NIGERIA PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 2011, WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR.

The result of the presidential election so far released shows that the country is divided along religious lines - the fundamentalists and the more secular. The fundamental Islamic sharia northwest and northeast voted for their Imam in chief Muhammed Buhari while the rest of other more secular north central, southwest, southeast and southsouth areas of Nigeria voted for President Goodluck Jonathan. So far President Jonathan has won 23 states and the Federal Capital Territory Abuja, which encompasses four of the six geographical zones of the country; pulling in a total of 21,671,316 votes while Buhari won in 11 states, comprising two geographical zones and pulling  in a total of 11,081,731 votes. 


As Icheoku and the rest of the world, especially Nigerians await the final official declaration by INEC of the winner, our prayers is that Imam Muhammadu Buhari will not hesitate or delay in congratulating President Jonathan and giving his concession speech forthwith. That way, the country can begin to heal immediately with a view to moving forward with solving the numerous challenges bedevilling it. 


Lastly, when all is said and done, one thing out of this election is that the North no longer speaks with one voice as the north-central, the former Middle Belt, has awoken and now seek their fortune independent of the core north. Moreso the core north might become the new minority in Nigeria politics. Way to go middle belters! Here below is the tabulated results so far got with Zamfara and taraba States still outstanding, and it is likely they will be divided evenly with Buhari winning Zamfara and Jonathan Taraba.

ABIA                             Goodluck     1,175,954                   Buhari          3,608      ======= Goodluck

AKWA IBOM              Goodluck     1,165,629                   Buhari          5,348       ======= Goodluck

ADAMAWA                 Goodluck        508,314                   Buhari      344,526   ========= Goodluck

ANAMBRA                  Goodluck     1,145,169                   Buhari          4,223     ======== Goodluck

BAYELSA                    Goodluck        504,811                   Buhari              691     === ===== Goodluck

BAUCHI                       Goodluck        258,404                   Buhari    1,315,209 ========= Buhari

BENUE                         Goodluck         694,776                  Buhari        109,680    ======= Goodluck

BORNO                       Goodluck         207,075                  Buhari        909,763   ====== = Buhari

CROSS RIVER           Goodluck         709,382                  Buhari            4,002========  Goodluck

DELTA                         Goodluck      1,378,851                  Buhari            8,960========  Goodluck

GOMBE                       Goodluck         290,347                  Buhari         459,898  ======= Buhari

EBONYI                       Goodluck        480,592                  Buhari              1,025======== Goodluck

EDO                              Goodluck        542,173                  Buhari            17,795======== Goodluck

EKITI                            Goodluck        135,009                  Buhari                  NA======= Goodluck

ENUGU                         Goodluck        802,144                  Buhari               3,753======= Goodluck

JIGAWA                       Goodluck        419,252                  Buhari            663,994======  Buhari

IMO                              Goodluck     1,381,357                  Buhari                 7,591====== Goodluck

KADUNA                     Goodluck     1,190,179                   Buhari         1,334,244======  Buhari

KANO                         Goodluck         440, 666                  Buhari         1,624,354       === Buhari     

KATSINA                   Goodluck         282,477                   Buhari             864,343===== Buhari

KEBBI                         Goodluck         369,198                   Buhari             501,453===== Buhari

KOGI                          Goodluck         399,816                   Buhari             132, 201===== Goodluck

KWARA                      Goodluck         268,243                   Buhari                83,603       == Goodluck      

LAGOS                       Goodluck     1,281,688                    Buhari              189,983       == Goodluck      

NASARAWA              Goodluck        408,997                    Buhari              278,390====== Goodluck

NIGER                        Goodluck        340,014                    Buhari              713,303====== Buhari

OGUN                        Goodluck        303,000                    Buhari                 17,000        === Goodluck         

ONDO                       Goodluck        387,376                    Buhari                 11,890====== Goodluck

OSUN                         Goodluck       188,409                    Buhari                   6,997     ==== Goodluck            

OYO                           Goodluck       484,758                    Buhari                 92,396        === Goodluck    

PLATEAU                   Goodluck    1,029,865                    Buhari               356,551     ===== Goodluck

RIVERS                      Goodluck    1,817,762                    Buhari                 13,182   ====== Goodluck

SOKOTO                  Goodluck       309,057                    Buhari               540,769 ====== Buhari

YOBE                          Goodluck       117,128                   Buhari               337,537 ====== Buhari

FCT                             Goodluck       253,444                   Buhari               131,576 ====== Goodluck

TOTAL =          Goodluck  =  21, 671,316        Buhari  =  11,081,738

                            (23 states +FCT)                 (10 Sharia states + 1)    

Zamfara and Taraba are still being awaited.

