THE FALL OF AZAZI, THE RETURN OF GUSAU - an article by Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde

Sambo Dasuki, I am tempted to believe, got this appointment by his marital link to the longest serving NSA, General Aliyu Gusau (rtd). Gusau is married to Sambo’s sister, the wife of late Aliyu Dasuki, may God have mercy on him.

Boko Haram has claimed its most important victim yet last weekend: the National Security Adviser, Andrew Owoye Azazi. For an avowed enemy of the nation’s security apparatus and political system, only the ultimate target remains: the President. If it can manufacture his downfall or the end of his regime, the group would boast that it has proved its mettle.

The fall of Azazi must have surprised many Nigerians. Ah, so the ‘clueless’ and ‘weak’ Jonathan can also bite, they would exclaim. Beyond that, biting his Ijaw brother was least expected. Many people think Azazi did not expect his sudden fall. He has since his resumption as NSA walked firmly on the presidential turf with a mien that was informed by the confidence of an insider and the assurance of a kinsman.

As the weakness in the President became clearer, the arrogance of Azazi as his untouchable protector and indispensable ally was increasing by the day. His display of power reached its peak last week when his contempt for the president was reported online. Somewhere the idea of declaring the state of emergency in Kaduna State was discussed and it was agreed that it was a good idea. To seal its fate however, the former NSA employed a sarcasm that portrayed his level of disdain for his boss, the President. “Where is the president to declare it”, was his reported remark, as if Jonathan was missing in Bermuda Triangle or he has abandoned the hot seat for a mere trivial summit in Brazil.

Azazi left office with the same demeaning impression for the President. After receiving the news of his sacking, his spokesman issued some statements that did not hide his long-standing poor rating of Jonathan’s courage to face challenges squarely. The spokesman said when Azazi suggested that Buhari and some top northerners be invited for ‘questioning’, Jonathan refused and accused the NSA of trying to “scuttle his government.”

As a tribute, I feel compelled to attest that Azazi was different from former NSAs in his relationship with the Nigerian public. Two months ago, he declared the ruling party and the northern presidential aspirants guilty of precipitating the present security crisis in the country. Right or wrong, the public felt that such statements should not have come from a person so close to the President and his NSA for that matter – a Freudian slip, you can say.

The tradition of the NSA in Nigeria as cut by his predecessors is complete silence. They understood that the strength of any security apparatus lies in its secrecy, through leaving the public guessing about its opinion and what it onows about any security issue. Even if Azazi shared that philosophy, the politician in him was not comfortable with it. He preferred activism to mystery. Under him, even the secretive SSS went public, appointing a spokesperson, issuing press statements, parading suspects and holding press conferences. The public could easily discern from these development that there was a competition for its recognition between the SSS and the police in any success, no matter how small, which was recorded in the fight against Boko Haram.

Azazi might have usurped the functions of the police and demystified the office of the NSA. But if it were not for his approach, we would not have been able to read the mind of the administration regarding crucial issues like its perception of the causes of the Boko Haram insurgency. To the delight of journalists, commentators and the opposition, Azazi was always there to let the cat out of the bag.

Well he is gone, for whatever reason and for whatever sin he committed. He is the latest victim of Boko Haram. He is familiar with sackings though, having suffered one as the Chief of Defence Staff under Yar’adua when he was indicted by an army security report on the theft of weapons from his 1 DIV by a Niger Delta militant syndicate. Perhaps, that was the first time he established relationship with Jonathan, who the report fell short of naming as one of the financiers of the gun running activities of the syndicate.

Azazi’s return as NSA might be a reward for his ethnic chauvinism. Our own, an Ijaw, possibly, my partner in the illegal arms deal is now the President, Azazi must have calculated rightly when Jonathan became the President. Jonathan too might have wondered if he could trust anyone better than the devil he knows. And on the NSA seat, we saw all sorts of sumptuous security contracts awarded to Niger Deta militants, the latest being the concession of our maritime security to them by the Jonathan administration. We also witnessed the largest allocation of our budget to national security in our history.

Azazi may now be bitter for losing the top security job but he can still keep himself busy by paying full attention to the execution of those security contracts that were fronted for him by Tampolo and other Niger Delta militants. With his departure, the dream of Niger Delta republic has suffered a serious setback. It is clear that Nigeria is bigger than his dream. Safe journey, sir.

