'40 IGBOS (CHRISTIANS) KILLED IN JOS, PLATEAU STATE, NIGERIA' - IGBO LEADERS!

Icheoku queries, has another pogrom started in the north; and would it lead to another Biafran war of survival? According to reports reaching Icheoku from Igbo Community Association in Plateau State, over 40 Igbos have been killed within the last two days, of Saturday1/8/11 and Sunday 1/9/11; following the latest outbreak of Islamic violence against Christians in Plateau State, Nigeria. Terrible, terrible, terrible! Those people in charge in Nigeria should know that no country survives two civil wars and therefore do something very urgently to safeguard Igbo lives and properties in Jos Nigeria. The South-Sudan solution is increasingly looking very attractive as a panacea for Nigeria! Enough of the bloodshed

SILVIO BERLUSCONI NEEDS HELP NOT CHASTISEMENT FOR HIS SEXUAL ADDICTION?

Icheoku says the people of Italy should have sympathy on their philandering Prime Minister and listen to his desperate cry for help. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is an addict, who is addicted to sex and requires urgent treatment o get rid of this monkey hounding him.

Sexual addiction is like any other sickness and requires to be duly treated - both psychological and physiological treatment via a concerted therapy to free its hostage. Therefore instead of wasting resources investigating and pontificating about the sexual dalliances of Berlusconi, Icheoku suggests that he be checked into a treatment farm where he can be weaned off this insatiable urge to go after special humans in mini-skirts; thereby putting the whole country especially the office of the prime minister to undue ridicule and curiosity. Sexual therapy is the answer, Italians; Ciao!

GOVERNORS FORUM HIJACKS PRESIDENT JONATHAN'S ADMINISTRATION - AMINU.

"When you have a big party like the PDP which is in power and it aspires to remain in government, the onus is on it to behave well. Now, everything is given to the governors. I refer to it as indirect rule system. The people in Abuja are satisfied, entrusting everything in the hands of the governors, including finances-and they would not call the governors to order even in the face of glaring misbehaviour. What they do is akin to what happened during the British colonial rule where the Governor and the Resident Office allowed the local chiefs and emirs to terrorise everybody, and all they demanded was loyalty to the crown, and if you are loyal to the crown, then you are good regardless of whatever you do to your own people.

That is what is happening here. There is no difference between what is happening in the party now and the colonial system. The atrocities are committed in the states by the governors. The party has handed over everything to the governors, and then, the governors decided to act in concert. I heard something which shocked me. I heard that the governors are now like a cult. If you touch one, you touch all. The moment you try to call any of them to order, they would pounce on you. And since PDP operates like the law of indirect rule where the center depends on the states for political action, then, whatever they say is what they will do. There is no way you can say this attitude is good for the image of the party either now or in future. It is a big party and in power, enjoying the support of the federal government now and that is why it is doing these things and can get away." - Professor Jubril Aminu. 

Icheoku concurs and adds that it is as a result of the weakness of the weakling that is Nigeria's providential president, President Goodluck Jonathan that these impetuous governors 'terrorize' Nigerians. Otherwise where were the governors and/or their governor's forum during the Otta deity, Olusegun Obasanjo's regime or even the less strong Kaduna Mafia backed short-lived Umaru Yar'Adua's rule. President Jonathan is what he is and that is the reason why the apparent hijack of his government by these terrorist-governors forum came so easily; and his apparent timidity and lack of decisive backbone did not help matters at all.


The loser-in-chief of all these governors forum shenanigans are millions of Nigerians whose interest suffer and cannot be effectively pursued by the government in power as it continuously try to wrestle its powers back from the Governors Forum. When two elephants fights, the grass suffers but blame the president who have  unknowingly mortgaged the peoples' need at the alter of those spoiled-brat governors whose wishes must be President Jonathan's command; yet the president is supposed to be occupying a higher office than them? That is what a country gets when saddled with an uninspiring, fidgety and wish-washy political neophyte as president and one wonders whether he even trembles when faced with his service chiefs? Nigeria's Excess Crude Account has also been drastically depleted from over $20billion in 2007 to now less than $1 billion; shared by Jonathan amongst the governors and himself. 

KEITH OLBERMANN PARTS WAYS WITH MSNBC!

 Icheoku says it does not matter what caused the parting of ways between Mr. Countdown Special Comments and MSNBC; the winner here are those right wing conservatives extremists who will now freely operate without someone on the left to fire back.


Whatever may have happened leading to this abrupt end of "Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Icheoku says MSNBC have lost their golden goose and with it Icheoku's viewership; likewise millions of other Keith's fans all over America, who will now sit out the network to await Keith's next anchor-move.


Now Glen Beck, Bill O'Reilly, Shaun Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and the rest of other anti-people elements in America are now free to roam, unchallenged with their watchdog, Keith Olbermann, now gone. Just asking, could it be that those right wing Republican Fundraisers who starved Michael Steele's led RNC of funds went through Comcast to buy MSNBC just to get rid of their perceived enemy, Keith? We fans are not happy.

IGP HAFZ RINGIM, NOLLYWOOD'S JOHN OKAFOR ALIAS IBU LOOK-ALIKE?

 

Icheoku says, what a body-double?

