PAN AM BOMBER MEGRAHI, FINALLY DEAD.

Released from a Scotland prison in 2009 in a quid pro quo very lucrative oil deal between the British (Scottish) government and the then Libyan Moummar Gaddafi's government, Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, the former Libyan intelligence official, sentenced to life in prison in 2001 for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 which killed 270 people including 189 Americans over Lockerbie S cotland, has finally died. Megrahi died from his afflicted terminal prostrate cancer; he was 60 years old.

 "This man was a horrible man. It would have been better had he not died in freedom, but died in prison. That's what he deserved, and I still believe that the Scottish government, perhaps with the participation of the British government, created a major injustice when they let him out."  - Chuck Schumer of New York. 

Icheoku says in as much as the crime for which this now deceased terrorist was convicted was most egregious, we should learn to accept what we could not change and move on. No one has brought any sanctions on the Scottish.British government for betraying America with their ill-advised release of the now dead Megrahi when they did just because of OIL - a case of the biblical pot of porridge may be? However Al-Megrahi is now dead; whether he died in "freedom" shackled down by cancer and not in prison shackled down by chains, is irrelevant. What is important is that he is dead and gone forever and can never bring harm or cause hurt to anyone any longer. May those whose lives he wasted in that 1988 bombing now confront him accordingly. (Picture courtesy of AFP/Getty Images)

SECURITY VAULT FOR THE HEART, DEPOSITORS ABOUND?

Afraid of falling in love again only to have your heart broken in pieces as before, Icheoku says have you lately considered putting your heart away in a high security safe deposit box somewhere? Except that the heart is not an object that could be independently put away in like manner; otherwise many human-beings would have resorted to that measure as the last true assurance that their life pump would not suffer more catastrophic shocks any longer. Miss Havisham was so convulsed by the rude and sudden death of her lover and groom in the waiting on the eve of their wedding day that she went into total exclusionary hibernation, declining to ever love again until her beloved soul mate came back in a life after? 


The rest of the tragic story of "SHE" for those literature buffs is well known but suffice it to say that forlorn wait sometimes do not have a happily ever-after ending. So as you pine away, waiting for that fantastical dream prince or princess to magically appear or for that person who left you for another person to divorce who he or she is currently with and come back running on all fours to your longing outstretched arms, ask yourself is it worth it? What is the point caring for someone who could care less whether or not any oxygen is left in your air-sac? If he or she cared a hoot about you, may be he or she wouldn't have walked away in the first place. Icheoku asks you why wish you had married or marry someone who you love instead of marrying that person who loves you and in the process, you will be adored forever? Why mortgage your precious heart to some undeserving human specimen when you could have given it to someone that will protectively treasure the opportunity to be its custodian in perpetuity?

If the heart were a detachable object capable of being stowed away in some undisclosed location outside the body while still performing its life's sustaining function, many people would have since severed their hearts and deposited them accordingly. They would have since locked their hearts away in such high impregnable security vaults where no heart-breaker would ever reach or find them to smash. But unfortunately, the heart is alive and living; and this is the reason it beats. It beats because it is alive and it is alive because it is nurtured endlessly both with nutrition and love. The heart is very resilient and capable of withstanding high magnitude shocks, having developed strong shock absorbing capabilities over the many years of being exposed to rude spasmodic shocks frequently meted it by people who do not know how to handle such piece of fragility with the deserving measure of TLC required. Sometimes hearts are broken and even shattered; but the good news is that they heal. 


Except for the Miss and Mr Havishams of this world, who irrationally find themselves trapped in a perpetual dreamland of euphoric proportion, wishing and hoping endlessly for that missed "ideal" suitor to come back, and who refuses to wake up from their hallucination until it practically becomes too late to distinguish the phantom from the reality, broken hearts do survive and even thrive after suffering some love trauma. Should the rest of the heart-broken of this world become Miss Havisham and fell on a sword of no more love just because one John Doe or Jane Doe toyed with their hearts and literally snuffed out their flame of passion? Icheoku says to do so would be overtly empowering the nemesis who plunged the dagger of Brutus disappointment into your loving chest cavity. Like the saying goes, the safest place for the ship is the harbor but the ship is not built for the harbor but the open seas; so venturing out in an adventurous journey of love is and should be the fastest panacea of mending a broken heart. Always see any disappointment as an opportunity to explore what other possibilities are out there since the ill-fated former love may have turned out to be your worst nightmare and God literally pushed him or her out of your way because He knows what is best for his children? Tell yourself that life happens, empower yourself, do not let any man or woman run or ruin your life; always assure yourself it was not worth it and then soldier on bravely to find what God had laid in store for you.