At his heels comes Sambo Dasuki, a lesser known person from the Sokoto royal family. Compared to General Azazi, Sambo is a dwarf: a junior officer who retired almost two decades ago as a colonel. Politically, the highest position he held in the army was the ADC to President Babangida. He was nowhere close to commanding a division or becoming Nigeria’s chief of defence staff. Likewise, I doubt if he ever dreamt of becoming the NSA.

Now, if the NSA job has put his predecessor general to shame during these trying times, how did the President got convinced that Sambo would succeed in disabling the bombs of Boko Haram and silencing their guns? Look at the gamble: apart from his political appointment as the Managing Director of Nigeria Security Printing and Minting Corporation, the new NSA has nothing in hand to prove that he is competent in heading the security apparatus of country as it is today. At its face value, one is tempted to think that the appointment of Sambo is one of the most stupid things that Jonathan ever did as the President. So are we heading for the rocks, again?

Hold your breath. we are not. The President is not stupid. Come with me.

The reason is simple. Some things we get by birth. Many others we get by hard work. Few we get by association. Sambo Dasuki, I am tempted to believe, got this appointment by his marital link to the longest serving NSA, General Aliyu Gusau (rtd). Gusau is married to Sambo’s sister, the wife of late Aliyu Dasuki, may God have mercy on him.

In the past few months, there have been reports that Gusau was resisting the pressure to return to the NSA office. Gusau might have calculated the cool reception that Nigerians would accord him if he were to return for the simple fact that he has been there three times before. Man is hardly excited with the familiar. Also, he might have been hindered morally by his contest for the PDP presidential ticket against Jonathan under whom he last served as NSA. The idea of a proxy is therefore apt. Sambo would sit in as the figurehead NSA, definitely, while Gusau would ably determine the security operations of the country.

From his position at the top, Jonathan must have perceived that Boko Haram is inching closer and closer to him. It has caused the sacking of all categories of police and security chiefs. With some clerics warning him of an impending war, the President must have realized that he could be the next victim. The nation has, with distinctions, fulfilled all the requirements for a coup d’etat. The condition is so critical that he will not hesitate to call for the assistance of anyone perceived to be capable of making a difference between democracy and military rule.

It is easy to see the idea of involving Gusau as based purely on the merit of the former NSA. However, it surely goes beyond that. I do not also believe that it is a gesture made to appeal Northerners to dismiss the notion that the inability of the government to handle the situation is not a conspiracy to destroy the North.

In my humble opinion that the return of Gusau was due to two reasons. One, from what Azazi said two months ago – that violating the principle of zoning in PDP was responsible for the present security challenges in the country and that no one expects that those aggrieved would fail to respond by creating difficulties for the Jonathan administration – it is clear that he meant that Boko Haram is recruited by those who lost the ticket to Jonathan. So they must know the secret behind it.

Nobody expects that Azazi will make such serious accusations without any support from the hundreds of files he has treated on the matter. Jonathan, according Azazi’s spokesman yesterday, has resisted the fomer NSA’s advice that such people be called for questioning. Gusau, being one of those aspirants, must have made it to Azazi’s list conspirators.

Jonathan here took a directly opposite route. If he cannot invite Gusau for questioning, it would not be a bad idea to saddle him with the challenge of restoring security to the country.

The second reason is that possibly few people, if any, in our security domain would know about Boko Haram than Gusau. It was under the tenure of Obasanjo that Boko Haram was conceived, hatched and nourished to full growth. The first we heard about the group was when it called itself the “Nigerian Taliban” after it clashed with the police in Yobe in the early 2000s. Many of the arrests made then turned out to be sons of influential people in the old Borno State. The suspects were eventually released. From there, the group moved its headquarters to Maiduguri and enjoyed the support of people like Governor Sheriff. Perhaps few people knew that it would turn so dangerous.

But the SSS director then, Gadzama, has raised sufficient alarms which, for unknown reasons, were not heeded to. It took the vacation of Obasanjo from that office, along with NSA Gusau, before the authorities could provoke a violent engagement with the group resulting in the present crisis.

Why was the group not stopped from blooming and fruition during Obasanjo still remains a mystery to many of us. But it will not be a mistake to assume that the person at the helm of our security structure during the formative years of the group clearly knows its dynamics and the forces behind it. Who else is then best qualified for the job than him?

So from whichever angle one looks at it, appointing a proxy to Gusau would make a lot of sense for a scared Jonathan who is presently confined by the terror to the Villa. By appointing Sambo Dasuki, Jonathan might have bought some time, but only a little. How far he can run before the monster that caught up with those immediately below him also catches up with him is a distance known only to his destiny.

