GUN VIOLENCE IN AMERICA: FOR WHO THE BELL TOLLS NEXT.

Just five people shy of Sandy Hook elementary school mass shooting incident that claimed 26 lives, the Uvalde Texas Robb elementary school mass shooting at 21 victims, now ranks among the highest grossing gun carnage in America. It is sad that such frequent blood spilling has tragically become part of our culture as a society. May the souls of the killed now rest.

25th AMENDMENT: ITS NOW ALL CRICKET.

Madam Speaker Nancy Pelosi once questioned former President Donald John Trump's fitness to remain in office due to what she claimed was his declining mental capacity. Does anyone know what Madam Speaker presently thinks about the incontrovertible case which America is now saddled with? Just curious!

WHO WILL REBUILD UKRAINE?

The West should convert frozen Russian assets, both state's and oligarchs' owned, into a full seizure and set them aside for the future rebuilding of Ukraine. Like the Marshal Plan, call it the Putin Plan.

A HERO IS BORN.

I am staying put. I will not run away and abandon my people. The fight is here in Ukraine. What I need are weapons and ammunitions, not a ride out of town like former Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani - President Volodymyr Zelensky.

IT IS WHAT IT IS.

"There is too much hate in America because there is too much anger in America." - Trevor Noah.

WORD!

A life without challenges is not a life lived at all. A life lived is a life that has problems, confronts problems, solves problems and then learns from problems. - Tunde Fashola.

NOW, YOU KNOW.

When fishing for love, bait with your heart and not your brain, because you cannot rationalize love. - Mark Twain.

JUST THE FACT.

In our country, you can shoot and kill a nigger, but you better not hurt a gay person’s feelings - Dave Chappelle

DO YOU?.

“What you believe in can only be defined by what you’re willing to risk for it." - Stuart Scheller.

HEDGE YOUR CRISIS.

Never get in bed with a woman whose problems are worse than yours. - Chicago PD.

PROBLEM SOLVED.

'The best way to keep peace is to be ready to destroy evil. If you Pearl Harbor me, I Nagasaki you.' - Ted Nugent.

OUR SHARED HUMANITY.

Empathy is at the heart of who we are as human beings. - Cardinal Matthew Kukah.

WORDS ON MARBLE.

"Birth is agony. Life is hard. Death is cruel." - Japanese pithy.

REPENT OR PERISH - POPE.

Homosexuality is a sin. It is not ordained by God, therefore same sex marriage cannot be blessed by the church - Pope Francis.

CANCEL CULTURE IS CORROSIVE.


FOR SAKE OF COUNTRY.


MAGA LIVES ON: NO RETREAT, NO SURRENDER!

TWITTER IS BORING WITHOUT HIS TWEETS. #RestorePresidentTrump'sTwitterHandle.


WORD.

"If you cannot speak the truth when it matters, then nothing else you says matters.” - Tucker Carlson.

#MeToo MOVEMENT: A BAD NEWS GONE CRAZY.

"To all the women who testified, we may have different truth, but I have a great remorse for all of you. I have great remorse for all of the men and women going through this crisis right now in our country. You know, the movement started basically with me, and I think what happened, you know, I was the first example, and now there are thousands of men who are being accused and a regeneration of things that I think none of us understood. I’m not going to say these aren’t great people. I had wonderful times with these people. I’m just genuinely confused. Men are confused about this issue. We are going through this #MeToo movement crisis right now in this country." - Harvey Weinstein.


RON DELLUMS: UNAPOLOGETICALLY RADICAL.

"If it’s radical to oppose the insanity and cruelty of the Vietnam War, if it’s radical to oppose racism and sexism and all other forms of oppression, if it’s radical to want to alleviate poverty, hunger, disease, homelessness, and other forms of human misery, then I’m proud to be called a radical.” - Ron Vernie Dellums.


WHAT REALLY MATTERS IN LIFE - STEVE JOBS

“I reached the pinnacle of success in the business world. In others’ eyes, my life is an epitome of success. However, aside from work, I have little joy. Non-stop pursuing of wealth will only turn a person into a twisted being, just like me. God gave us the senses to let us feel the love in everyone’s heart, not the illusions brought about by wealth. Memories precipitated by love is the only true riches which will follow you, accompany you, giving you strength and light to go on. The most expensive bed in the world is the sick bed. You can employ someone to drive the car for you, make money for you but you cannot have someone to bear sickness for you. Material things lost can be found. But there is one thing that can never be found when it is lost – Life. Treasure Love for your family, love for your spouse, love for your friends. Treat yourself well. Cherish others.” - SJ

EVIL CANNOT BE TRULY DESTROYED.

"The threat of evil is ever present. We can contain it as long as we stay vigilant, but it can never truly be destroyed. - Lorraine Warren (Annabelle, the movie)


ONLY THE POOR WISH THEY HAD STUFF?

“I’m not that interested in material things. As long as I find a good bed that I can sleep in, that’s enough.” - Nicolas Berggruem, the homeless billionaire.

Friday, November 14, 2014

LET FREEDOM RING, LET FREEDOM REIGN IN NIGERIA - PRESIDENT JONATHAN

"While serving our people, I will always ensure the rule of law. I do not intimidate. I expand the democratic space. I give voice to the voiceless and I uphold the weak for the nation belongs to us all. There is no political prisoner in Nigeria today and no one has been driven into exile and no one will under my watch. Under my presidency, views no matter how freely expressed, will not send any Nigerian to prison or exile or grave." - President Jonathan, Declaration speech.

Icheoku says during the government of President Yar'Adua many of us could not and did not visit motherland because of an existing list of critics deemed to be "undesirable elements, keep an eye on them" Nigerians. A then former contributor to Icheoku was so terrified with his arrest, detention and treatment on arrival at Muritala Mohammed airport, that upon his release and subsequent return, demanded that he be removed from Icheoku's affairs and that even the articles he co-authored in the past be disclaimed. We complied. There were phone calls and other subliminal threats too. So Icheoku understands what it means to work a very tight rope of lean or no freedom, with your eyes always at your back and maintaining eternal vigilance. So when President Jonathan makes such a commitment and promise not to inhibit thinking Nigerians from freely expressing their views on issues of state and related matters, Icheoku knows first hand the goodness of a heart that so pledges. 

The other time it was APC Ogun State Governor Amosun that ordered the arrest of one Wasiu Ogunnoiki because of what he posted on his FB page which the governor deemed "as acts capable of denting the image of Ogun State" and not flattering enough of his person and office? Ditto in then Ekiti State and some other places in control of the APC? Lagos State Governor Fashola also impeded some Nigerians liberty and freedom and earned himself a not so flattering epithet as that governor who deported fellow citizens from their own country? The dare not criticize whatever I force down your throat idiosyncrasy of Bola Tinubu is equally legendary. Muhammadu Buhari even went too far down this perfidious road of emasculation of Nigerians when he promulgated Decrees 4 and 20 to totally make it off limit, any discussing, talk less of criticizing, of his regime when he held forth. 

