FELA IN SAN FRANCISCO.

"Fela!" explores the idea that "you have as much freedom as you are willing to pay for;" - that was one of the things in my mind that separates him from most rock musicians. Everyone is disgruntled with the status-quo, but there are very few people who will go to the mat like he did, wrongheadedly or not." - BIll T. Jones, Producer, "Fela, the musical" is now playing at Curran Theater, Geary Street, San Francisco, California through December.

DOMINGO EZIRIKE, A TAXICAB DRIVER MURDERED IN THE LINE OF DUTY.

Icheoku says regrettably the gist of this unwarranted wastage of a human-life was lost on virtually all that reported on the case. What is more important here and which should have been the newsworthy item is not that a man was killed driving a taxicab and over 75 cents disputation. No, the crux of the matter is that a breadwinner, husband, father, son and brother of some people was killed on duty, doing his job from which he puts food on the table for his family of a wife and three young girls as well as other dependent relatives, clothes on their backs and roof over their heads. Icheoku admonishes the world to stop seeing Late Mr Domingo Ezirike as a Nigerian taxicab driver who was killed over 75 cents; but to remember him as the father, brother and husband he was doing an honest job for an honest wage. At least he represents those 99% of Nigerians living in the US who are not engaged in fraudulent activities and for this, he should be mourned and missed. 

Driving taxicab is a JOB; admitted that many people with PhD, law degrees, computer science degrees, banking degrees, teaching credentials, medical degrees as well as other advanced humanities degrees, who found themselves driving taxicab in the United States would rather be doing something else. These people did not wish that driving taxicabs were their first job. It is called situational condition and in America so many people are so conditional where you have to survive first before thinking about preferences. As an American would tell you, you gotta do what you gotta do. Would the late Mr Ezirike wished he had a 9 to 5 job on Wall Street pulling in high six figures every year, you bet; would the late taxicab driver Domingo wished he was a legislative assistant to a congressman in DC wearing shirt and tie to an air-conditioned office each day, probably yes; would the late Mr. Domingo Ezirike wished he was employed in one of the Prince William's county municipalities, pushing the pen or keying away on a keypad, yes; but in America the realities are different from the fabled and so many immigrants end up doing what they would not ordinarily settle for in their homelands including the risky driving of taxicabs.  Literally stranded in America, they have to do what they have to do to survive as running back home to their motherland is not an option, some being already in debt and the northern star of their families in whom so many hopes are vested. Moreso many of such immigrants are raised not to be dependent and too steeped in dignity to settle for government handouts, they would rather pick leaves off the lawns for a living. 

Yes, Icheoku is proud that 40 yr old Nigerian cab driver, Domingo Ezirike, was shot and killed in the line of duty, doing a legitimate job and not as a bank robber holding up one community bank in DC or a liquor store on the northeast corner. There is dignity in labor and provided it is legitimate, there should be no shame in that, no matter how lowly or menial that might be. Also the alleged disputation over 75 cents might seem paltry, but that is on a hindsight; moreso a cabbie who tolls all the roads trying to makes ends meet knows that such change adds up. Icheoku says late Domingo never knew he had a runaway from the Youth Correction services in his cab otherwise he would have waved him on without more and the murder suspect was not carrying a badge of infamy on his head announcing that he was going to kill the cab driver if he demands for his complete fare to be paid. Not even the police who stopped his cab and spoke to him about his unfastened seat-belt knew that they were speaking to a dead man driving a taxicab; or that the youthful passenger in the back seat of his cab was carrying a concealed weapon with which he would kill him within a short period of time. Should we now blame the police for not profiling a black male in a taxicab that night in DC by ordering him out for a stop and frisk which would have revealed the concealed weapon and perhaps prevented the commission of murder? 

Icheoku says people tend to see the 75 cents as so trifle, but they should not be carried away by the seeming littleness of the amount in question; but should see the underlying principle that Mr Domingo Ezirike probably did not want to allow a strung-out on crack nigger-head to reap him off his hard earned money. It comes with the territory and drop by drop a bucket is filled; so he was not ready to be intimidated into losing some money by a troubled youth who saw him as that African here to serve them. Icheoku says let the 75 cents not becloud what really took place here and only if this would make the the bereaved family to share up a bit that their son, husband, father and brother did not die a shameful death but was a victim of a gun-ho society and a troubled youth who did not know any better. A dear friend of mine was similarly shot in a DC area of Oxon Hill sometime ago delivering pizza, by two juveniles who were declared minors and ineligible to stand trial for the crime. Although it was painful, but he died trying to earn his living wages and there is no shame in doing an honest work whatsoever. Take heart Domingo Ezirike's family. 

FYI:- Mr Dominogo Ezirike was gunned down at 4300 Ponds Street, Northeast DC on October 22, 2011 at approximately 3.35am following a fare-drop originating from Morgan Boulevard metro station in Landover Maryland. The deceased cabbie was on a night shift which probably was drawing to an end judging by the time and may have been on his last fare run when 20-year-old Rashad Terrell Slye, a troubled youth and escapee from DC youth corrections services, shot and killed him. A ride of $27.75 which was paid short 75 cents resulting to argument, followed by robbery and then the murder. For those Monday night quarterbacks who are now arguing that a mere 75 cents is not worth loosing a life for, Icheoku asks them to name just that thing that is worth loosing a life for? Are they telling Icheoku that had Mr Ezirike known that it would cost him his life, that he would have argued with that crazy youth? 

The guy was probably hustling for a Christmas visit to Nigeria and would literally kill for every dime, so do you blame him for demanding that the suspect paid his full fare? And when he gets to Nigeria his family will not allow him to rest because he is coming from America and should solve all their financial problems; assuming armed robbers and kidnappers did not get to him first? But like a popular Igbo aphorism goes, people will not because there is killing at the war front refuse to go to war - it comes with the territory so soldier on boys must. Hopefully a good lawyer will get some money for the family, suing DC for damages caused by an escapee from their Youth Correctional facility and possibly the taxicab company for failure to provide a safe work environment?  