NIGERIA PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 2011, THE TRENDING RESULT

NIGERIA PRESIDENTIAL

The result so far trickling in shows that the trend is holding and that expectedly, the election is PDP's President Jonathan to lose. Unfortunately the crying general from Katsina State and CPC presidential candidate Muhammadu Buhari is already crying foul of election rigging. Icheoku wants Buhari to tell Nigeria the states he had hoped to actually win outside those in his sharia-catchment area of northwestern Nigeria. Where is the evidence since mere speculation and allegations are not enough to show that rigging took place. Anyway Nigerians are waiting and watching to see the final outcome of the election and Icheoku prays that the Imam will smarten up and read the handwriting on the wall that Nigerians have rejected his despotism. Icheoku like millions of other Nigerians is anxiously waiting for the final result tally and the concession speech of Imam Muhammadu Buhari.

BUHARI'S CANDIDACY, NIGERIANS SAY THANKS BUT NO, THANKS.

BUHARI THE BOOGIE-MAN, GONNA GET YOU!

 

Once again Icheoku is sending urgent message to Nigerian electorates - do not be an enabler or accomplice to Imam Muhammadu Buhari's mission of vengeance on Nigeria and Nigerians alike. Buhari is mean-hearted, lean and arguably emaciated; such men are dangerous and should not be entrusted with power. SAY NO TO BUHARI, DO NOT VOTE FOR HIM. HIS CANDIDACY IS TOXIC to the continuing existence of a secular Nigeria. Buhari is an Islamic extremist seeking to institute his brand of Sarafin purist religious ideals in Nigeria.

NORTH REJECTS BUHARI AND SO SHOULD YOU.

Icheoku says Imam Muhammadu Buhari has been rejected by his people, his primary constituency. The North reached a verdict on Buhari that he is too divisive, tribalized and bigoted to be president of Nigeria and they overwhelmingly rejected him and his party - the CPC at the polls. According to Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State, the north by rejecting Buhari's ethnic and religious sentiments, voted for one united Nigeria. Icheoku urges the rest of other Nigerians to also reject Buhari as they cannot claim to know Buhari better than his own people. Nigerians should in unison join Buhari's people in chorusing 'NO TO BUHARI.' Buttressing his argument, Governor Lamido said, "what else can anyone say when Sokoto which is the home of Usman Dan Fodio, Kebbi the home of Abdullahi Fodio, Kano, Borno, Adamawa and other principalities which are the epitome of Islamic values have all gone the way of PDP" instead of Buhari's primordial ethnic party, the CPC? It shows one thing and one thing only - that BUHARI is a political reject in Nigeria and cannot win any free and fair presidential election in Nigeria. Buhari's people know him better than the rest of Nigerians and they have said that he is not good for a corporate Nigeria; so Nigerians now you know the futility of supporting an assured loser, Muhammadu Buhari, or even thinking about it. JUST SAY NO TO BUHARI, his candidacy is toxic to Nigeria's existence!

BUHARI, THE CRYING-GENERAL DESERVES NO SYMPATHY AS HE SHOWED NONE.

What a picture perfect of three anaemically 'lean and hungry-looking' men that must not be trusted with power in Nigeria because they are dangerous. Their planned mission of vengeance in Nigeria must be stopped cold before they tear the country apart. Look at Mallam El-Rufai (right) who after saying that Imam Muhammadu Buhari is too old to run and should make way for younger breed of politicians and even went as far as calling Buhari names, made a b-line and is now flying Buhari's flag for presidency. It shows that this little man has no conviction at all and is only in it for his own selfish interest and now still-birth ambition as Nigerians can never forgive him his support for this petulant dictator. El-Rufai is now yoked inseparably with Buhari and his deficits just like the other little man, Pastor Tunde Bakare (left) who deceived Nigerians with his activism only to later settle for a vice presidential run with Muhammadu Buhari; and this is despite the later's sordid record of gross inhumanity treatment to Nigerians.


If Tunde Bakare is really a man of God and a prophet, why did he not ask Buhari to apologize for killing those three innocent Nigerians and also saw the vision that Buhari CANNOT be elected president of Nigeria? Icheoku asks, what really moves these little people or is their Napoleon Bonaparte's syndrome so overwhelming that they now think themselves giants of Nigeria politics to influence anybody? Who does this former FCT minister El-Rufai think he is and what clout does he really command thinking his joining forces with brutal Buhari will change anything politically and he is not even personable. Look who is asking Nigerians to trust them and vote for their chief Imam, the crying mallam from Katsina State? What another pathetic case of an owl thinking himself an eagle just because it knows how to take flight; but unbeknownst to El-Rufai and other Buhari's entourage to lala-land, Nigerians know better and not even the tears of the Imam can deceive them this time around. Icheoku declares that Nigerians have tasted Buhari and their tongues are still sour and burnt - their experience was both nightmarish and torturous and cannot be relived again, NEVER AGAIN!