So when freedom loving and craving Nigerians listen to their president pledge not to trample upon anyone's liberty, freedom and pursuit of happiness, they get it. They also hear a person they could live with and thrive under; and they plan to respond accordingly by handing him the needed mandate to protect their enshrined rights.  Icheoku says this 2015, leg-chain is on the ballot and in case you have so soon forgotten the infamous Awolowo Road gulag that operated with impunity during Buhari's regime, majority of right-thinking Nigerians have not. 

Going back to the old ways is not an option and should not be. It is simply anathema to a Nigeria that desires and aspires to belong to the comity of decent nations, whose citizens are not in constant fear of the state. In a true democracy, it is the government that fears the citizens and not the other way round; so if Nigeria is practicing true democracy, then the guy who would guarantee this principle tenet of democracy is the right guy to man the tiller of the state. So in 2015, say no to Buhari; reject his latest attempt to muscle opinions of Nigerians or like Baba Iyabo, force some Nigerians, including governors, those lucky enough not to be kidnapped, into self exile. Please be rational, do not hand those other guys the keys to lock you up and away from civilization. Do not vote for Buhari.

Thursday, November 13, 2014

LIKE MARTIN LUTHER KING, JONATHAN HAS A DREAM?


"I see a Nigeria where the children of Mustapha and Christopher, Ade and Ada, Timi and Bunmi, Nnamdi and Namadi, do not go hungry. I see a Nigeria, where all, no matter their believe, live in harmony." - President Goodluck Jonathan, declaration speech.

Icheoku says whether it is a "vision" correctly labelled or a prophesy or whatever nomenclature that is comfortably suitable as an apt description of what he said, the gist of the matter is that President Jonathan of Nigeria now gets it on what the future of Nigeria should be. A country with abundance where no Nigerian should go to bed at night hungry on an empty stomach. Icheoku commends this mission statement as a good step in the right direction, as nothing is fun or amusing to anyone with a rumbling empty stomach, especially if the hunger lasts so long as to cause stomach ulcer. Call it "stomach infrastructure" if you like and for crying out loud, but whoever puts bread on the table of the hungry always wins, as a commandeered heart seldom falters. 

Icheoku says it thus appear that finally, the man with no shoes as a growing young school kid, now, after wearing the best crafted leather shoes money can buy out of Italy, now knows how comfortable it is not to pound the pavement on ten toes and would like to share this his newly found experience? President Jonathan now wants to provide the proverbial shoes to all those "shoeless" Nigerians, to help them cushion the effect of being without soles beneath their soles? Icheoku says God bless his heart for at least remembering that a time it was, when he had none; unlike so many Nigerians who readily forget where they started or are coming from once fortune smiles at them and in the madness of their new found riches. Dreaming it and mouthing this intention to put butter on every Nigerians' bread is a darn good thing that is worthy of commendation.  

Icheoku maintains that it is a magnanimous spirit that so thinks about others that are out and down on their luck,  the downtrodden and nearly forgotten. At least if it pans out that he is not so bountiful in purse to see the promise through, he has shown his magnanimous spirit by declaring his intention to try. Nigerians should applaud their president for thinking and worrying about them. Icheoku remembers the Ota deity, during his reign of infamy, when he visited Ikeja bomb victims and scolded them for being ingrates not to appreciate that he even visited them at all; and this was while these victims were merely complaining their lack of water to drink? 

Icheoku says it is only a demented Nigerian, who after living through the first Muhammadu Buhari's nihilistic rule and further surviving last Baba Iyabo's 'do or die' governance and fully aware that both men are products of the boot-camp mentality of their profession, and so they being so uncouth and knowing no better, would wish an encore through a Buhari reemergence. Anyway this 2015, say no to Buhari because not only would he not give or buy you shoes, he might cut off your feet under his impending "Project spread SHARIA throughout Nigeria". Icheoku says even if President Jonathan could not "mission accomplish" shoes for Nigerians, at least they would still have their feet to 'waka' about in; but how far can an amputated stump trudge? You decide Nigerians. 

The good thing about having a vision is that the visionary at least has a clue of where he wants to get to or land.  President Jonathan appreciates that some Nigerians are hungry and in need of some helping hand to be able to fend for themselves. Nigerians are not asking for handouts, they are only craving enabling environment and opportunities to be able to find what they are looking for. The president understands this imperative and has accordingly addressed his intention to provide same. The president also sees a united and indivisible 'one-wombed' Nigerians. Unlike the other guy who only sees Nigerians in two prisms of those who are "real Nigerians" and those "stranger-Nigerians," the dogs and baboons, who ought to and should be killed.  

Icheoku says it is a very sad commentary for any leader and in this case,  Muhammadu Buhari, to so start compartmentalizing and dividing citizens of a country in this mad-dog manner - those "true-blood" Nigerians who deserve to live and those "bastard and inferior Nigerians" to be killed and even before securing the power to put his plans into fruition. As for  Icheoku and other sane Nigerians, we have chosen life; so you decide what works for you. Icheoku says in 2015, staying alive, whether or not you belong to the class of  "dogs and baboons," is on the ballot, so cast your vote according to your preferred outcome. Laying six feet under or standing on your two un-amputated feet still struggling, just in case Jonathan left you holding the plate or entirely forgot his promise to you, should be the ONLY two things that accompany you into that voting booth and minister to your conscience as you cast your ballot. ENOUGH of these military men who think that they are the only good thing that ever happened to Nigeria! Just say no to Buhari!

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

PRESIDENT JONATHAN DECLARES, RUNNING IN 2015!

"Therefore after after seeking the face of God, in quiet reflection with my family and having listened to the call of our people nationwide to run, I Goodluck Ebele Azikwe Jonathan have accepted to re-present myself, on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party for reelection as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2015 general election. If you believe that we must build a country that works for everyone, where the strong lift the weak and not trample upon them, where the vote of every citizens counts and determines who governs or represents them, where the democratic space is open to all to fulfill their aspiration irrespective of the circumstance of their birth, your brother Goodluck Ebele Azikwe Jonathan stands ready to continue in service as president of the federal republic of Nigeria." - President Jonathan. 

With those words, President Jonathan formally threw his hat in the ring to defend his honor as president and to seek reelection to continue as president of Nigeria in 2015 against all the Buharis and Atikus of the opposition APC. Icheoku, satisfied that the president means well and as between Buhari and Atiku, is the best hand on the tiller of a shifty Nigeria at this challenging time, and the purport of the well crafted and well delivered unity declaration speech being compelling enough, coupled with some meaningful achievement of his government this past years, do hereby endorse his candidacy for the presidency of Nigeria in 2015. Icheoku says God's speed, Jonathan! 

