IGP OGBONNA ONOVO, THE REAL REASON WHY HE WAS REMOVED!

In a short two word sentence - election 2011. Plans by the Jonathan cabal to easily retain President Jonathan in office in 2011 caused the removal of IGP Ogbonna Onovo from office and the subsequent catapulting of AIG Hafiz Ringim to the high office of the IGP.Hafiz Ringim, a man who had once, as then commissioner of police in Bayelsa State, helped the then deputy governor Goodluck Ebelechuku Jonathan successfully execute a civilian coup alongside Olusegun Obasanjo against his former boss, then Governor DSP Diepriye Alamieyesigha. Now the same hatchet-man Hafiz Ringim is being positioned to facilitate the smooth and unhindered 'election' of President Jonathan as Nigeria's president in 2011?

Icheoku says the cries and shouting of President Jonathan about an impending free and fair elections in 2011 notwithstanding, the facts on the grounds suggests that rigging of the coming elections have already begun; with this Hafiz Ringim as the icing on the cake of a rigged election. The cries of 'free and fair election' tactics is being deployed as a ruse to confuse the Nigerian public over a predetermined outcome by a president who has learnt so well from his political godfather Aremu Matthew Okikiliomo Olusegun Obasanjo. Icheoku says any Nigerian thinking that President Goodluck Jonathan is a saint or political novitiate must be delusional and might as well have landed from Mars where he has been since 1999 not to appreciate the conniving qualities of this cool as cucumber political operative from Bayelsa State now president by providence of Nigeria Republic.

Talk about rigging the forth coming elections and the hand-writing on the wall is not good; as the promised free and fair elections cannot be guaranteed nor was it meant to be achieved. With the notorious Mr. Fix It Anthony Anenih directing operations from within the "Elect President Jonathan campaign establishment," which has now led to the appointment of Hafiz Ringim in an all out bid to retain President Jonathan in office come 2011, there is no way in Hell the 2011 election will be free and fair. What other place to start in paving the way for rigging of the coming elections than to start removing every suspected and perceived stumbling blocks that might constitute a hinderance on the way to Aso Rock 2011. Bleeping on their radar of obstacle finding is the disciplined former IGP Ogbonna Onovo who has through elections conducted in Edo, Ekiti and Anambra States proved that he cannot be compromised and that free elections is still possible in Nigeria. Team Jonathan's decision, take care of this apparent "spoiler" before it is too late as they are not ready to accept or even entertain the possibility of yielding Aso Rock in 2011 and anything that poses any possible snag or threat must and should be taken care of immediately and now. Their verdict, IGP Onovo has to go and in order to make it appear normal, the service chiefs has to follow in tandem since they are not prepared to take any chances as the 2011 date with history approaches.

Convinced that IGP Onovo will stand his ground and not play ball when the time comes, they decided to shove him aside to make way for their team-player - a tested and trusted hand who have been used before on a similar assignment. Team Jonathan settled for a junior officer, an AIG, below seven other senior DIGs and an AIG; a person who is more pliable and who can be easily used to achieve a certain predetermined outcome in 2011. Icheoku is emphatic that election riggers of Nigeria who populate the PDP especially the Tony Anenih led Jonathan's campaign insiders advisory team were responsible for the sacking of IGP Onovo to make way for their malleable right hand man Hafiz Ringim. Icheoku is urging Nigerians and the Igbo nation to disregard the dummy sold to them that it was because of the young IGP Onovo's administration inability to completely reign in banditry of armed robbery and kidnapping especially in the South East that he was removed. If still in doubt, ask yourself this innocuously simple question, if truly it was because of the unabated criminality particularly in the South East that led to IGP Onovo's removal, why then on earth was it that the same AIG Hafiz Ringim in charge of South East Zone 9, who was tasked by Onovo with policing the same South East that was now elevated to the new IGP position? Where is the logic that an AIG that had direct responsibility to tackle crimes in the South East was spared the rod but his boss in Abuja was held responsible for his deficiencies of direct policing that led to the increase crimes in the South East; and to make matters worst, the same AIG is now rewarded with the post of the IGP, instead of also being fired assuming the logic and reason of high crimes and incompetence is true.