If you are a potential candidate for safe-depositing your heart in the vault, Icheoku says not too fast as a better alternative do exist - it is called living to love again and loving to live again. Just dust yourself up, press the reset button and tell your nemesis to hell with you. Learn how to love to truly live again; the past is gone forever and so should their wishful thoughts and longing be swept away with it. Learn to appreciate the present as that is all we got since tomorrow is not guaranteed while the past is gone forever. Hearts are meant to be broken but whether we are able to gather the pieces and soldier on is what counts. This transition is life's watershed which any thinking adult should and must try to share in the experience during his or her lifetime otherwise how does anyone know what true love actually means? 


That your heart was once or twice or thrice or countless number of times broken and ripped out should not stop you from loving again or peter to a stop your adventure in the land of Cupid. See those heart breakers of the past as those proverbial frogs that must be necessarily kissed before the emergence of the prince or princess. Whatever you do, do not allow your nemesis to win a permanent victory over your faith in loving humanity or force you into such a corner where you begin to see any other prospective and potential suitor in the light of the proverbial sighting of housefly after being stung by a bee. Pick up the ripped heart, pick their pieces where shattered and become a love novitiate, enroll yourself as a freshman student today of school of loving. There is no shame in having one's heart broken as millions have gone through the experience before you and millions more will follow suit. Icheoku affirms that you will become stronger and even better versed in the art of LOVE after several heart breaks. Just understand that love is the oxygen that drives humanity and a heart or soul without a parking space for love is forever ruined, sad and gloomy; irrespective of the masks of Zorro being put up as alone and happy. Unfortunately too there is no market where love is traded or sold and bought; admitted sex does not cost much any longer.

A heart that is saturated with love really manifests in its possessor as a glowing face and body always Like the saying when it rains it pours, a heart filled with love knows no bounds in giving out joy and happiness. Life must go on and people do not stop loving just because hearts are accassionally broken. Road accidents happen yet people take to the roads. Airplanes crashes occur yet people take to the air; needless to talk about wars since the chances of being killed or death has never stopped or deterred people from going to wars. Icheoku says it is indeed self-pity to recoil into one's shell and become forlorn for love just because some undeserving person once whacked your heart. You cannot allow such a person a double victory - one of breaking your heart and two of stopping you from loving again. Be a winner for love today, make Cupid proud; get out and get adventurous or for lack of a better excuse, treat the last motherfucker as one of those several toads that needed to be kissed before you meet your Prince Charming or Princess Pretty, the Knight in shinning armor or the Lady in fine delicate and intricate outfit. Just put a tag of DEAD to the past and bury it; then engage your drive shaft in an over-drive for what could possibly be the best ride of your life with the lurking suitor. Good luck.

OYERINDE'S ASSASSINATION IS NORMAL - PA OYERINDE SR

Icheoku says it is finished for any society when the assassination of her citizen is dismissively treated so cavalierly as being the new normal. The murder of Olaitan Kabir Oyerinde, Edo State Governor Oshimole's principal secretary, is yet another one of these assassinations in Nigeria too many; and which frequency has become such that Nigerians now seem conditioned to accept it as a new way of their hellish life? Imagine the bereaved and supposedly grieving aged father of the murder victim, Alhaji AbdulAzeez Oyerinde  sarcastically calling the assassination of his son, normal? Icheoku is deeply worried and rightly so for this lack of urgency of time in trying to prevent these murders and solve same in order to assure the citizenry of Nigeria that there is still hope and some reason to live for and peradventure prevent them from descending into total despondency. Imagine the hopelessness of the situation to force a father to call the murder of his son NORMAL?