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

MIDTERM ELECTION, WHY OBAMA VOTERS STAYED OUT?

Icheoku says millions of Obama voters sat out last Tuesday's midterm election largely in part as protest against the shabby treatment being continually meted out to the president because he has the "wrong" skin type and color for an occupant of "their" White House? They also boycotted the election due to lack of interest because they have literally no dog in the fight since their dear President Obama was not on the ballot, hence no compelling reason to show up and show him some loving solidarity. Lastly, Obama voters are disillusioned that nothing hugely beneficial to them has occurred since the last time they twice, trooped out enmass to vote the democrat into office, alongside his many co-tails. 

But unfortunately and laughably too, election pundits have been glossing over this very fact that there are millions of committed Obama loyalists and voters, who only care to vote in an election when the president is on the ballot. Instead they have been piling up on the president as if he was ran for office again and blamed him for the loss recorded by the Democrats. Icheoku says these pin-head analysts failed to acknowledge that the president was not on the ballot nor did he ask for anyone's vote and was also not even allowed to campaign for and by any of those democratic party losers, who Icheoku strongly believe would have fared better had Obama campaigned for them. So why now blame a person who was not in anyway connected or engaged in the election except that it must be pinned on him and they albeit tried, but failed. 

Icheoku categorically maintains that were President Obama to have ran for a third term, he would have still have won; and any naysayer or doubter should rejig the constitution making it permissible for him to run for a third term and Americans would see him reelected and sworn in for the third term. Icheoku says democrats did not lose because of Obama or his policies, but their incompetence and because they distanced themselves from the president and many of his laudable landmark achievements? Imagine in Kentucky where Obama care has helped hundreds of thousands of indigent citizens get health care coverage and yet the democrat running against Mitch McConnel failed and refused to campaign on this president's achievement which was very popular in that Appalachian country, even among hillbillies hill dwellers and their hicks. 

As an Obama voter, Icheoku was particularly ticked off by the avoidance-treatment those democrats running for offices gave to the president and forbade his appearance in their campaigns. Some of these candidates even went to the sorry extent of denying their closeness to the president and/or that they even ever voted for any of the president's policies? Icheoku says these people deserved what befell them as they should not be representing anyone for lack of  backbones and for not having a strong constitution befitting of a representative. Icheoku says it was very disrespectful of these democrats to so distance and sideline the president during their campaign, due to what noisier far right wingers would like Americans to believe, that they have a non performing president?  Icheoku says history matters and records are not kept just to refresh memory but as evidence of what was in order to make fair judgment as to what would be. President Obama's records of achievements are there for Americans to see and judge, except no one in the democrat party was pushing or promoting them. 

So what really happened was that while voting democrats especially Obama's voters were being turned off and out from the election, the republicans were busy massively mobilizing their zealotry voters to vote and the result is now better left for history to judge. This also affected the overall turnout for the election which stood at 31% in some areas with some voting groups registered far less than 13% turnout. If not, why would a second term president, presiding over the best economic recovery in recent years, with jobs being created and the stock market doing so well, with two wars ended, is still being held responsible for the democrat losing the midterm election. 

Icheoku says President Obama did not lose any election nor did he cause any democrat to lose int he election, it was those spineless  democrats who rebuffed him, who lost the election. Their  ill-treatment of the president incensed Obama-voters, who in turn, hit back at them by boycotting the election, in protest. They wanted to send a message and in fact did send a message that they matter and that the president they care for, should not be so constantly under appreciated  and harangued just because his skin color is different from the acceptable standard color. What an election that was needlessly thrown out by the democrats due to fear and lack of courage to man up and stand with their president and that was how their cookie crumbled. 

PDP SENATORS 'EXPERIENCE AND CONTINUITY' ARGUMENT, BASELESS?

Icheoku says the argument by PDP senators, seeking automatic ticket back to the Senate, that 'experience and continuity' should override every other consideration and be the sole determinant in their next election, is as baseless as it is watery. Icheoku asks when would such a buffoonery of an argument end, assuming subsequent senators continue to tag along that line to secure subsequent terms unopposed? Icheoku regrets that whenever it suits these Nigerian politicians, they will readily reference the United States as the benchmark of how things are done in a democracy; but convolutedly will not abide by the very same tenets of a working democracy requiring open competition? 

Once again these "experienced" Nigerian PDP senators are invoking United States of America as their guide int he argument in support of continuity but fell shy of elaborating  the process that ensures it. They fail to mention that no United States senator gets decreed automatic ticket of his/her party except where unopposed by any challenger . They were coy at not mentioning that in the United States, no senator automatically wins his seat or even party's ticket without fighting for it based on justifiable account of what he accomplished for their constituents with their previous electoral mandate. They forget to mention that "democracy dividends" in the United States are visible unlike those in Nigeria which merely exist as splashed on newspapers and billboards but never on the grounds of their constituents. Icheoku says such high representation is usually earned and not bequeathed as a gift, so these PDP senators ought and should fight for return to the senate based on provable accomplishment and not on any entitlement as of right, 'experience and continuity' not withstanding. 

Icheoku says these PDP senators also failed to tell Nigerians that the United States, as many as they are - over three hundred million people, have only two senators per state each; while Nigeria with about less than half of the United States population has three senators per state each? Icheoku asks what then is the need for this many senators in a country with equally very high number of representatives, if not for avid profligacy? What then is the real use for this duplicity of peoples' representatives in both the upper and lower houses with these many people, each drawing on the government's coffers for supposed constituency projects, allowances, overheads, salaries and staff? What matter of state is that too onerous which after the House of Representatives finishes deliberating on, that fewer number of senators cannot vet? Icheoku says may be in the interest of saving the taxpayers some money, this PDP senators should instead fashion a way to prune down the number of senators in line with efficiency and existing practice to a more manageable number.

Icheoku asks instead of canvassing for automatic ticket to ensure "experience and continuity,' why not just stagger  elections to the senate through the states and in such a way that at any given time, some states would have some incumbent senators to help train and orientate the incoming freshmen newly-elected senators coming to join the hallowed chambers? But this is just playing the devil's advocate since there is no way in hell none of these senators would return to the senate in an open election.  Some would definitely return and some will not; but those more likely not to return are at the tip of this sword trying to derail the boat if they are not boarded. Icheoku queries, what if a cataclysmic event happens and all those "experienced" senators perish in one fell swoop, does it mean that Nigeria will not survive or stop existing because all their "experienced" senators are no more? So what if these "experienced" senators are defeated in an election by the "inexperienced" senate candidates of the opposition party? Are these PDP senators telling Nigerians that in such event, that they would not allow or refuse the victorious opposition senators from being sworn in or seating because they are green-horns? Better still, Icheoku asks are these PDP senators telling Nigerians that getting automatic tickets of their party is tantamount to winning the general election except of course they have already rigged the result and merely waiting for formalization of the process?