But in America, workers of every kind and manner get killed on their jobs - from lawyers as evidenced in the San Francisco law office massacre of some years ago, to cement plant killing as recently happened in San Jose California, to the proverbial going postal as a result of recurring post office workers killing co-workers. Even in hospitals, staffs have periodically lost their minds resulting in the killing of co workers, talkless of the military where a PhD military psychologist some few years ago lost his mind and killed several soldiers he was supposed to be counselling. So hazards of the jobs is not peculiar to certain trades or profession only, but comes handy whenever a nutcase losses his center and goes on a rampage. Nigerians are not the only nationality that drive cabs in America as Russians, Afghans, Pakistanis, Indians, Brazilians, Nepalese, Egyptians, Ethiopians, Somalians, Chechnyans, Eritrea as well as so many other immigrants world-over drive cabs in America. Most of these people are professionals from their home countries who could not stand the typical politics of America's job places, assuming someone cared enough to hire them in the first place. Some of these nationalities are just too proud a people to play the kissing-ass game that is required to get along in typical job environment in America; hence they would rather be their own independent contractors, risking their necks, driving cabs to pay for Uncle Sam's accommodation. 

So as we mourn the loss of Mr Domingo Ezirike, the story should not be that a Nigerian cab driver was killed in DC over 75cents; rather it should be that a hardworking immigrant Nigerian, who was doing his job as a taxi driver, was gunned down by a troubled youth who was supposed to be under the custody of Washington DC Youth Correctional Facility which failed both the deceased and the suspect. There rests the case and that is the story of Domingo Ezirike, period. Icheoku says may his soul rest in peace.

"AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN" - HERMAN CAIN REPLIES DETRACTORS.

"As far as these accusations causing me to back off and maybe withdraw from this presidential primary race? Ain't gonna happen."With this terse statement, Republican Party's presidential candidate wanna-be, Herman Cain, soldiers on and this is exactly what Icheoku canvassed yesterday on the position he should take. 

So what if Cain groped Sharon Bialek after splashing such mouth-watering indulgence on her - an expensive hotel suite, a fine dinner at an Italian restaurant and some fine bottles of very expensive red wines? Assuming they even had sex, which under the circumstance was most probable, so what? Both were consenting adults, at least as far as their secret rendezvous in Washington DC was concerned, and what the heck if Ms Bialek later had an after-thought or better still was offered a spot on a television reality show for her story. Icheoku says and still maintains that fourteen years was just too long for an allegedly violated woman, of seemingly easy virtue, to be heard to complain that what she directly sought and got was against her will. Icheoku ain't buying this crap and so should you!

SIASIA PUNTS BLAME, FAILS TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY.

Icheoku says an arrogant and annoyingly defensive Samson Siasia, just made matters worst by failing and refusing to acknowledge that his obstinacy and nothing else cost him his job. By stubbornly refusing to forgive and forget and call up Nigeria's currently most tested and most reliable goalkeeper numero uno, Vincent Enyeama for such a crucial match, despite numerous pleas to do so, Siasia set himself up for his final disembowelment. He should therefore not blame anyone else but himself for that failure of judgement which cost him his job.

Icheoku says had Siasia listened to the pleas of the so many Nigerians who beseeched him to forgive and recalled goalkeeper Enyeama and Nigeria still failed to qualify anyway, he would have been cut some slacks. He would still have his job today as pressure would have been mounted on NFF, on his behalf, to give him some more time as the head coach. But an egotistic Siasia felt he is rather too big to listen to Nigerians' supplications to let bygone be bygone and stuck to his gun. Moreso Enyeama had since apologized for whatever Siasia deemed he did wrong. But as far as Icheoku is concerned, speaking out against a below-par travel arrangement is not such an insubordination as would warrant benching of Nigeria's best and finest, especially in such a crucial match. Nigerians waited and hoped and even prayed that Siasia will not give them the rope with which to hang his sorry neck by qualifying without Enyeama. Unfortunately, he delivered the rope already noosed, and there ended his head-coaching stint with papa-eagles.

Now he is hopping from pillar to post looking for who to blame and seriously trying to apportion blame where none existed. This Samson Siasia has just made Icheoku mad by the whiny way he is bemoaning his sack by the NFF. This Samson Siasia have lost our respect and admiration by not being sportsman enough to accept full responsibility for his intransigence that led to Nigeria's ouster from the Nation's Cup competition, so that Nigerians can begin to forget his mediocre stint as Eagles head-coach. Samson Siasia, Icheoku says to you, get yourself together, get over your sack and get it into your tiny skull that you brought your damnation unto yourself. You should please stop looking elsewhere for a person or persons to scapegoat for your downfall.

Samson Siasai, Icheoku admonishes you to please show some humility - be humble enough to acknowledge your horrible decision made through pettiness; then properly and sincerely apologize to Nigerians for that intentional act of sabotage of their football by not playing Vincent Enyeama in that crucial match where Nigeria was leading until the last few seconds to go. then and only then would your rehabilitation earnestly begin. But as long as you keep on running around like a possessed munchkin, looking for someone to blame and blaming everyone else but Siasia for that your abysmal failure, then that long shall Nigerians see you as that little arrogant and self-righteous raccoon who deserved all that was thrown at him by the NFF. Icheoku says, may be NFF should make you refund the contract money collected for your non-performance of the condition subsequent of your contract to qualify Nigeria for the Nations Cup. Since you were hired to do something and you failed to deliver same, shouldn't fairness compel you to cough up the consideration paid and received for a performance not rendered? By the way Samson Siasia, which "similar incident are you talking about that caused your downfall?" Icheoku reiterates that Samson Siasia is personally responsible for his downfall and on hindsight, must probably now be wondering why he strung out against recalling Vincent Enyeama. What a jerk.

INCREDIBLE BUT TRUE, CHINESE POLICE SEIZES MAN'S HAND AS EVIDENCE?

Icheoku says when you think you have heard it all here comes the incredible but true story of a Taiwanese man, visiting his girlfriend in China, whose arm was cut off by thieves just to make it easier for them to steal his gold Rolex watch and ring? As if that was not hairy enough, the Chinese police compounded his nightmare when they refused to allow the man exit China with his severed limb and insisted they will keep it as evidential exhibit of the crime? 

Icheoku says here you have a man who is now both suffering the trauma of loosing his hand and also of having his hand seized and separated from him by the Chinese police. What a double whammy of a life-changing experience and Icheoku hopes another story will not soon emerge that the confiscated hand have been eaten by rats or sold to people trading on human body parts? Icheoku understands why the man wanted to go home with his amputated hand, in order to have his complete body-parts in one place, so that upon his death he would be interred complete. Icheoku is similarly keeping a pulled tooth, well preserved, awaiting the last day when a complete and whole body will be returned to mother-earth.  