100 WISE & MADE GUYS TAKEN DOWN, UNDERLINGS TAKE TO MATTRESSES.

It is a trite Mafiaoso Omerta rule of silence that two can only keep a secret when one is dead; but the five clans running the show throughout the gamut of New York and the entire northeast seem to have under-appreciated this time-tested truism. Or was it a case where the omerta mythology has been shattered beyond belief and the former men who kept silence even at the pain of death, now sing like sissies? 

As a result 100 of them including capons, consgiliaris, under-bosses, captains, enforcers, runners, lieutenants etc, were taken down by the United States criminal justice system; charged with various offenses ranging from racketeering, murder, extortion etc. Icheoku is certain that very little percentage of those arrested will ever see the inside of a courtroom as they will make deal after deal to stay outside the walls, free and freely roaming in their respect turfs. 

The world was first really introduced to the inner workings of these fisty-men in Godfather and most recently in Sopranos. The world saw how a don and his lieutenants run underground businesses and uses their enforcers to strong-arm other businesses to pony up in protection money or business permits or be swimming with the fishes. In private they are ordinary family guys or so it seems; but beneath the smile and laughter lay a cold heart of steel which ruthlessly take out rivals or disrespectful family member/s. They also go through normal daily-life induced pains that some of them have been reported as wishing that the cup would be taken away from them and would give anything to have their lives back. 

Such a massive take-down of 'made-guys' has happened before, the last of such being the Teflon Don's case. But like hydra, the clans always rebounded, rejuvenated and ready to go. Their rebounding is such that less than a decade after the Teflon guy was smacked down and sent to prison, the buzzer went off that another 100-made guys have been apprehended and will face justice for their crimes against humanity and the economy.  The Mafia knows that to survive, the fewer the merrier is the name of the membership; and so they should have limited their personalities to manageable made-guys but the raid proved otherwise. But throughout New York, New England and the entire Northeast, this time tested truism was taken for granted and they got burnt and burnt heavily. .One hundred of them were arrested and now facing trials for their economic and criminal offenses in what is considered the biggest Mafia take-downs in recent FBI history. Icheoku asks  would this be the end of the mafia in the NYNJ America or are the survivors simply going to go to mattresses to wait out their families incarceration? 

Because of the large scale operations involved in the arrest of these wise-guys, authorities used maximum show of force, accompanied into battle by some 800 armed and dangerous federal agents and police officers who affected the arrests; making scores of simultaneous arrests totaling 125 stemming from different mob families from New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island. Like the previous Gambino family arrest in 2008 when all but one of the 62 suspects took a plea, Icheoku will like to see how this one plays out. We are certain however that there will be lots of turncoats, snitches, sleepers etc who will rat others out or sing like canaries just in order to gain their own freedoms. We urge that justice be meted out to these crime-families judiciously. But whatever happens, lawyers are sure to make out good from this misfortune of the underworld gangsters.Good job Attorney General Holder; another feather in President Obama's fight against organized crimes of the five mafia families of Lucchese, Genovese, Gambino, Bonanno and Colombo. Another discomforting Italy's gift to America and by extension, the world?

PRESIDENT JONATHAN THROWS NWODO UNDER THE BUS.

 
Icheoku makes bold to say that Okwesilieze Nwodo was used and dumped by President Goodluck Jonathan to reinterpret the word "zoning" to read "the presidency was zoned to the north but anyone can also run;" thus reversing a long standing PDP internal policy on distribution of elective offices.

This was the sole reason Vincent Ogbulafor was shoved out as party chairman because he would not play ball accordingly and refused to ascribe to such a condescending and humiliating equivocation which Nwodo has no scruples with. Nwodo bent and twisted every PDP structures, dissolved standing states party executives and ordered inexplicable re-organisations in an election year period; forcing governors who were sitting on the fence hitherto to comply with his marching orders to ensure victory for President Jonathan at the just concluded PDP presidential primaries. Mission accomplished, Jonathan is now the PDP's presidential nominee for 2011 election and like all prostitutes, Nwodo's services were no longer needed so he became expendable? Suddenly "the litigations and sins" of Nwodo became too worrisome and too visible that they now constitute a clog and distraction to the president, such that Nwodo has to go to make way? Icheoku says this is notwithstanding the fact that these allegations were in the public domain and publicly in existence prior to Nwodo's ascendancy to the seat of party chairman with President Jonathan's approval? There was even a court proceeding pending against Nwodo, but which Jonathan deliberately ignored; and accepted Nwodo as chairman of his party, the PDP. Nwodo's assignment, the concession for making him the party chairman, was to midwife a President Jonathan's victory in the primaries and boy did he deliver!

Icheoku however blames the ousted party chairman for overreaching himself by antagonizing his base, the South East PDP especially Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu State; who personally engineered his ascendancy to the office of the party chairman. Also Nwodo conveniently forgot that he too was an illegal returnee to the party when he sat in judgment over his fellow returnee in illegitimacy, Abubakar Atiku's effort at securing a waiver and granted him a waiver, not minding what the party honchos would rather have him do; and he was never forgiven. Anyway, good riddance! However, Icheoku will remind President Jonathan to beware of the implication of having both northerners as the party chairman and vice president. It may be a political time-bomb waiting to go off and he too might fall victim to some northern political machination and manipulation; himself being equally schemed out of power. Also the entire South-East has nothing left now in President Jonathan's Nigeria political power structure - the north now has both the vice president, the party chairman (whether acting or not) as well as the senate president; the West has the Speaker of the House while the South-South has the presidency and the South-East Igbo has nothing. So long for a country that prides itself as united; yet no Igbo person is occupying any political position of relevance in President Jonathan's Nigeria? Shameful.