It does not make any sense and defies every logic, clear thought and common sense applied towards understanding the permutations of IGP Onovo's removal. It would have been otherwise if another AIG of another zone was made the new IGP; but for Hafiz RIngim who was in charge of the crime-infested South East Zone 9 to now replace IGP Onovo who was accused of not ridding the South East of criminalities, it smells very fishy. Nigerians will only come to find out when it is already too late after the 2011 elections with police-assisted massive rigging that President Jonathan took them for a sucker with this firing of IGP Onovo and the appointment of Hafiz Ringim. There are smoking guns everywhere which points to some other ulterior motives behind IGP Onovo's unexplained removal and the appointment of Hafiz Ringim as a replacement, except that Nigeria lacks investigative journalists who could rifle out buried facts; as many of them have now settled for news for cash or news that comes with special packaged "transport money" and have thus compromised the quality of news they disseminate. Just try to add it up and it is impossible to get a working sum.

It would also appear that the Igbo nation has not particularly fared well under President Jonathan's administration with successive Igbo men and women removed from office and replaced by other peoples of Nigeria. Also his ministerial list did away with the Igbos occupying prominent positions unlike during the late President Yar'Adua's era and even during Olusegun Obasanjo's government when Igbos featured very prominently. Foreign Minister Ojo Maduekwe was replaced with a non Igbo; NCC Ernest Ndukwe was replaced with non Igbo; INEC's Maurice Iwu was replaced with non Igbo; NSE Onyiuke was replaced with non Igbo; Chief of Defence Staff Dike was replaced with non Igbo and now IGP Onovo has now again been replaced with non Igbo. It is also on record that no Igbo person is a member of the President's inner "kitchen" advisory team such as special adviser or assistant or a minister within the presidency.

During Obasanjo time in office, Igbos were Central bank governor, Finance Minister, Foreign Affairs Minister, Special Assistants, Aviation Minister, Economic Adviser, Defence Minister just to name a few. During Yar'Adua's administration, Igbos were appointed as Ministers for Foreign Affairs, Education, Health, Commerce & Industry, etc as well as junior ministers. Admitted that under Jonathan administration, Igbos were appointed to Internal Affairs, Immigration and now Army Chief, but compared to other zones, the South East has not faired any much better under his administration. Even the expected elevation of Barthlomew Nnaji as Power Minister never materialized as a Northerner was later brought in to head the ministry after Jonathan relinquished control. The same applies to all the board and parastatals membership being filled by Jonathan's administration; and when you think that the second River Niger bridge is still a pipe-dream as well as the deplorable condition of roads in the South East including the Oji River power station which has not been activated, then the whole picture is painted of someone not particularly warmed up to the Igbo nation.

Icheoku also finds some agreement with the assessment of the former Lagos State commissioner of police Alhaji Abubakar Tsav that the "appointment of Hafiz Ringim, an Assistant Inspector-General (AIG) as the new Inspector-General of Police is insincere and a payback to someone who aided President Goodluck Jonathan to begin his journey to the presidency." According to Tsav, "we are talking of reformation of the police, and Mr Ogbonna Onovo who is doing his best to achieve this is not only removed but all his Deputy Inspector Generals DIGs and senior AIGs are being swept away by the tide to create room for an officer who made it possible for Jonathan to succeed Alamieyeseigha as governor after Obasanjo's carefully schemed impeachment." What a bulls-eye analysis of the politics behind IGP Onovo's removal; anyone still groping for the reason behind IGP Onovo's sudden removal should look no further as it lacked any plausible explanation due to who was appointed in his stead; - a junior officer tainted by then Deputy Governor Goodluck Jonathan's civilian coup in Bayelsa State and the unabated criminality in his controlled South East Zone 9.