Icheoku laments that this latest twist by these PDP senators and their threat to impeach the president if he does not cede to their demand, amounts to hostage-taking of both the PDP and the president. This PDP senators'  shenanigan is akin to then President Obasanjo's third term tenure elongation bid on the ground that without his Messianic-presence, Nigeria will go to hell in a hands-basket.  Icheoku says these PDP senators are so full of it - complete bull crap; and their seat-tight gimmickry will not work as it does not in anyway do the country's democracy any good. Icheoku says if these PDP senators are not afraid of their performance, they should be the advocate number one of their expiring mandate and tell their electorates why they deserve to be sent back to Abuja and not try to muscle a timid president into granting them their wish through automatic tickets.

Icheoku says no senator is irreplaceable and in as much as experience is good, it should not be the only benchmark to hand these guys automatic tickets without more. Icheoku asks what if they die? What if they resign? What if they retire or are forced out of office? What if they stopped functioning as "experienced" senators due to the occurrence of any so preventing act? Are they telling Nigerians that Nigeria will come to a grinding halt because they are no longer there to steer the ship of state with their "experience?? Please give Icheoku a break as US Tom Daschel, former Democratic Party majority leader, was once defeated by a first time candidate and the business of the senate as well as the Democrats continued.  Likewise were so many other top United States of America senators from both parties, who have at one time or the other, lost both their party's tickets and/or general election without consequence to the American democracy. Even the recent US midterm election saw President Obama's party losing both houses to the republican party but it will not stop the wheel of democracy from turning. Icheoku says the argument of automatic ticket because of "experience and continuity" is stupid at best as its rejection will not cause any far reaching adverse effect to Nigeria's democracy. 

Anyway, like the wheel-dealing of politics, anything and everything is possible. But should the president naively accede to this unreasonable request, the PDP as a party will reap the whirlwind. The opposition APC will cash their windfall rain check as they would lure all those disenfranchised governors, who want to become senators, with offer of the very senatorial seats they are now being denied; and then lets see how the PDP will navigate the troubled waters thereafter. What a knee jerk presidency that is being  unseasonably inundated by senators with a very inordinate ambitious request. This makes Nigerians long for the days of Baba Iyabo's "do or die" politics when no senator dared open his mouth once Baba has decided, settled and literally decreed on an issue. But for Jonathan, every person is turning him into a pinata that they can beat anyhow and anyway they please? Icheoku says with the days of banana peels now over, senators have turned themselves into demigods and now have the effrontery to hold the president and the PDP hostage to their gluttonous greed. But hey, it is Nigeria, the land of everything and anything goes, especially when willed by a bully, which these PDP senators are now turning themselves into. Icheoku warns  that 2015 is heavily laden with a very difficult ectopic pregnancy and no one knows what it will deliver, "experienced" senators or not; and "continuity" or no continuity", for crying out loud.  May God help Nigerians IJN.

Monday, November 10, 2014

NIGERIANS MAKE YOUR VOTES COUNT, VOTE BUHARI?

GOT AMNESIA, VOTE BUHARI. DECREE 4, VOTE BUHARI. DECREE 20, VOTE BUHARI. 53 SUITCASES, VOTE BUHARI. BARTHOLOMEW OWO, VOTE BUHARI. BERNARD OGEDENGBE, VOTE BUHARI. LAWAL OJULOPE, VOTE BUHARI.  LIVING IN BONDAGE, VOTE BUHARI. LOVE TYRANNY, VOTE BUHARI. AUSTERE LIFE, VOTE BUHARI. ISLAMIZATION OF NIGERIA, VOTE BUHARI. SHARIA FOR NIGERIA, VOTE BUHARI. HATE DEMOCRACY, VOTE BUHARI. COUP PLOTTING, VOTE BUHARI. HATE YOUR FREEDOM, VOTE BUHARI. BA SHIGA, VOTE BUHARI. LIFE IN PURDAH, VOTE BUHARI. HATE TO ENJOY YOUR BEER, VOTE BUHARI. SNUB OF OPUTA PANEL, VOTE BUHARI. BEING ORDERED AROUND LIKE CATTLE, VOTE BUHARI. OTHERWISE RUN HIM OUT IN 2015 IF APC DOES NOT BEAT YOU TO THAT BY REJECTING HIS CANDIDACY. WORST STILL, BUHARI HAS NOT EVEN APOLOGIZED TO NIGERIANS FOR ALL THE  SINS OF BUHARI WHICH HE COMMITTED AGAINST NIGERIANS AND THEY ARE LEGION. 

ICHEOKU SAYS NIGERIANS, BUHARI IS NOT GOOD FOR YOU. REMEMBER WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE WARNED NIGERIANS TO BEWARE OF 'A LEAN AND MEAN LOOKING BUHARI' BECAUSE SUCH A MAN IS DANGEROUS. SAY NO TO BUHARI, BA ABU BUHARI. NOT IN 2015 AND NOT AT ANY FUTURE TIME IN  NIGERIA AS IS PRESENTLY CONSTITUTED AND STILL EXISTING. WHO WANTS A LIFE UNDER IRON-CLAD SHARIA LAW, NOT ICHEOKU AND NO SANE NIGERIAN SHOULD. BUHARI'S NIGHTMARE WAS TOO NIGHTMARISH TO BE RELIVED AGAIN AND ITS ENCORE, UNDESERVING. ICHEOKU SAYS IF APC GIVES NIGERIANS A BETTER OPTION, MAY BE THEY WOULD CONSIDER SUCH; BUT ANYBODY, INCLUDING THE TIMID JONATHAN, IS BETTER THAN BUHARI. SO IN 2015 PLEASE DO THE NEEDFUL NIGERIANS AND VOTE YOUR CONSCIENCE AS ANY WISE PERSON WOULD, PROVIDED BUHARI IS NOT IT.

Sunday, November 9, 2014

NIGERIA IS OUR PROPERTY - BUHARI'S COUSIN, ALIYU GWARZO?