IT AIN'T A CASE OF 'BLOOD LIBEL', SARAH PALIN LOVES AND NURTURES VIOLENCE?

Icheoku says this woman, admitted she is beautiful and attractive, is practically a beauty and no brains blood-hound. She loves blood so much that if not for her beauty, a  female-Dracula would have been an appropriate gnome genre for her? But regrettably, Sarah Palin is so naive or appears to suffer from so much willful indifference to appreciate why people often link her to violence. 

Alaskan Sarah Palin in defense of her traducers' latest allegation that she somewhat contributed to the Tucson mayhem, categorically denied that she did. She went further to deny that she is a violent person; emphasising that she abhors violence of every form and shape and called the mass-murder the act of one deranged man who should be individually held responsible for his acts.  Icheoku has no contrary evidence to suggest that Sarah Palin caused Jared Loughner to unhinge, but says that words matters. The author of words, whether written or spoken, do not have control on the reach and outcome of such words and must have this in mind while uttering those words. In the classical works 'Julius Caesar', William Shakespeare brought to the world an orator Mark Anthony, whose words swayed a previously well behaved group of mourners into a raging vengeful mob; who killed Cicero the poet in a case of mistaken identity of Cicero the conspirator. Yet Sarah Palin is completely shirking away from any collateral responsibility for what happened in Tucson Arizona, which could have otherwise inhered from her spoken words?  

With Sarah Palin, there is a pattern of violence or rather indifference to them that Icheoku will here now take us through the journey of Sarah Palin on the road of violence? There abound several instances of Sarah Palin's words and actions which could have easily triggered any deranged fanatic down the same road as was traveled by Jared Lee Loughner, the white mass-murderer of Tucson-Arizona. Some of them are also poignant enough as to be conclusive evidence of Sarah Palin's love for blood. 

Without a doubt Alaskan Sarah Palin loves guns and ammunition and prides herself as a hunter extra-ordinary and an NRA great enthusiast numero-uno. Her infatuation and exploits with guns is 'maniacal'; and she personally confessed to her infectious love for guns when she scribbled "I'm the NRA" on her palm as she spoke at the National Rifle Association's Leadership Forum in Charlotte, North Carolina on May 14, 2010. Icheoku is aware that many Americans wondered aloud what it was that Sarah Palin wrote on her palm that she was glancing at during that nationally televised mysterious writing on her palm? It is only a person wowed by an event or thing that will declare in such unabashed fashion, claiming that she is that thing like "I am the NRA?"

Sarah Palin calls her unwed teenage daughter and baby-mama to Levi Johnston, Bristol,  "Bristol the Pistol?" Icheoku asks what kind of non-violent mother would brand her wayward daughter in this way and manner, identifying her with an instrument of violence and blood-letting, yet Sarah Palin hates violence? Calling somebody a 'Pistol' is no joke and if Sarah Palin was not so much in love with guns and ammunition, Icheoku does not think she would have ever given her DWTS daughter a pistol for a name? 


Further America watched as Sarah Palin fired and reloaded rifles in her soon to be rested television reality show "Sarah Palin's Alaska"; and how she also bludgeoned fishes to death, mercilessly hitting them repeatedly on their heads until they lay still just to prepare them for dinner? There were other blood-letting scenes of Alaskan rural living in that her television show; yet the woman who prides herself with "fire and reload" suddenly abhors violence? Sarah, please tell that to the marines as Icheoku and many Americans are not buying this your sanctified definition of self. 


Icheoku says that the numerous wildlife in Alaska have nightmares whenever the name Sarah Palin is mentioned within their ear-shot is incontrovertible. In her living room are taxidermy of bears, giant king crabs as well as Moose etc; and story has it that she killed most if not all of these animals when she visited them in their habitat with her hunting rifles. Icheoku asks how else can an animal be brought down if not through violence? Stories abound of Sarah Palin hunting down foxes, using helicopters and in some cases, directing the wildlife officials to do same; and you wonder if a person who abhors violence would find relish in having animals life violated in this bloody fashion? 


Shoot, "fire and reload" has almost become Sarah Palin's call letters and Icheoku wonders what pleasure a person who abhors violence finds in shooting, firing and reloading? Such fighting words which connotes shoot until you drop and cannot shot no more is by no means evidence of abhorrence of violence but glorifies it as a worthy venture. Guns are made to kill, whether animals or human-beings, and many would agree that anyone who loves guns the way and manner the Alaskan wildlife killer loves them must live and thrive in violence. 


It is also important to call into perspective the bloody turkey gauntlet scene which formed the background as Sarah Palin rattled off on some issues while still governor of Alaska and emphasis that it tells a lot about a woman who have no qualms with blood; yet Sarah Palin claims to hate violence but finds nothing ironical in using as a background scenes featuring turkeys necks being broken? 


