HOPE THE RISEN JESUS FINDS YOU IN A GOOD STATE, HAPPY EASTER.

Icheoku extends our felicitation of the season to you, our friends and visitors alike; and pray that the soon to rise Jesus Christ will also facilitate the rise in your lives, all that means something to you. Our Easter flower, in full bloom, is sure looking more easterly now and we pray that your life blessings imitate it in coming to you in full and entire. As you celebrate the victory over death of Lord and Master Jesus Christ this Easter, please remember to share some of your blessings with those who have not. Please know that you don't have to wait to literally meet Jesus face to face before telling him how much you love him as you can express this love vicariously via the people around you, who all are ambassadors of Christ as was instructed by Jesus himself in the Bible.

Those homeless people under the bridge who you look over every day are Jesus. Those hungry people foraging for food and feeding off garbage bins are Jesus. Those beggars begging for quarters and cents or Naira and kobos depending on the location are Jesus. Those with little or no clothes on their shriveled bodies to fight off the elements are Jesus. Those widows who have lost their source of livelihood are Jesus and so are the helpless innocent children and other similarly situated adults alike. So as you selfishly savor that which you believe you have earned and supposedly entitled to as of right, please be wary that needy Jesus is everywhere asking for your help.

Therefore do not tally to meet Jesus first or dither until you visit a church of prosperity before showing your love for Jesus via a tithe or ten percent or whatever donation you prefer to make to a fat-cat minister or pastor, who already lives in a mind-boggling anti-Jesus luxury; with some owing fleets of jet planes. Icheoku says with some degree of certainty that some of these pastors and ministers over-indulged earthly lifestyles cannot be in any way pleasing in the eyes of Jesus, who himself declined a worldly gift of paradise on earth from Lucifer. So this Easter, before lavishing your gifts on these "men of earthly materials" parading themselves as "Men of God; and falsely thinking that you are giving to Jesus through them, please ask yourself, what would a risen Jesus do. Happily you do not have to wait for an answer as it is already in the bible - his response to a tempting Lucifer on the mountain is all instructive. Happy Easter celebrants.

AMERICA, THE SAFEST UNSAFE PLACE ON PLANET EARTH?

11,000 people were killed by gunshots in 2011 alone in America yet no one hears the urgency of now to do something about firearms. Instead the airwaves are rented daily by clarion calls to do something about sex, pornography, contraceptives and marijuana. Icheoku wonders who sex or nudity or preventing unwanted pregnancy or even inhaling and exhaling something has recently killed? Bottom line, it is those lobbyists who lobby for the gun and funeral industries who have successfully swayed the public's attention away from the real tragedy that is readily available weapons in America; which sometimes one can buy with the same ease as if buying a candy. 

This year 2012 will not be an exception as the toll is already mounting including the back to back double massacres in the two bay area cities of San Francisco last week in which five family members were slaughtered and now across the bay in Oakland where a lunatic South Korean named One Goh (mug-photo) has taken the life of young Nigerian mother of three alongside six others. People are killed in the streets, in their bedrooms by stray bullets meant for some other person, in their offices, in their cars, in parking lots, in the classrooms, even in churches while sitting in the pews as well as at funerals where an already dead is being seen off? Something is definitely not right when no place is safe or sacred anymore; but where is the outcry? The solution, let America talk less about sex, pornography, contraceptives and ganja; and refocus its attention to the greatest malady of our time - GUNS THAT ARE EVERYWHERE. 

It is about time gun laws become more stringent. Imagine 11,000 people dead, killed by guns within just 365 days? Not even the combined American war-dead in Iraq and Afghanistan the past ten plus years came any close to that and someone is not worried? When it touches closer to home, it indeed becomes very personal as no one knows for whom the bell tolls next in the safest unsafe place on planet earth. Not even the White House is completely safe, as some lunatic sprayed bullets there the other time; but fortunately enough he was caught. Icheoku must however give kudos to the security agencies as they are always up to the task in solving most of these senseless killings; but is there any way they could possibly do more preventive intervention instead? It is indeed very frightening and any pretense to the contrary is simply a bullshitting braggadocio.

JUDAS ISCARIOT GLORIFIED, A PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHT AT EASTER.