The violent murder of Oyeride and the near certainty that it will not be solved is sure to become part of the statics in the many violent unsolved murders in Nigeria. Oyerinde's assassination, like so many other previous high profile assassinations in Nigeria, dating back to the inglorious days of Ibrahim Babangida's Dele Giwa parcel bomb killing, Sani Abacha's Pa Rewane and Kudirat Abiola's killings to Obasanjo's Attorney General Bola Ige's murder will most likely go the way of the old. No one in Nigeria is confident that the ordered investigation into this latest Jonathan's Oyeride assassination,would yield any meaningful or conclusive result. Icheoku says it would go cold like so many previous murders and as soon as the impatient Nigeria media forgets about it. It seems to be a rite of passage for all these leaders to have high profile murders committed under their watch with impunity and lack of investigation and punishment of the perpetrators. 


In the words of the chief mourner and father of the murdered Olaitan Kabir Oyerinde, Alhaji AbdulAzeez Oyerinde, “his death is normal, he is not the first person to be killed like that neither would he be the last. The intrigue and "what is special there and all the past assassinations  of that nature, is that their killers are yet to be fished out up till this moment". Icheoku says what a sad commentary for a country standing or sitting on its head and pretending to be normal. A country once described by late Fela Anikulapo Kuti as always going back wards and when reminded it is moving backward, would turn around backward and continues moving in backward direction. Icheoku says it will take a real patriot with the heart of a lion and tenacity of a purpose  driven life to right the current path of the careened-off course ship of the Nigerian state. All these anointed leaders Nigeria is encumbered with will not cut it as they owe so much to their selectors and mentors to be really meaningful and useful to Nigerians, while simultaneously catering to the selfish needs of their benefactors and taking marching orders from them. 


Unfortunately and without mincing words or being guilty of equivocation, Icheoku says this latest murder of Olatian Kabir Oyerinde, despite all the huffing and puffing of President Jonathan Goodluck in ordering its immediate solving, would not be solved, as very high-up Nigerian untouchables are most likely behind it or signed off on it. A country that slaughtered her sitting Attorney General Bola Ige and swept it under the rugs would not bat an eyelid for the squashing of the proverbial "house-fly" Oyeride? A country's Attorney General was definitely a bigger fish to fry, yet his gruesome murder was not solved so who really cares about solving the killing of a State Governor's aide; especially when the governor is a torn in the flesh of the ruling party as an opposition? 


In as much as Icheoku is not in any way or manner or language intent on demeaning the life of murdered Olaitan Kabir Oyeride, but let the truth be told that a serving chief law enforcement officer of a country is far higher in ranking than a state governor's private secretary to cause any of the high up sleepless night worrying about the likelihood of security agents coming to their door to execute a warrant of arrest or putting them in handcuffs. So like the father of the victim stoically accepted the fate which befell his son and acknowledged it as the new normal, Icheoku asks  Nigerians to guide their loins as the future is very bleak and President Jonathan is not the Messiah and lacks the balls to do what is needed to clean the Augean stable that is Nigeria in comatose. Nigerians, cry for thy beloved country. Nigeria is traumatized by lawlessness, fueled by intrinsic corruption which is so foundational it touches everything having permeated the strata of the entire society. Icheoku says it is even possible that those assassins that pulled the trigger that snuffed the life out of this governor's aide are security agents, possibly working in complicit or tacit approval of the high-ups of the society and their security commanders. That is the reality of now in a country where  the bastardization of everything held and is of value is the new normal. Adieu Olaitan Kabir Oyerinde.

BIN LADEN TAKE-OUT ORDER NOT A BIG DEAL, SAYS GRUMPY RUMSFELD

“To not make that decision, it seems to me, would just be dumbfounding. I can’t imagine any President not making that decision.” Donald Rumsfeld, president George Bush Defence Secretary on the Obama ordered raid that killed Bin Laden. Icheoku says in some cultures this septuagenarian would have been banished from his community for defying the laws against elders' deliberate lying. Shameless, indeed shameless not giving due props to who it is due, having rightfully earned it.

Here is a man who as defence secretary misled President George Bush into committing America into two avoidable and costly wars and who had opportunity to order Bin Laden's killing in Tora Bora but chickened out, now dismissing the Abotabad Pakistan Obama ordered raid that netted Bin Laden as no big deal. According to his explanation on why he developed cold feet, "the Tora Bora operation would put too many American lives at risk and could have worsened relations with Pakistan." Icheoku says except of course this old angry man is merely jealous that it was not him who earned the credit for tagging Bin Laden instead of the dishonor of preserving him as American's bogey man for electioneering politics, this sudden expressed meekness for American lives flies in the face of his blood-thirsty antecedents of love for wars?