The 60 year old victim, Hu Chi-yang, pictured above lying in his hospital bed, was visiting his girlfriend in the Chinese city of Putian, south-east Fujian Province; when he became a story of a mugged man who lost his hand to Chinese muggers and also had his severed hand seized  by the Chinese police for evidence. It is also noteworthy that "emergency" does not exist in the dictionary of the Chinese police as they held-up treatment and surgery of the victim for about three hours in order to finish collecting their evidence and write their crime report? Now expect Icheoku to be on the next available flight to China, particularly Putian, Fujian Province and would you be my BFF on that flight? Lest Icheoku forgets, such violet crime is not restricted to China only as an American man holidaying in Italy was recently killed there by thieves on Mo-ped who robbed him of his Rolex wrist-watch before shoving him to the ground where he hit his head on the pavement and died.

"I CAN'T BEAR NETANYAHU, HE'S A LIAR" - SARKOZY.

"Everyone talks about everyone. Sometimes even good friends say things about each other, certainly in such competitive professions. So you have to consider the main things. Is Obama a friend of Israel? Is Sarkozy a friend of Israel? Is their policy a consistent policy of support for Israel? The answer to all of these questions is affirmative and, as far as I'm concerned, that is what's important." - Silvam Shalom. 

Icheoku agrees and adds, name calling has never killed anyone and so what if Bibi Netanyahu lied to push his Israeli peoples agenda forward; afterall their biblical patriarch Abraham lied about Sarah in order to protect his skin? It is called the good lie and every person once in a while engages in one just like the latest Herman Cain sex scandal denial of "I don't even know who this lady (Sharon Bialek) is;" - a page taken from Clinton's infamous in your face lie - "I did not have sex with that woman Monica Lewinsky."

ABORTION VOTE REJECTED, BAD ELECTION NIGHT FOR REPUBLICANS.

Icheoku says if the results of today's elections in both Ohio and Mississippi States are harbinger of the upcoming 2012 election, then there is no cause for alarm for President Obama and the Democrats as Americans have wised up and are now ready to take on the Republicans. It would appear that Americans are tired of the Republican deceit as well as their inclement anti-peoples policies that they are now ready to make statement with their ballot papers. It also does not matter what the Tea Party loonies think or do as this is not their 2010. 

Two highly controversial Republican backed propositions against labor and woman's right to choose, were voted down as anti-human and retrogressive effort by the Republicans to put Americans under unnecessary chain. In Ohio, Republican supported and financed anti-union Collective Bargaining Law was rejected by Ohioans who saw it as too overreaching. And in the Bible belt southern state of Mississippi, home of former senate majority leader Trent Lot, the voters there rejected a whack proposition to make fetus a human-being for the purposes of criminally punishing abortion. Their fable that fetus incapable of independent existence outside the womb is a living person for the purposes of protection under the law, which would have criminalized all abortions including in cases of rape, incest or breached pregnancy, is rather over-broad and preposterous. Proposition initiative 26 or the "Personhood Amendment Law" could have made abortion a death-penalty offense in Mississippi.  

"Icheoku says imagine a state as impoverished as Mississippi, where it is okay to put people to death, is spending scarce resources trying to criminalize and punish medical flushing out of blood clot? Who knows when they would have extended such a planned Talibanistic law to also guard against masturbation and/or the monthly menstrual cycle, which by necessary implication, could be interpreted as living persons; using the intended Mississippi's warped and peculiar standards/rules of interpretation? Icheoku commends both progressive votes by the people of Ohio and Mississippi states and urge them to follow the pattern in 2012 . It is a new and good day in America when voters in America start using their heads more often instead of their hearts, to vote right and vote correctly.

SHARON BIALEK, HER INCREDIBLE AND INCREDULOUS PRESS CONFERENCE?

Icheoku without mincing words says that Ms Sharon Bialek, the alleged face and voice of Herman Cain's sexually harassed women, is incredible and her account of what allegedly transpired between her and the Republican Party presidential nominee wanna-be front-runner, Herman Cain, is rather incredulous. One needs to suspend disbelief and put on his unthinking hat to believe such a concocted story of an unwanted sexual move gone awry. There are simply too many issues that render her account of Herman Cain's alleged aggression highly improbable and if, it was with her full consent and lead-on. First let us consider her jovial demeanor at the press conference which is rather unusual for a woman suffering emotional distress on account of her privacy being violated in the manner described. Icheoku says any woman who really went through what she stated happened to her in the hands of Herman Cain would be seething in anger and even tear up with description of the minutia. But none was the case, a matter made worse sided by her attorney, Gloria Allred, who demeaned the alleged encounter as a "stimulus package?" Icheoku asks, where was her emotional grief if what she alleged truly took place as we did not see any?

Dissecting the alleged sexual encounter story, could somebody please explain to Icheoku why it took this woman fourteen long years to come forward; if what allegedly happened then was not consensual and she is not now being used as a tool to pull Herman Cain's campaign down and get him out of the way. If she felt so violated as stated, why did she not complain to the police then and have Herman Cain prosecuted for unwanted and unsolicited sexual offense and violation against her person? Icheoku is not so dumb as to buy into her reality-show styled explanation that she felt too embarrassed then to file charges? Icheoku asks, if it was too embarrassing then to come forward or file charges, why is it no longer embarrassing now, after fourteen long years had passed by, to come forward belatedly to make this accusation? What changed or like some commentator said, she appeared to be under some influence during the conference that impacted her demeanor? 

It is also instructive that this woman is a single mom and you wonder who the kid's father is and whether she had him outside wedlock or if there was a divorce, the reason for the divorce? Such traits are very important as they point to the character traits and veracity of the accuser, who Icheoku believes, is targeting television reality-shows, talk-show appearances and possibly looking at some money making opportunities in Hollywood with her after-thought allegations or for whatever the weight, her fourteen year old sexual encounter with Herman Cain

The second issue that bogs Icheoku watching Ms Sharon Bialek's press conference is her reading of a prepared and well scripted text of what she alleged happened, instead of just an off-the-cuff rattling out of the encounter since she is the person with direct personal knowledge and her recollection should not be an issue or so fuzzy as to put them down in ink before the press conference. Needless to add that she refused and did not take questions from the press corp gathered? Icheoku says if Ms Sharon Bialek was truthful and candid about the encounter, she wouldn't necessary need the assistance of a script to tell her story; so the very act of her reading from a lawyer's well choreographed script, fourteen years after the encounter tasks the veracity and truthfulness of the alleged. Who needs a written and vetted and possibly coached script to recall what happened to her body in the hands of sexual predator which they are ganging up to make Herman Cain? Just watch her demeanor throughout the press conference and you would see a woman who is not sure of what she was stating as happened; but who is just out to do a job to take Herman Cain out. Icheoku just wonders how much she was paid or promised for the theater displayed which disturbed millions of rational people's mind who were able to lift the veil and read between the lines. 