It also does not make sense that an AIG who has less than 18 months to his retirement from the force would be a preferred choice for the office of the IGP when they are several DIGs and a senior AIG with much longer time left in their service; who would now be forced to summarily retire to make way for their junior officer to freely deliver on the assignment of a Jonathan's 2011 presidential election. The only plausible explanation for this convulsion is that AIG Hafiz Ringim is a hatchet-man being deployed for a specific assignment - to allow President Jonathan's people a free reign with rigging the next 2011 election in his favor, period! And if as some of his apologists are wont to argue that he rightly swept away all the chiefs including IGP Onovo, Icheoku asks why did he spare the Customs chief, a man allegedly working with a forged certificate? Why was Alhaji Abdullahi Inde Dikko not removed if the mass sacking is true and not a targeted removal just to cut some people to size and not allow them two voices in the security council? Why was Petrini retained, etc. But Nigerians should seize themselves of one commentator's observation that "Jonathan’s wholesale tinkering with the leadership of the armed forces, law enforcement and security agency adds to the perception that the first stages of the rigging may well be underway." And whether or not Icheoku's fears and suspicions as well as that of other commentators are well founded lies in the womb of time of the 2011 elections; and how it will go down as the most rigged election in the annals of Nigeria democratic history!

COAS IHEJIRIKA'S APPOINTMENT, GREAT BUT CAUTIOUSLY EXCITED!

Icheoku admonishes the Igbo nation not to be so overtly excited that their kinsman, Major General Ihejirika, has been appointed the new Chief of Army Staff of the Nigerian Army. Ihejirika is a professional soldier who has just been called upon to lead the Nigerian army and to them he owes his service and not to the Igbo nation. Admitted he was born Igbo but now serving the Igbo-inclusive Nigerian army, but there should be no unreasonable 'great expectations' of and by the Igbo people of and from Ihejirika.

Igbo people are here once again reminded that Major General Ihejirika is not an Igbo chief of Nigerian army staff, but a Nigerian chief of army staff who happens to be of Igbo extraction. Also what is excitable about work as Ihejirika has now been called upon to do or is it the fact that he, the workhorse, is of Igbo extraction that is throwing up such a frenzy among the Igbo nation?

The immediate past president of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Dozie Ikedife, aptly articulated the proper position which the Igbo nation should take on the appointment of Ihejirika and to which Icheoku agrees, that "there was nothing so special in the appointment of our kinsman as chief of army staff." The only exception however lies in what the current president of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Ambassador Ralph Uwechue, said, that "the appointment of Ihejirika as COAS signalled the healing of the wounds that the Igbo nation had been nursing since the end of the Nigerian civil war." Continuing, Uwechue said “his appointment is psychological. It helps to show that whatever happened after Ironsi has been put behind us. It indicates the integration of the progressives into the Nigerian system." Icheoku cannot agree more and adds that while evil-genius Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida was waiting until 2015 to integrate the Igbo nation fully back into Nigeria through a promised presidency, President Goodluck Jonathan has beaten him to that by now handing over the headship of Nigerian army to the Igbo nation. What other way to show a fully integrated Igbos than to put them in charge and let them control the chief security apparatus of Nigeria - its army. What a master-stroke by the master tactician himself, a man reputedly known for his Obama-like demeanor, placidity and calmness, President Goodluck Ebelechuku Azikwe Jonathan.