However Icheoku cannot but marvel at the bare-faced shamelessness of these President George Bush's Team Failure, now trying to weave their voodoo twister of tales around history. How many American lives were lost in Iraq? How many were subsequently lost in Afghanistan; both under Rumsfeld's watch yet sending that fraction of soldiers to go "smoke Bin Laden out" of the mountains of Tora Bora suddenly became a big deal? Look who suddenly became cognizant of American lives being lost in battle or was it a case of his "unknown knowns and known unknowns" being revisited. Icheoku says please Donald Rumsfeld and co; your stretching the truth can only backfire as Americans are ready and willing to forgive honest mistake but not when you want to delberately take them for a ride with boldfaced lies masqueraded as truths. Fortunately all these dregs of American politics now work and speak for Mitt Romney and Icheoku can't wait to see how The Mitt distances himself from all these outrageous comments.

"FUCK YOU, MITT ROMNEY", SCREAM IT LOUDER?

Icheoku says possibly the heckler screamed on behalf of millions of irate Americans who are furious that this one percent-man Mitt Romney is deliberately thumbing his nose at them by pretending to be everything to everybody depending on which audience were gathered before him. 

May be going forward, The Mitt's mantra should become "ME TOO" since whatever turned out right, he also would have ordered or implemented? Osama Bin Laden was killed in a daring raid ordered by a thoughtful and brave president who staked all or nothing of his presidency on the outcome of the mission sticking to his pledge in 2008 to get Bin Laden wherever he may be holed up. Mitt Romney who had also in 2008 called such boldness impetuous now says he too would have similarly ordered the raid? The auto industry bailout of General Motors and co which Mitt Romney wanted bankrupted is now a success story and before too long the Mitt would scream "ME TOO" supported it and that he would have similarly bailed out the three? During the early stages of the current concluding Republican primaries when he was accused of not being a conservative or conservative enough, The Mitt frog-leaped to the far right shouting "ME TOO", am an "acute conservative" regardless of whether anyone understood what he otherwise meant by being an acute partisan other than an extremist.

Icheoku says to this flip-flopping Mormon bishop from liberal Massachusetts that presidential decisions is not a hindsight or Monday quarterbacking type of when the situation is right positioning especially on issues that many atimes requires on your feet life changing decision making ability. Who knows what else The Mitt would now seek to share and partake in the credit or take pleasure in screaming his new mantra of "ME TOO"? Icheoku strongly believes that Americans are not as dumb and stupid as this Mitt and his Republican hatchet-men would like to believe and would gladly remind this Mormon Bishop of all his prevarications and equivocations on so many issues and matters of great importance come November. 

Now that the Mitt has been called a racist to his face, soon and very soon he would deny he never in the past took positions inimical to a responsible immigration reform policy in the country and would then gladly declare "ME TOO" supports a sensible immigration reform. Icheoku says may be it is about time The Mitt suffixed his name with "Flip-flopping" Mitt Romney and get over with that his particular attribute once and for all. However in as much as Icheoku is tempted to add it's voice to the heckler's in using deserving profanities on the Mitt, we shall pass but urge other would be incensed Americans to say that with their votes in November instead. Americans need to send a clear message to The Mitt and his Republicans that not this time, never again. That they are not as dumb and unthinking as they would want to believe and that their brains still have recollection of the not too distant past George Bush's maladministration and that they are not willing to relive the nightmarish disaster so soon after the memory began to fade. 

So, whether the heckler's "Racist! Racist! Mitt Romney is a racist. Fuck you, Mitt Romney!" makes any difference, Icheoku does not know but suffice it to say the former George Bush vice president Dick Cheney similarly used such profanity in the hallowed chambers of congress when he told Patrick Lehey to "Go fuck himself." A congressman also shouted "You Lie" at the president while he was addressing Congress, so what the fuck does it matter if The Mitt is told F.U.