Icheoku says maybe Muhammadu Buhari should have spent more time explaining to Nigerians why he did what he did wrong during his first coming as a coup-plotting military head of state in 1983, instead of using the curtain of false tears to adumbrate on what he intend to do if given the opportunity. Only when hell freezes over! What a dreamer this Katsina army general is. Better still, instead of being a cry-baby, Buhari should have just manned-up and face his monkey by calling an open-season, no holds barred press conference, where he fully answers several burning questions on account of his stewardship as a military dictator. Thereafter he could have apologized for his sins against the people of Nigeria and asked for their forgiveness. Icheoku says that is the real 'STANDING UP' defined and not his fictitious prancing around valedictory address. By fully accounting for what he wickedly did wrong followed with a profuse apology, Nigerians may be in a better position to reconsider their loath of him and try to forgive him. This way, he could have spared himself those fake tears of a despised and frustrated dictator wanna-be Nigeria president. If only Buhari was contrite enough and admitted and apologized for his crimes against the humanity that inhabit Nigeria, he could have been saved from the ignominy of shedding useless tears on national television; afterall boys don't cry especially if that boy is a seventy year old retired army general from sharia Katsina State.


Instead of crying, may be Buhari should have taken responsibility for the parlous state of Nigeria,  a state brought about by series of military interventions and army men hopelessly misdirecting the ship of the Nigeria state; a curse of Nigeria, which Buhari triggered off in December 31 1983 when he overthrew a democratically elected government of President Shehu Shagari. May be Imam Muhammadu Buhari should have apologized for reintroducing military coups in Nigeria way back in 1983, giving rise to Babangida's copycat coup against Buhari himself as well as Abacha's coup against the interim government of Ernest Shonekan. It is also on record that most of the military coups in Nigeria, which collectively plunged Nigeria's fortunes aground, were all carried out by Buhari's people:- the counter-coup of April 1966, the Muritala Mohammed coup against genocidal Yakubu Gowon, Buhari's own coup against President Shagari, Ibrahm Babangida's coup against Buhari and the technical coup against MKO Abiola on June 12, 1993 and Abacha's coup against Ernest Shonekan. All of these criminal master-minds (yes coup is a crime) are from the same geographical area of northern Nigeria as Buhari and successively and respectively contributed to the malaise in Nigeria. So when Buhari says things are awry in Nigeria, he is sure definitely pointing the rest of his four fingers on both himself and his fellow northern compatriots conspiratory military coup-plotters.


For the length of period that military interregnums in Nigeria lasted, that length midwifed a Nigeria paralyzed,  through faulty incongruous fiscal and political policies of state, formulated by people trained to kill and destroy and who have no expertise in running a huge complexity like government. The result, so many experimentation with governance and economic road-maps gone awry such as Babangida's SAP. These military coup-plotters micro-managed every aspect of the polity and the economy forcing one to wonder what business school Buhari, Babangida and Abacha went to prepare them for management or even to appreciate the nitty-gritty involved, yet they called the shots anyway. Even Abacha was rumored to come to work whenever he please but always not earlier than 12.00noon and you wonder how a country can move on with such snail-speed managers running affairs of state. Buhari and his co-travelers in military coups watched Nigeria dither and tither to its present decaying state; it did not happen overnight, yet Imam Muhammadu Buhari has the effrontery to point fingers when he is supposed to be the one taking responsibilities for all that is wrong with Nigeria today since they are all traceable to his military coup of December 21, 1983.


Icheoku makes bold to say that were it not for Muhammadu Buhari's military coup against President Shehu Shagari government in December 1983 and the decimation of all that were on stream then such as the Lagos metro project among other things, may be by now in 2011, Nigeria would have lurched itself forward. Even the currently still stumbling politicians would have by now figured out what is wrong with Nigeria as well as possible solutions to fix them. These politicians would have since mastered the game and by now be playing it to advantage the populace and electorates. But no, thanks to Buhari's band of military adventurers who struck in 1983 and remained in power for too long; as a result, the center can no longer hold in Nigeria resulting in the near paralysis of the country today. Yet the same Buhari shamelessly wept for 'missed opportunities in Nigeria' when he threw the first curve ball and caused the quake which triggered the avalanche?


If Buhari were wise and articulate, he would have not shed a tear but  go down on his knees to ask Nigerians to forgive him for all his wrongdoings while a coup-plotting military head of state. But there he was, in all his Pharisee self-righteousness, beating his chest and proclaiming himself the Messiah that would have saved Nigeria if only Nigerians have not since rejected and declared him NOT WANTED in their Aso Rock. Instead of rehashing what he would do or planned to do, Buhari should have given an insight on his questionable inhuman actions while military head of state of Nigeria and thereafter ask for all bygones to be bygone in the interest of moving Nigeria forward; but his over bloated ego got in the way and made a golden opportunity slip. Buhari thought that by crying a river, he could cry a river big enough to wash away the memory of his mortal sins against millions of Nigerians, both dead and alive, and they would suddenly develop general amnesia that he once ran affairs in Nigeria.