Just put up my Easter Lily (Lilium longiflorum), and it is beginning to bloom; assented with some eucalyptus and some other greens for the season. As we celebrate our salvation through the death and resurrection of Lord Jesus Christ, let us not forget to acknowledge the place of Judas Iscariot who facilitated it all, as without his betrayal, who knows? But religiosity has demonized him since ages, forgetting that he merely played his role in the whole script. Icheoku believes that it was preordained, otherwise our Omnipotent all powerful and all knowing God would not have allowed it to take place. Judas was just a vehicle that was used to convey our Lord on his journey towards our deliverance in fulfillment of the testament. Judas couldn't have done that except it was signed off by the Almighty, so? 

Just a penny for your thoughts. So as we celebrate this 2012th anniversary of Christ's triumph over death and by extension sin, that purchased for mankind our salvation, let us realize that there is a reason for everything and that nothing ever happens for nothing. That in whatever position we find ourselves, let just know that we are but actors playing out a predestined role in the greater script called life. So let us be the best we can be and strive to put up a standing ovation performance as if it were our last. Finally let us remember that Christ was selfless in giving up a priceless possession called life for our sake; so may we imitate and use this example as a daily parameter or benchmark for all our benevolences to fellow mankind. Salute

TRAYVON MARTIN, WE ARE ALL TM AT THIS MOMENT.

Icheoku says an injustice for one is injustice for all as who knows who the next Trayvon Martin shall be otherwise how else can anyone explain that an unarmed boy Trayvon Martin, was shot and killed by a blood-thirsty mongrel call George Zimmerman and the killer has not been arrested to face prosecution for the homicide. This is 21st century America for crying out loud or was the civil rights act a mere lip service done to assuage the political temperament at that time. Icheoku says arrest George Zimmerman now and let the jury of his peers declared him "innocent".

TRAYVON MARTIN, FOR WHO THE BELL TOLLS NEXT?

Icheoku does not know neither does George Zimmerman or the Sanford Florida police department that is trying to sweep under the rug, the murder of an unarmed innocent black boy by a vigilante thug named George Zimmerman. The good news is that everyone shall die and it does not necessarily matter how or where; but that we all die but once. Trayvon Martin has paid his debt and is now being remembered by hundreds of thousands of people; who knows the fate that will befall his killer or those police people at Sanford trying to smother investigation into his murder. What a police department!

MEGAN MCCAIN, STRICTLY DICKLY?

Senator John McCain's daughter, Megan, while debunking the rumor that she is a lesbian, declared "I love sex and I love men; I'm strictly dickly." Icheoku says Megan McCain's love for sex with men shows that contraception is an issue of general application amongst American women, irrespective of their political affiliation or spectrum. It is not solely an exclusive preserve for "wild-eyed liberal" democratic women as some far right fundamentalists would want us to believe; otherwise Megan would have since become another knocked-up Bristol Palin of the McCain family. Also she intimated that had her father won the 2008 presidential election, America would have had the unfortunate case of dealing or rather coping with the "craziest first daughter ever seen or known in the White House?" Icheoku says thankfully, God saw this coming when he made Obama the president instead of Senator John McCain and America was spared the storm of a first daughter in Megan McCain. Bimbo-ly cute though.

GERALDO RIVERA HOODIE COMMENT, SHAMELESS AND SYCOPHANTIC.

Icheoku says the Puerto Rican born Geraldo Rivera, a slavish minority of America who thinks himself a "white-prince" just because he is tolerated around the corridors of White American media houses, has once again proved himself the sycophantic scoundrel of a sellout he is. Hear him offer his warped inexplicable explanation as to why an unarmed black American youth was murdered by a racist bigot in Florida and you would completely write this human feces off as having completely forgotten his own heritage. Imagine the Hispanic ass-licker, in an effort to continue to keep his conditional gig with the Fox group, blaming fashionable clothing, popular with many Americans, for inviting an unprovoked killing of a youth?

The blabber mouth mustachioed Geraldo, claimed that Trayvon Martin was killed because he was wearing a "threatening" hoodie sweatshirt and please tell Icheoku anyone or household in America without some sort of a hooded outfit inside their closet? Geraldo Rivera impliedly claimed that murderer George Zimmerman possibly would not have murdered Trayvon Martin, were the later dressed up in a two-piece business suit and not a hooded sweatshirt? And to make matters worse, Geraldo further displayed his insensitivity to this callous and unprovoked racist murder by offering a non-apology apology; stating that hoodie is a gangster-style clothing and that wearing a hoodie is tantamount to asking for trouble and that he is conditionally apologetic if such reckless remark of his offended anyone?