Following closely to her incredulity is the issue of the minute details of that encounter which she readily recollected, such as what she was wearing that night and the fact that Herman Cain's shirt was unbuttoned even remembering the colors of their clothes? Icheoku says I don't know about you, but I do not personally remember with exactitude, the clothes I had on just last Friday, talkless of fourteen years ago. But here is Ms Sharon Bialek telling the world the colors of the clothes they had on and you wonder if the color blue is recognizable at night? 

Then the question of how she first met and knew Herman Cain so well as to be invited for a meeting in Washington DC through the night that required her overnight stay? Why didn't she decline the offer of an expensive hotel suite provided courtesy of Herman Cain if she was not seriously thinking about a liaison with him that night by necessary implication of her accepting the pass being made with such a luxurious hotel accommodation? If a man who is not related to you either familial or professionally, pays for a very expensive hotel suite for you and you accept it, what message were you sending to him by such acceptance of his offer? That no, I will enjoy your hotel suite but there will be nothing for you? 

A defense would also excavate the possible reason there could be why Herman Cain needed to rush into the accuser's privates in a parked car in a parking lot, when they had the whole night to explore their crevices following a sumptuous fine dinner and wining in an Italian restuarant when there is an expensive hotel suite waiting their romantic arrival? Certain conducts involving dates and romance are not often vocalized but implied - an expensive hotel suite was offered by Herman Cain and she accepted same without any precondition or objection; even when according to her account, Herman Cain actively reminded her that he was the one who upgraded her tiny room to an expensive suite, she merely giggled her appreciation? Icheoku says if Ms Bialek was not looking forward to something that night with Herman Cain and thereby lead Herman Cain on or was not totally convinced on what the night with as progressing into, she would have raised an objection at the earliest time when the expensive hotel suite was offered to her. She would have at least informed Herman Cain upfront that she hopes the suite was in-gratis and not a quid pro quo gift offered for something in return. That she would only accept such an expensive hotel suite gift conditionally - on the condition that she does not give her body to him in return. But no, instead she played along just to get a job only to fourteen years later, have a change of mind? 

It is ridiculously unbelievable. According to her account, Herman Cain put his hand on her lap, then navigated it towards up her legs and into her vagina and one wonders why she did not stop Herman Cain cold at the onset of his expedition? Icheoku asks why did Ms Sharon Bialek wait until Herman Cain's fingers made contact with her clits, and not at the moment he made the initial contact with her body, before she complained? What was she wearing that night that gave Herman Cain such an easy access up her privates? Was she wearing a thong, panties, pantie-hose or was she butt-naked just to seduce a possible employer? Did she invite the encounter by overt flirtations and mannerisms which suggested a come-on; and would Herman Cain been dismissed as not a real man if he did not bite the bait? Did she slap Herman Cain for violating her privates or was she like the hotel maid in New York who merely changed her mind after a consensual sexual encounter with the Frenchman Dominique Strauss Kahn? Icheoku is not just buying into her story as there appear to be so many smoking mirrors that needs to be defogged for clarity. 

Icheoku wants to know did Herman Cain touch her suggestively, whispered some soothing love-monologues into her ear, first kissed her and she kissed him back leading him to believe that she is open about further exploration of her womanhood? Icheoku is loosing his mind trying to put a handle on this accuser's account of what happened as no reasonable man would so suddenly thrust his hand into a woman's vagina without first getting the green-light that it is okay to so do. Usually most sexual dalliances starts with smooth words, soft touches, kisses and then explorations; so why must this episode be starkly different? Who hired this woman to take out Herman Cain? 

Icheoku is not in anyway holding brief for Herman Cain or supporting his far-fetched presidential nomination effort; but let the wrongly accused be defended as Ms Sharon Bialek's story is rather too difficult to believe as is. We all know the power of the butt and how some lecherous women deploy same to get whatever they want including jobs, promotions and raises? If this woman was truly going to meet Herman Cain without a prior calculated plan of offering herself to him in order to get a job, why did she not travel with her boyfriend to meet him? Why did she go alone to Washington DC to meet a man who is not related to her in anyway and warranting her to spend the night? She accepted an upgraded hotel suite at the expensive Capitol Hilton in Washington DC, a dinner at an Italian restaurant that must have cost some pretty pennies, enough drinks to cure some jitters which may have been some fine bubbly champagne or other impressive red wine and then what did she expect thereafter? That the man, fully blooded, would just say see you tomorrow, Ciao Bellisima? 

Who is fooling who and who is really misleading the gullible Republican Party's primary electorates but a woman who is being used as a weapon of mass destruction to destroy Herman Cain's blossoming campaign; hired by people who now see Herman Cain as a threat to their agenda to get a white person into their White House in 2012? Hear this shameless and irrational woman state her story, "Instead of going into the office he suddenly reached over and put his hand on my leg, under my skirt and reached for my genitals; and thereafter brought my head towards his crotch?" Icheoku says anyone who have attempted sexual relationship in a car would vouch for the difficulty in having one's hand inside a vagina while at the same time pushing a woman's head unto the penis for a BJ while seating side by side with one another. Ask yourself, what would make Herman Cain to "suddenly reach over the woman's skirt" when he reasonably had the expectation to get some anyway through the night? This narrative sounds like a process that involved some time from hand on the leg to under skirt and then vagina; so the question remains why did Ms Sharon Bialek not stop Herman Cain's sexual advances when he first put his hand on her leg? 

And all Ms Sharon Bialek has to prove that what she is alleging took place are two signed documents, one by her former boyfriend and another by a friend businessman; and Icheoku wonders what their motives are in signing such a hearsay document of she said, without any more collaboration? It is also needless to add that they were not deposed contemporaneously following the incident or so soon immediately after it came to their knowledge. What an offensive nonsensical thrash.  It is also instructive that Herman Cain had dined and wined this particular woman on more than one occasion in the past eliciting the question, which able-bodied man would not interpret her mannerisms as a green-light to press on assuming that what was alleged took place? 