In conclusion, Icheoku says that the crying general, Muhammadu Buhari, now also a fox, failed woefully in his attempt to borrow a page from America's Hillary Clinton's book of political manipulation by shedding tears, which she deployed in New Hampshire during her bitter 2008 Democratic Party's primaries fight of her life with then candidate Obama. Buhari's tears did not move anybody, not Icheoku and not millions of Nigerian electorates because they are not sincere nor genuine but a product of a very wicked vengeful mind and therefore meaningless. Morover Nigerians are not a wish-washy people and living in the land of tears, have seen so many tears to be moved by some fake cartoonish tears of Muhammadu Buhari. Buhari also forgot that what works in America does not often work in Nigeria and that at least, some people as live in New Hampshire like Hillary Clinton unlike the general Nigerians' aversion of his mean spirited self.  Finally, Nigerians should remember that Julius Caesar peradventure warned them against 'lean and hungry-looking men' such as Buhari - THEY ARE DANGEROUS; so be sane enough, DO NOT VOTE FOR BUHARI.

BOLA TINUBU, THE NEW AWOLOWO OF YORUBALAND?

Icheoku says at last, finally the sons and daughters of Oduduwa domiciled in Yorubaland, has a new leader, a generallisimo, the Aare Ona Kakanfo of Oduduwaland; the man who has effectively stepped into the very big shoes left behind by Late Obafemi Awolowo. Ladies and gentle men of Nigeria, particularly in Yorubaland, please welcome the new Awolowo of the Yorubas, Atunwase Ahmed Bolaji Tinubu. Icheoku says he is indeed providing the leadership needed in Yorubaland and there is no point arguing with the truth or begrudging him for a job well done. Icheoku says congratulations ABT and Yoruba people, please enjoy your new leader! 

MUHAMMADU BUHARI SPELLS DANGER FOR NIGERIA!

Do not place a noose on Nigeria,

DO NOT VOTE FOR BUHARI

BUHARI'S TEARS OF A CLOWN, NEITHER GENUINE NOR REAL, SIMPLY THEATRICS.

Icheoku advises Nigerians to ignore the conman and his fake tears. A despot now desperately trying by all means possible, including shedding crocodile tears, to hoodwink Nigerians into believing that he has suddenly grown a soul and thereby enable him into Aso Rock? This is  a dictator with mountain-high baggage full of stinking skeletons who suddenly now wants Nigerians to develop amnesia that he once lorded it over them? Just don't mind him - his tears is not genuine, it is simply theatrics meant to confuse unsuspecting Nigerian electorates and thereby elicit undeserved sympathy from the gullible lot. Icheoku says, but not this time, Buhari.

Imam Muhammadu Buhari is forever politically damaged and irreparably too that no amount of his crocodile tears from his starry-eyes and cold heart of steel can wash him clean. Icheoku asks where was this piece of his humanity all these past 30 plus odd years he forcibly foist himself on the Nigerian people through a military coup against a democratically elected government of President Shehu Shagari in 1983? Why now Buhari, why now? Please Nigerians, just disregard Buhari's tears from hell as it belongs to a desperate old military dictator trying to con Nigerians that he has a soul. Please Nigerians do not fall for the show. 

Imam Muhammadu Buhari allegedly wept while delivering his presidential campaign's valedictory speech to Nigerians (Icheoku hopes this time is for real and it will sure be the last for this 'always ran presidential candidate). In the speech, the lean and mean Muhammadu Buhari said, "Ladies and gentlemen, in the life of any nation there comes a time when some people have to stand up and point out when things are moving off track, explain why they are going wrongly, demonstrate how they can be set aright, and work towards making a difference. For Nigeria, that time has come and it is now; and the people to stand up are you and me! Second, let me state categorically that I am not in this race to advance or protect any vested interest or group. We are seeking to replace a government that has done so much havoc to its people and their reputation; and we are determined, with your help, to uproot them completely. I have fought drift and purposelessness in this nation. I have fought corruption and indiscipline. I have fought indolence and the betrayal of trusts. I have fought the Nigerian civil war and struggled for the unity of this country in many other ways. I have had the fortune and privilege of managing national resources in various capacities—as a military commander, as a state governor, as a minister, as head of the Petroleum Trust Fund, and as the head of state of this great country. And in all that I have been and done, I have never touched a kobo of public funds."