Finally, I would like to put this question to my readers. Should the new NSA fail to meet the expectations of Jonathan and Nigeria precariously attains a tipping point, would the country be ready to sacrifice Jonathan in order to avert the impending disaster or would it prefer to go into an indefinable civil war and dismemberment simply to maintain him as the President of a democratic Nigeria?

Jonathan would be keen to know your answers. But he must be under no illusions as to what they would be. Nigerians have answered such questions each time the country reaches the brink in the past. And consistently, the answers have never been in favour of the presidents. This one too will not be different, I suppose.

MIAMI HEAT'S NBA WIN, THE KING FINALLY GETS HIS CROWN.

King James that is - the king of basketball court and he holds it with audacious bravado. Now all the naysayers and haters alike, particularly the folks at Cleveland and their Cavalier owner, Dan Gilbert, who ate their hair and went acerbic because LeBron James left in search of the elusive NBA championship, would now be forced to swallow their vomit. Their alleged curse of LeBron has been completely debunked by James with his stellar win of a championship; thus consigning the curse to the dustbin of unproven myths like the Scottish Loch Ness monster. What a people, a very sore people, the Cavalier clan are.

Icheoku queries Dan Gilbert's credit worthiness now that the King has won the NBA championship before his struggling Cavaliers? Recall that Dan Gilbert has boasted that he personally guarantee that Cavaliers would win an NBA championship before the "self-titled former King wins one?" To make matters worse, Dan Gilbert had told his Cavalier fans to take his promise to the bank; which promise, unfortunately bounced today with the stellar performance put up by the Miami Heat led LeBron James culminating in their well deserved championship win.

Icheoku harpoons the Cavalier owner Dan Gilbert as a disgruntled, self effacing scumbag, who took a purely professional business decision by LeBron James to take his talent elsewhere to Miami Heat so personal he sucked. Suddenly James became cursed but was not so cursed while toiling away for the Cavaliers? Suddenly James became a "self-titled King" but he was a worthy king while doing all the heavy lifting for the Cavaliers? In sports participants are expected to take both a win and a loss in strides like sportsmen; but unfortunately such admonition see not applicable to this Cavalier owner Dan Gilbert? Icheoku queries, were LeBron James to be an under-performing player during his days in Dan Gilbert's owned Cavalier, would Dan Gilbert have cut him some slacks and not fire him before blinking an eyelid and turning him loose as a free agent? What a compound loser Dan Gilbert is that couldn't deliver on his promise to motivate the Cavaliers to a championship before the "self-titled king" gets one. Icheoku asks, who is now a "self-titled" whatever - a King who finally wrestled his crown or a sorry ass Cavalier boastful owner who could not keep his promise thus making him a "self-tiled" promisor without performance! Dan Gilbert was only sulking because his golden goose walked away in search of a better pasture.

Nothing was wrong with LeBron James except that he sacrificed so much with a mediocre team called Cavaliers and for seven long years with no championship to show for his effort. Like any rational human-being would do, he left the Dan Gilbert's under-motivated Cavaliers to a more fired-up Miami Heats, where today's crowning victory has proved he was not under any spell or curse and that he is simply the greatest now that plays the hoop. To King LeBron James, Icheoku says may your reign last long and may the ten-foot tall basket become shorter faced with your menacing take no prisoner dunks. Icheoku is particularly happy for you because so many people have said so many bad things about you for no just cause, despite your four times MVP awards which is now five times with today's win; and also not minding that it was not because of you that Cleveland Cavalier never smelt the championship or Miami Heat lost the previous year's championship since a tree does not make a forest. Even the best General needs good soldiers to win any war.

Thankfully you and your soldiers of Miami Heat convincingly anchored the 2012 National Basketball Association championship over an equally tough and talented side the roaring Thunders of Oklahoma City. It was a well fought and won 4-1 aggregate victory and both teams deserves some encomiums. What a glorious day for Miami, the only city in Florida that makes that state still somewhat attractive to visit; the Stanford vigilantism called in mind. Icheoku says well done LeBron James and the boys. However the gist of this championship is all about LeBron James and his first championship ring in his nine years playing career, seven of which were wasted in Cleveland Ohio with an ungrateful Dan Gilbert and his team Cavaliers. Who said there is nothing in a name like cavalier manner? Now just two seasons in Miami, the eagle has landed and LeBron James is a proud and fulfilled NBA champion with a ring to show for it. Icheoku reechoes his sentiment that "It's about damn time; it's about damn time" and LeBron James richly deserved the championship. At last, his dream has now become a reality and according to him, it is the best feeling he ever had.