”When I say that the Presidency must come to the north next year I am referring to the Hausa-Fulani core north and not any northern Christian or Muslim minority tribe. The Christians in the north are nothing and the Muslim minorities in the north know that when we are talking about leadership in the north and in Nigeria, Allah has given it to us, the Hausa-Fulani. They can grumble, moan and groan as much as they want but each time they go into their bedrooms to meet their wives and each time they get on their prayer mats to begin their prayers, it is we the Fulani that they think of, that they fear, that they bow to and that they pray for. Some of them are even ready to give us their wives and daughters for one nights sport and pleasure. They owe us everything. This is because we gave them Islam through the great Jihad waged by Sheik Uthman Dan Fodio.

We also captured Ilorin, killed their local King and installed our Fulani Emir. We took that ancient town away from the barbarian Yoruba and their filthy pagan gods. We liberated all these places and all these people by imposing Islam on them by force. It was either the Koran or the sword and most of them chose the Koran. In return for the good works of our forefathers Allah, through the British, gave us Nigeria to rule and to do with as we please. Since 1960 we have been doing that and we intend to continue. The Igbo tried to stop us in 1966 and between 1967 and 1969 they paid a terrible price. They were brought to heel and since then they have been broken. No Goodluck or anyone else will stop us from taking back our power next year. We will kill, maim, destroy and turn this country into Africa’s biggest war zone and refugee camp if they try it.

Many say we are behind Boko Haram. My answer is what do you expect? We do not have economic power or intellectual power. All we have is political power and they want to take even that from us. We must fight and we will fight back in order to keep it. They have brought in the infidels from America and the pigs from Israel to help them but they will fail. The war has just begun, the Mujaheddin are more than ready and by Allah we shall win. If they don’t want an ISIS in Nigeria then they must give us back the Presidency and our political power. Their soldiers are killing our warriors and our people every day but mark this: even if it takes one hundred years we will have our revenge. Every Fulani man that they kill is a debt that will be repaid even if it takes 100 years. The Fulani have very long memories”. - Aliyu Gwarzo, Muhammadu Buhari's cousin from Kano State.

Icheoku says you have heard it; call it the rantings of a demented mind and a Boko Haram sympathizer if you like, but know it is at your own risk. It is apparent from the way these Hausa/Fulani people are acting and parading themselves that Aliyu Gwarzo surely spoke their mind,  admitted he might have prematurely leaked what they had up their sleeves all these while. That they are waiting to someday avenge a supposed sidelining is quite obvious but Icheoku cautions Nigerians to remain eternally vigilant. Icheoku says if you do not believe Aliyu Gwarzo, Icheoku does and says sooner or later the South-south Niger Delta as well as some Southeast Igbo people would hear from these marauders soon and as soon as they get "their" back power. 

icheoku says instead of waiting for this Armageddon prophesy to come true, why not simply solve the problem by dividing the country so that they can have their own Islamic caliphate to rule before they plunge the country into eternal darkness. They do not care about human lives and violence is their choice stock of trade and they would not mind maiming and killing everyone to achieve their objective or destroy the country in the process or its attempt? Icheoku says it does not matter also whether or not Aliyu Gwarzo's views represents the thinking of the  entire Hausa-Fulani people, but he sure do rehash a well known and recurrent decimal of a pattern of behavior common to this people. 

According to one commentator, Aliyu Gwarzo's views do "represent a tendency which is, more often than not, kept as hidden and as secret as possible until its execution. Then it will be too late to prevent and what follows is a river of blood flowing from hapless and defenseless innocent victims who would have been wondering why these people cannot move on from their past stone-age behavior and become a civilized behaving part of humanity. Seriously, Icheoku is ashamed to  share the same humanity with people who pride themselves in shedding innocent human blood and for the slightest provocation and/or trifle reason, some bothering from the insane to the mundane, and all especially in the name of religion. Icheoku queries, why can't Allah or God or Yahweh or Buddha or even Baal fight their own wars by themselves, instead of allowing or permitting or tolerating these murderers, fighting and killing and maiming people, on their behalves? 

It is not a civilized behavior and should not be tolerated in any civilized society. What a pitiful wretch, this son of a Fulani bitch is, that uttered such foul statements. Nigerians should be prepared to face down these mongrels whenever they are ready to put their money where their mouth is. Enough of all these bomb throwing threats. Imagine their jihad which was fought centuries ago, using horse-back mounted jihadists with machetes, bows and arrows; against modern day technological warfare of drones and tomahawks, yet this guy is grandstanding on an Uthman dan Fodio's escapade, which levied untoward carnage and mayhem on defenseless people? Anyway may God and Allah save Nigerians from these marauders and jointly prevent the foreboding from ever coming to pass IJN or IMN.

Saturday, November 8, 2014

THE CRIMES OF BUHARI (MAKE HIM UNELECTABLE) - SOYINKA

"This intervention has been provoked, not so much by the ambitions of General Buhari to return to power at the head of a democratic Nigeria, as by declarations of support from directions that leave one totally dumbfounded. It would appear that some, myself among them, had been over complacent about the magnitude of an ambition that seemed as preposterous as the late effort of General Ibrahim Babangida to aspire yet again to the honour of presiding over a society that truly seeks a democratic future.  What one had dismissed was a rash of illusions, brought about by other political improbabilities that surround us, however, is being given an air of plausibility by individuals and groupings to which one had earlier attributed a sense of relevance of historic actualities. 

Recently, I published an article in the media, invoking the possible recourse to psychiatric explanation for some of the incongruities in conduct within national leadership. Now, to tell the truth, I have begun to seriously address the issue of which section of society requires the services of a psychiatrist. The contest for a seizure of rationality is now so polarized that I am quite reconciled to the fact it could be those of us on this side, not the opposing school of thought that ought to declare ourselves candidates for a lunatic asylum. So be it. While that decision hangs in the balance however, the forum is open. Let both sides continue to address our cases to the electorate, but also prepare to submit ourselves for psychiatric examination. The time being so close to electoral decision, we can understand the haste of some to resort to shortcuts. In the process however, we should not commit the error of opening the political space to any alternative whose curative touch to national afflictions have proven  more deadly than the disease. 

Now to a far graver, looming danger, personified in the history of General Buhari. The grounds on which General Buhari is being promoted as the alternative choice (to Jonathan) are not only shaky, but pitifully naive.  History matters. Records are not kept simply to assist the weakness of memory, but to operate as guides to the future. Of course, we know that human beings change. What the claims of personality change or transformation impose on us is a rigorous inspection of the evidence, not wishful speculation or behind-the-scenes assurances. Public offence, crimes against a polity, must be answered in the public space, not in caucuses of bargaining. In Buhari, we have been offered no evidence of the sheerest prospect of change. On the contrary, all evident suggests that this is one individual who remains convinced that this is one ex-ruler that the nation cannot call to order. 