Geraldo, Icheoku says you not only offended many people but you sold out on your minority-class of America by not defending an apparent injustice out-rightly. Rather you pandered to your white paymasters in order to retain your paycheck by inventing and manufacturing a total abstraction as reason for a cruel inexcusable murder. Since when has clothing become a bulls-eye to be targeted by gun-ho lunatics or a magnet for lunatic bullets to fly into and through? Better still, with who did you decide or determine that hoodie is a gangster clothing worn only by blacks and other minorities of America? Why sensor a particular style of clothing very popular with many Americans or are you telling Icheoku that white-rapper Eminem is also a minority hoodie wearing gangster? Is Ku Klux Klan (KKK) outfit not hooded or are they equally minorities of America, Geraldo?

Really, Icheoku has no apposite word to correctly describe the lowly low which you have descended by this your thoughtless and stupid comment, except to say that you are a total disgrace to every minority of America and deserving less of their respect henceforth. Imagine Geraldo defiantly stating that he does not back down from his stupid message of hate and denigration of a peoples fashion; but who even made this farmer-looking Geraldo Rivera a fashionista or judge of what people should wear or not wear. What a real jerk-off this Geraldo is and his likes are solely employed by Fox because they sold their soul to the devil and agreed to sell short their minority-class Americans just for some misery plates and not even pots of porridge. Like Russel Simmons rightly said, Icheoku agrees totally that what you said is "freaking horrible and inexcusable!"

TRAYVON MARTIN, "THEY KILLED HIM NOW THEY WANT TO KILL HIS REPUTATION?"

Icheoku says go to Florida at your own risk as your chances of being killed increases if you are a member of the minority class, especially African American or black or Nigger! The murderer pictured right, George Zimmerman, white, shot in cold blood and killed the young black boy Martin Trayvon, left, for straying into his "White Only" section of the town and you wonder if Florida is still in the 1950s? Now those racist white Floridians are trying to manufacture evidence of "bad character" to impugn the deceased and make his killing somewhat justifiable and understandable? Icheoku says this is only adding insult to injury and peradventure pouring gasoline to a smouldering fire. Imagine a 200lbs masculine football player like killer, George Zimmerman, now alleging that he was frightened by the boyish 140lbs young man, simply because he was wearing a hoodie into pumping hot leads in his chest and killing him instantly?

Anyway it would appear that racist white Americans have not learnt their lesson yet about the bottled tension their racists activities have created in minority Americans, especially African Americans; from the 1992 Los Angeles Rodney King riot. But like the mayor of the town rightly pointed out, this Martin Trayvon's murder is a tinder-box waiting to go off and Icheoku hopes that it consumes George Zimmerman in the event the authorities are unable to douse it before the lighted fuse finally ignites. Or better still, George should do himself a favor and save everyone the current tension by just putting a bullet in his head instead of the cowardly going into hiding in an undisclosed location like Dick Cheney during the heydays of Al-Querida threats. What a murderous racist redneck this killer from Virginia is and now like the spineless coward he is, he has gone into hiding in a cave like the Talibans to escape justice.

ABDOULAYE WADE OF SENEGAL, A WINNER IN DEFEAT.

Icheoku congratulates the outgoing President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal for being magnanimous in defeat by not going through the normal route of other African leaders who would rather their country go to hell in hand's basket than to honorably throw in the towel. He contested and lost an election and instead of dragging it out to a bitter end, simply conceded defeat to his opponent. This is what a civilized culture should be all about and hopefully other African heads of government would learn a lesson in this true spirit of statesmanship as demonstrated by President Wade. Once again, Icheoku says congratulation to President Abdoulaye Wade for doing the right thing and not tearing Senegal apart just for the heck of clinging to power. And to the incoming soon to be President Macky Sall, Icheoku says please remember to also peacefully pass on the baton when your tenure is up. What a prideful day for the African continent that at last some leader placed country above self, accepted defeat and is stepping down honorably. The Mwai Kibakis and Robert Mugabes of Africa should now cover their faces in shame that at last, someone else had the courage to do that which their sorry scraggy asses could not or rather refused to do - be honorable enough to accept that countries come first before their selfish selves. Congratulations President Abdoulaye Wade for showing the way forward for these African sit-tight maga-dogs. Way to go Wade.

