BUHARI SHOW YOUR LOVE FOR COUNTRY NOW, CALL OFF YOUR ALMAJIRI RIOTERS.

Icheoku calls on the failed presidential candidate of the CPC, Muhammadu Buhari, to immediately call his almajiri prairie dogs to order or face the wrath of Nigerians; whose intelligence he is insulting by alleging election malpractice in the just concluded presidential election. Icheoku asks Buhari to just name a state which he would ordinarily have won which he did not win just because of his so called election malpractice? Buhari won all the sharia-states of northwestern and northeastern Nigeria, his stronghold, as expected; so it is very ingenious of him to now turn around and cry blue murder of an election malpractice, after all the encomiums he poured on the integrity of the INEC chairman who also happen to be from his area of the country. Is Buhari alleging that his northern kinsman INEC Attahiru Jega conspired with a southerner President Jonathan to rig the election against him and steal his victory, just because the result was different from his warped conception? The presidential election result did not deviate much from the pattern of the national assembly result earlier held and it is a known fact that Buhari seriously campaigned only in his core north stronghold. So what the hell and bull-crap was this Buhari feeding his almajiri-followers to steer such emotional outburst that so boiled-over  into the post-election riot?

If Buhari truly loves Nigeria as he claimed during his last "cry for his dear country", Icheoku says now is the time to show it and without any further ado; except that his self-confessed love seem to only appertain to his own section of the country. Buhari must as a matter of utmost immediacy, call for restoration of calm, order and peace in his sharia-land and urge his followers to sheath their swords. Election like every contest produces winners and losers and Buhari cannot be heard now to say it is me or no other otherwise Northern Nigeria will go to hell in hand's basket. Except that Buhari is a man whose is so selfish, so self-centered and so ego-maniacal driven that he bungled the best chance the opposition ever had going into this election, when he refused to yield grounds to make room for a successful alliance with the ACN. Further Muhammadu Buhari should know that his Islamic enclave in Nigeria by itself is not sufficient or adequate to elect him president of Nigeria; and that they are not the only repositories of violence and should beware of provoking the wrath of the over twenty million electorates that voted for President Goodluck Jonathan. 

If Buhari and his Islamic fundamentalists adventurers want violence, they will get it; but Nigeria will be better off if spared of any further aggravations. Enough should be enough for this Buhari who sees himself as the "NOW MESSIAH" and before him, no one else counts or matters. So what if elections were rigged or is he telling Icheoku that no single person voted for PDP in his polling booth or that all his votes were cast by eligible adults and not some miscreants underage almajiris? If elections were rigged, why did Vice President Sambo Namadi lose in his own constituency? If election was rigged, how was it possible that the PDP got no vote in Buhari's voting booth instead of just taking everything? Icheoku is not defending any irregularities that may have occurred during the election but we make bold to state that if any, they are too minimal to have made a dint in the final outcome; and that all circumstances considered there is no way Muhammadu Buhari would have won a free and fair election in Nigeria against President Jonathan or any other credible candidate without an alliance with the ACN, period. 

Buhari is a scary character and scared the Igbo Southeast electorates; Buhari bungled an alliance with the ACN and jolted the Yoruba Southwest electorates; the South-south is home to President Jonathan and Buhari is an Islamic religious fundamentalist and may have spooked the majority Christian population of the North central zone who are also tired of their subservient role in the north and decided to seek their fortune elsewhere. So Buhari, now tell Icheoku how you could possibly have won the Nigerian presidential election with only the almajiri votes of Northwest and Northeastern Nigeria? Throughout the life of this election, Buhari has been instigating mayhem and urging his followers to lynch people; Buhari did not admonish his followers to avoid violence and blood shed during the election like President Jonathan did; and Buhari did not pledge to accept the result of the election like other presidential candidates did; so Nigerians now know who the schemer has been throughout this election cycle. 

In conclusion, Icheoku calls on Buhari to accept in good faith the hard and cruel hand Nigerians dealt him during last Saturday's presidential election. It is now the third time Nigerians have rejected his application to be hired for the presidency and he should go now and rest forever for good -  a political reject extra-ordinaire! Buhari should know that he cannot force himself on Nigerians again as he did in December 31, 1983; not this time and never again. The earlier Buhari gets this fact into his knuckle head the better for him that being the president of a country is not by force.  Nigerians have overwhelmingly rejected Buhari and in unison declared that Buhari can never be allowed to rule a one united Nigeria again, even if elected. So one would ask, why bother or make a mockery of himself by alleging electoral malpractice in an election every observer commended as being the most free and fair election ever held in Nigeria. Should Icheoku add that the fake pastor and Buhari's running mate, Tunde Bakare, is standing by and watching while children of God are murdered and their properties destroyed in the name of his principal and a failed ticket, without condemning such ungodly act. Icheoku hopes God will remember this for this self-styled man of God on the day of judgement?

The only option now left for Buhari is for him to explore the possibility of his Sharia-people leaving the entity called Nigeria, may be in a somewhat South-Sudan like manner; and go forge their own Islamic Sharia Republic for themselves. But any other thing, aside of this option and/or short of calling his thugs to order, is tasking the patience of millions of Nigerians who are yet to forgive him for his military coup of 1983, the murders of three innocent Nigerians Owoh, Lawal and Ogedengbe, decree 4 and all the other inhuman treatments he meted out to Nigerians during his 1983 military adventure. Icheoku says, enough Buhari or you will have yourself to blame when the full weight of the law is thrown at you for inciting treasonable violence in Nigeria. 