PORTRAIT OF LABOR, A NIGERIAN LABOR DAY PRESENT TO THE WORLD.

In a land of plentiful resources, so many are left holding the plate while the stealing elite greedily pillage and so much so that on this labor day, the pictured is what is left of the average Joe working man of Nigeria - practically a dead man walking. What a shame and a total indictment of the leaders or rather marauders of Nigeria who should hide their faces in shame that such a deprived piece of humanity still calls Nigeria home in the 21st century. It is callous as it is inhumane that a country that nets nearly $200,000,000.00 daily from just oil sales could heartlessly leave her citizen so behind that he literally emaciated to merely skull and bones, no pun intended as the picture speaks for itself. 

Icheoku says this acutely starved Nigerian is possibly from the oil producing Niger Delta region and you wonder the morality of gratuitously giving only Theophilus Danjuma from Northern Nigeria a one billion dollars worth of oil well while a son of the soil where the oil is located is dying from acute malnutrition. How these Nigerian leaders go to sleep daily under this circumstance with so many Nigerians looking like this pictured Nigerian worker above baffles Icheoku to a point of disbelief. What a portrait of labor on a Labor Day, presented to the world by Nigeria, courtesy of gross negligent man's inhumanity to fellow man. Icheoku's heart bleeds for this man as well as several other millions wearing the same fatigue of deprivation all over the world especially in Niger Delta region of Nigeria, the proverbial goose that lays the golden eggs in Nigeria which is never good enough to profit from its God's given natural resources. Icheoku says it is abominable as it is condemnable. 

"THE BITCH HAD EMPTIED MY MOUTH" - MAREK OLSZEWSKI

Icheoku says this unthinking man should even count himself lucky that she did not dispatch him to the world beyond with excessive dose of anesthetics. Unfortunately too, the now toothless man was not privileged of having read William Shakespeare to know that hell has no fury like a woman scorned and should have made a better judgment call not to go to a dumped ex-girlfriend for a teeth-job. Now all he could blabber out is "The bitch had emptied my mouth." 

Marek Olszewski is now left with only gums as all his enamels are gone courtesy of his ex-girlfriend dentist who was so incensed of being dumped that she took the pincers to his teeth, taking them out one by one until the ex-boyfriend became completely toothless. According to the dentist "bitch" who emptied the mouth of her ex-boyfriend of all his choppers, Ann Mackowiak, "I tried to be professional about it and detach myself from my emotions; but when I saw him lying there I just thought 'what a bastard' and decided to take all his teeth out." Icheoku says once again, emotions could run riotous if unchecked and times and times again, it has proven to be a very big challenge to people especially some daughters of Eve. This dentist from Hell, Ann Mackowiak of Poland, has shown the damage scorned women are capable of wrecking - a disproportionate wrong to an ex-boyfriend who simply moved or tried to move on. But she would take none of that and ensnared the unsuspecting and unthinking joy-riding ex-boyfriend into her dental office of horror, where she wrought an excessive damage to his mandibles. 

Icheoku says what a life's lesson to you all out there to always be wary of an ex sudden appearance of warmth and affection towards you as this could be only to bait you close enough for a vengeance? So always protect yourself from your ex as you would from a viper especially when the break-up was not amicably reached. This now toothless ex-boyfriend must albeit thank his stars that it was only his dentition that was taken from him by the ex, as so many were no that fortunate as they have had their manhood cut off and shredded and minced in a blender or even fed to the family dog; and in some cases were sent to meet with their makers. But wait, before you tag Icheoku a biased male, we shall preempt you by stating that such unhinged rage goes both ways. 

JOHN EDWARDS TRIAL, THE MAFIA WAS RIGHT.

Icheoku says once again it would appear that the time-tested code of life, perfected by the Mafia, never to trust anyone as secrets can only be kept between two people when one of them is dead is a sure truism. The criminal trial of the baby-faced former Democratic vice presidential candidate and once wanna-be presidential candidate, former Senator John Edwards, has brought this saying back to the fore. His once trusted aide and former confidant, Andrew Young, has turned the proverbial "snitch" against his former boss and friend and has now crossed the aisle over to the side prosecuting the fallen from grace Edwards. Andrew Young, literally the best weapon in the prosecution's case against Edwards, has become John Edwards worst feared nightmare in his uphill task to avoid the slammer. 