Now, instead of taking some 'in-context collateral responsibility' for the tragedy of Tucson, mindful that the lunatic white terrorist Jared Loughner might have taken a page from her book, Sarah Palin was instead busy, cursing everybody that "accused" her or suggested that she may be somehow responsible, even for some scintilla, for the massacre. Sarah Palin also made disparaging racial slur on the Jews, using the term "blood-libel," which still reminds the Jews of their past history when they were accused of allegedly killing babies to exploit their blood for some medicinal research? Admitted Sarah Palin might have used the phrase without comprehending its full ramifications, but hey she now owns it and Icheoku prays that the powerful Jewish lobby groups will remind her of that whenever she decides to run for any future office in the country. It is ironical that a woman this beautiful and attractive have no qualms with goriness; and this is where Icheoku is lost, trying to decode Sarah Palin. Women generally are known to get squeamish at the sight of blood, talk-less of being the ones opening the fountain; but the case is different with Sarah Palin that one wonders if she is differently formulated than other women. But hey, she is Alaskan; and people of that clime are known to be very close to nature and Sarah Palin likes to see red.

OLUSEGUN OBASANJO, REJECTED!

First by his Yoruba people of South West Nigeria who never accepted him as a true bona-fide son of the soil; an Oduduwa legitimate offspring; hence his not so favored place in the annals of their history despite being a two time Nigerian head of State and president. The Yoruba rejection was followed by the entire Nigerian polity which resoundingly said thanks but no to Olusegun Obasanjo's bid for a third term in office. Now a machine, a non animate contraption had followed suit and also rejected Olusegun Obasanjo as a Nigerian, incapable of voting or being voted for since he cannot produce his fingerprints. 

The INEC's data collecting and processing machine, deployed for voter registration in Nigeria against the forthcoming April election has rejected Olusegun Obasanjo and declared him a person non grata in the registration exercise. It failed or refused or could not recognize Obasanjo's finger-print that Icheoku wonders if the Otta deity tampered with his fingerprints to cover up a prior existing malfeasance or something else. Anyway, the machine was subsequently tweaked to accommodate Obasanjo's fingerprints and he was fingerprinted and registered after initial several futile attempts. 


Icheoku asks could this be a ominous sign that even the heavens might someday question this man's humanity to be accommodated when his Yoruba people, Nigerians and even an inanimate machine have all rejected him. Olusegun Obasanjo, Icheoku says it is not yet too late to make amends, first with a public apology for all that went wrong during your ill-fated administration and then ask for forgiveness. Nigerians demand an answer and would be glad if you oblige them; Icheoku is waiting alongside them.

A WORD MADE FOR NIGERIA GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS?

"What's the point of being in the government if you don't try to make things better, which means trying to change things." - Richard Holbrooke. Icheoku says the diplomat was speaking as it would seem to Nigeria government officials who usually go into government only to enrich themselves and not to make things better for the people, period!

PRESIDENT JONATHAN SPEECHES, DOES THE PRESIDENT HAVE SPEECH WRITERS?

"It is with great humility that I accept the monumental mandate, which you have handed over to me as the presidential flag bearer of our great party. This mandate is unique, as it makes a decisive statement in the history of our great nation. The statement is that our people have chosen the unity of this country above all other considerations. Nigerians have made up their mind to jettison ethnic sentiment for national unity. It is a quantum leap into the great ideals to hold our great nation together. I promise all Nigerian that I would do all within my power not to disappoint this umbrella you have entrusted on me today.

I will carry this banner of our great country to make sure that the essence of this unity is not lost. We thank God for making this day possible for all of us. I thank all the delegates to this convention for the confidence you have reposed in me; I tell you that I will never let you down. Let me very respectfully pay a very special tribute to Mrs. Sarah Jibril and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who all fought gallantly. I believe that the very nerving presidential primary has the vice president and I and indeed the entire party for the forthcoming general elections. I want to welcome Mrs. Jubril and His Excellency, Alhaji Abubakar on board so that together we can build a Nigeria of our collective interests. A Nigeria where ideas guide our dreams for a greater nation. This is the time for our great party to move forward in unity to bring this country under the PDP’s banner and gain electoral victory that we need to better serve our nation. 

This country has so many challenges and our polity certainly needs reform. Our economy needs to be strengthened; opportunities needed to be spread and security needs to be improved. Only a national party can lead us through the national transformation Nigeria needs. Today, that national party is our party, the Peoples Democratic Party. These are the uncommon times in the history of this country. The challenges that confront this country are enormous but the opportunities available to us are even more. It is our responsibility as the ruling party of this great country to listen to Nigerians and move in the direction that people expect us to go. Nigerians want peace and security and we are determined to provide (?). Our party must convince Nigerians that we have a plan for national security and that we can cover the entire country in that plan. We are shedding the politics and corruption of the past that have held us down for too long and have formulated the strategy and claim to transform Nigeria. It won’t always be easy but our momentum is strong and our vision for Nigeria is clear."