TUKUR'S DEFEAT, A MESSAGE TO PRESIDENT JONATHAN.

Icheoku says once again the quivering President Jonathan of Nigeria has been taught a crude lesson in advanced politics - that one can be in power without really being in charge. His anointed candidate for the office of PDP national chairman, septuagenarian Bamanga Tukur, was trounced at the North East Zonal Congress of the party; thereby stopping him cold from ever becoming the national chairman of the party.

President Jonathan mistook the Northerners for former Bayelsa State Governor Dipriye Silva who he ramrod(ed) out of office and was handed a rude shock. His candidate, Bamangar Tukur got only two out of the sixteen votes cast; which means that Bamagar Tukur only managed to get one other vote besides voting for himself. What a pitiful outing by a very weak feather-weight president, compromised by a great Northern conspiracy, which has successfully confined his presidency into a wheelchair of non-performance. Needless to add that the North's threat to make Nigeria ungovernable for the president has since been implemented and Boko Haram, their military wing, is currently showing Nigeria pepper without any meaningful answer for their mayhem from the president. What a lackluster presidency Nigerians are currently witnessing and nostalgically longing for the days of "do or die" politics of the Otta deity..

However, the only good news coming from this disgraceful humiliation of the president by the North is that the days of Aso Rock dictating, selecting and tele-guiding who gets what post in the PDP or to a larger extent the country is now somewhat over. Gradually but steadily, real democracy is taking roots and Icheoku hopes every decent and honest Nigerian will join hand in pushing Nigeria further away from any form of dictatorship, be it uniformed men or civilians in agabada or resource-control fedora hat and jumper outfit. What a new dawn in Nigeria. Icheoku says congratulations to Musa Babayo for defeating Aso Rock and their anointed one Bamagar Tukur.

JAMES CRAIG ANDERSON, VICTIM OF RACIAL MURDER IN MISSISSIPPI.

He was killed by Derly Dedmon, a white boy just for being black. The racist murderer after deliberately mowing Mr Anderson down boasted "I ran that nigger down." Icheoku says welcome to America; and the fact of a black-man president in the White House has not changed certain bigoted mindsets; instead it is stoking their hatred for people with different skin pigmentation more and some of them are mad as hell that "their" White House is under occupation?. 

DERLY DEDMON, I RAN THAT NIGGER DOWN.

It is piling up in the South where it appears it is no longer cool to be a black-man? It is gradually looking like the 1950s revisited, with lynchings here and there of black-men for no apparent reason other than the color of their skin; and in some oddity, satiate a gory appetite? Instead of wasting valuable time finding a rope or climbing a tree branch to hoist their black victims as in the fifties, these modern day lynchers have deployed modern day instruments for their nefarious hate-crimes. 

These days, either a white-man shoots a black boy dead from behind without consequence or a black-man is hogtied by a group of white men behind a pickup and dragged to his death or a young white boy guns his truck right into a beaten to stupor black-man and kills him. From Florida to Texas and now to Mississippi it is deja vu the fifties and Icheoku wonders when the next Martin Luther King would emerge to lead the next freedom march for real equality and treating fellow man with real dignity in America. 

Derly Dedmon, 18, shackled, received two life sentences today for his despicable hate-crime murder by truck of 49 year old James Craig Anderson in Mississippi. Icheoku says when all these boys hear is hate-filled speeches and about race-based divisions in our country, their snapping once in a while and doing the incredulous is a very near possibility; but hey it is the south that still hoists their racist segregation flags and they believe it is still cool in 2012. What a pity and may the soul of Mr. Anderson rest in peace. 

LAR'S REPORT, EMPEROR JONATHAN DITHERS WHILE NIGERIA BURNS?

Icheoku says the proverbial horse on finding a panacea to the Jos crisis has spoken to say that there is a solution to Nigeria's overall recurrent mayhem but only if President Jonathan could summon the courage to implement their recommendations. Solomon Lar, chairman of Federal commission on the Jos crisis, a precursor and role-model of Nigeria crisis, stated that his commission has submitted their findings and recommendations to the government, which “if implemented, will provide solutions to our problems as a country.”