Icheoku says, finally equity and fairness has come to the seat of power in Nigeria as the Igbo nation has now become accepted as a full integral part of Nigeria with equal right to the leadership and headship of their joint army of one. Unlike the lip-service of the genocidal Yakubu Gowon whose three "Rs" of reconciliation, rehabilitation and reconstruction never took flight nor were in any form or shape implemented, President Jonathan has by this appointment made a bold statement that 40 years after the Nigerian/Biafran war ended in a "no victor, no vanquished" platform, that the subterranean feeling of 'conquerors and conquered' within Nigeria's diverse nationalities should be forever put to an end. Icheoku commends this boldness and objectivity. However unlike the thinking in the United States of America that with the election of President Barack Obama, racism and black Americans marginalization would come to an end but appears now to have become exacerbated, Icheoku hopes and prays that the Igbo nation will not mistakenly assume that it is now Uhuru in Nigeria and that their troubles are now over.

Now is the time to increase their agitation for equal treatment and fair allocation of resources in Nigeria until there is a a sixth state in South East Igboland to equalize it with the rest of other zones in Nigeria, other federal appointments, a second bridge over the River Niger, an international airport in Igbo land, good roads, federal industries, electricity including the rehabilitation of the Oji River thermal power plant, as well as an Igbo presidency in 2015. Or are these too much to ask by a people who has contributed so much for Nigeria's unity through leading the unity-way themselves by usually being the second largest ethnic settlers to any indigenous population throughout Nigeria. Their commercial prowess also helps sustain Nigeria's economic well-being and survival, so why not give them what they deserve and want in order to encourage them to continue doing what they do best - integration and enterprise.

At last the Nigerian/Biafran war could be said to have come to an end with this appointment as a man from the heartland of former Biafra nation, hitherto branded foe of Nigeria, is now put in charge of the Nigeria army. Or better still and for a comic relief, Icheoku says what an irony of fate that the victorious Nigerian army has now through the back-door, finally surrendered to the conquered Biafra by letting a former Biafran take charge of its army? How about that for some stress-relief for the millions of Igbo former Biafrans, who witnessed the atrocious war, conducted with vengeance by vermin Gowon and Awolowo; and which saw more people die of other causes than from bullets and bombs; with millions of women and children perished as a result of Awolowo orchestrated starvation and its related malnutrition ailment, kwashiokor. Congratulations Major General Ihejirika and thank you President Goodluck Ebele Azikwe Jonathan for being dispassionate with the appointment. At last a non direct partisan has ascended the seat of power and wants to redress as an impartial arbiter, the lingering disputation of the last forty years of post war Nigeria between Igbos and the rest of Nigerians.

Icheoku says the ball is now on Major General Ihejirika's court to deliver on the expectation of an ever-ready, strong professional Nigeria army of one, ready to take on any foreign aggression and such other security tasks as the commander in chief, President Jonathan, might from time to time ask them to execute. Provided Major General Ihejirika does not fall victim to the legendary banana peel syndrome which usually afflicts Igbo public officials and gets the deserved support of every Nigerian and their uniformed men and women under his new leadership; and knowing fully well that he will be the center of focal attention by Nigerians eager to see how a former Biafran would manage a Nigerian army, Icheoku believes that he will succeed and bring pride to both President Jonathan, the Igbo nation and the entire Nigeria. Once again, congratulations Major General Ihejirika and let the healing of Nigeria, through a full integration geared appointments such as this COAS, of former Biafran Igbos proceed with full steam!

AFRAID OF BEHEADING FOR BEING GAY, A GAY SAUDI DIPLOMAT SEEKS ASYLUM!

Facing an assured and certain death by beheading in his native Saudi Arabia, a Saudi homosexual diplomat in America refused to return home to Saudi Arabian on a recall and is now seeking protective asylum in the United States. Ali Ahmad Asseri, first secretary of the Saudi Arabian consulate in Los Angeles, California USA was living a double life of a closeted homosexual until he was outed and ordered home. But he doesn't want to die just yet, being very conversant with the penchant for blood-letting in the Kingdom of Saud for both trivial and mundane reasons, hence his petition for political asylum. Icheoku says, please America let this Saudi Arabia gay man remain here in America and continue to enjoy his God given gift of life and the pursuit of homosexual happiness.