Icheoku says the preceding is the acceptance speech delivered by Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan after he won his party's nomination as their presidential candidate for the 2011 April election. Going through what he read as a presidential acceptance speech, Icheoku wonders whether he scribbled that by himself at a moments notice following his victory or he had it written and vetted prior to the Abuja delivery. It sure sounds mediocre for a presidential speech and was this the best his speech writers could come up with or does he not have them or does not make use of them; just asking?

THE TUNISIAN REVOLUTION, A NEW AFRICAN AWAKENING?

 Icheoku says congratulations to the proud and brave people of Tunisia for forcing out of power, their tyrant and despotic former president. They yearned for it. They worked for it. They prayed for it. And finally they sacrificed for it and today, they have restored dignity to the people of Tunisia by telling their former president who is really in charge. Today the proud Africans of Tunisia are free - free from despotism, emasculation, killing, economic strangulation, political stifling, expression, association and above all of a maniacal tyrant who has lorded it over them for over 23 nightmarish years.


As Tunisia's former despotic president for life, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, scurries into exile with his tail tucked in between his legs, to Saudi Arabi, the receptacle of African despots (Idi Amin died there in exile), Icheoku says bravo to the people whose resilience made it possible. They believed in a cause; they worked for a cause and they sacrificed severally to accomplish their mission which all the curfews and state brutality could not stop. Icheoku says what the people of Tunisia accomplished is not an easy feat for Africans whose despots are as tyrannical as they get; and spares no effort at visiting their terror on the people just to stay in power and maintain their stranglehold on the subjugated people.


Icheoku hopes that the fire which has been lit in Tunisia will turn into a raging inferno that will spread throughout the continent and scorch all those other despots doting the landscape, from Libya to Egypt to Lesotho to Gabon etc. What happened in Tunisia also sends warning shots across the bow of other Arab maximum rulers in the Arab world who are deeply entrenched over the many years without providing any meaningful economic and/or political opportunities and way-out for their people. It is about time the political revolution which swept across Europe in the nineties passed through Africa and the Arab world. It is indeed time all those other African despots, dictators, tyrants, maximum rulers and sit-tight leaders are held to account for their stewardship to the people and not the other way round, as usual. Leaders who hole themselves up in their high walled and gated palatial mansions, indulging themselves with the choicest of things money can buy, while their people languish in abject poverty and want, and in dire austere condition which they are oblivious of and appear clueless on the fix.

For over 23 years the African people of Tunisia have endured unimaginable torture and great human degradation in the hands of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his Jezebel wife; who deployed and employed maximum powers to stay in power. They continuously lied and deceived the Tunisian people, with tales of providing them with security and protection from the bad Al-Querida people; while the people looked, yearned and hoped for an improved standard of living which never came. But like everything under the sun, fortunately there is a time fixed for it and today, gladly enough, the tyrant has fled into exile. Icheoku regrets that he did not stick around long enough for the hands of the people of Tunisia to get hold of him and suffer him like similar dictators Romania Nikolai Ceausescu, Iraq's Saddam Hussein etc. But well he is gone and Tunisia is at last free!


Icheoku says the Prime Minister Ghannouchi is part of the problem and should also go for a total and complete clean break from the past 23 years from. A prime minister since 1999, Ghannouchi is rather too close to the deposed president to bring anything new or flesh to the table of Tunisians yearning for a new dawn. Tunisians should therefore demand his exit and exile if possible and swear in the chief judge or speaker of parliament who shall organize an election within the next six months to enthrone a peoples orientated new leadership. Like United States President Barack Obama, Icheoku applauds the courage and dignity of the Tunisian people who today have liberated themselves from the twenty-three year long tyranny of their former President Ben Ali. Congratulations! The forces of light again triumphed over that of darkness and a brutal force dictatorship of a despot had its final limits.


It once again showed that arbitrary arrests, brutal control of the print media, Internet access, physical attacks on journalists, emasculation of human rights and opposition activists are sometimes not enough to stop the will of the people. They always lasts for a moment - up until such a time that such a tyrant is swept away in the flood of peoples power protest, generated by and to protest against such despotism. It is equally impressive that new age social media helped accelerate the change which happened in Tunisia as it provided the people timely knowledge of development as they joined to bring about the change they desired and needed. Icheoku aligns itself with this new media and together with Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and the rest of other blogosphere hope to help spread the gospel of real democracy at work in Africa, especially in Nigeria. Our hope at Icheoku is that the people of Nigeria will listen and act as they learn who their rulers are likewise other Africans in Egypt, Libya, Gabon, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Lesotho etc. How can a person be in power for 23 years and expect to have new solutions to the problems of the country, solutions which he never invented these past two decades plus?

 It would be recalled that protests which culminated to the forced exit from power of former president Ben Ali erupted spontaneously on December 17, 2010 when a young unemployed, 26-year-old university student Mohammad Bouazizi was stopped by officials from hawking some fruits and vegetables on the roadside, drenched himself in gasoline and set himself on fire. His death following the burns he received provided the trigger for a people already neck deep in frustration and economic depredation and the rest as they say is now history. It was the needed catalyst which reminded Tunisians the level of corruption, unemployment, political and social exclusion and deteriorating of other social conditions in their country; made possible by an uncaring president and his wicked wife whose udders have no milk of human sympathy or kindness flowing in them. The authorities tried to quell the resulting protest with excessive use of force deploying soldiers and killer-squads on the streets with dusk to dawn curfew as well as intolerable media clamp-down; but unbeknownst to them, it was already too late as the genie could not be bottled anymore and the presidency of Ben Ali was consumed in the fire of freedom which went through Tunisia.

