SEPTEMBER ELEVEN (9/11) MEMORIAL, BEAUTIFUL AND RIVETING.

Icheoku says the National September Eleven (9/11) Memorial in midtown Manhattan is indeed splendidly beautiful. Architect Michael Arad (right in the picture above) did a great job in capturing the essence of the loss as well as bringing to live the memories of those who perished in the tragedy. The dark reflecting pool as well as the cascading individual waterfalls indeed makes it for Icheoku as water is life and their individual essence marks the individuality of what was lost on that day. Luckily from the tragedy has sprung forth a national memorial which like those in Washington DC will now serve as another anchor to millions of visitors and tourists that visit New York City. The size is also quite awesome and complimentary to the Big Apple's otherwise grandeur and opulence. Icheoku heretofore congratulates the architect Michael Arad, all the planning and approving committees and those construction workers who brought to reality the conceived, for a job well done. Thankfully World trade One is chasing the skies at an awesome speed and before too long, it alongside other adjoining super structures that will replace the destroyed twin towers would be completed to give the entire acreage its full comeback. Icheoku will visit NYC soon to personally capture the work being rendered at the new Ground Something - the new moniker for the former Ground Zero, site of the World Trade Center. Until then let all Americans rejoice that from the ashes of 9/11 has risen and is rising, a new, reinvented and vibrant WTC. 

9/11 MEMORIAL LIGHTS, SIMPLY MAGNIFICENT.

Icheoku does not know about you, but this twin lights representing those twin towers that used to be is indeed captivating. The brains that thought it our as well as those who brought the concept to life should be commended. Icheoku therefore says thank you to those minds behind the twin lights. What an awesome piece of beauty this landscape picture is - reflecting East River and Brooklyn bridge as well as some Manhattan skyline. This is atypical of unparalleled American's ingenuity and very fertile creative mind. 

EGYPTIAN PROTESTERS LEAVE ISRAEL ALONE, BUILD YOUR DEMOCRACY FIRST.

Icheoku calls on those Egyptian protesters to stop antagonizing countries or peoples, but to first consolidate and build their democracy and let other things follow or fall in place. The unsightly vandalism at the Israeli embassy building in Cairo is uncalled for and unnecessary as it will now portray the Egyptians as a riotous anti-Israel mob out to settle old scores instead of those admired patriots who got their country back from former President Hosni Mubarak's vice-hold. 

Please sons and daughters of the land of the Pharaohs, sheath your anger at the Jewish State or any other country for that matter and concentrate on getting your democracy off the ground and out of the incubator where it has been for the last six months. Please carry out less of this religious-themed vandalism which attracts only negative publicity for Egypt and Egyptians at large. If there are things to iron out between Israel and Egypt, it is one of the reasons why government exists as it is the duty of the governments in Cairo and Tel Aviv to sought them out but not riotous mob taking matters into their hands. Please do not imitate those Ayatollahs in Tehran who took hostages at an American embassy in 1979 and are still being called out for that intransigent several decades later. Also remember that the West does not forget easily and if in doubt, ask Moummar Gaddafi of Libya who has now been punished for his government's role in the Lockerbie PA AM plane bombing and his government's deceitful securing of the release of the imprisoned Libyan State security operative who was convicted over Lockerbie. 

If only Gaddafi knew better not to mess with the West or remembered that the West neither forgets nor forgives, may be he could still be in power in Tripoli as President and also as a self-styled King of Africa. So Egyptians, you better watch it as there can be no messing with the Israelis without provoking the wrath of America led West; so you are warned to desist from such thoughtless vandalism of a foreign state's sovereignty within your territorial geography. Icheoku further observes that the Egyptian security forces were rather too slow in acting to prevent and/or stop the vandalism at the Israeli embassy in Cairo; except they just played coy because Israel was the target as a way to continuing their pandering to those protesters who are yet to see the light of true democracy lit in Egypt six months after they deposed Hosni Mubarak. But who knows?