MR "CAN WE ALL GET ALONG" RODNEY KING, DEAD.

Icheoku says he is finally dead, the black-man the then racist Los Angeles police men beat to a pulp and left for the dead in 1991. Rodney King, Mr "Can we all get along" victim of police brutality was found dead drowned in a swimming pool. Icheoku asks was he killed and then faked it as if he drowned? 

Was he a male version of the over-dozed Whitney Houston, rendered incapacitated by drugs in a swimming pool; admitted Whitney's was in a bath-tub. But who goes swimming by 5.30am in the morning? Anyway no answer has become available just yet; but Icheoku hopes he did not fall to the numerous bulls-eyes that were trained at him ever since that near destruction of Los Angeles as a result of his brutalization in the hands of four racist police officers. Rodney King was 47 years old. 

Rodney King was stopped for speeding in March 1991 by four racist police officers who hit him more than 50 times, kicked him and shot him severally with stun guns. His inhuman beating was captured on video but those four officers Theodore Briseno, Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind and Sgt. Stacey Koo were still acquitted despite the glaring evidence; which sparked a riot that would leave in its trail 55 people dead and more than 2,000 injured with a billion dollar worth of properties destroyed. According to Rodeny King, while the being pulled over by the police, he said "I saw all those apartments over there, so I said, 'I'm gonna stop right there, If it goes down, somebody will see it.' And true to his prophesy an amateur cameraman caught the pummeling scene as it unfolded yet they were found not guilty by an all-white Simi Valley Los Angeles jury? 

JUSTICE FOR THE AMERICAN BLACKMAN, THE WAY IT WORKS.

"A jury would see 'a big black teenager, and you’re automatically going to be assumed guilty." - In the case of Brian Bates who was wrongly accused and convicted for the rape of and by denigrate Wanetta Gibson; being advised by his attorney to take guilty plea in order to avoid a tsunami of a long prison sentence. 

It would be recalled that it was the same script all over and in the same manner Robert Shapiro earlier ill-advised OJ Simpson to plea bargain before Johnny Cochran took over and secured his acquittal. Anyway, Icheoku asks, who says American underbelly, especially its application of justice to people of color and the poor is squeaky clean? For these class of humanity, they are not as privileged and are often presumed guilty until proven innocent; and there goes the much mouthed justice for all to the mincer?

BUHARI'S BLOOD BATH 2015 WARNING, PATRIOTIC OR RAVING LUNACY?

Icheoku says blood does not need to flow in order to sanitize and/or rectify the anomaly that is Nigeria. A country dizzyingly gyrating on its head and possibly on its last throes, doing a pulsating macabre dance of death prelude to finally giving up the ghost? No, blood need not flow for an off course ship that is Nigeria to be righted and put back on the correct navigational path to real working statehood. So without holding brief for Buhari, Icheoku says Buhari could not have meant his words to be understood in such pedestrian manner as it is by the PDP and some pandering apologists who literally give weight to what he said as a call for anarchy? 


Buhari was simply being aggressively expressive, greatly  frustrated by the rot that has become Nigeria and the ineptitude of its supposed leaders who are tasked with fixing what is broken but has woefully failed in that assignment. Admitted Buhari may have unwittingly handed his detractors a noose with his neck inside it by his superficially wrong choice of words, but any unbiased observer without a dog in the fight fully understood and clearly what Buhari was alluding to with his 2015 blood bath threat or rather promise. Buhari spoke figuratively for all intent and purpose and it should be understood in that light; afterall he who is without guilt should not be afraid as clear conscience fears no accusation. But the PDP being who they are are crying foul instead of assuring Nigerians that rigging circumstances would not arise to lead to a possible security breakdown come 2015. However, with a fanatical Islamist like Buhari, no one including Icheoku is assured of the correct read of his mind as he might as well have literally intended what he voiced out. But we have to give him the benefit of doubt that he did not mean for the country to go to hell in hands basket and that he did not intend nor did he express his desire to plunge the country into a pogrom. 