Young in his testimony detailed the innermost and intricate secrets of his former friend Edwards, as he tried to cover up an affair and a resulting child with what the prosecution called campaign funds and lying about it, a criminal offence. Being John Edwards former consigliari, Icheoku says no one knew better what went down with the Rielle Hunter affair cover-up than Andrew Young who was baited with an immunity in exchange of helping the Federal prosecutors nail his former boss. According to Andrew Young, John Edwards solicited and secretly spent about $925,000 in a failed effort to cover up his affair with "the crazy slut," Rielle Hunter; with whom he had an affair resulting in a child outside wedlock. 

To save his own skin, Young readily turned into prosecution's best weapon against his former friend Edwards, who is facing the possibility of spending 30 years behind bars and a whopping 1.5million dollars in fines. Icheoku wonders what such supposed friendships are really worth if a person can so readily morph into a Judas Iscariot; especially when the going gets really tough as with John Edwards now. At the end of the day, it would appear that what anyone really has and what should matter most in our lives are our families as they will always be there for you, no matter what. Today all the hangers-on of John Edwards are gone, leaving only his parents and daughter to console and comfort him as he goes through what appears to be the end of the road trial for him in his mercurial rise to fame and now impending perdition. As succinctly encapsulated by lawyer Glenn Begernfield of New Jersey and friend of John Edwards, "Fame and infamy always shadow one another."

SHUTTLE DISCOVERY RETIRED, SYMBOL OF GREATNESS JUNKED.

 

What once proved the can-do attitude and spirit of America, NASA's Shuttle Discovery was mated into retirement to its Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum final resting place. Icheoku says what a day, April 17, 2012 that an iconic American symbol of great ingenuity was decommissioned permanently and you wonder why? But like every good thing in life, there is always time for an end and so was now the Discovery Shuttle. So long DS. Now many of us will head to the Smithsonian to have a chance of a closer proximity to the machine with millions of moving parts that we have come to admire from far distance as it rocketed into space with both its astronaut human passengers and tons of cargo that aided the building of the space station. What a day.

HYPERSONIC TECHNOLOGY VEHICLE, THE FUTURE IS HERE.

A time-travel into the future from science fiction to a near reality. That is what the latest aircraft, the Hypersonic Technology Vehicle (HTV-2), currently being tested by the United States promises to deliver. Imagine a commute from New York to Los Angeles which presently takes plus minus 6hours in just within 12minutes, go figure. If and when perfected, the aircraft will literally speaking, cancel out distances between places as we know it. Icheoku asks, is this the best time to be humans or what; and like Backman-Turner Overdrive (BTO) rock band sang, we ain't seen nothing yet.

TUKUR'S CONSENSUS ARGUMENT, BABANGIDA SUFFERS CREDIBILITY?

Icheoku says this is certainly an exception to the age-long trite aphorism that truth can sometimes come from an imbecile as a politically, foundationally damaged Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida cannot and should not be heard to preach the gospel of fair play in democratic party politics. This is a man who have participated in virtually every military coups in Nigeria since her independence from then Great Britain in 1960, playing major roles in about three of them, one of which he personally hugely benefited and enormously profited from as the junta's military head of state. Needless to add that many of these coups were against democratically elected governments and hear who is now reading the riot act to PDP for imposing Bamagar Tukur on the party as its chairman. This is a man who also annulled a duly conducted free and fair election of MKO Abiola just to satiate his personal ego and suddenly is now preaching the gospel of democracy against the consensus by fiat of Jonathan's imposition of Bamagar Tukur on the PDP as its party chairman? Icheoku queries when has this anti-democracy Saul turned into a pro-democracy-Paul or is Babangida merely sully because he has been effectively checkmated out of power in the PDP hierarchy through the deft machination of the Otta deity, Baba Iyabo and his protege Anthony Anenih? 