RIBADU'S BACKSTABBING AS HIGH ART - an article by Levi Obijiofor

If the information contained in the leaked United States’ embassy cables released last week by Internet whistle-blower Wikileaks is accurate, the former chairperson of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nuhu Ribadu, must be seriously troubled. Reports published in this week’s editions of two national newspapers — the Punch and Vanguard (5 September 2011) — which was obtained from Wikileaks alleged that Ribadu told former United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Ms Robin Sanders, that corruption under Olusegun Obasanjo’s government was far worse than it was under the regime of Sani Abacha.

According to Vanguard and the Punch, Wikileaks reported that Ribadu’s comments were made during a four-hour private meeting he had with Ms Sanders in late December 2007. A major item on the agenda of the meeting was Ribadu’s transfer from the EFCC to the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) for further studies. There were other issues that touched on national security.

This revelation by Wikileaks will worry not only Ribadu but also Obasanjo. It is odd that Ribadu, a man appointed by Obasanjo as the chief anti-corruption crusader of the government, would harbour such negative impressions about the administration that he served. This is classical backstabbing of the kind never before experienced by the Nigerian public. Why would Ribadu tell the US diplomat what he was unable to tell Nigerians for years about the level of corruption in Obasanjo’s government? And why would Ribadu portray Obasanjo’s government, the same government that he served, as an administration infested with corrupt officials? What this implies is that Ribadu’s capacity to judge human character is at best inconsistent.

Ribadu will not emerge from this latest scandal more honourable than he was prior to the disclosure. For years, he entertained national and international audiences with exaggerated accounts of the EFCC’s achievements during his tenure. At the peak of his power, he was seen as a superstar, an emblem of anti-corruption for which he was invited to international conferences and workshops. During Obasanjo’s tenure which coincided with the period that Ribadu reigned as EFCC chairperson, Obasanjo repeatedly challenged all those who accused him of corruption to produce evidence to substantiate their allegation. Ribadu did not rise to that challenge. He kept mum and fooled the nation into believing that Obasanjo’s government was most righteous.

Ribadu’s silence about his knowledge of corruption in Obasanjo’s government was probably driven by an overriding interest in his own ego. His persona was sustained by the folk hero status which showed a dashing senior police officer without blemishes in pursuit of corrupt men and women across the country. Unbeknown to foreign officials and some Nigerians, Ribadu was not really the quintessential 21st century anti-corruption law enforcement officer despatched by natural forces to clean up the corrupt and filthy nation known as Nigeria. He was not deeply committed to the war on corruption because now we know he believed the government he served was stinkingly corrupt. And yet Ribadu’s EFCC took pride in harassing corrupt rodents – small men and women who constitute a blot in the corruption map – as well as critics of Obasanjo’s government.

The Wikileaks revelations have shredded the mystique surrounding Ribadu. Everyone now knows, through his own confidential discussion with the former US diplomat, that Ribadu the prophet did not truly believe in his anti-corruption sermon because he understood his boss to be a shepherd who managed a government of corrupt men and women. Evidence from the leaked diplomatic cables suggests unambiguously that Ribadu was not truly dedicated to the government’s campaign against corruption. If he was steadfast, he would not have remained loyal to a government he believed to be soaked in endemic corruption.

I would argue that the late disclosure by Ribadu of what he knew about Obasanjo’s government may have also harmed his (Ribadu’s) integrity. Whatever drove the man to make such spiteful, if not vicious, comparison between Obasanjo’s government and Sani Abacha’s regime needs to be unpacked carefully. All through the years that Ribadu served Obasanjo, he told the nation in public and private fora that Obasanjo was spotless and that the EFCC had no evidence of corruption against Obasanjo’s government. However, the leaked cables suggest that Ribadu had a different idea about the level of corruption in the government that Obasanjo led. If corruption was so widespread in Obasanjo’s administration, as Ribadu reportedly confided in the US diplomat, why didn’t he take a dignified exit from that government, by resigning as the boss of the EFCC?