Icheoku asks, if according to her account she told Herman Cain that being intimate with him that night was not what she came for, why did she accept all the favors that are usually incidental prelude to having a sexual relationship such as an upgraded hotel suite, a fine dinner at an exotic Italian restaurant in addition to some expensive drinks? What were Ms Sharon Bialek's reasonable expectation as she burnt Herman Cain's bills that evening both in the expensive hotel suite as well as the Italian restaurant or did she mistook him for an eunuch and a father Christmas? In conclusion, Icheoku rebuts and rejects the claim that Sharon Bialek is the face and voice for women who had been sexually harassed by Herman Cain. She is but a hired cunt doing a hatchet job for whoever paid her for this theater that wants Herman Cain's campaign imploded. To Herman Cain, Icheoku urges you to  soldier on and never fall prey to this time-worn out tactic of getting one out through the backdoor. If they are good enough and feels good about their chances, let them allow Republican Party primary voters to decide who their presidential candidate shall be.  Please do not succumb to the modern-styled lynching being orchestrated by some party with interest who would not want to see a guaranteed black occupation of the White House in 2012 which your nomination will portend. They want to shut your campaign down but you must not let them; you must never surrender, you must never cower down by these useless belated allegations.  They are orchestrated and they are their words against yours, so?

Imagine Ms Sharon Bialek waited for fourteen years to confront Herman Cain at a Chicago Tea Party conference; where she wondered "if he had done the same type of thing to any other women?" Icheoku says what a lawyer crafted statement thrown in to prepare grounds for possible future lawsuit. If she ever wondered the thought as claimed, why did it take her fourteen years to do so and did she think Herman Cain was a sexless monk not to have made overtures to other women all these years, assuming he did not actually have his way with Ms Sharon Bialek that simmering mid-summer night in Washington DC? Icheoku asks Ms Sharon Bialek whether it was inappropriate to cut corners in order to get a job by directly reaching out to the NRA President Herman Cain, instead of just sending in your job application to the National Restaurant Association office as would any other job-seeking Jill-American without connections in high places in Washington DC or elsewhere? And to Ms Sharon Bialek, Icheoku asks you, what did you offer to Herman Cain in return for the favor of landing you a job, assuming you told the truth? 

CONRAD MURRAY'S GUILTY VERDICT, NOT BY JURY OF HIS PEERS?

Icheoku asks was he singled out for prosecution just because of who he is and that the prosecutor's "child-molesting and hated" Michael Jackson was involved? Icheoku asks were Dr Murray a white doctor, would the prosecution have brought charges against him and if yes, why were those doctors involved in Keith Ledger, Anna Nicole Smith, Tina Marie and a host of Hollywood death by overdose not prosecuted; and in London no one has told of any ongoing prosecutorial action against the doctor who prescribed Amy Winehouse the drugs on which she overdosed? Anyway Dr Murray is just another black man who has to be put away and a jury technically not his peers, sat in judgment over him and convicted him.

Icheoku says technically not his peers because eleven of the twelve jurors were not black people and so would not understand the peculiar hard rock and the deep sea of a place Murray, a brother, was facing trying to provide service to another brother, a distrust Michael pigeonholed by an unforgiving society that condemned him for a trumped-up child molestation charges from which he never really recovered until he died. Icheoku says a jury of his peers should ordinarily be black people who have experienced America for what it is and not people of other colors. Moreso the judge is not black and so is the prosecutor and the defense; and you wonder whether the medical doctor got a fair shake for his unintentional conduct that led to death of someone already on death-row, all things considered. As far as Icheoku is concerned, Michael was killed and already dead the day they accused him of child molestation, which forced him into a completely secluded weirdo-world which turned him into pills-dependent brittle personality.

Admitted Murray did what professionally he should not have done, but Icheoku strongly opines that he should not have been prosecuted in the first place and at best on a lesser charge of misdemeanor negligence. So it is not justice served when a black doctor is convicted for unintentional death of another black man since no such prosecution has ever been carried out in other death by overdose drugs cases prior. However, Icheoku believes that the defense team insulted the intelligence of the jury when they tried to pin culpability on a dead Michael as the person who injected himself with the killer-Propofol. Icheoku says the Michael the world knew and watched until death took him, could not have personally injected himself when he had a highly paid physician in the person of the accused on standby to give him his medications as and at when needed. Anyway, an imprisoned man is still better than a dead man and hopefully Dr Conrad Murray would do his time and upon release, seek a rehabilitation both within his profession and society at large.

HERMAN CAIN FINALLY ENTERS THE CRUCIBLE, ATTACK INTENSIFIES.

 

Icheoku says you know you are on top when all the darts are directed at you from all corners, trying to get you out the way. Godfather pizza owner and Republican Party's presidential candidate wanna-be, Herman Cain, just found out what it means to be number one. Leading the presidential candidates wanna-be has brought the hammer hard down on him and now allegations after allegations are being piled on him by detractors bent on sabotaging his campaign and stopping a possible rumble in the jungle of two African American candidates contesting the presidency in 2012. 

The good ole boys Republican Party establishment would rather be found dead than to guarantee a nigger occupying "their" White House in 2012 with President Barack Obama squaring it off with fellow African-American Herman Cain. What they did was to line up women of easy virtue to put pressure on Herman Cain and force his withdrawal. Anyway uneasy lies the head that wears the crown, so it is Herman Cain's decision to make whether he is tough enough or to simply save his skin and scamper out of the kitchen before the sink starts flying his way, as they are going to throw whatever they can lay their hands on to get him out. They are not taking chances this time having been surprised beyond belief with President Obama's win in 2008; after not giving him the slightest chance of winning that election and against the Clinton machine. 

Icheoku says it is for Herman Cain to prove by staying the course that he is tough enough to take on President Obama and tough enough to be president should the inexplicable and unexpected happen - but only if beggars are kings! Herman Cain, just hang in there; afterall you have nothing to loose that you have not lost. It is a hatchet job or modern day lynching by those good ole white boys who are financing Mitt Romney and wants to rid "their" White House of colored people.

DAVID MARK, NIGERIA'S SENATE PRESIDENT, IS A HOMO-PHOBE?