Like in Tunisia there is a lot of unemployment and lots of unemployed graduates in so many African countries including Nigeria, Libya, Egypt, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Kenya, Ivory Coast etc. Icheoku wonders when similar movie as played itself out in Tunisia shall play in these countries' theaters; or is there something different about the wiring of Tunisians from these other Africans that they are too complacent and docile to stage such peoples revolt and using peoples power to upstage their inept leadership, as their brave Tunisian counterparts just did?  As other Africans await feverishly for the Tunisian inferno to touch-down in their territories, Icheoku says, we are very excited at such a prospect and pray for God's speed in bringing it about. Once again, congratulations to the good brave people of Tunisia for showing the way to other subjugated impoverished Africans on how it is done!

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA, CAN HE EVER DO RIGHT BY SOME WHITE FOLKS?

 A memorial speech seen and acknowledged by all decent people as well delivered both in message, tone and mannerisms is now being faulted by some extremists right wingers as a "pet-rally?" Icheoku asks, do these people have to hold the president responsible for a satisfied audience applauding a good speech or did they expect him to otherwise muzzle people who have freedom of expression; yet their Sarah Palin said people should be individually responsible for their acts. Icheoku queries, can this "nigger-president" ever do right in the eyes of these perverted racists red-necks, who are turning paler daily because a black-man is occupying "their" White House? Icheoku says you have to really live it to feel and understand it, being a minority in America; all the 'holier than thou' hollering notwithstanding. President Obama, Icheoku says only the dumb and dumber do not get it - that you are living it up, doing the best for America. Great speech at Tucson.

NUHU RIBADU AS ACN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, LAUGHABLE?

 Icheoku says the greatest hoax of the century in Nigeria is that the retired assistant police commissioner and the man who mistook sympathy for his persecution as love for him is now the presidential candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria? Icheoku says it is ok to dream and ACN and Ribadu can dream on that the skeletal mallam's candidacy will be acceptable to Nigerians. Like Richard Akinjide, Icheoku agrees that Nuhu Ribadu's candidacy is a huge joke and rather too ambitious. At least the mallam would have started by first testing his acceptability in his home state of Adamawa as a member of House of Representative or even a local government chairman; but no, his vaulted ego catapulted him into seeking the office of presidency of Nigeria? In Akinjide's own words, "Mallam Ribadu should have gone to the House of Representatives or the Senate. He is not a material for a Vice-President. I won’t even make him a governor.” Icheoku completely agrees with Akinjide's intelligent assessment and adds that Nuhu Ribadu will not even bring anything new to the fortunes of ACN as he is not capable of even delivering his own state of Adamawa to the ACN; talkless of those much needed Northern votes. Icheoku says Ribadu is just another kite thinking himself an eagle?

PRESIDENT JONATHAN WINS HIS PARTY'S NOMINATION, CONGRATULATIONS!

Icheoku hereby congratulate the winner of PDP presidential primaries, President Goodluck Ebelesimi Azikiwe Jonathan on his victory; congratulations! Now that the politics of who in the PDP runs for election in the coming  April 2011 presidential elections has been resolved, it is time to put the politicking aside and let preparations begin for a successful election outing. With this is the added responsibility for the winner to ensure the unity of all parties in the PDP as the April election approaches; admitted some had different opinions and preferences regarding the very outcome just witnessed. It is not personal, it is politics; and it is about positioning oneself properly in the fight for a cause greater than self and which is beneficial to the people. Icheoku hopes the candidate-elect and his team understands this political imperative and will now pivot from the primaries bitter fight to focus on the main political fight ahead in April, against other presidential candidates of other parties.


Icheoku commends the PDP Chairman Nwodo and his convention organizing committee for putting up a transparently well organized primaries; let us hope it the signs of things to come in April, assuming NEC's Jega is listening. The main challenger and the man Icheoku had endorsed on grounds of adhering to the PDP's zoning arrangement principles, Atiku Abubakar, is hereby also commended for keeping alive the hope of real democracy in Nigeria. Admitted he did not win and lost by a wide margin, but at least he made President Jonathan work very hard for his nomination; as his was not the case of the usual African incumbents' unopposed selection and election. In some ironical oddity, Atiku Abubakar by putting up a strong fight, helped entrench democracy in Nigeria - it was not an all coast clear for the incumbent. Sarah Jibril is also commended and given an 'E' for effort; at least she voted for herself and got the only one vote as an also ran presidential candidate. It appears also that President Jonathan has learnt some lesson in the art of survival, especial political survival; which says 'never stray too far away from your godfather/mentor'. The godfather never sleeps or rests; and always shadows the object of his affection with bountiful love and protection, no matter what. Icheoku is convinced that Jonathan read the handwriting on the wall correctly and his decision to keep the man who made him king around and very close paid off greatly as seen in the resounding victory he recorded at the PDP presidential primaries. 