Anyway what Babangida said concerning the consensus manner by which Bamagar Tukur was imposed on the PDP as party chairman is truthful except that Babangida lacks the democracy-credentials to teach or preach any democratic process whatsoever or did he suddenly have an epiphany or amnesia of his own not too distant past and records of seeing red whenever the word democracy rears its wholesome head? Were Ibrahim Babangida any other more credible source, may be Nigerians will pay attention to his genuine observation that the consensus which threw up Bamagar Tukur is a travesty and totally undemocratic; but this evil genius of Minna Hills is not the right and proper person to mouth off such concerns. Simply put, Babangida is now crying foul because he is no longer welding much influence in the party echelons of the Peoples Democratic Party and is just striving for relevance; so Nigerians please don't mind the Evil genius jaare! 

Icheoku while agreeing with the toothy fairy prince of Minna that “a situation where some people would sit and select someone by consensus is undemocratic;" says that Babangida of all persons should not be the one sanctimoniously preaching this gospel, his anti-democracy tendencies considered. By the same breathe, Bamagar Tukur should not in any way try to justify his imposition on the PDP as its chairman because he “believes the worst consensus in any democratic arrangement is far better and more honourable than a military coup." Admitted that Babangida was "an architect of several military coups and a topmost beneficiary of one of them as military head of state; the rule that truth sometimes can come from imbeciles would have ordinarily exonerated him and confer on him the right to complain when none democratic process is used to select a party's chairman, but he is simply too damaged politically as an anti-democracy mean spirited military man to offer Nigerians his useless two cents thoughts on the consensus that imposed Bamanga Tukur on the PDP. Icheoku reiterates that Babangida's opinions are indeed worthless these days; more so when it has anything to do with the democratic process. 

However, the most damaged from the Bamagar Tukur anti-democracy consensus charade is the uninspiring president of Nigeria, Good(BAD)luck Jonathan; who is now synonymous with preaching one thing and doing an entirely different thing. Call him a Pharisee for crying out loud; but Icheoku concludes that the Nigerian president while preaching the merits of democracy goes about un-democratically imposing candidates of his choice, whether it is on his home state of Bayelsa as his preferred governor or now on the PDP as his preferred party chairman. It also did not matter to President Jonathan that Bamagar Tukur lost the primaries in his own Northeastern Nigeria. But with an Obasanjo precedent, where he lost in his local government presidential primaries in 1979 but was imposed on the party as the presidential candidate and served two terms respectively; history repeating itself with Bamagar Tukur's lackluster imposition was a no brainier for President Jonathan. The president himself being a beneficiary of the PDP's lack of internal democracy, it is a little surprise that people are even expressing surprise that he is towing the steps of his own benefactor - Olusegun Obasanjo. But hey, what does Icheoku know anyway on the workings of the "biggest and largest party in Africa" that will be in power until thy kingdom come? What a joke the PDP brand of democracy in Nigeria really is

"My personal feeling is that, as a young kid that was beat on by a bully, that was pretty much singled out—the guy [Zimmerman] stalked him, didn't follow instructions from a superior officer, when they said, 'Stop following the kid.' That tells you everything right there. But my all-around perspective, I wasn't there, I don't know what happened. But it's just so widespread and overt what happened. Even though this is the best country in the world, certain laws in this country are a disgrace to a nation of savages. It's a majority versus a minority. That's the way God planned it. He didn't want to do something about it, He wanted us to do something about it. And if we don't, it's gonna stay this way. We have to continue tweeting, we have to continue marching, we have to continue fighting for Trayvon Martin. If that's not the case, he was killed in vain, and we're just waiting for it to happen to our children. He'll have gotten away with impunity. It's a disgrace that man hasn't been dragged out of his house and tied to a car and taken away. That's the only kind of retribution that people like that understand. It's a disgrace that man hasn't been shot yet. Forget about him being arrested--the fact that he hasn't been shot yet is a disgrace. That's how I feel personally about it."

Icheoku agrees with Iron Mike that certain circumstances as this makes vigilantism sound like a civilized behavior. Otherwise how could any reasonable human-being rationalize the fact that the police in Florida did not arrest and charge this murderer George Zimmerman based on what transpired prelude to the murder of Trayvon Martin. Yet we are in Afghanistan, Iraq and soon Iran and other hot spots of the world trying to teach them how to be justice-themed societies? Now they read such stories as this Florida absurdity and they cringe that such a thing could happen in America? It is simply mind-boggling indeed. But let us hope that the about-turn mea culpa of a belated arrest will throw the needed balm on the explosive situation. It could have been any person's life that was taken away in this cavalier manner and was almost swept under the carpet as if it was a dog; so do not tell Icheoku that any expression of disgust is overboard

GEORGE ZIMMERMAN CHARGED, FINALLY AT LAST?