Icheoku says regrettably the Nigeria Senate President, Senator David Mark, missed the point or rather exposed his ignorance about homosexuality when he inferred that people are gay simply because of lack or their inability to find opposite-sex partners? According to this former army man, “There are enough men and women to marry each other," and therefore  gays have no basis of being gays and should therefore not be gays anymore? Senator David Mark  hardline position in denying God's children their legitimate fundamental human-rights to marry each other, in pursuit of happiness and love, which being gay has been declared by the United Nations to be, stems from the fact that he failed to understand that being gay is not a choice. It is rather a function of being born that way - gay people were wired from conception to be gay. It is in their DNA; it is a biological makeup and their constitution to tilt and gravitate towards same-sex.

Icheoku is emphatic that it has been scientifically established that biological or animalistic impulse rather than other suggested Sodomic obsession that attracts gay people to one another. Put in another way, gay people are not atypical heterosexual people and this alone is sufficient to make the David Marks of this world to learn how to be more accommodating and tolerant of people who are somewhat different from him and prefers differently. Majority of gay people, if they had a choice, would rather go straight; but they do not feel the magnetic pull provided by opposite sex and the Bible recorded homosexualism as an existent way of life even before the coming of Jesus Christ. Like prostitution which is reputed to be the oldest profession, gaydom has been part of mankind dating back to recorded history and as chronicled in the biblical account of Sodom and Gomorrah. Icheoku must however add that the two cities were not destroyed just because of homosexualism alone, admitted it probably was part of the reason and the fact that God could not find ten honest people therein. So any person, including Senator David Mark, who parleys this biblical account of Sodom and Gomorrah as being synonymous to homosexualism is economic with the truth and should revisit that biblical passage in Genesis Chapter 18 & 19 and see for himself/herself that sodomy was just an a part but not the whole reason for God's intervention. 


At a time when the whole world including the Vatican is becoming more inclusive and looking for a meaningful way to fully accommodate all God's children irrespective of their private life, David Mark's Nigeria is publicly standing naked and alone, as a country which harbors seething anti-gay views and whose leadership is bigoted against people born that way. A statement as awful as "Gay is offensive to our culture and tradition" will definitely send a rude shock to notable gay men like Sir Elton John, knighted by the Queen of England; and you tell Icheoku what his reaction would be to any of his funds-manager contemplating to make some investments in Nigeria? And to deny that so many gay men and women are venture capitalists and control some enormous resources and impressive capital the world over is to understate the obvious. Icheoku says any savvy political leader in Senator David Mark's position would have kept his views on this subject matter private and his opinion personal; mindful of the reach and interpretation such expressed opinion might elicit and being interpreted as the official Nigeria government position on the gay community. It is called political correctness in manner of speaking, required of every public official as both straights and 'born this ways' are all people under their authority and deserve to be evenly protected. Icheoku says judgment is mine says the Lord and no human-being including Senator David Mark should arrogate to himself the right to treat fellow human-beings as less human-beings, unclean, unworthy or even a taboo; admitted the Dalits of India are suffering the same inhuman treatment in India. 


The entire humanity inhabiting this planet earth are in it together, yoked together by fate to all that exist in this world, including but not limited to sexual preferences. Modern world is all about inclusiveness and not isolation or segregation. Icheoku says if the church could accept homosexuals as full members of the church and some churches even took it a notch further by ordaining 'born-this-ways' clergy, who is Senator David Mark of Nigeria to demean this group of God's children? Senator David Mark proclaimed Christianity as his authority for discriminating against God's own children; but regrettably he failed or did not read that verse in the Bible where God ordered Peter not to call his children unclean ( Acts 10:9-19); and Jesus also admonished that he came for those who are sick and not the holier than thou sanctimonious people like the David Marks of this world. What is marriage but the union of any two units whether of objects of persons; hence the word couple which means to join together. If anyone wants to marry even his rat or her goat, it is okay by Icheoku provided it is left that way and not encroach on other peoples right to freely choose who or what their partners would be. It simply does not and should not matter whether a person is straight or crooked - all that the world needs is love.


Icheoku says if Senator David Marks claims that his particular Christian faith abhors homosexualism and that their way of life is incomprehensible to him, it is okay, provided he spoke within the confines of his opinion only. But he however would cross the line if he tries to pass his opinion off as that of the entire populace or  portray Nigerians whom he represents as their senate president as anti-gay people who are opposed to gay peoples' fundamental human rights.  Senator David Mark should be mindful of the fact that Nigeria does not belong to Christians alone or his brand of Christianity to be precise; and that their morals is not the new laws of Nigeria. Also he should not hold other peoples interests and fundamental human rights hostage to his Christian views and ideology. 


Probably, his Christian faith does not approve of Catholic priests raping and molesting alter boys, yet he has not denounced them with similar venom or threaten to outlaw marriages contracted under the faith? Endemic corruption in Nigeria is possibly abhorred by his Christian faith, yet it thrives and grows in bounds and reap? What about cheating on spouses or people keeping mistresses, divorces as well as other legion of vices and societal madness which go on indiscriminately in Nigeria despite David Mark's Christian faith? Icheoku says for this David Mark to just single out the gay community as the people to pummel is rather very unfortunate and in a country that is not and should not be beholden to one particular ideology or unitary morality source.  If David Mark "cannot be a party to it (same-sex)," he should not be and no one is compelling him or trying to; but he should let others who possibly have differing opinions and views to express them and he should not muzzle or try to intimidate such divergent views with his official position. 


The last time Icheoku checked, there is no place in Christendom that approves of military coup de tat as an approved manner of changing governments, yet this David Mark had participated in so many coups in Nigeria as to disqualify him from holding any office in a democratic Nigeria including its senate presidency. So who is now preaching to the choir but a holier than thou Saint Senator David Mark? If homosexualism is an "importation of foreign culture," Icheoku asks, is presidential democracy indigenous to Nigeria? Monogamy is not  part of Nigeria's culture but it is an acceptable way of life; admitted that both spouses cheat on each other with numerous partners and concubines. How about the myriad of other foreign cultures which have taken over Nigeria landscape and who is this man to say that being gay is "a freedom too many?" Is Christianity Nigerian or an imported religion? The clothes on David Marks back is equally alien, likewise the limousine that drives him about. If David Mark wants to explore culture or foreign influence on Nigeria, Icheoku is ready to debate him any day any time; but resents the singling out of a minority group to scapegoat them using the the ruse of culture. 