The entire revelation has cast Ribadu in the image of a double agent, a man who must never be believed or trusted. While he pretended to be a loyal servant of Obasanjo during the time he served as the EFCC chairperson, he also found time to sneak out to convey to a diplomat allegations which a genuine law enforcement officer would have used effectively to prosecute all those believed to be corrupt. This sneaky kind of behaviour qualifies Ribadu to be conferred with the unenviable title of the man with a double face.

On the basis of the Wikileaks’ disclosures, there are many questions that Ribadu alone must answer. The longer he delays his response, the more the leaks will damage his previous image as a well respected senior police officer. He has no reason whatsoever to act like a mole for the US diplomat in Nigeria. That conduct raises a more serious question that touches on our national security. Has anyone considered what would have happened to our national security interests if Ribadu had won this year’s presidential election? No one would guarantee that Nigeria’s national interests would be secure in the man’s hands, given that he finds it fashionable (as shown in the Wikileaks’ report) to relay matters of national interests to agents of foreign governments.

After reading the accounts of the Wikileaks’ revelations published in the Vanguard and the Punch newspapers this week, I wondered what might be going through Ribadu’s mind. His reputation as the no-nonsense incorruptible anti-corruption watchdog who was dreaded at the time he headed the EFCC has now been blemished by revelations about what he knew and how he failed to do anything to stop corruption at the highest levels of government. Ribadu bottled up his knowledge of corruption in Obasanjo’s government while he portrayed himself as the unstoppable anti-corruption chief.

What could have motivated Ribadu to say all those nasty things he said about Obasanjo while he presented to the nation an exaggerated image of the man he served? Did Ribadu intend to establish himself as the pillar of wisdom on which American diplomats would draw secret information about the weaknesses of our national leaders? All the statements Ribadu made in the past to absolve Obasanjo’s government of corrupt practices could now be regarded as one man’s untruthful accounts of the government’s fight against corruption.

While I will not defend Obasanjo and his government (I have never really been an admirer of the man and his eccentric ways), I would argue that Ribadu’s confidential comments about Obasanjo were driven chiefly by self-serving objectives. Unfortunately, those confidential assertions have been transformed into public knowledge, thanks to Wikileaks. Ribadu would have realised by now that in the complex world of diplomatic exchanges, nothing really qualifies as confidential conversation anymore. What is classified as secret information today will eventually become unclassified or unrestricted information tomorrow.

It is unimaginable that one man could talk so single-mindedly and clandestinely about the high level of corruption in the government that he served and yet ignore the fact that he was the head of that government’s anti-corruption agency and also the model of morality for the nation. Although we are all better informed about Obasanjo’s government owing to Ribadu’s unrestrained conversations with an American diplomat, Ribadu must now feel he has committed a major blunder.

In and out of office, Ribadu radiates the image of a man who is specially equipped with an over-abundance of wisdom. But public perceptions of his good judgment have been undermined by his prattle about Obasanjo’s government. Let me be sharp here: Ribadu’s secret statements about Obasanjo’s government have typecast him (Ribadu) as a cold-hearted and manipulative man who has immeasurable political ambition. Ribadu’s allegiance to Obasanjo must now be regarded as fragile as a piece of chinaware.

Obasanjo is arrogant, insufferable and lacks decorum in public places but why did it take Ribadu so long to reveal that Obasanjo’s government was far more corrupt than the government that Sani Abacha led in the mid to late 1990s? Ribadu and Obasanjo are locked in a game of wits.

PDP RAISES THE BAR, SAYS PARTY WILL RULE NIGERIA FOREVER?

 Icheoku says when one thinks that the former Peoples Democratic Party chairman Vincent Ogbulafor was a crazy basket mouth for saying that his PDP shall rule Nigeria for sixty years, here comes the crazier mother of all blabber-mouths, the current acting chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Kawu Baraje. According to this mallam, Vincent Ogbulafor's sixty years was too modest and not ambitious enough; and so in his own power-drunk estimation, the PDP dominance of politics in Nigeria shall be FOREVER! 