Buhari – need one remind anyone - was one of the generals who treated a Commission of Enquiry, the Oputa Panel, with unconcealed disdain. Like Babangida and Abdusalami, he refused to put in appearance even though complaints that were tabled against him involved a career of gross abuses of power and blatant assault on the fundamental human rights of the Nigerian citizenry. Prominent against these charges was an act that amounted to nothing less than judicial murder, the execution of a citizen under a retroactive decree. Does Decree 20 ring a bell? If not, then, perhaps the names of three youths - Lawal  Ojuolape (30), Bernard Ogedengbe (29) and Bartholomew Owoh (26) do. To put it quite plainly, one of those three – Ogedengbe - was executed for a crime that did not carry a capital forfeit at the time it was committed. 

This was an unconscionable crime, carried out in defiance of the pleas and protests of nearly every sector of the Nigerian and international community – religious, civil rights, political, trade unions etc. Buhari and his sidekick and his partner-in-crime, Tunde Idiagbon persisted in this inhuman act for one reason and one reason only: to place Nigerians on notice that they were now under an iron, inflexible rule, under governance by fear. The execution of that youthful innocent – for so he was, since the punishment did not exist at the time of commission - was nothing short of premeditated murder, for which the perpetrators should normally stand trial upon their loss of immunity. 

Are we truly expected to forget this violation of our entitlement to security as provided under existing laws? And even if our sensibilities have become blunted by succeeding seasons of cruelty and brutality, if power itself had so coarsened the sensibilities also of rulers and corrupted their judgment, what should one rightly expect after they have been rescued from the snare of power” At the very least, a revaluation, leading hopefully to remorse, and its expression to a wronged society. At the very least, such a revaluation should engender reticence, silence.  In the case of Buhari, it was the opposite. Since leaving office he has declared in the most categorical terms that he had no regrets over this murder and would do so again.  Human life is inviolate. The right to life is the uniquely fundamental right on which all other rights are based. 

The crime that General Buhari committed against the entire nation went further however, inconceivable as it might first appear. That crime is one of the most profound negations of civic being.  Not content with hammering down the freedom of expression in general terms, Buhari specifically forbade all public discussion of a return to civilian, democratic rule. Let us constantly applaud our media – those battle scarred professionals did not completely knuckle down. They resorted to cartoons and oblique, elliptical references to sustain the people’s campaign for a time-table to democratic rule. Overt agitation for a democratic time table however remained rigorously suppressed – military dictatorship, and a specifically incorporated in Buhari and Idiagbon was here to stay. To deprive a people of volition in their own political direction is to turn a nation into a colony of slaves. Buhari enslaved the nation. He gloated and gloried in a master-slave relation to the millions of its inhabitants. It is astonishing to find that the same former slaves, now free of their chains, should clamour to be ruled by one who not only turned their nation into a slave plantation, but forbade them any discussion of their condition. 

So Tai Solarin is already forgotten? Tai who stood at street corners, fearlessly distributing leaflets that took up the gauntlet where the media had dropped it. Tai who was incarcerated by that regime and denied even the medication for his asthmatic condition? Tai did not ask to be sent for treatment overseas; all he asked was his traditional medicine that had proved so effective after years of struggle with asthmaNor must we omit the manner of Buhari coming to power and the pattern of his ‘corrective’ rule. Shagari’s NPN had already run out of steam and was near universally detested – except of course by the handful that still benefited from that regime of profligacy and rabid fascism. Responsibility for the national condition lay squarely at the door of the ruling party, obviously, but against whom was Buhari’s coup staged? Judging by the conduct of that regime, it was not against Shagari’s government but against the opposition. The head of government, on whom primary responsibility lay, was Shehu Shagari. Yet that individual was kept in cozy-house detention in Ikoyi while his powerless deputy, Alex Ekwueme, was locked up in Kiri-kiri prisons. 

Such was the Buhari notion of equitable apportionment of guilt and/or responsibility. And then the cascade of escapes of the wanted, and culpable politicians. Manhunts across the length and breadth of the nation, roadblocks everywhere and borders tight as steel zip locks. Lo and behold, the chairman of the party, Chief Akinloye, strolled out coolly across the border. Richard Akinjide, Legal Protector of the ruling party, slipped out with equal ease. The Rice Minister, Umaru Dikko, who declared that Nigerians were yet to eat from dustbins - escaped through the same airtight dragnet. The clumsy attempt to crate him home was punishment for his ingratitude, since he went berserk when, after waiting in vain, he concluded that the coup had not been staged, after all, for the immediate consolidation of the party of extreme right-wing vultures, but for the military hyenas. 

The case of the overbearing Secretary-General of the party, Uba Ahmed, was even more noxious. Uba Ahmed was out of the country at the time. Despite the closure of the Nigerian airspace, he compelled the pilot of his plane to demand special landing permission, since his passenger load included the almighty Uba Ahmed. Of course, he had not known of the change in his status since he was airborne.  The delighted airport commandant, realizing that he had a much valued fish swimming willingly into a waiting net, approved the request. Uba Ahmed disembarked into the arms of a military guard and was promptly clamped in detention.  Incredibly, he vanished a few days after and reappeared in safety overseas. 

Those whose memories have become calcified should explore the media coverage of that saga. Buhari was asked to explain the vanished act of this much prized quarry and his response was one of the most arrogant levity. Coming from one who had shot his way into power on the slogan of ‘dis’pline’, it was nothing short of impudent. 

Shall we revisit the tragicomic series of trials that landed several politicians several lifetimes in prison? Recall, if you please, the ‘judicial’ processes undergone by the septuagenarian Chief Adekunle Ajasin.  He was arraigned and tried before Buhari’s punitive tribunal but acquitted. Dissatisfied, Buhari ordered his re-trial. Again, the Tribunal could not find this man guilty of a single crime, so once again he was returned for trial, only to be acquitted of all charges of corruption or abuse of office. Was Chief Ajasin thereby released? No! He was ordered detained indefinitely, simply for the crime of winning an election and refusing to knuckle under Shagari’s reign of terror.  

The conduct of the Buhari regime after his coup was not merely one of double, triple, multiple standards but a cynical travesty of justice. Audu Ogbeh, currently 'member of Buhari's APC' was one of the few figures of rectitude within the NPN. Just as he has done in recent times with the PDP, he played the role of an internal critic and reformer, warning, dissenting, and setting an example of probity within his ministry. For that crime he spent months in unjust incarceration. Guilty by association? Well, if that was the motivating yardstick of the administration of the Buhari justice, then it was most selectively applied. The utmost severity of the Buhari-Idiagbon justice was especially reserved either for the opposition in general, or for those within the ruling party who had showed the sheerest sense of responsibility and patriotism. 