In rebuttal Icheoku asks, where was Buhari when Sani Abacha ran amok in Nigeria terrorizing, maiming and killing innocent Nigerians; and drove so many political activists into forced exile? Did he speak up then, no! Did he stand up then, no! Instead he was enjoying the cozy chairmanship of the Petroleum Trust Fund to which Abacha appointed him and suddenly now he is pontificating that the PDP government is adrift and he is the 'NOW MESSIAH' to fix what was broken? Icheoku posits that never had Nigeria gone completely bunkers than during the regime of the midget of Kano, Sani Abacha, yet Buhari did not speak up nor stood up but maintained a conspiratory silence while things went completely haywire as Nigeria went to hell in hand's basket. Icheoku asks Buhari when Sani Abacha was doing havoc to Nigeria and Nigerians, where were you? This is a man who went to Kano's graveside of Sani Abacha and praised him as the most upright leader Nigeria has ever had and you wonder where an "upright" leader got the sum of $500 million dollars that was recovered from one of his personal accounts in Switzerland? Or may be Buhari selectively has his own version and definition of truth?

Imam Buhari also said that he is not in the race to protect any group or race. Icheoku says, really; yet his party's chairman is from the north, his party's national secretary is from the north, himself the party's presidential candidate is from the north too. So, what manner of a man without a regional agenda would so skewer his party's top positions to favor just one region in a country with such diverse geographical spread as Nigeria with many regions, nationalities and divides? Why did he not spread the offices and this is the same man who locked a vice president in prison while keeping his principal the president in a plush government guest house; yet he is claiming he is not parochial? Icheoku says never in the history of Nigeria has a man been as parochial, medieval and introverted as Buhari that his idea of Nigeria is a Nigeria populated by his Fulani Islamic folks only. Why did this man murder three innocent Nigerians - Barthlomeow Owo, Bernard Ogedengbe and Lawal Ojulope in cold blood, yet he is shedding tears? Does Buhari even have a soul?

Lastly Icheoku wants Buhari to get it right into his Sharia-skull that the absence of evidence is not tantamount to absence of crime; it is just that the crime has not been proved conclusively. If Buhari said he was not corrupt and did not take any kobo out of public tiller, where did he get the billions he is spending on his presidential campaign or did he mortgage Nigeria to some Middle Eastern countries bent on Islamizing Nigeria to secure their sponsorship of his campaign? if true what are the ramifications and does it include introducing their punitive Sharia law throughout Nigeria. The gist of the matter is that Buhari remains a despot, a tribalist, an Islamist, an extremist, an anti-democracy military dictator, a bigot and above all a vengeful zealot waiting to pick off on his supposed enemies. Nigerians challenges at this time is rather too humongous and needs a president who will be devoted to solving them rather than spend it hunting down his enemies with vengeance. Also Buhari has shed the blood of some innocent Nigerians before and will shed them again if empowered; so do not enable him  do not be an accomplice to his vengeful mission unaccomplished. Just disregard Buhari's tears,  apply the simple solution - DO NOT LET HIM; DO NOT VOTE FOR BUHARI.

MUHAMMADU BUHARI IS A REGIONAL CANDIDATE - an article by Ayo Osuntokun

I PUT a call through to a senior friend in Kaduna for a routine social and political chit chat. The call caught him in the thick of a mob crisis. It transpired that President Good luck Jonathan was in Kaduna to meet with a crucial pressure group and General Mohammadu Buhari also happened to show up in kaduna the same day. In response, a mob quickly materialised and took to the streets of the city chanting sai Buhari, sai musulumi, sai arewa!( nobody but Buhari; nobody but a Northern Moslem). They demanded of passing motorists to join their exhortation barring which substantial damage would be visited on their vehicles. My friend quite rightly noted that every tendency generates its own contradiction and that Nigeria was thus being set up for a national fratricidal crisis. The logic of cause and effect would probably result in counter ethno religious mobilisation in Niger delta for instance.

Buhari, without a shade of doubt, has attained the status of a cult hero among the segment of Nigerian population identified above.

Some have gone as far as claiming there has been none like him since Shehu Othman Dan Fodio. It was similarly said of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo that there was none like him in Yoruba land since the Yoruba mythical progenitor-Oduduwa. What follows from this comparison is that Buhari and Awolowo are starting the Nigerian Presidential race with a deficit. Non caliphate and non Yoruba Nigerians are not likely to fancy Dan Fodio and Oduduwa as President of Nigeria. At different times Chief Awolowo wanted to be the Prime Minister and President of Nigeria respectively. He wanted to be Prime Minister in 1959/60 on the platform of the Action Group, AG. He scaled the first hurdle by getting elected to the House of Representatives, where he could not muster sufficient support to scale the final hurdle. Perhaps there was a contradiction in aspiring to become the Prime Minister of Nigeria from the platform of a political party that started and was largely sustained as a Yoruba political organisation(the same of course could be said of the Northern People’s Congress, NPC).