As for the South East Igbos 2015 agenda to produce the next president of Nigeria, Icheoku says it is almost a complete game-over for them now that a southern has emerged as presidential candidate and likely president in 2011. The result of the primaries has radically changed the equation especially with the non committal of President Goodluck Jonathan to the 2015 Igbo presidential agenda. With Jonathan's victory, the Nigeria powers that be might decide to postpone the day when an Igbo will be president a little longer, and make the Igbos to really work hard for it if they truly want it. Moreso, it is most likely that President Goodluck Jonathan will hand the presidential baton over to Vice President Namadi Sambo after he might have completed a second term, arguably to finish South-South eight year term? Election has consequences and the Igbos seem to have again lost out in the power tussle in Nigeria; and no sane person expects Vice President Namadi Sambo to just walk away after being a president in the waiting for these years. Icheoku advises the Igbos of South-East to retool and reposition themselves with a new game-plan tailored for several years post 2015.

Notably absent at the convention were Ibrahim Babangida, Orji Uzor Kalu and Gusua; and Icheoku wonders what kept these politicians of timber and caliber out of the Eagle Square convention. Icheoku also did not remember seeing the father and champion of the northern consensus candidate, Mallam Adamu Ciroma anywhere around the convention; or was he too ashamed of his product to show face? But hey, it is politics and winners and losers are sure to bound but Nigeria marches on!

If not for personal vendetta of the Northern Elders Forum that sabotaged Babangida's presidential campaign effort, may be Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida would have been a superior northern consensus candidate than the woeful performer Atiku Abubakar, who was left in the dust by President Goodluck Jonathan's turbo charged campaign. Although Icheoku campaigned against Babangida's ambition, but we strongly believe that as between Atiku and Babangida, the later would have been a stronger candidate and would have also given Jonathan a run for his money. Icheoku is confident that were Babangida to lose to President Jonathan eventually, it would not have been by such a very wide margin as 2753 to 805 out of 3542 total votes cast as recorded in the just concluded Jonathan versus Atiku run. But hey, at least Mallam Adamu Ciroma should be commended for masterfully solving the Babangida problem and without much of a fight; or was Ciroma a hired gun of the Jonathan's campaign, surreptitiously used to take the bigger challenger IBB out of the race? But does anyone really understands the intrigues and wheel-dealing involved in politics. 

The final votes tally received by the three individual presidential candidates were as follows:- Jonathan 2736, Atiku 805 vote and Sarah 1 vote respectively; 61 other votes were voided. One significant development in the primaries was the loss by Atiku of his own home state of Adamawa; just in similar vein as American Al Gore lost his home state of Tennessee to George W. Bush in United States 2000 presidential election. President Jonathan also beat Atiku in all Southern States as well as some northern states; while Atiku pulled victory in core northwestern states of Sokoto, Zamfara, Niger, Kebbi and Kano States otherwise known as the Islamic Sharia States of Northern Nigeria. 

Overall, the election of President Goodluck Jonathan is significant as it finally and for the first time, marked the ceding of power by the semi-illiterate ruling class to an educated Nigerian. A Nigerian who is from the minority area and one who still have some life left in him, being under the usual 70 years benchmark for these rulers. A somewhat youthful Nigerian president who will help cement the gains of democracy and without infusing much demagoguery or religiosity or tribal bigotry in the polity.  Also by Jonathan's election, it appears that Nigeria is finally free from the Northern Nigeria hegemony; a hegemony which held Nigeria down for so long and which still hold certain portions of the greater Northern Nigeria hostage and in bondage. With the back of the North's hegemony finally broken, Nigerians can now breath the air of freedom and confidently march on to a future that is both brighter, better and more unifying. The election result decimated a once too powerful and overbearing homogeneous Northern Nigeria, which hitherto held Nigerians and those Northerners they consider "not northerner enough" in bondage and perpetual servitude.

The election result has also reconfigured Nigeria's political geography from the previous black and white North and South to now "Nigeria and the Islamic Sharia States of North-Western Nigeria?" Under the new Nigeria, it is now ok for a minority Southerner to succeed a majority Northerner; and during the later's zonal turn and thus Jonathan can now complete the late Umaru Yar'Adua led northern turn. That is the ideal situation in a country where things are done right and properly; gladly enough it looks like a new dawn is unfolding in Nigeria or who would have imagined several years ago that Jonathan would have been able to succeed and complete Yar'Adua's otherwise second term? So be that as it may, April election is just around the corner and Icheoku prays that Nigeria will have a successful election; so let the campaigns begin and begin earnestly. Once again, congratulations President Goodluck Jonathan on your nomination as the presidential candidate for your party, the PDP!

JARED LEE LOUGHNER, THE WHITE DOMESTIC TERRORIST OF TUCSON ARIZONA

One woman asked, "How can a person hate this much" as to cause such a mayhem. In answer, Icheoku says, violence has been around in America and America has been around violence and for a long continuous time. The only thing that changed this time with the Tucson incident is that a top public official, a United States Congresswoman, was one of the victims and now it is all hell tuned loose? 