Reiterating, Icheoku says there is nothing "offensive and/or repugnant" with being biologically so wired to be attracted to the same-sex; admitted it goes against some societal ingrained position that opposite attracts. If David Mark has any question or beef with the ways or manner and wisdom of God, who also created homosexual people, he should quietly direct his questions to God in prayers; but he must cease and desist from threatening and disturbing the peace of "born this ways" of Nigeria. David Mark should leave Nigerian LGBT community alone to live happily with whoever they choose or prefer to share their love with. If David Mark wants to preach against homosexualism through the streets of Ashkelon or to publish his hatred and contempt for these children of God in Garth, he is free to so do; but he must cease and desist from passing his views off or seen to be speaking in his official capacity as that of the Nigeria government or Nigerians for that matter. 


Icheoku says it is not only homosexualism that David Mark was not aware where it came from, therefore his particular pre-knowledge is not a necessary prerequiste to confer it approval. Shamelessly his acolyte Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, PDP Cross River, naively posited “If we are all same sex how do we produce human beings who have human rights?”  In response, Icheoku says, the problem with Nigeria is the type and calibre of  people in leadership positions such as this Ndoma-Egba, who is now trivializing such a far reaching fundamental human right issue in this manner? By the same token, would this Ndoma-Egba have asked 'if all Nigerians are reverend fathers and sisters, how would they produce people to populate Nigeria?' It is just mind-boggling that the issue of freedom of sexuality in Nigeria is being discussed in this puerile manner by people in authority, knowing fully well the far-reaching effect to Nigeria's image and economy such could cause. Icheoku therefore calls on Senator David Mark to allow an open, free and uninhibited debate and vote on same sex marriage in Nigeria and let the tree fall where it may. David Mark and his types in Nigeria should know that there is nothing abnormal in same sex attraction neither is it a taboo for any of God's children to love whoever they are attracted to. Just get over it, Senator Homophobe and please next time, just keep your opinion private and to yourself. It is called political correctness in manner of speaking required of public officials and a leader should not discriminate or seen to discriminate especially against less powerful minority members of the polity which he leads.

MARK SELL AND LOUDOUN COUNTY VIRGINIA REPUBLICANS WANT OBAMA DEAD?

 Icheoku says were the image merely a cartoon, without the added bullet hole in the head, just like the other depictions, Icheoku would not have any beef with it; but explain it away as Halloween related. But to just single out President Barack Hussein Obama's image as the only one with a bullet driven right into the right cranial wall of his temple is just another example of lunatic racist Virginians who would rather have "THAT ONE" nigger dead than to remain in their White House. The thought and the act are both evil, inexplicable and inexcusable; and may the good Lord continue to guide and protect the president against all such evil machination and evil doers like Mark Sell, chairman of Loudoun County Virgina Republican committee. Icheoku says if this is his idea of a joke, then he doesn't deserve his place chairing a Republican committee and should RESIGN his office immediately; otherwise all Republicans in Loudoun County Virginia stand accused, tainted and incohoot with this death wish on Mister President. What a racist jerk this human excrement is that calls himself Mark Sell and just as his name says, he just sold out Virginian Republicans as evil people that would wish death on the president.

BUHARI SOBERED DOWN BY DEATH OF MENTOR, GADDAFI?

 

Reliable sources tell Icheoku that Imam Muhammadu Buhari greatly felt and mourned the loss of former Libyan "strongman" Moummar Gaddafi, the man bankrolling all Islamic escapades in Africa including the several attempted Aso Rock hijack by Buhari? If only Nigerian security operatives had traced the source of funds used by Buhari to prosecute his three times presidential campaign, their searchlight would have pointed to Tripoli. Anyway with Gaddafi now out of the way, Icheoku cannot wait to see from where the Imam would yet again finance his upcoming 2015 presidential bid.

PRESIDENT OBAMA ELBOWS CHINA, SAYS THEY RACE TO THE BOTTOM?

“We should not be in a race to the bottom where we take pride in having the cheapest labor and the most polluted air and the least protected consumers.” Icheoku says the jab was well delivered and hopefully China got it that they should stop slave-laboring their populace just for the benefit of the world and their bank reserve.

PAT ROBERTSON DUELS RUSH LIMBAUGH AGAIN?

 "Those people in the Republican primary have got to lay off of this far right stuff. They're forcing their leaders, the front-runners, into positions that will mean they lose the general election. You appeal to the narrow base and they applaud the daylights out of what you're saying, and then you hit the general election and they'll say no way. They've got to stop this far right extremism! It's just so counterproductive. Well, if they want to lose, this is the game for losers." 

Icheoku says the message, "Stop pandering to the far right or lose in 2012," coming from a fundamentalism-personified Pat Robertson, should be more than enough to drive the message home into the cranial recesses of the Republican wanna-be presidential candidates, that they are running on empty. Extremists' votes, whether of the far right or far left, never puts anyone in the White House and 2012 will not be any exception. It appears Pat Robertson has once again deliberately taken the other corner of the ring opposite Rush Limbaugh, whose view is that those Republican candidates are not far-right enough and should accordingly move further further away right and to the tipping edge of far right extremism. Icheoku notes that this would not be the first time both men have sparred or disagreed on an issue. The other time when radio talking head Limbaugh said he wants Obama to fail, Pat took umbrage at the remark saying, "That was a terrible thing to say. I mean, he's the president of all the country. If he succeeds, the country succeeds. And if he doesn't, it hurts us all. Anybody who would pull against our president is not exactly thinking rationally." Peradventure Pat Robertson has at last acknowledged that Rush Limbaugh is missing some nuts and bolts in his brains; or did he just say that Rush Limbaugh is suffering from some mental retardation induced by illicit drugs ingestion? Icheoku is just asking.

PETITE & PETTY PUTIN, GOES PUERILE WITH FOREIGN POLICY TRUST?

 Icheoku says the waiting in the wings President of Russia who just traded places with his boy Medvedev has veered off the reservation by calling Americans obese. Instead of confining his press conference on policies and his incoming government's thrust, Vladimir Putin was busy asking America to tackle its obesity problems? Icheoku says at no time did the effort being made by America for Russia to reform its judicial system mention the debauchery, lewdness, organized crime and drunkenness which afflict the greater Russian society; yet here is Putin talking about obese Americans? In his words, Putin said "I can tell these critics - and they are clearly unscrupulous critics: you know what, mind your own business. Fight growing inflation, a growing state debt, obesity." 