Nigerians, you have heard it, so it is now for opposition parties to unite and team up and tell PDP, not under our watch. But such camaraderie among the opposition is not possible because of the selfishness of Nigerian political leaders who are in it for their own personal gains only. Moreso Wiki Leaks just disclosed that Nigeria Supreme Court Justices were purchased by late President Umaru Yar'Adua for $57million to return a favorable verdict for him. Icheoku therefore says even it means that in a case where the PDP were to even lose an election, they would buy a favorable verdict since they are already in power and control the power of the purse. So is there any solution to the PDP declared monopoly of power in Nigeria?

AS JOS MAYHEM RETURNS, HOLD PRESIDENT JONATHAN RESPONSIBLE?

Icheoku says the resurgent killings and reprisal killings in Jos is because President 'Drag-feet' Goodluck Jonathan has not acted on the recommendations of the Solomon Lar panel of inquiry into the previous Jos disturbances which Icheoku believes, were they implemented, would have starved off the resumed violence. Nigerians, Icheoku does not know about you, but this particular president is not managing time prudently; which leaves the memory of Baba Iyabo's road-kill approach to governance not so faded away as many Nigerians are beginning to nostalgically wish that a do or die president is still in office at the present very bleak time in Nigeria.. As Jonathan meticulously deliberates and thinks through issues several times over, Nigerians are dying, being butchered by their fellow countrymen. Icheoku says it is about time President Jonathan threw away his academia hat of clear thought and put on an "agbero" get-it-done-now hat of results, as that is what it takes to govern Nigeria; otherwise how else does the president plan to explain the death of this little innocent girl or the several bombings being unleashed on the country by Boko Haram? Please President Jonathan, whatever it takes, whatever works - just do it to put an end to this carnage in the country!

WAR OF THE GENERALS ROUND TWO, BABANGIDA JUMPS RIGHT BACK IN THE RING!

 Icheoku says may be the toothy fairy prince of Minna was afraid of area-boys whose area-father he was confronting when he claimed in Lagos that he wish to embrace Baba Iyabo. Now that he has returned to the safe confines of his Hilltop enclave in Minna, his blabber-mouth is once again unbuttoned. 

Icheoku says it would appear that IBB has not learnt the hard way, the lesson of do or die politics and street brawl for which OBJ has a double PhD. Anyway Icheoku had prayed and continues to pray that the battle between the two generals never abates until they both reveal how they messed up Nigeria so badly during their collective 19 years in power. Now Babangida has taken back his word of surrender and boastfully restates his claim that Obasanjo was a complete failure. 

Icheoku says who knows what next Baba Iyabo will call the Evil Genius - may be a murderer or a drug baron; just asking? In his latest salvo, Babangida said that he stands by his previous statement that Obasanjo was the most incompetent and wasteful government Nigeria ever had. So Icheoku joins the rest of Nigerians in waiting to see Baba Iyabo jump right back into the ring for round two of the bout  of the generals and possibly land a knock-out punch on IBB this time. icheoku prays that the war of the generals never ceases and let the thriller in Nigeria get more explosive!

"IN HIS TIME" - A BOOK OF DISTORTIONS BY DICK CHENEY.

Icheoku has not read and will not read and advise others not to read the latest attempt by former vice president to George Walker Bush, Dart Vader Dick Cheney to distort record and burnish his stewardship in that government. Mr Cheney took pleasure in blaming everyone else but himself that served in that administration for all the foibles of that ill-fated Bush/Cheney government that brought more harm than good to Americans and damaged us globally. The snippets so far are not a correct account of what transpired in that government, as witnessed by those millions of us who watched as the most ideological driven government America ever had, unleashed indescribable things on both Americans and the world in general. 