But if Buhari actually literally meant the face value of what he said that blood must flow in 2015,  regardless of the circumstances, then his blood alongside that of his family must be the first ones to flow. It is called practicing what you preach and such would be a good way to give credence to a leadership by example. Muhammadu Buhari's entire household must occupy the front line of any anticipated revolutionary march or protest and must be the first in the line of fire in defence of what he believes in and professes that should be a better approach to realizing the Nigeria project. The Buharis must provide the cannon fodder for other protesting Nigerians as a way to assure of their unequivocal commitment to the dream. But where Buhari is prepared to scamper to Saudi Arabia or Egypt or any other Islamic enclave at the start of hostilities or the vaunted blood letting to wait out the mayhem and come back thereafter to take over the spoils of war, then that blood letting route is not agreeable or acceptable to Icheoku and in that scenario, no blood need to flow; not even an almajiri's own pedestrian blood. 

But the point being made by Buhari is well noted that the Jonathan government has failed Nigerians into-to and in every sphere and department of their promised democracy dividend as enshrined in their manifesto. Instead of the promised breath of fresh air, it is now a completely polluted putrid air that Nigerians are being forced to inhale. Nothing is working or have any serious plans of working in the country at crossroads. So Icheoku would rather Jonathan did not join issues with Buhari by responding to what Buhari said or resort to calling him names including being a blood-thirsty mongrel for speaking up and speaking out. Jonathan should rather focus his attention in tackling those issues that elicited or forced such comment from Buhari in the first place - it is called being proactive Mr President. The PDP government practically speaking has nothing really tangible to show for being the party in power all these 13 years, otherwise let them point to Nigerians what it is that is working in Nigeria or what they have accomplished since taking over power since 1999 to alleviate the sufferings of Nigerians?  Roads, power, food, jobs, commerce, security etc are all in comatose?

But the obvious abject and catastrophic failure of Jonathan's government notwithstanding, Icheoku says nothing rises to the magnitude of calling for blood shed of Nigerians. The PDP led government's failure to impress Nigerians of their viability as a peoples orientated government does not and should not necessitate the call by Buhari or any other person with his faculty still intact that blood of Nigerians should turn River Niger and River Benue red in 2015. Except that Buhari is a man with a penchant for frivolity of loose-talks and who many times speaks unguarded and in a bomb-throwing fashion like America's Newt Gingrich. Buhari could mean well with his urge for the government to do something to placate the suffering of Nigerians and putting them on notice that rigging would not be tolerated in 2015, except that when he had a stint at office as a military coupist head of state in 1983, he didn't deliver. So Icheoku says that Buhari lacks the credibility to question any other government following after his. 


As a military coupist head of state, all he did was kill Nigerians and muscled the press; Buhari passed very stupid decrees including Decree 4 that made criticizing his military junta-government a punishable crime. Buhari's disposition to intolerance is well known to Nigerians hence his sudden about turn of now complaining about the government in Aso Rock not listening seem a bit hypocritical. Buhari, whether as a military man in khaki uniform or civilian in agabada, is the same person as his character was long ago completely formed, entire and in full and not amenable to changes. It therefore does not make any difference which Buhari is now leading this crusade for a working government in Nigeria as Buhari is Buhari and will always remain Buhari, whether the Buhari that murdered Bartholomeo Owo, Ogedengbe and Lawal Ojulope or the present Buhari who is seemingly championing the cause for a good government in Nigeria. Peoples character do not necessarily change after certain formative age and Buhari could not be an exception and his military trait of being stubbornly intolerant is well known to Nigerians.

Admitted Buhari had long ago traded his army uniform for a politician agabada, nothing has changed about this man. He has yet to apologize for those three innocent Nigerians he murdered without any justifiable legal cause whatsoever based on his promulgated retroactive decree. It would be recalled that even the Pope interceded then for him to spare the lives of those innocent Nigerian three, but the donkey-stubborn Buhari would not bulge and did not and  went ahead to shed those blood which still haunts him till today. So Nigerians be wary of Buhari and always remain wary of Buhari. Please Nigerians do not trust the gaunt-looking army man who has killed Nigerians before and would again do so if their fate is ever entrusted to him again. If Buhari wants to wage a war against Nigeria, let Nigeria meet him force with force. Really Icheoku does not know why Jonathan has not considered it necessary or deemed it fit enough to arrest this guy and put him away for good or even kill him following a conviction for treason or treasonable felony in the fashion Abacha killed Ken Saro Wiwa.  Icheoku says the heavens will not come tumbling down if Buhari is put down like a sick dog which he constantly sounds like these days and neither would meaningful Nigerians miss him. How could anyone , sane enough, ever find anything good in the Boko Haram terrorists to compare them to the federal government? His would not be the first time a former head of state was put down for past intrasingence - Gerry Rawlings did it in Ghana and today Ghana has become better for it, fertilized by those blood that Rawlings was forced to shed to cleanse the land.