Icheoku asks, does it mean that this particular mass murder is somewhat different or is it a case of Animal Farm's some animal being more equal than others; and that some lives are more special and valued more than the rest of other Americans who are continuously dropped on the streets of America by acts of violence every day. Instead of addressing the easy availability of guns, people are looking for someone to blame for the bloody violence which is fast taking over the land and which manifests every time and in various forms. 

Violence which started way back and continuing today from Slave-owners and Slave-traders, native American-Indians massacre, the two Texas white males that tied a black-man at the back of their pickup truck and drove his tailgating body around until it completely disintegrated and his skull spilled his brains on the pavements of a Texan town, Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and according to Rachel Maddow's account on 1/10/11 TRM's show, several other bone-chilling mass killings in America, including Columbine High School students massacre and Virginia Tech massacre; all which were carried out by persons who "hated that much" that they committed such heinous dastardly act. 

It is regrettable what happened in Tucson; but let no one pretend it is new in our land or that this killer and mass-murderer was any different from other past mass-murderers on record or that such madness shall magically end with this Tucson episode; many copycats are likely to follow. A serious soul-searching is all that we need in addition to toning down the rhetoric while finding meaningful ways to get around NRA and take the guns out of the reach of such psychopaths as Jared Loughner. Icheoku hopes that we can learn to love more than we war on one another; and pray that the Almighty shall not allow such people as Jared Loughner to wake up on the day they planned to carry out such infamy!

A GLOCK PISTOL WITH EXTENDED MAGAZINE, BEAUTIFUL BUT DEADLY.

 The white domestic terrorist who caused great mayhem in Tucson Arizona, used a similar assault pistol to kill and hurt so many Americans including a 9 year old child and a United States Congresswoman.

ICHEOKU ENDORSES ATIKU ABUBAKAR FOR PDP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDACY.

Icheoku says, thankfully Atiku Abubakar has successfully navigated all the obstacles festooned his way as he steadfastly seeks Nigerian presidency. Both the courts and the presidential screening committee have given him the long awaited 'all systems go' green-light and the Turaki of Adamawa is now ready to do battle with all those forces holding Nigeria back, both directly and through the proxy of the other guy. It has been a long widening road of travel, dating back to early nineties with the PDM, to a two term vice presidency, to a presidential run and finally now to another attempt at flying his party's flag as her presidential candidate in the forthcoming 2011 presidential election. 

That Atiku Abubakar is a proven democrat is a fact. That Atiku Abubakar is well prepared for the office is a fact. That Atiku Abubakar is knowledgeable of what is required of the office is a fact. That Atiku Abubakar has something to offer Nigerians is a fact. That Atiku Abubakar has something to prove is also a truism. That Atiku Abubakar will consolidate democracy in Nigeria is a fact. That Atiku Abubakar will observe the rule of law is  a fact. That Atiku Abubakar will restore hope to the hopeless Nigeria is a fact. Tha Atiku Abubakar is fearless and courageous, two cardinal character traits of a leader, is given. Admitted he allegedly dabbled into some not so clement but yet to be proved financial dealings, or at best illegal transactions in the past; but no one said that an angel must come down from On High to lead Nigerians. Under the peculiar Nigerian circumstances, Icheoku says, Atiku Abubakar is good enough for Nigeria and above all better that the other guy/s. 

Be that as it may, Icheoku is mindful of (1)the need to respect and uphold the gentleman's and in some quarter's understanding, express agreement of the PDP on rotation via zoning of the presidency; (2)that the presidency zoned to the north is still subsisting since the north has not completed their zone's presidency term and (3)that it is the North's implicit right in 2011 to complete their term. Icheoku therefore, hereby make the following declarations:- (a)Atiku Abubabar is eminently qualified to be Nigeria's president; (b)Atiku Abubakar is well prepared for the job of Nigeria's president; (c)Atiku Abubakar knows what to do with the office of Nigeria president; (d)Atiku Abubakar has the passion, energy, stature, personality, political sagacity, demeanor and above all, a reasonably good head on his shoulders to effectively serve as Nigeria president. 

It is also the zonal turn of the North to produce the next Nigeria president in 2011 and the North has given Nigeria Atiku Abubakar, as their consensus northern candidate. Atiku Abubakar's candidacy will help consolidate democracy and unite Nigerians more as they groom and nurture their young democracy. The other guy is none of that and he is no Atiku Abubakar; the last one year of his providential presidency is not a good testimonial that he is properly seized of the office's requirements. 

Therefore, in discharging our duties to properly inform the public and to the extent possible, help persuade opinions, Icheoku hereby endorses Alhaji Abubakar Atiku as the better and preferred  presidential candidate, for the Peoples Democratic Party in the forthcoming 2011 presidential election. Icheoku  urges the party's delegates to choose Atiku Abubakar  accordingly, considering in addition to our preambles, what is in the best interest of a united Nigeria and in order not to unnecessarily overheat the polity. Atiku Abubakar is highly qualified for the job and he comes well prepared to discharge the duties of the office satisfactorily too. Icheoku says it is about time a "can do" personality is put in charge of affairs in Nigeria to drive the future course. Atiku Abuabakar is who Dr. Democracy ordered for Nigeria at this time in order to move the country forward; and Professor Chukwuma Soludo as his vice president, will definitely compliment his presidency and bring added intelligentsia to the office!