurrent nightmare, Olusegun Obasanjo; probing the missing trillions from our coffers; cutting the bloated pay of the peacocks at the National Assembly, or taking the corruption bull by the horns. Instead, he is consorting with the likes of Tony Anenih, Ibrahim Mantu, Jerry Gana, Jonathan Zwingina and other politicians with extremely dubious moral credentials. Bode George will probably join them as soon as he is released.

With his laboured, ponderous and pusillanimous approach to governance and the tortured route he has chosen to pursue his ambition, Jonathan may be a doctor, but he certainly has no philosophy.

PDP, AFRICAN'S BIGGEST PARTY ABOUT TO SHRINK TO A SECTIONAL PARTY?

The PDP is gradually morphing into SNPP - Southern Nigerians Peoples Party? The board of trustees chairman of PDP Olusegun Obasanjo is a southerner; the chairman of PDP Nwodo is also a southerner and now President Goodluck Jonathan, another southerner, is trying to muscle himself into office as president in 2011? So, what about those northerners or are they not competent enough to hold any one of these key offices of the PDP? Icheoku says, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it might as well be a duck; so we call on President Jonathan to immediately redress this imbalance by not running in 2011, before the largest party in Africa implodes into a sectional party for Southern Nigerians only. Regional politician Obafemi Awolowo is long gone and Jonathan should not become another Awolowo as Nigerians do not want such sectionalists anymore, nor ever did. Let the north be fully represented in the PDP, give them back the presidency - the presidency is still theirs and should remain so in 2011. Equity and good conscience as well as honor in respecting agreements demand that too!

Please Mr. President, as you inch closer to your decision 2010 concerning the 2011 Nigeria's presidential election, Icheoku wants you to be courageous and stand firm against all those sycophants goading you to go against your party's standing rules and in the general interest of Nigeria. Please shun those sycophants' advice and avoid the temptation to covet what does not rightly belong to you. You presently hold the presidency of Nigeria in trust for and on behalf of northern Nigeria; and honor demands that you hand same back to them come 2011. They are the rightful beneficiary of the mandate which you currently hold on their behalf as a trustee and never as a beneficiary yourself. So it is imperative that you hand same back to them in the interest of justice, equity and fair play in 2011. Always remember that honorable men respect and keep agreements whether it is a gentleman's agreement or a written formal contract. Moreso, there is no way in hell that the south could fairly hold the PDP's board of trustees chairman, the party's Chairman and also the Presidency all at the same time at the exclusion of the entire North? Opportunity calls for you to transform yourself into a great statesman who shunned power for the interest of the party and the nation as well. The presidency will always be there and since you are relatively young, there is enough time for a come back later in the future; but not before 2011

SENATOR JOHN McCAIN PURCHASES SENATE SEAT FOR $20 MILLION?

Senator John Sidney McCain of Arizona, the septuagenarian wanna-be president and once presidential candidate of the Republican Party, who suffered a humiliating defeat in the hand of "THAT ONE", the then Senator presidential candidate and now President of the United States of America, Barack Obama; vowed this time, never again!

Facing an almost assured defeat in the hand of a freshman senatorial candidate J.D Hayworth; the old man McCain decided instead to haggle for the seat. He outbid ex-radio host and former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, forking out a whopping twenty million dollars in the process for the right to vie for the Arizona senate seat against the Democrats in November 2010. It is also needless to say that in addition to his twenty million dollars Arizona senate seat purchase price, Senator John McCain made several pacts with the devil, renouncing all the good works which made him an endeared 'mavericky moderate' to many rational American political followers and independents alike.

It is also on record that McCain even denied ever being a maverick as well as ever stating that he is a maverick; which makes Icheoku to wonder the level of intelligence of an average Arizona Republican voter that bought this baloney of a kite, since it was not too long ago that the same McCain was taunting the "two mavericks on the presidential ticket of the republican Party - him and the hooter of Alaska Sarah Palin? But hey, a people deserve the type of leaders they get and so has Arizona Republicans refused to be properly informed or persuaded otherwise as they stuck with their old man and near-senile McCain; who as a bargain parted ways with twenty million dollars to misinform the primaries voters on his truncated record at Washington. But unlike Arizona, some states still have people who make use their brains to think for themselves; and irrespective of the money thrown therein to railroad a message across, they were still able to successfully lift the veils of the candidates to see who really gets their back. Florida is one such state as Florida's Senate Democrat Kendrick Meek defeated Jeff Greene and his $26 million war chest with Floridians saying, nope, we know the difference between night and day.

However, Icheoku gives it up for the soldier in John McCain who fought all the way to secure his Republican Party's primaries victory, in one of the biggest political battles of his life to retain his senate seat despite the onslaught of the crazed-out Tea Party fanatics. And with now assured fifth term senate run in Washington, John McCain has become undeniably an institutionalized Washington politician and should not be ever heard again, blaming Washington for failed policies, being an insider thereof. Further his primaries election victory, a precursor to his ultimate victory in November begs for the institution of term limits among Washington politicians to make room for new ideas from up and coming fresh minds. Just like the State of California and some other states locally have mandated term limit; and also since the presidency is subject to a two term eight years limit, Icheoku wonders why what is good for the goose should not be applied to the gander? Just extend the damn term limit to the national assembly to inject fresh blood and ideas; and like John McCain, Democratic Senator Patrick Leheay of Vemont won his party's primaries is also returning to Washington in November nearly guarranteed election, which he has called home since 1974.

But perhaps, at the cost of 20 million dollars, what really is the net gain of being a US Senator since no senator makes that kind of money or will ever hope to recoup such expenses; being not Nigerian senators who dip their hands in the pie at Abuja and take whatever they deemed fit does not help matters here either. So it might as well be for the right to membership of the most exclusive club in America - the 100 man senate of the United States of America; a bragging right of some sort may be! But at last our democracy has been hijacked by money bags who are trying so desperately to turn our democracy into a "moneytocracy" with the offices in the land going to the highest bidder who can out spend his opponent to push his version of his message on uncanny electorates; even where such messages are flip-flops on several past positions as John McCain just did in Arizona.

In McCain's victory speech he said, "I promise you, I take nothing for granted and will fight with every ounce of strength and conviction I possess to make the case for my continued service in the Senate." Icheoku says, but how much strength is left in a 76 year old man whose conviction is equal to no conviction at all? Anyway, congratulations Senator John McCain and all other candidates who won the right to fly their party's flag this November election.