IGBO PROBLEM IDENTIFIED AS LACK OF FOLLOWERSHIP - OZOBU

"Listen when the song of the frog resounds from the marshes. Listen to what they have to say. It is good to come together. It is good to reach agreement. It is good to make the voices of many the single voice of all." - HRH Justice Eze Ozobu, citing the Battle of Herero as reference point to finding solution to Igbo peoples' problem of intractable dysfunctionalism. 

His Royal Highness was analogizing the problems of Ndigbo as rudderless adriftness, lack of a collective pursuit and single purposefulness as well as the absence of one identifiable leadership and/or spokesperson which are afflicting the Igbo people of Nigeria. According to this retired jurist and now traditional ruler of Owa Imezi community, Ezeagu, Enugu State, Nigeria, for the Igbo nation to make any meaningful and serious political headway in Nigeria, they MUST first learn to become and fight their cause as an indivisible army of one. 

They must also end being a motley of disorganized, noisy and often ignored mob-like people, each with his or her divergent, incoherent idea and agenda on how to move the process forward. Icheoku says with this pointy truth, this jurist has identified the single cause of Igbo peoples' problem as follower-ship and not necessarily leadership and thus earned a place in the annals of Igbo history for pointing the light on the way forward for the Igbo nation. It is now left for the Igbo people to imbibe this message, a gospel truth; and learn to articulate and marshal their viewpoints as one indivisible and fully harmonized entity!

VULTURE CAPITALISM, MAYOR BOOKER SELLS HIS SOUL TO THE DEVIL.

"Surely Booker is aware of the costs as well as the benefits of private equity — and its mixed record as an engine of job creation? He is far too smart and experienced to misunderstand private equity’s true purpose, which is to create wealth, not employment. And Booker certainly knows that when Romney presents himself as a business man who can revive America’s fragile economy, it is fair to mention how Bain profited from loading up companies with debt and ripping off the proceeds while laying off thousands of workers.But whatever he says about capital, the Newark mayor also knows that it takes a lot of money to win public office, like the U.S. Senate seat that may be in his future. What everyone else should know is that he expects to raise that campaign money from the same people and firms that have backed him from the beginning." -Henry Decker. 

Icheoku says this is why it is always good to follow the money and here you find a "Democratic" Mayor of Newark New Jersey Cory Booker trying to give humanity to the inhumane Mitt Romney manner of buccaneering companies and making out like a bandit. How can anyone, whether Democrat or Republican, ever justify such a predatory business practice as engaged in by Mitt Romney that thrives on the carcasses of workers to feed off the gluttony appetites of the bourgeoisie-owners, which elicited its description by Governor Perry of Texas as "VULTURE CAPITALISM" in any good light whatsoever talk-less of describing attempt at shinning light on it as nauseating? But when one is Mayor Cory Booker of Newark New Jersey, this Judas Iscariot stance makes some crazy sense. This is a democratic Mayor going against a democratic president attempt to educate Americans on the anti-people business practices of Mitt Romney simply because the same people pouring money into Mitt Romney's campaign equally poured money to elect him mayor of Newark and Icheoku asks Mayor Cory Booker which side are you on or have your price been paid and now you stand bought by those vulture capitalists? What a human specimen this guy is that would rather throw President Obama under the bus than stand up against his vulture capitalist benefactors.

ALAMIEYESIGHA TO IGBO PEOPLE, FIGHT FOR POWER!

"We know that nobody will give you power on a platter of gold; if you want it, you demand for it and then you fight for it.” - Diepreye Alamieyesigha, former governor of Bayelsa State.

Icheoku says what a telegraphic message being sent by necessary implication to the Igbo people of South Eastern Nigeria in their quest to "smell" Aso Rock come 2015 or any time soon after, assuming there will be a Jonathan's vacancy. But would they ever listen to the cry of the swamp frogs and take this home-truth seriously since no one in Nigeria power equation really believes that the Ezeife & Co power-shift agitators has any fire in their belly to do what it takes?

Icheoku therefore cringes whenever such imperative word such as "must" is used to qualify the Igbo's stand on power shift come 2015; knowing fully well that they cannot march their air with necessary force and or will power to go the whole hog. Fortune smiles on those who dare:- Niger Delta militant terrorists or freedom fighters to some, held Nigeria hostage for so long and now one of their own is the president, so go figure.

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.