The sequence of events from 1962 to 1966 consolidated Awolowo as a Yoruba hero and martyr. In 1967 he was adopted as the leader of the Yoruba leaders of thought-hence his subsequent proclamation as Yoruba leader. In 1979 he was presented as the Presidential candidate of the Unity Party of Nigeria, UPN and came to terms with his lack of national acceptance by defiantly picking a fellow Southerner (and a political lightweight) as running mate. Unfortunately he was unable to live down this image till his death in 1987. In a vivid demonstration that non Yoruba Nigerians were more comfortable with him in death than alive, President Ibrahim Babangida and Ikemba Odumegwu Ojukwu eulogised him as the “main issue of Nigerian politics” and “the best President Nigeria never had”. Regardless, I believe these two personalities and many other Nigerian genuinely admired Chief Awolowo but their admiration fell short of preferring him for the office of the President of Nigeria. Comparatively I also would want to enter a caveat that it is possible to admire General Buhari without preferring him for the same office.

Before 1966, it was plausible to think of the Nigeria Army as a pan Nigeria institution. Subsequently it fractured along ethno regional cleavages and to a lesser degree remained as such. Roughly and generically speaking the Nigerian Army was divisible into a Northern Hausa Fulani category at one end of the spectrum; the Eastern Igbos at another and the South Western Yoruba in the middle. (A thousand apologies for the tendentious treatment of the minorities as of little consequence-of course we now know better). This was the context that produced General Olusegun Obasanjo in his deliberately cultivated image as a detribalised Nigerian nationalist.

It was on this platform and recognition that he was elected Nigerian President in 1999 albeit substantially underwritten by the Northern political establishment. Obasanjo then went on to initiate crucial political and economic reforms of Nigeria in a manner that was contrary to the perception of him as a proxy ruler for the “North”. There were rumours that he refused to sign a political MOU that would have rendered him a ceremonial President. It was not however a rumour that he caused to be retired all who qualified to be identified as political soldiers. This and other symbolic acts and gestures resulted in tension between Obasanjo and his Northern promoters so called. In this light it was believed that the sharia insurrection represented a covert declaration of hostilities.

It was against this background that Buhari went to a quranic recitation ceremony in Sokoto and declared (according to all media reports) that Moslems should vote for Moslems. It was against this background that Buhari initiated a quasi-political pressure group called the Pastoral resolve. It was as the chief ideologue and motive force of this group that he went to Ibadan to complain to Governor Lam Adesina of Oyo state about the death of a Fulani herdsman in a scuffle between nomads and Yoruba farmers in Shaki. Governor Adesina reportedly admonished that as a former head of state Buhari should not be limited to the welfare and wellbeing of Fulani. He subsequently emerged the Presidential standard bearer of the largely Northern Moslem dominated All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, in 2003 and 2007 respectively.And recently in a mood of self-adulation, Pastor Tunde Bakare, running mate with Buhari, gleefully threatened the eruption of a “wild wild North” analogous of the “Wild Wild West” if the polls are rigged against his ticket. This was in reference to the pervasive and widespread violent protest against the massive rigging of the 1965 polls in the Western region. It is indeed apt to recall this precedent but it is also a sad commentary and an unambiguous advertisement on the status of Buhari as a regional candidate.

President Obasanjo recently opined that a Buhari Presidency would make a big impression on the fight against indiscipline and corruption and I cannot agree more. The frustration of Obasanjo is echoed across the land especially among the intelligentsia and there seems to be an auto mobilisation of this frustration in favour of Buhari. On further reflection I differ to the extent that a nation must exist before we can do battle against corruption or any sickness ailing such a society. I do not believe that a nation exists in what constitute Nigeria today and neither do I believe that given his antecedents and instincts, Buhari is in pole position to advance Nigerian nationhood.

I do not believe, for instance, that the choiceof a Yoruba as vice presidential candidate within the present context of political anxieties in Nigeria demonstrates an instinct for national consensus.  Given that Obasanjo was President from 1999 to 2007, sensitivity to nationhood should require that South East and South South be given priority over the South West in constituting a Presidential ticket. This qualification is no less applicable to the AC-the extenuation being that the Party is rooted in the South West. It is fair to conclude that, of all the three leading candidates, Buhari is the least qualified for the task of welding a nation out of Nigeria.


• Osuntokun, a former Managing Director of the News Agency of  Nigeria (NAN), lives in Abuja, Nigeria.

GBAGBO, DISGRACED AFRICAN LEADER NABBED INSIDE HIS SWEATY BUNKER!

 Icheoku reiterates our earlier call that upon capture, the hold-over former president of Ivory Coast, Laurent Gbagbo, should be tried for his crimes against the people of Ivory Coast - the thousands killed by his refusal to cede power and its attendant break down of law and order. Upon conviction, he should be hanged publicly in a square in Abidjan as an example to other African wanna-be sit-tight leaders. Laurent Gbagbo deserves no mercy as he showed none to his perceived enemies; the full weight of the law should be brought down on him alongside his wife Simeone, who instigated his obstinacy and refusal to surrender power.Icheoku says that no amount of plea should be enough to mitigate his atrocities; and Gbagbo and his wife Simone should be made the African version of Romania's Nikolai Ceausescu and wife Elena. Also like the late Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, who himself was captured inside a fox-hole, Gbagbo's fat neck is only good for the hangman's noose! Look at his face of terror or should Icheoku say face of fear with an unkempt and haggard-looking wife Simone's terrified disbelief. Just another example of the curse of Africa - disgruntled leadership and Icheoku prays the West continue to be more proactive with removing these African despots from power before they plunge their countries into unimaginable crisis.