Icheoku recalls that Buhari once locked up so many politicians in prison following his military coup of 1983 and so it might be a fair game to now reciprocate same to him in kind; so nothing stops security agencies from arresting and locking up Muhammadu Buhari in prison for causing mayhem since he is now also a bloody civilian and a failed politician. For the last time, Icheoku calls on Buhari to immediately accept the verdict of the electorates, give his concession speech, congratulate the president-elect and call his street urchins off the streets and thereafter go home and retire for good. Three times is more than enough for any one human-being to be told, thanks but no, thanks your offer to rule Nigeria not accepted. Muhammadu Buhari, Nigerians have rejected you for the umpteenth time and there should be no more blood shedding in your name, please!

EXPEL IBB, ATIKU, CIROMA AND GUSAU NOW, FOR ANTI-PARTY ACTIVITIES.

Icheoku says the election has been fought and won without the help of the northern elders forum and despite the overt as well as covert effort by them to sabotage President Jonathan's election victory. Now is the time to discipline those master-minds of anti-Jonathan activities within the Peoples Democratic Party; among which are Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, Abubakar Atiku, Aliyu Mohammed Gusau and Mallam Adamu Ciroma. These four northern tribal elders and renegade members of the PDP, who not only refused to support the PDP's candidate President Jonathan but went rogue on the party by actively sabotaging President Jonathan's election-effort, joining forces with the opposition parties should be punished.

Election has consequences and now that the election has been won without their help and notwithstanding their active sabotage, Icheoku says let those who made the victory possible send a strong message of their disgust to these miscreant saboteurs that what they did was wrong and unacceptable to the party. Icheoku says these four bitter and unforgiving elderly men are the real enemies within the PDP and they are the most dangerous type to have around; therefore they should be expelled from the party without further delay. 

It is not a case or question of carrying everyone along or trying to be magnanimous in victory;  no, a case as this one presented by these four northern feudalistic apologists, should be specifically treated on its merit and/or demerit. It is imperative that a strong message is sent to other future wanna-be saboteurs of the party, whose personal parochial regional interest may outweigh that of the national interest of the party, that such anti-party activities shall not be tolerated. This will help to encourage those party faithfuls who stuck their necks out despite what was unpopular in their respective regions and worked their butts off to ensure victory for the party's candidate that their good effort as good party faithfuls were noted. Further that the PDP appreciates their loyalty, effort and hard-work which resulted in the resounding victory the party's candidate recorded in the presidential election. 

Icheoku says it is simply unacceptable as it is unforgivable that Ibrahim Babangida, Abubakar Atiku, Aliyu Mohammed Gusau and Adamu Ciroma should spend their time campaigning and working against the PDP's presidential candidate and tirelessly worked for the  success of other party's candidate - the opposition's CPC Muhammadu Buhari. These four men despite being repeatedly courted by both PDP and President Jonathan's campaign team, still went out of their way to work for the opposition, helping them unsuccessfully to broker an alliance deal between Buhari's CPC with Bola Tinubu's ACN. Their objective and driving force being just to defeat the PDP's presidential candidate President Goodluck Jonathan; and you wonder the type of anti-minorities hatred these foursome have for President Jonathan? If any political activity ever reached the height of what may be appropriately termed a 'treason' against a political party, what these four men did amounts to that act and accordingly they should be held accountable and sanctioned. Icheoku says, they should be tried for their egregious anti-party activity and expel from the party immediately. This should be a mere formality since they have by necessary implication, already expelled themselves from the party by acting against the party's presidential interest. Moreso it has become evidently clear that these men lacked the follower-ship and political goodwill hitherto wrongly associated with them in the north and could be dispensed with without much fallout. Their popularity and influence is so localized and very little such that their expulsion from the party will not adversely impact the party's foundational strength. 

These charges are no longer mere accusations and allegations since the national secretary of the ACN, Senator Lawal Shuaibu, personally confirmed these four PDP elders involvement in strengthening the hands of the opposition parties by among other support, negotiating terms of the failed alliance between the ACN and Buhari's CPC. Icheoku asks what manner of true party men would, instead of working to ensure their party's victory in an election, be busy negotiating an alliance for the opposition parties to enable them to be strong enough to defeat their own party's presidential candidate at the polls. This is unacceptable, treasonous, despicable, wicked, mean-spirited, irrational and a gross anti-party for which they must be severely with expulsion from the party forthwith. Icheoku therefore calls on the Peoples Democratic Party to immediately expel the gang of aging tribal champions Ibrahim Babangida, Abubakar Atiku, Aliyu Mohammed Gusau and Adamu Ciroma for actively working against the PDP presidential candidate interest President Goodluck Jonathan; and joining forces with the opposition to ensure Jonathan's defeat at the polls. These four elderly men are not good party men as they refused and did not accept the wish of their party and its choice of a presidential candidate. They also went a step further by proactively working with the opposition against the PDP's candidate in order to defeat President Jonathan and should therefore suffer the consequences of their anti-party activities. Icheoku says, expel these four men from the PDP, now!

NIGERIA, WE HAVE A PRESIDENT!

With over 25% win in 24 states out of 36 states and votes totaling more than 21 million, Nigeria sitting President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan seem to have met the threshold required to win the presidential election just held. Icheoku expects INEC to soon formally declare President Goodluck Jonathan the next elected president of Nigeria. Until INEC makes it official, Icheoku says "congratulation" to the president of Nigeria for the next four years. Hail to the Chief!

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.