Icheoku says it is unacceptable and clearly antagonistic for this little man of Kremlin to take a jab at America's social underbelly, reminding us that we are a country of huge people. Needless to add that a country has to have enough food for her people to eat first before they could pack some pounds and Russians are not so seemingly blessed. Whatever he thinks his second or third coming as the chief pilot in Kremlin will bring to Russia or the world, it will only be in his mind as the world has since moved on in his absence. Luckily enough China is there strongly marching on and would not allow KGB Putin driven Russia to disturb its groove as an undeniable contender to the United States. Uncle Putin, no one is intimidated by your shirtless torso and be reminded that the cold-war era is since gone and you need to change your mindset from confrontation to that of corporation that is necessary for the building of lasting relationships and institutions that would endure and help move Russia and its people into the new century. Icheoku also wonders what the average Joe-Russian really feels or thinks about the switching of chairs between Putin and Medvedev; or are they the only wise men in Russia who could preside over the ship of the state?

GADDAFI'S UNDIGNIFIED LYING IN STATE, SAVAGERY OF THE LIBYAN PEOPLE?

Once again Icheoku wears the hat of an advocate for human rights as well as an apostle of societal decency and condemns the Libyans for failing not only Gaddafi but the world in general in the macabre exhibition they put up with the lynched body of Moummar Gaddafi. Icheoku says but for the onset of secondary stage of decomposition, putrefaction, those Libyans would have continued in their deathly-orgy/reverie till their Allah knows when. Thankfully, albeit ironical, they were forced by Gaddafi's death-stench and unraveling anatomy to rush it off to a hurried burial in an unmarked desert-grave in the Sahara. At one stage in the goriness, Icheoku feared that those Libyans would start carving up Gaddafi's carcass for a feast or as a keepsake trophy? Gladly enough it did not get to that scale; except of course they refused to or did not capture the cannibalization on camera?

Osama Bin Laden at least got a sea burial in the Arabia sea; Saddam Hussein was privileged to have a tombstone erected for him in his native Tikrit burial place; but as for Gaddafi, he was not fortunate as his partially decomposed body is now being roasted under piles of hot desert sand dunes. Unlike the other two bad people who were executed by professionals with more humane strikes, Gaddafi was lynched by a vengeful mob and lived through a timeline of a very painful death. The process that led to his death and not his actual death, which he richly deserve, is where Icheoku has beef with those Libyans.  It is Icheoku's position is that a former head of government should not be laid waste in such a brutal and unceremonious manner or murdered before a watching world and his body forever disappeared under the desert sands. As far as Icheoku is concerned, such tabooed  display of Gaddafi's body in a meat freezer, is the height of wanton disregard and a desecration of the human dead. Even President Obama acknowledged this when he said "I think that there's a certain decorum with which you treat the dead even if it's somebody who has done terrible things." Unfortunately however this cannon of civility was lost on the Libyan people who were incensed by Gaddafi's decades of oppression  to the point that they lost their humanity.

How could anybody so dishonor a dead body, displaying it like a game ready to be carved up; and in such a distasteful manner that the once hated man of Libya is suddenly getting more sympathizers from people who felt that NATO encouraged this barbarianism by deliberately bombing a fleeing head of state's convoy, deliberately choosing not killing him but leaving him as a quarry for approaching Libyan mob to harvest? Icheoku says freedom fighters do not take blind revenge hence our use of the word mob. The NATO fighter planes knew exactly who was in that convoy before targeting it and some few phone calls went by directing the revolutionary soldiers to their game numero uno and the rest as they say is now history. 

However, Icheoku is not particularly happy that the so called Muslim country of Libya could be this barbaric, feasting the dead body of a human-being, and to the extent that they threw their Islamic injunction of burial within few few hours of mortis out the door? Even Osama Bin Laden enjoyed a quick Islamic burial without having the indignity of his body decaying in  a public view and in a public place, being viewed and photographed by the filing Libyan public. It was a viewing, but unlike normal funerals that usually take place in funeral parlors, his was inside a meat storage facility; where he was laid out on a thin dirty mattress alongside his also murdered son. The purpose being for Libyans to behold and confirm that the man who kept them fearfully guessing all through the past forty-two years is no more. Leading one satisfied Libyan to say, "This is his destiny because of all the evil he has done. God made the pharaoh as an example to the others. If he had been a good man, we would have buried him. But he chose this destiny for himself." 

Icheoku says no reason or excuse whatsoever is good enough or capable of explaining away the damage caused to the psyche by the goriness that was in display in Libya; and Libyans would henceforth be known as people who rejoice in the death of another. Icheoku also believes that if the unpreserved body of Moummar Gaddafi has not reached an advanced stage of decomposition that those death-enjoying Libyans would still have kept him displayed. It is also a well known fact that Moummar Gaddafi's traducers are not in short supply; leading one to explain away the exhibition of Gaddafi's body in the following manner - "Forty-two dark years under a merciless dictator has naturally left the Libyan people very damaged, it has driven them mad for revenge. The rotting body is just emblematic of the rotten political and social environment under Gaddafi." 

Icheoku asks but does his ruthlessness justify the sight of a naked Gaddafi stewing in his bodily fluids, which molested every decent person's sensibility and made humanity look terrible? And Libyans are Muslims? Icheoku asks were it America that so killed a Muslim leader, heaven would be going deaf with protests, flag-burning and all such other querulous protestations and demands  to observe the Muslim code of conduct as it relates to a quick burial of the deceased body. Or is there double-standards and different rules when it comes to the application of the requirement of a quick burial, when a non-Muslim country is involved with a dead Muslim? Icheoku says if not, why then did Muslims the world over not shout themselves hoarse in protestations, when the dead Muslim Gaddafi was lynched by his fellow Muslim Libyans who proceeded to keep his cadaver displayed, half-naked and publicly for five days? Why was it okay for Muslims to carry out such act as goes contrary to Islamic teaching but it is not okay for non-Muslims to do so?  Icheoku is still at sea that Gaddafi's body was left in a meat storage facility for that long and without preservation; publicly displayed while people filed mockingly past, jeering and cheering as they take photographs of the dead Gaddafis as keepsakes.