Icheoku queries why the government of President Jonathan is dragging its feet on releasing the whitepaper thereto and save Nigerians from further bloodshed and all these recurrent problem of unrest and insecurity in the land? Or is it a case of a Nigerian Emperor Nero of Rome who fiddled while Rome burnt; admitted that President Jonathan is not a fiddle player but only dithering while Nigeria runs aground. Icheoku says, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, please implement those recommendations now; otherwise why did you set up the commission in the first place!

TRAYVON MARTIN, MAY HIS MURDER NOT BE SWEPT ASIDE.

He was only 17 years old and his only offense is being black walking in a neighborhood considered off limit by a racist vigilante murderer called George Zimmerman; who gleefully snuffed the life out of him. Icheoku says may Trayvon's death be avenged by the law and may the killer Zimmerman not know peace until he answers fully and completely for his disgusting and hateful crime. What a shame that today's America is gradually racing back to the dark old ages of black lynching just for the heck of it or for their sadistic idea of having fun. Icheoku prays for the family of the gone too soon to take heart and remain prayerful that his death will not be forgotten as another black kid from the block; please Jlo, excuse my use of the word.

GEORGE ZIMMERMAN, A RACIST VIGILANTE MURDERER.

Icheoku says his last name sounded Jewish but now he is being identified as Hispanic; but regardless of his heritage which is of no consequence or in anyway excuses or mitigates his heinous act, George Zimmerman who shot an unarmed innocent 17year old black boy deserves whatever epithet that is currently being thrown at him. How could an armed 23 year old vigilante, weighing about 200 pounds feel so seriously threatened by an unarmed 17 year old boy that was barely 120 pounds that he had to kill him in alleged self defense? 

Icheoku does not want to go into the deep doodle that is racism in America, but suffice it to say that this killer, not having been arrested so far for the murder of Trayvon Martin is a cry for justice; because were the scenario different with a black kid gunning down a pale-skinned person, all hell would have been let loose until he is trapped like an animal and put to death either by the police or a forsworn jury. 

Anyway, Icheoku hopes that Florida Republican Governor Rick Scott means it when he assured that "the Florida state law enforcement is going to do the right thing and that they are not going to let somebody do something wrong and get away with it." Icheoku says the world is watching to see how justice is served in this case, on behalf of the murdered teenager; but lets be mindful of the fact that there is growing racial tension in the land and this case should not be so ill-managed as to serve as the tinderbox that will ignite or explode it. Icheoku says a racist, vigilante murderer must not be allowed to walk away from wasting the life of an innocent unarmed young boy just because of the color of his skin as injustice to one is injustice to all. Icheoku avers that we are all murdered Trayvon Martin in this moment, waiting and crying out for justice.

THE POPE IS DEAD, EGYPTIAN COPTIC POPE THAT IS.

 

In power for over forty years since 1971 as the head of Egypt's Coptic church, Pope Shenouda III, the 117th pope of Alexandria, has died of old age related infirmities. He was 88 years old. Icheoku says may his religious soul rest in peace.

GODWIN DABOH, COULD NOT 'DABOH' DEATH.

Icheoku mourns the bold imprudence that was Godwin Daboh Adzuana, who like all mortals, has joined his ancestors in the land beyond. Commendably, he died in Nigeria surrounded by his loved ones; unlike so many other top-heavy Nigerians who embark on medical tourism and die in foreign lands surrounded by strangers who spoke in strange tongues. Daboh was 70 years old. 

Love him or hate him, Godwin Daboh was not a coward nor does he readily turn tail when the going gets tough and for this, Icheoku commends his manliness. Most recently he told Babangida to take a hike when approached to support the evil genius bid for Aso Rock and not many a Nigerian would dare look the toothy fairy prince of Minna in the eye and tell him to move away to make way for others. 

On this note therefore, Icheoku agrees with the assessment of Daboh as made by the petite Nigerian Senate President David Mark that "he was daring, fearless and courageous. He never shifted ground once he believed in a course. No matter how much you loved or hated him, Daboh was a politician of note who could not be ignored.” In other words, Godwin Daboh was very resolute. While wishing him well on his ethereal journey, Icheoku hopes he runs into Joseph Tarkar so that they both can continue from where they stopped in 1979, in their fight for the political battle of supremacy over Tiv land, as they "Tarkar and Daboh" each other. Adieu Adzuana.