GBAGBO CAPTURED LIKE SADDAM HUSSEIN BUT WITHOUT THE BEARDS!

Ivoriens appealed but he was already deaf. ECOWAS followed suit but he threatened to convert millions of West African people residing in Ivory Coast into human shield should they follow through with their threat to use legitimate force to remove him. African Union sent a high powered delegation to urge him to cede power but he bluffed them, making a reference of other sit-tight African leaders and asking why his case should be any different. Paris called but he would not take their call and so was Washington DC. Then it was European Union's turn as well as the United Nations to plead with him to just go; but unfortunately they were talking to an already dumb and deaf power drunken African idiot, who has become another  statistics of those who the gods want to kill that he first make mad. So it became a waiting game between the rest of the world who long since recognized his rival Alassan Qattara as the duly elected president of Ivory Coast and the lone ranger Gbagbo.

After about four months of Gbagbo's illegal hold-over of the presidency of Ivory Coast, forces loyal to the official president Qattara supported by both United Nations troops stationed in Ivory Coast and the French made a putsch against the "strongman". Less than a week into the struggle, the former strongman of Ivory Coast scurried into hiding in a bunker at the presidential palace from which he was captured today. Like all common criminal, the former president looked dazed and confused as he was dragged out of his bunker and paraded before the world to see what has become of another African wanna-be sit-tight despot. His floppy bloated overhanging belly was a sorry sight to behold of a once edifying president of ivory Coast who bluffed every world leaders' attempt to make him see the futility of his lone position.

The rest as they say is now history and Icheoku prays for a speedy processing of this human garbage through the Ivorien judicial system or better still the world court at The Hague in a timely dis-positive manner. Icheoku says Laurent Gbagbo and his band of criminals including their wives should be brought to justice and immediately now that their "illegitimate claim to power has finally been brought to an end" according to President Obama. What an end to a chapter that should never have happened according to United Nations' Secretary General Ban Ki Moon. And in the words of Hillary  Clinton, Gbagbo's arrest sends a strong signal to dictators in Africa and other regions of the world that they may no longer disregard the voice of their own people expressed in a free and fair elections.

Icheoku says what a good precedent that has been set by the removal of Laurent Gbagbo; except that it was after Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe's hold over as well as Kenya's Mwai Kibaki refusal to cede power. But better still late than never as henceforth any African leader thinking about the idea of a possible hold-over presidency should just forget about it as the world would always point at the example of Laurent Gbagbo. Icheoku also learnt that Gbagbo was slapped by one of the arresting soldier and we are happy to say that the slap is from all of us too! Another bad ambassador of African leadership put out of circulation for good. The curse of Africa - a leadership that is both shameless and despicable!

BUHARI IS A POLITICAL REJECT, HAUNTED BY HIS PAST RUTHLESSNESS.

Icheoku shall make a little detour to provide some insight into the supposedly puzzling question arising from the just concluded parliamentary election in Nigeria - why did Obasanjo lose Ogun State? The loss suffered by Olusegun Obasanjo in Ogun State should not be surprising to attention-paying Nigerians who have been meticulously following politics in Nigeria. Simply put, as between Obasanjo and the sons and daughters of Oduduwa, there is no love lost - never; not now, not yesterday and not the day after tomorrow nor tomorrow for that matter. .

Olusegun Obasanjo have always lost elections in his primary constituency - in 1999, 2003 and 2007. In 1999 the Hausa-Fulani oligarchs smuggled Obasanjo into Aso Rock and subsequently in 2003 and 2007, Obasanjo apportioned political offices to himself and his cronies in a selective process disguised as an election. Majority of Nigerians knew that Obasanjo could never win and did not win any election in Yoruba land since 1999 but for the rigging and apportioning of votes which placed a facade of electoral victory on Obasanjo. So last Saturday, when President Jonathan allowed a free and fair election to take place in Yorubaland and among other nationalities in Nigeria for the first time and votes really counted; behold Olusegun Obasanjo's mask of political influence was take off and his political irrelevance in Yoruba land particularly Ogun State came to the fore. Not only did his party PDP lose in Yorubaland but his very own daughter Iyabo Obasanjo lost her reelection bid to the senate including in Obasanjo's own voting booth. A statement was then made for the umpteenth time by the Oduduwa electorates that Obasanjo is a political nobody in Yoruba-land and commands of little of no political influence therein. Icheoku says, so Nigerians instead of acting surprised that Obasanjo lost in the last election, please try understanding the political nitwit that Obasanjo is in Yoruba-land especially Ogun State. 