Icheoku is not salivating nor celebrating the belated filing of charges against the murderer George Zimmerman by the state of Florida, which like pulling a tooth, they reluctantly did due to overwhelming pressure. It is the right thing to do under the circumstances of an unwarranted taking of the life of another by an overzealous and armed thug, who despite being told to back off proceeded to kill an unarmed black boy anyway.  Now the nation and the world await to see the reasonableness or lack of it of the Florida jury which shall sit over this case. 

Icheoku says but for the protests, marching and crying out loud, may be Trayvon Martin would have remained just another statistic of murdered inconsequential black American young man; afterall his body was already tagged as 'John Doe' despite being clearly identifiable. Unfortunately it took all the uproar to provoke the conscience or lack of it of those fellas in Florida to understand that this slaughter is one too many and like Al Sharpton said, "we used to accept as fate-given certain things, but we choose not to accept them any more."  Thankfully the current filing of charges against George Zimmerman proves that marching and shouting until justice is done is very effective; but that is not to say that there are no other several thousands of Trayvon Martins of America whose death were swept under the carpet as if they were none issue; afterall they were just ordinarily black young men of America? 

Icheoku says with the charges now filed, here comes the heavy lifting of trying to find a jury of his peers that will dispassionately render justice to both the murderer George Zimmerman and the victim Trayvon Martin. But whatever the jurors of Florida decide, they should remember that injustice to one is injustice to all and that the lid gingerly atop the keg of gunpowder in Florida could be easily blown off depending on how they applied their justice in this case. The evidence is so overwhelming that short of the murderer being exculpated by the Florida infamous "Stand your ground Law", this case does not need much forensic work to establish his guilt and responsibility for the crime of murder. Icheoku hopes that the jury would return a verdict of guilty as charged against the murderer George Zimmerman and in that way find justice for both parties and ensure peace reigns in Florida. 

Now comes the many what ifs of this case which are rather so numerous that they may never be completely answered in full. What if there was no media blitz on this case or the ever partial and biased White-controlled American media decided to black out the story as usual? What if there were no galvanizing  of wounded souls who lead and participated in all the outpouring of grieve, marching and protesting this unjustifiable homicide with calls to render justice to Trayvon Martin? What if Trayvon Martins case did not touch the raw emotions of righteous Americans who trooped out to demand justice? What if there is no black American president and a black American Attorney General to push the case? What if there were no high profile Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson to lend their face and voice to this injustice; an injustice so touchy that even Uncle Tom Bill Cosby saw for the first time that things are not right between White majority and  black minority of America? What if the investigating prosecutor came up short of filing charges in this case and so many other what ifs? But finally, what if the soon to be convened jury finds George Zimmerman not guilty and decides he walks a free man? Icheoku does not want to contemplate how America will react to such possible verdict but will volunteers that Rodney King's Los Angeles 1982 melee might be a child's play. 

There is simply something that rubs humanity wrongly when apparent injustice is done to whoever irrespective of the color of the skin or the depth of the pocket as in this Trayvon Martin's case whose circumstance is so touchy and so captivating that humans were moved. Tryavon Martin's brutal execution or rather lynching by gun by the barbarian murderer George Zimmerman, especially after being told by the police to back off and the cry for help of the unarmed helpless boy who was shot in the back, would make even a jury composed of KKK people return a verdict of guilty except they also do not have a beating heart inside of them. Anyway, the nation as well as the world is glued to this story and shall not rest until it is concluded one way or the other; but whatever happens, at least the formerly pampered murderer George Zimmerman has been arrested and would be charged for the murder of Trayvon Martin? However this development was based on what we were told as no sighting of George Zimmerman's mugshot has been made anywhere yet or may be he is still enjoying that personal cozy relationship with the police down there in Florida which made them let him walk in the first place. Also boycotting Florida over this obscene "Stand your Ground" law should be considered as an option no one wants to be killed just for straying into a wrong neighborhood of Whites Only? 

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".