MISS SAUDI ARABIA CONTESTANTS, BEAUTY PAGEANT SAUDI ARABIA STYLE!

Like all women elsewhere in the free world, these Saudi Arabian women desire to flaunt their lecherous and hot bodies. They also desire to express their sexualities and have men worked up just like other women of the free world, but the religious zealots therein would not take any of that. In Riyadh Saudi Arabia these women were captured participating in an underground beauty pageant? With their partially exposed stout legs, imagine then what their veils are covering underneath. Icheoku says, freedom for women and gays need to reign supreme in the Kingdom of Saud.

SEPTEMBER 11, 2010, ANNIVERSARY OF THE DAY TERRORISTS STRUCK!

Icheoku says until that void is filled especially with similar twin towers erected in the stead of those taken down in the act of terror, Americans will always feel the hurt. Therefore as a necessary step towards making whole what the Saudi Arabian terrorists put asunder, let there be twin towers built and the space filled up without further delay. Life needs to return and damn the terrorists who wanted and desired a different outcome. Remember what the lesson of this anniversary is - the day freedom was attacked bur was defended by Americans in their usual resilience manner. To all those we lost, Icheoku calls Winston Churchill to the podium that never in the history of mankind was so much owed to so few by so many and we say America owes so much to her bravests and finest.

9TH ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11, WE SHALL NEVER FORGET!

Nine years down the road since 9/11 terrorists attack, it still feels like it was just yesterday. Almost everyone still has a vivid recollection of where he or she was or what he or she was doing on that September 11, 2001 morning. So on this ninth anniversary of the terrorist act that brought down our twin towers among other things, Icheoku says that there are still so many unanswered questions. For example, why was Saudi Arabia not held accountable for the act since nineteen of the twenty hijackers are from Saudi. The other question is whether those terrorist really succeeded with their mission. Till date our two buildings are still missing and they are yet to be replaced/rebuilt. Also the terrorist mastermind, Osama Bin Laden has not been captured or killed. So as you mark the anniversary, do some serious introspection on demerits of rushed judgment.

IGBOS OF SOUTH EAST COSTS THEIR FIRST IGP, OGBONNA ONOVO, HIS JOB!

Icheoku severally warned lawless kidnappers and other criminal gangs in the South East that they will cost the Inspector General of Police his job. True to our prediction, the first Igbo Inspector General of Police Ogbonna Onovo has lost his job, fired due to a perceived incompetence and his inability to stop these South East kidnappers. Now that he is out of power and the Igbos no longer hold the IGP position, Icheoku wants to know if these South East kidnappers will now rest or allow themselves to be crushed by the no nonsense new IGP Alhaji Hafiz A. Ringim. The Igbo person is his own greatest enemy as they have once again destroyed their own as they forced Ogbonno Onovo on his banana peel. What a restless and restive people without a sense of self. It is a sad day for every Igboman and woman who now enter the annals of Nigerian history as the people with the shortest lasting Inspector General of Police - only one year and one month in office. It is regrettable indeed.

KORAN BURNING MERELY SUSPENDED BUT NOT CANCELLED - REV JONES!

The man behind the latest anxiety about what Muslims will do if their holy book is burned, Reverend Patrick Terry Jones, have caved in to pressure and will stave off his planned symbolic burning of the Koran. Icheoku while welcoming this about-face, urges those Muslims to also respect other peoples sensibilities and not themselves desecrate what other people hold dearly, in awe and total respect.