Now as to the matter of Buhari and his rejection by his northern people, we shall treat it state by state and emirate by emirate. Buhari lost Kano State because of his past antagonism of the traditional ruler of the Emirate of Kano, HRH Ado Bayero, who he reprimanded just for visiting Israel. It was personal as such humiliation is never forgiven and even when, is not so easily; and the people of Kano remembered Buhari's disrespect for their Majesty and handed him a dud electoral check. Buhari also went to Kano and poured praises on the late Sani Abacha, a man loathed so much by so many in his adopted home state of Kano for among other things, planning to dethrone the same Emir of Kano. In Sokoto State, Buhari lost because he overthrew their son, President Shehu Shagari government in his military coup of December 1983. Now in 2011, the Sokoto caliphate remembered for Buhari his unfriendly gesture and paid him back. with an electoral defeat. Moreover Buhari's beloved Abacha put a spanner in the Sokoto Caliphate when he dethroned and imprisoned the former Sultan of Sokoto, Ibrahim Dasuki and later banished him totally from the caliphate. Icheoku asks how can such an anti-Sokoto caliphate personality like Buhari be rewarded with a victory by the same people he has been antagonizing ever since. Lastly the rivalry for political superiority and supremacy between the people of Sokoto and Katsina is an open secret which led to the creation of Katsina State out of the former Sokoto State and still exists till date. So why would Sokoto enable a Katsina person? In Kebbi State, Buhari lost because the people hates him by proxy of their hatred for his former ADC Jokolo (the 53 suitcases smuggler); who later forced himself into the throne as Emir of Gwandu but was later dethroned and banished from the emirate. So which Nigerian in his right senses expects Buhari to turn around and win in Kebbi State where his boy was thrown out of office and asked to forever stay away? Jigawa State people are more enlightened and their beloved Governor Sule Lamido is fully grounded to let an Islamic bigot deceive his people into a parochial voting bloc.

The story is the same throughout the rest of the north and the people of Middle Belt, present day north central are tired of playing second fiddle to their Hausa-Fulani overbearing fellow northern inhabitants and made a revolting b-line in support of President Jonathan's PDP. Buhari also hurt the sensibilities of the people of Yoruba-land by assaulting their legendary political father Obafemi Awolowo, whose passport Buhari quickly seized following his military coup of 1983. Buhari also canceled Lagos State metro project without any justifiable reason other than it was simply too good to be cited in the south? Buhari also reprimanded the Ooni of Ife Sijuwade for merely visiting Israel and you wonder whether Buhari could be so easily forgiven by the sons and daughters of Oduduwa-land for disrespecting their traditional institution. Icheoku will not belabor the fact that Barthlomeow Owo, Lawal Ojulope and Bernard Ogendegbe were all sons of Oduduwa-land, who Buhari mercilessly murdered for a trifle infraction of drug peddling, a then non death-penalty offense. Then come the South East Igbos who have nightmares thinking about a Buhari presidency after the roughshod he dealt them when he imprisoned their son Vice president Alex Ekwueme in Kirikiri Maximum prison following his coup of 1983 while the president was put in a cozy guest house.

So, Icheoku asks how could a man who have wronged so many Nigerians and repeatedly rubbed them on their wrong sides and who owe so much indebtedness to Nigerians, with some Nigerians wishing for his head on a platter, ever delude himself thinking that he could be elected Nigeria president by Nigerians? Ordinarily, Icheoku would think that Muhammadu Buhari was banking on just his northern votes to put him in power;  but he no longer even have those northern votes as the result of the last parliamentary election have shown. Admitted, it does not matter to Buhari and his comrades in zealotry that northern votes alone and by itself would never have been enough and adequate to secure him the keys to Aso Rock.

On the final analysis, Icheoku makes the following declarations:- Buhari cannot win the presidential election and if an accident happens, he shall not rule a one united Nigeria. Buhari has the blood of innocent Nigerians in  his hand and if an accident happens, he shall relish more gory macabre sights. Buhari is an extremist and if an accident happens, will introduce his brand of purist Islamic codes for the rest of secular Nigerians. Buhari is a dictator and if an accident happens, he will revert to his old dictatorial ways, mannerisms and tendencies. Buhari has no wife or is not proud of her to parade her by his side and if an accident happens, who would be his modulating influence or better still, Nigeria's first lady? Nigerians, please do not be an accomplice in the hell that will be let loose in Nigeria should the accident of Buhari's presidency happen,. But the good news is that it is only a pipe-dream as hell will freeze over before Buhari's nightmarish dream ever come to pass. Not in Nigeria. Nigerians just don't do it - DO NOT VOTE FOR BUHARI.