Shall I remind this nation of Buhari’s deliberate humiliating treatment of the Emir of Kano and the Oni of Ife over their visit to the state of Israel? I hold no brief for traditional rulers and their relationship with governments, but insist on regarding them as entitled to all the rights, privileges and responsibilities of any Nigerian citizen. This royal duo went to Israel on their private steam and private business. Simply because the Buhari regime was pursuing some antagonistic foreign policy towards Israel, a policy of which these traditional rulers were not a part, they were subjected on their return to a treatment that could only be described as a head masterly chastisement of errant pupils. Since when, may one ask, did a free citizen of the Nigerian nation require the permission  of a head of state to visit a foreign nation that was willing to offer that tourist a visa? 

One is only too aware that some Nigerians love to point to Buhari’s agenda of discipline as the shining jewel in his scrap-iron crown. To inculcate discipline however, one must lead by example, obeying laws set down as guides to public probity. Example speaks louder than declarations, and rulers cannot exempt themselves from the disciplinary strictures imposed on the overall polity, especially on any issue that seeks to establish a policy for public well-being.  The story of the thirty something suitcases – it would appear that they were even closer to fifty - found unavoidable mention in my recent memoirs, YOU MUST SET FORTH AT DOWN, written long before Buhari became spoken of as a credible candidate.  

For the exercise of a changeover of the national currency, the Nigerian borders – air, sea and land – had been shut tight. Nothing was supposed to move in or out, not even cattle egrets.Yet a prominent camel was allowed through that needle’s eye. Not only did Buhari dispatch his aide-de-camp, Jokolo – later to become an emir -  to facilitate the entry of those cases, he ordered the redeployment – as I later discovered - of the Customs Officer who stood firmly against the entry of the contravening baggage. That officer, the 'former' Vice-president is now a rival candidate to Buhari, but has somehow, in the meantime, earned a reputation that totally contradicts his conduct at the time.  Wherever the truth lies, it does not redound to the credibility of the dictator of that time, General Buhari whose word was law, but whose allegiances were clearly negotiable." - Wole Soyinka. 

Icheoku says the man who the man in him did not die because he always speaks up in the face of tyranny has once again spoken to alert Nigerians that Muhammadu Buhari must be avoided like a plague if not like EBOLA virus disease. Icheoku says the Nobel Laurette knows what he is talking about and so Nigerians should listen and do the needful by rejecting Muhammadu Buhari. Say no to Buhari, not in 2015 and not in any future time of Nigeria as still existing and constituted. Icheoku says thank you Wole for once again coming through and pointing the way forward at this dark times in Nigeria, when some misguided and disgruntled people are, because of their selfish politics of bitterness, hellbent  on their attempt to force the poison that is Buhari down the throat of unwilling Nigerians. But their will cannot and will never come to pass IJN.

Friday, November 7, 2014

OBASANJO DOES NOT OWN NIGERIA - ABIMBOLA JONES

When Senator Iyabo Obasanjo, daughter of the former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, wrote a vitriolic letter to her father some time ago reminding him that he does not own Nigeria, many of us thought she was a bit too harsh on the old man. Iyabo had, in very strong words, dismissed the former president as an irresponsible father, megalomaniac, liar and hypocrite. It is not that Iyabo said anything new that the public does not know about her father. Even then, some of us thought that coming from a daughter – estranged or beloved – that was way too harsh. But in recent times, Obasanjo himself is beginning to justify his daughter’s public expression of her opinion of her father.
Just a few days ago, Obasanjo continued in what has become his favourite pastime, the public bashing of one of his political sons, Goodluck Jonathan, the Nigerian president while addressing participants in Abeokuta at a programme “First Green Legacy Moments with Chief Olusegun Obasanjo on Leadership and human Security in Africa”. This programme, which we understand was put together by the former president’s shop, Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, in conjunction with the University of Ibadan, had in attendance undergraduate students of Nigeria’s premier university of Ibadan, Obasanjo’s own private university, the Bells University of Technology, Crawford University as well as their vice chancellors, and students from select secondary schools in Ogun State. This was the forum that Obasanjo chose to obfuscate facts and wrongly accuse President Jonathan and his government of failing over power supply.

The former President, according to newspaper reports, had blamed the governments after his, specifically, the Yar’Adua government and the Jonathan government, for failing to implement his administration’s initiative of the National Independent Power Project (NIPP). As always the former president went on and on regaling the young impressionable students and, of course, some of the adult audience who should know how he alone has built up the country right from his military presidency and to his second coming as a civilian. That was typical of Obasanjo who believes that he alone knows Nigeria and he alone can save Nigeria. Wel, there is nothing wrong if the former president derives joy by telling his audience and whoever cares to listen of his unrivalled patriotism and missionary zeal in the service of the fatherland.

Yet what is unacceptable especially from Obasanjo, an elder statesman, iconic personality and former president, is the passing of barefaced lies to younger people looking up to him, as facts. The former President knows full well that he was lying when he repeatedly stated that the present administration has abandoned the NIPP projects. He was equally not telling the whole truth when he is aware that the country is generating more power now than any other time in the nation’s history. It is undeniable that the late President Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua probably hesitated on the NIPP projects. Those who knew him readily agree that it was in the character of the late president, to be sure about probity, accountability and due process in anything he was involved in. He inherited the NIPP project from Obasanjo and all kinds of fuzzy stories of corruption were flying around and Yar’ Adua was never the kind of person who would compromise accountability for speed. He wanted to make sure that Nigerians were not fleeced all in the name of tackling the power challenge through the NIPP projects.

But it is really intriguing that Obasanjo forgot to tell the young ones listening to him that after the initial lull under Yar’ Adua, the Jonathan administration more than his own era has achieved milestones in the power sector. It is equally unfortunate that Obasanjo failed the younger generation listening to him (although the vice chancellors and Professor Akin Mabogunje know the truth) that his NIPP project is defective in design and execution by failing to take into account, the supply of gas to the newly-built power stations across the land. How to get gas to power those plants is one of the challenges that the Jonathan government is dealing with today but Obasanjo would rather obfuscate that fact in his self-praise.

It is understandable anyway that an Obasanjo who still believes that he is the best thing that has happened to our country will never give credit to anyone who has out-performed him in any sector. That is why former President Obasanjo failed to tell the young people around him that President Jonathan by liberalizing the power sector with the privatisation of the power generations and distribution and the consequent unbundling of the former PHCN, took the decision he and previous leaders were afraid to take. Instead, the former president is insinuating corruption and nepotism in the privatisation in the power sector. Maybe Obasanjo has forgotten that he carried out the massive liberalisation that took place in the communications industry, the downstream sector of the oil industry, the ports sector and the Nigerian economy as a whole and Nigerians are aware, how cronies of the former president bought up Nigeria. Nigerians equally know who the real owners of the port terminals in Apapa concessioned by Obasanjo are. The same Obasanjo who, while granting licenses for ownership of private universities, found it convenient to sign one for himself is now accusing Jonathan of selling the power sector to his friends.