These Muslims should be told to stop burning our American flags as that represents a lot to every American who solemnly adore their star-spangled banner. These Muslims should also be told that they alone are not sole custodians of violence and that our stooping down for dwarfs(them) does not make us less taller. And finally these Muslims should be told that Americans are not afraid to die fighting for a good cause; and that they should come off their mistaken assumption that we Americans are too lustfully engaged to want to expend our lives fighting for causes bigger than any of us. That Americans plea and cajoling is not out of cowardice but a need to remain the gentle giant which we are. That they should stop threatening violence each time there is a disagreement either in a novel (Rushdie) or cartoon (Mohammed's Danish depiction) or as of the present Koran-burning threat. That civilized people discuss their differences and not threaten thunder and brimstone against one another. But just for the sake of argument, assuming the Koran burning went ahead as planned; Icheoku asks why would the Muslim world hold the entire America accountable for the act of one renegade pastor, when they asked the world not to hold them responsible for the 9/11 Muslim terrorists?

Or better still, since there is mosque everywhere in the Western World including in Vatican, may be Saudi Arabia should be asked to provide lands in Riyadh, Mecca and Medina for Christians to build their places of worship. That way it will be much easier to harmonize both civilizations religious outreach and ensure better understanding and friendship between them instead of this living on trigger-edge between the two. Anyway, our thanks to the wanna-be Koran-burning Reverend Terry Jones for calling off his "stunt" and we advise him never to hold the world hostage again in a similar manner. What a notoriety he has garnered for himself as the pastor who wanted to incinerate Koran.

APRIL HOLMES WESLEY, HELL HAS NO FURY LIKE A WOMAN SCORNED!

She was furious that her husband was seeing another woman who she refers to as "That Bitch". What did she do, she ran him over with her car several times and sat the car on his body to ensure that he was as dead as the door knob before help could arrive.

Only in Texas, a state notorious for their love of blood - their government frequently executes prisoners, their men are fond of hiring hitmen to kill their wives and their women kill their husbands with their vehicles.

This time it was at 1300 block of Balarama in Beckford Houston Harris County where an enraged wife April Chavez-Holmes Wesley deliberately mowed down her husband Donald Holmes Wesley in the middle of the road and sat over his crushed body in her Pontiac Bonneville until he became as dead as a door knob. She sat in the car unperturbed until the police arrived at the scene. According to the story, the couple had an argument and altercation over the husband alleged seeing of another woman who the wife had severally referred to as "that bitch'. The wife entered the car and with it backed up into her husband who was walking away from her bitching, and pulled forward and backed over him several times over again before deciding to seat the car over his limped body.

It would appear that Houston women have now adopted vehicles as their instrument of choice in the murder of their husbands? It was not too long ago in 2002 that a Houston female dentist, Clara Harris, murder her philandering husband David Harris in a similar fashion; killing him with her Mercedes car which he bought for her in front of their teenage daughter in the parking lot of a Houston hotel. She got 20 years prison term for the murder and Icheoku wonders if April will be that lucky or have the book thrown at her for not using a luxury car to commit murder of her own husband.

REVEREND TERRY JONES, PLEASE NO KORANIC INFERNO ON 9/11!

As if the crisis facing America is not enough already - a faltering economy and two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, an American Taliban and extremist right winger Reverend Terry Jones has decided to pour fuel unto a burning fire. His gasoline of choice, the Islamic Koran; which he has decided to burn in order to prove a point and knowingly provoke another anti-America reactions from the one billion strong Muslims of this world. Icheoku says if this is not one stretch of taking the freedom of speech one step too long, nothing else so qualifies and we hereby call on the government to do everything possible including obtaining an injunction to prevent this intolerant extremist from stoking an already smouldering Muslim fire of resentment. That someone has the freedom of speech does not guarantee that person the right to shout fire in a crowded theater and this Koranic inferno is one heck of such unwanted nuisance at this time; when America is trying to make good with the Muslim world.