So for Dick Cheney to now attempt to rewrite history or in anyway try to punt the blame on all others but himself is a great disservice to all those presently alive and the future generation who would study that government in which he was the most powerful vice president America ever had. Dick Cheney piled up on Colin Powell; did not spare Condoleezza Rice and now says that Hillary Clinton would have been a better president than President Barack Obama? According to his assessment, "perhaps she (Hillary Clinton) might have been easier for some of us who are critics of the president (Obama) to work with." Icheoku says there must be something about black people that ticks Dick Cheney off and makes his heart sputter as his two most criticized and identifiable foes in his book are all blacks. Now for him to say that "it would have been easier for his 'good ole boys' to work with Hillary Clinton than Obama suggests that the color of President Barack Obama is the principal reason why the Obama government has been so vociferously criticized by the rednecks of American right wingers and not that the president is not doing his best to man the tiller of state effectively. 

The good news for all civilized Americans and bad news for all the Dick Cheneys of America is that nothing can change the fact of what is - that a Nigger is occupying the White House; his tenancy runs till 2012 and is most likely to be renewed for the next four years thereafter. Until then, Icheoku urges you not to enrich Mr Halliburton any further by buying his memoir of distortions; boycott this his latest whitewash of his role in that infamous Bush/Cheney government in which he served as vice president for eight long torturous years. Please Americans, do not waste your money in buying or your time in reading "In My Time - a personal and political memoir by Dick Cheney with Liz Cheney" as its toxic content will only bring back memories of the nightmare that was that administration which everyone is trying so hard to forget and file away. Icheoku says Americans do not need to be reminded through a book by Dick Cheney of what that government was or the role played by any of the principal characters therein especially Dart Vader Dick Cheney.

IT IS SEPTEMBER, YET NO DEMOCRACY IN EGYPT?

 When the people of the land of the Pharaohs led a revolution against their then sit-tight President Hosni Mubarak; the president elected to handover power to a democratically elected president within six months - precisely in September 2011. Like the unthinking mob which they are, they would have none of that and like the Jewish mob who forced Pilate's hand on Jesus shouted "crucify him, crucify him", those Egyptians wanted the head of Pharaoh Mubarak on a platter immediately. With their deafening shouts at Tahrir Square not abating, the military intervened and Mubarak became history as a once was Egyptian president. 

Admitted that Icheoku does not support any sit-tight ruler, we however asked for the Egyptian people to accommodate the six months offer to handover to a democratically elected president made by then President Mubarak, considering the logistics of building a democracy and conducting an election. Even respected figures like Mohamed El Baredi, former Atomic energy boss, joined the mob that will not see or hear reason in the short six months period being requested. Anyway the loudest had their way and the rest as they say is now history. Icheoku says the six months has now come, yet Egypt has neither a democracy nor has it conducted an election nor have an elected president; so the question remains whether the Egyptian mob or democracy activists are now regretting on hindsight their rejection of President Hosni Mubarak's offer? Just asking since the September has now come with no real or apparent movement towards real democracy by the military in Cairo.

WAR OF THE GENERALS, BABANGIDA BACKS DOWN!

Icheoku says thank God for Obasanjo, the only man from the entire Southern Nigeria who the Hausa/Fulani feudalistic North is really afraid of. Suddenly Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida realizes that Baba Iyabo is and forever remains his boss as he makes a u-turn from his provoked fight with OBJ. 


It would appear that IBB forgot that Baba is an area-father well versed in street brawls and never afraid of taking on anyone including the toothy fairy prince of Minna. Babagida now blames slip of the tongue, blames his press Secretary Kazim Afegbua, blames journalists for doing a hatchet job on him by taking his statement out of context; but failed to blame himself or take responsibility for striking the match which started the fire. Icheoku is not surprised that Babangida is blaming everyone else but himself for the altercation as is usually his stock in trade; but he forgot that there was a tape recorder of what he said. Babangida has now made a weasel u-turn, saying that Baba Iyabo is and forever remains his boss and claiming "the report was not what he meant”. 