Icheoku's position is that constitutional freedom of speech is not sacrosanct to anarchical mischief hence this scheduled burning of Islamic Koran on September 11th, must and should not be allowed to go on. But regrettably, the Republican Party and their mega-phone in chief, the man who runs the Republican Party and Tea Partier Numero Uno, Rush Limbaugh have kept mum and have failed, refused to condemn this errant pastor whose intended act is capable of endangering the lives of thousands of Americans scattered throughout the Muslim world; especially that of our soldiers waging wars in two Muslim countries of Iraq and Afghanistan. Icheoku says Reverend Jones is not in a position to know which religion is of the devil and has no right to proclaim Islam as the devil's religion since by his impending provocative act, he seems to be a devil worshipper seeking the blood of the innocence to spill from possible reactionary riots and protests. Which true man of God would be this provocative, instead of being the meek peace makers they are known for; and we hereby call on the Federal government to take a closer look at Reverend Jones 50 members Dove World Outreach Center, a church that preaches anti-Islam philosophy to make sure it is not another David Koresh Branch Davidians getting ready for their end times?

To Reverend Jones remarks, "when do we stop? How much do we back down? How many times do we back down? Instead of us backing down, maybe it's to time to stand up. Maybe it's time to send a message to radical Islam that we will not tolerate their behavior;" Icheoku says the Koran does not belong to the radical Islam wing of the Muslim world but the entire over one billion men and women who knock their foreheads on the ground in total submission to the will of Allah (God). It is such a parochial thoughtless action trying to make a statement to a few bad Muslims and they provoking the anger of the many good ones and should be discouraged. What a crass agent provocateur this supposed man of God or is it the Devil, is; and in the words of the US Attorney General his planned action is both idiotic and dangerous and should be condemned by every sane American. Except he is just trying to start another fire for the Obama administration to deal with. Lets hope that this so called Reverend was merely interested in fame or should we say rather notoriety and now that he has got his fifteen minutes of it, he should quietly back down and spare America's State department and the Pentagon added chore to their already filled plate. Go get some life Reverend Terry Jones and let sleeping dog to lie; say no to desecration of Muslim's sacred book of faith, the Koran - there should be no Koranic inferno in Gainsville Florida!

PRESIDENT OBAMA OF REPUBLICANS, "THEY TALK ABOUT ME LIKE A DOG!"

In the first song Jimi Hendrix wrote upon moving to England in 1966 tittled "Stone Free," he said, "They talk about me like a dog. Talkin about the clothes I wear. But they don't realize they're the ones who's square."

Icheoku says may be President Obama instead of just stopping at "they talk about me like a dog", would have used the entire lyrics emphasizing that it is the Republicans and their Christian far right wingers that are really "squared up" that a black man is occupying their White House and have vowed to do everything and anything to get him out. To these folks, the end justifies the means, and provided he goes, it does not matter if it means opposing all and every of his intended legislation beneficial to the American people and geared towards getting the economy out back on tracks. Their agenda, 'just get the nigger out of "their" White House and take "their" government back from "That One!"

President Obama pointed out that "some powerful interests who had been dominating the agenda in Washington for a very long time are behind the unceasing criticism of his government's agenda; many of who see them as no longer beneficial to their government as usual laisse-faire. That they're not happy with him to the extent that they will oppose anything once Obama's name is attached to it. For example, if he said the sky was blue, they'd say no. If he said fish live in the sea, they'd say no just for the heck of opposing the president which has earned the Republicans the acronym, "The Party of No".

However the jury is going to be the American people and Icheoku hopes and prays they get it right this time; provided they did not suffer from a debilitating amnesia before November so that they would properly recollect where the original source of the problem is - the eight years President George Walker Bush led Republican melt-down. Except, like the religious zealots they are they are literally expecting President Obama to rebuild the temple of a devastated economy within just three days (18months); an economy that took President George Bush eight long years to drive aground. But whatever turns out to be the case, only one possibility is assured - either Americans eventually did forget how bad it was then or that they decided to call off the Republican bluff as the architect of the original economic miasma which subsists till today. It was their President GW Bush who said, "fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me;" and Icheoku waits to see how really smart and discerning the American voter is come November. Until then, the jury stays out.

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!