Icheoku says to IBB if that report was not what you meant, can you please now tell Nigerians what exactly you meant and didn't you remember that Baba was your boss when you first ran your foul mouth? If according to IBB, the report had cost him a lot, Icheoku says Babangida should be grateful that Baba did not avenge the death of MKO Abiola or the annulment of June 12 directly on him while in power as that would have been what "a lot" really looks like. Despite the report, IBB still has his live intact unlike Abiola, Dele Giwa and Mamman Vasta who paid the ultimate price. But no one should be mistaken that because Babangida turned tail and made a shriveling mea culpa that the matter is now dead and buried; no, as any student of OBJ behaviorial tendencies knows that Baba Iyabo's unforgiven heart is legendary. So until death do them apart, Babangida is a marked man in the cross-hairs of Baba and so does the war of the generals continue!

OBASANJO, CUNNING BUT CERTAINLY NOT FOOLISH.

Icheoku makes the final rejoinder to the now seemingly rested or truce-weighted war of the generals between Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo and the denuded Maradona Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida by stating that to call Obasanjo foolish or rather "more foolish" is a stretch of a dumb imagination or the product of an unthinking rustic mind. Icheoku says the deity of Otta Olusegun Obasanjo may be every other thing and any other thing including the most abhorable of all things, but to include "foolish" in that epithet is exaggeratedly overreaching. 

Icheoku takes strong exception and umbrage at those paid hacks and hired hands, minions of Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, who moronishly ascribed "foolishness" to Aremu Baba Iyabo's resume` because any person who had ruled Nigeria three times on his own terms and survived is definitely not foolish. The record is unbroken and Icheoku stands challenged on the assertion that it takes a fox to navigate a jackal infested terrain and make it safely back to its hole. The treachery, the political horse-trading, the banana peels, the fifth estate, the daggers and sabres and all those vultures who masquerade as friends at the banquet waiting to take that Brutus stab as well as the intrigues involved in running a state, especially one as complex as Nigeria, is not a job for either the faint-hearted or the foolish. It is akin to an upstream swim in a crocodile and shark infested waters where just one unthinking foolish move will find one either in the belly of the beast or in the jaws of death at best and therefore demands pin-drop alertness and every cunning tricks in the books just to stay alive and well. 

Icheoku therefore states that if any of the fighting generals could be equated with foolishness, that general is definitely not Olusegun Obasanjo. By the same token Icheoku will not dismissively call Babangida foolish either, since he had successfully navigated the minefield of running Nigeria; admitted that Icheoku had amplified that description of his by Obasanjo. But if Icheoku must, it is safer to say that if anyone in the mix is foolish, it is that man who did not have a water-tight contract of his perversion to get a country back after first pawning it off to that other? It is that man who did not have a plan B of a king's ransom or breaking of knee-cap to enforce an illegal contract like the mafia would, when he imposed the other man on Nigeria in 1999 expecting that other to be "honorable" enough to respect their illegality by giving him back "his country" in 2007. Icheoku says that is what "foolishness" really looks like; it is foolishness defined. When one cannot protect his behind from being badgered when dealing with a man whose penchant for disrespecting everything including contracts and gentleman's agreement is of general knowledge, that is what qualifies as foolishness for Icheoku. Therefore Icheoku emphatically maintains that the toothy fairy prince of Minna is the "foolish" one for trusting too carelessly and in a cavalier manner but certainly not the foxy Deity of Otta. Dishonorable, disrespectful, conceited, deceitful, rabid, clever by half etc; just name it but please exclude "foolishness" in describing the deity of Otta because it is not part of his attributes. Olusegun Obasanjo is simply stated, cunning as a fox.

"I THINK I WILL CALL THE WHITE HOUSE" - ONYANGO OBAMA.

 Yes the piling up continues and the snare continues to lie in wait to get "That One" as an inebriated Kenyan, living in Boston and linked to President Barack Obama as half brother to his father was arrested by the police in Framingham Massachusetts for driving under the influence. He blew 0.14 against the legal limit of 0.08 and when asked what he intend to do to secure bail, blurted "I think I will call the White House." 

Icheoku says this is the problem with some people not knowing that America is not Africa where who you know gets you a free pass for virtually everything. The drunken Onyango Obama, 67, thought that because he has some genealogical lineage linking him to the President of America, that alone suffices to cut him some slacks for infringing the law? Give Icheoku a break. 

But does anyone really blame him since were it in Africa, the cop that dared where the eagles tremble would not only lose his job but would probably be arrested, tortured and jailed for bringing the president's name to ridicule, causing him some hurt feelings and stepping on some sacred toes. What a land of the free where the rule of law is supreme America is regardless of who Mr Onyango knows or does not know, notwithstanding that he is somehow related to the president. Yes Mr Onyango Obama SIr, the law is the law and the cop was just doing his job.

UNITED NATIONS BOMB BLAST, IT IS NIGERIA'S TURN - PRESIDENT JONATHAN

Once again Mr Incompetent President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria has punted responsibility for the riveting insecurity in the country by explaining away that the shameful bombing of the United Nations office in Abuja Nigeria was 'merely a thing which is due and whose time has come?' According to the president, who has failed to arrest the insecurity situation in Nigeria and who is not brave enough either to do the heavy lifting needed to have the situation under control by first firing the also incompetent Inspector General of Police Hafiz Ringim, 'terrorism-insecurity is not peculiar to Nigeria but is a world-wide problem which just happened to be "Nigeria's turn this time around?" 

Icheoku says Mr President it is about time you resigned from office and make way for a more competent person to man the tillers of the ship of state and solve this insecurity plaguing the land. This your continuous passing of the buck with every situation in Nigeria and trying to explain them away in your kindergarten manner is very disturbing. It is your duty to prevent the loss of lives in Nigeria and if Boko Haram says yes, why didn't you say no, not under my watch? How dare you say it was Nigeria's turn to be murdered and slaughtered alongside their guests, working at the United Nations and by extension giving Nigeria a black-eye as a high risk terrorism state? Yet this is a country trying to woe foreign investors? In the president's words, "Nigeria is not an isolated case. Many countries have suffered from terrorist attacks, maybe it is the turn of Nigeria." 

Icheoku says it is no longer cool, acceptable or sufficient for you to continue to make excuses each time these Northern mallams successfully carry out their treat to make Nigeria ungovernable should you win the last election. A competent and brave president would have rounded and locked them up before the saliva that conveyed the threat had dried up and if it leads to war so be it. Until President Jonathan becomes man enough to stare down these Northern Nigeria Islamic mallams and their foot-soldiers - Boko Haram, it is going to remain one heinous bombing mayhem after another; and a confused and dazed president scurrying down to the crime scene or the treating hospital to blow hot air on how he is going to show them pepper. The president like in similar past bombings situation, also boasted that his government is on top of the United Nations bombing? Icheoku however is afraid that the government of President Goodluck Jonathan may have dozed off on top of the entire security situation in the country? Icheoku says, President Jonathan please get off the top of the situation and just do it - solve it and stop the jiving turkey syndrome currently afflicting you because talk is cheap.

"I AM NOT A MAGICIAN" - OKONJO IWEALLA.

 Icheoku says the petite but mighty Amazonian is already preparing a soft-landing for herself just in the event of coming to fruition of the most likely fate which awaits her most patriotic and best intentions for the Nigeria economy. The system will sabotage her best intentions and there is nothing anyone can do about it until it is first sanitized. 

The problem with Nigeria, especially the seemingly impossible task of growing her economy, is not lack of good and sound ideas; no, it is a society infected with cancer of corruption which hounds every lofty idea ever dreamt up to help Nigeria take needed baby-steps to eventual maturity. These pestilence of society will force cracks to develop through which Madam World Bank ideas and plans for Nigeria will fall through while leaving intact their goose that lays the golden eggs. Until corruption is tackled and somewhat reduced, all or any government's plans to move the economy forward will always sputter to a stop before it ever take steam. 

Icheoku, while wishing Lady Little the best of luck in her new task to engage the Nigeria economy in gear one, says that NOI has a Mountain Everest of a task ahead of her. Unfortunately however either she can't really seem to fully appreciate the enormity of the problem starring her down the face or she is naive that Nigerians are such good followers. She is convinced that all that is needed is for her to show the way out of the economic woods and Nigerians will follow and magically the shattered humpty-dumpty is whole again? However and luckily for her, she is not the only one dreaming about a functional future Nigeria of endless possibilities as even President Jonathan and millions of other Nigerians share in this Utopia. 

If Icheoku were President Jonathan, the mantra shall be first things firsts and let the rest fall in their respective places. It is three first things - discipline, discipline, discipline! Icheoku would reestablish WAI and MAMSER and implore Muhammadu Buhari or Nuhu Ribadu to lead the agency to help solve Nigerians problem numero uno - LACK OF DISCIPLINE or indiscipline. With this problem out of the way, most, if not all the problems of Nigeria will dissipate as an undisciplined mind is capable of just anything and everything. Icheoku's greatest fear and for good reason is that Nigerians will sabotage Ngozi Okonjo-Iwealla's best effort and very good intentions for the comatose Nigeria economy and Icheoku wishes to be wrong on this.

TO THE FIGHTING GENERALS, A NOTE FROM MAGNOLIA.

"We may be through with the past, but the past is not through with us." - a line from the movie, Magnolia. Icheoku says whereas Obasanjo and Babangida thought that they are done and finished with Nigeria, it would seem that Nigeria has just said, wait a minute, not that fast. I am not through with you just yet; instead I am about coming after you and you both better be ready. And contrary to William Shakespeare's admonition through Mark Anthony in Julius Caesar, the evil that both men did refused to wait until after them but has chosen to now stare them down right in their eyes! The gods are wise and no man born of woman should try to redirect or in anyway possible, try to interfere with God's ways. What is happening between the two generals have the hand of God written all over it and who says salvation is not possible in Nigeria - wait until God finishes with this two men..

WAR OF THE GENERALS, PRESIDENT JONATHAN SHOULD BUTT OUT.

Icheoku says once again President Jonathan is displaying his naivety by wadding into the fight of the generals and expecting a good outcome. His plea for both Obasanjo and Babangida to "settle the matter between themselves as they are friends and have access to each other" is not only puerile, but misses the point. 

The fact of the matter is that President Jonathan has what Babangida wanted and still covets, and for which he took that jab of desperation at Obasanjo. So a proactively thinking President Jonathan should have known that what was entrusted to him is the reason the two generals are now feuding; so if he truly wants peace to reign between the two fighting generals, he should relinquish the presidency to Babangida and settle the rift once and for all instead of pretending to be a peace-maker between the "Complete Failure" and the "Fool at Seventy." President Jonathan also forgot that both men are not friends and do not have any true friends either. They were merely conspirators and business partners for running aground Nigeria Plc.; and like the late MKO Abiola admonished, "with a friend like IBB no one needs an enemy" and OBJ is not too foolish not to have absorbed that advice. Icheoku says may the war of the generals never ends or ceases; but continues until they spill the gory details of their adventure into the Nigerian political scene!

PIUS ANYIM, THIS IS SO GAY?

 In some countries a man holding another man in this manner would be interpreted as an indication of being "born that way?'" However this is Nigeria's Secretary to the Federal Government in a brotherly show of expressive love, common among many African countries where same-sex body contacts are normal and innocent too. But hey, Icheoku has no reason or basis to believe otherwise or to suspect that Pius Anyim is a "born that way" or goes both ways or swings? So all you horny bastards with ribbed bodies waiting to pounce and devour, please back off  because this guy is as straight as the arrow and goes all natural.