It is time Obasanjo came to terms with the fact that a new Sherriff is in town. There is no doubt that the former president has given his best to this country but he must also realise that he does not own Nigeria – just as Iyabo had rightly noted.

Mr Jones, a public affairs analyst, sent this piece from Ikorodu, Lagos.

Thursday, November 6, 2014

BUHARI CAN NEVER RULE NIGERIA AGAIN - ARIBISALA

On Friday, 23rd August, 1985, the military government of Major-General Mohammadu Buhari decided to place me under arrest. My crime was that I wrote, among others, an article entitled: “Counter-trading Nigeria’s Future” in the National Concord, exposing the government’s scam of diverting public funds into private coffers through barter-trade with Brazil. A man by the name of Benson Norman was sent from the State Security Services (SSS) to my office to get me. Not finding me, he left a note that I must present myself unfailingly at the SSS office at 15 Awolowo Road, Ikoyi Lagos the next Monday morning. However, on Sunday, 25th August, 1985, Lateef Aminu came first thing in the morning to my house to inform me that the government of Buhari/Idiagbon had been overthrown. For this reason, I am fond of telling people that God brought about a change of government in Nigeria just because of me.

Coup-plotter
Under the Buhari/Idiagbon regime, once you ended up at 15 Awolowo Road, you may never be heard of again. Decree Number 2 of 1984 empowered Tunde Idiagbon to arrest and detain anybody indefinitely without trial and without legal reprieve. After Buhari was overthrown, Mohammadu Gambo opened the prison doors of 15 Awolowo Road on public television, revealing people in various stages of undress and malnutrition that had been kept in the dungeons without trial by Buhari’s hound-dogs.

As self-imposed Head of State, Buhari had no regard for human rights. Immediately he seized power, he announced that he would “tamper with” the press. Soon, the infamous Decree Number 4 was promulgated which made even the publication of the truth a punishable offence. Under this cover, Buhari jailed innocent journalists, including Tunde Thompson and Nduka Irabo. He abolished civil liberties, promulgated retroactive decrees enabling him to kill Nigerians through jungle justice, proscribed civil society organizations and professional groups and exercised “absolute” power.
This same Buhari would now have us believe that he has gone through some metamorphosis and has become a democrat. I am sure you will forgive me if people like me don’t believe him. Buhari is not, has never been, and will never be, a democrat. Only in Nigeria would a man with his track record, who came to power through a military coup that illegally overthrew a democratic government, now be acclaimed as a democrat. It is on record that Buhari’s military regime is the only one in Nigeria’s history that failed to promulgate a programme for return to civilian rule.

Facts and fiction
So what exactly qualifies Buhari as a democrat today? Precious little! There is nothing democratic about forming and joining political parties just in order to be the presidential candidate. Little wonder then that Buhari’s parties have a short shelf-life. Buhari would like to be Nigeria’s head of state once again. He can no longer achieve this through the barrel of a gun. The only route now open to him is through the democratic process. That is the reason he now conveniently fashions himself as a democrat. It is merely a means to an end; no more, no less.

Buhari’s reputation as an anti-corruption crusader is also a myth. As head of state, he did not make any dent in Nigerian corruption. All we got was a cosmetic “war against indiscipline.” The counter-trade scam happened under his watch. Rather than deal with it, he sent his hound-dogs after nonentities like me who dared to expose it. That scam was no different, in scope and scale, from the petroleum subsidy and other corruption scandals that have since plagued Nigeria. The Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) that Buhari headed under Abacha was also a citadel of corruption. While Buhari himself might not have enriched himself, his cronies and those who worked under him did so handsomely. And he did nothing to correct such looters. So how come he is called a good leader?

On three different occasions, Buhari has run for the presidency. On three different occasions he has failed. That should really be enough. Now he is running again for the presidency a fourth time in 2015, there is no question that he would fail yet again. Try as he might again and again, Mohammadu Buhari can never be President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Buhari’s sectarianism
There is a fundamental reason behind this. Buhari is a bad politician. He is an unbending former military dictator and not a democratic consensus-builder. Like his new ally, Bola Tinubu, Buhari is a regional, sectional politician. Such politicians are practically impossible to package and market nationally in the ethnically-delicate Nigeria of today.
Former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Malam Nasir El’Rufai, one of those Northerners who deserve to be serious contenders for the presidency of Nigeria, observed that Buhari remains “perpetually unelectable” as a result of his “insensitivity to Nigeria’s diversity and his parochial focus.” This is an elegant way of saying that politically, Buhari has an uncanny tendency to put his foot in his mouth. He talks before thinking of the political implications of his words. He shoots from the hip.

The strength of Obasanjo, which enabled him to capture the presidency on two different occasions, was that he was perceived as a broadminded politician, not overly partial to his people in the South-West. As a matter of fact, in his first election, his people did not want him. The strength of Goodluck Jonathan, which propelled him to win the presidency, was that he was able to string together a coalition that stretched both north and south of the Niger. The weakness of Buhari is that he is totally unacceptable to people outside his region.

Buhari is a Northern regional champion. As head of state in the 1980s, his government was unapologetically Northern. No attempt was made to balance the ticket at the top. It was the only regime in Nigeria’s history headed by two Northerners. When he seized power, Buhari put Shagari, the Northern head of state he overthrew, under house arrest. But then he jailed Alex Ekwueme, the Southern vice-president. You may well ask what makes Shagari less culpable for the misdeeds of the Second Republic than his number-two man. The simple fact was that Buhari was Fulani as was Shagari; but Ekwueme was Igbo.

Impolitic words
At the height of the Sharia debate during the Obasanjo administration, Buhari declared that Muslims should vote only for fellow Muslims. This was politically suicidal for a man seeking national office. He became an advocate for implementation of Sharia all over Nigeria. He protested to the Oyo State governor, in the context of a dispute between Fulani herdsmen and indigenous farmers in the state, that “your people are killing my people.” This turned out to be unfounded and perhaps the reverse.

His threats during the campaign for the 2011 elections incited widespread violence in the North after he lost. His supporters went on a rampage; looting and killing; in spite of the fact that, by all accounts, the elections were adjudged the most free and fair in the history of Nigeria’s current democratic experiment. By the time the mayhem had subsided, over 1000 people had been slaughtered in cold blood and some 65,000 displaced.

Forgetting that a statement made in Hausa would readily be translated into English, Buhari later declared unapologetically in a BBC interview: “If what happened in 2011 should again happen in 2015, by the grace of God, the dog and the baboon would all be soaked in blood.” These are the tokens of an irresponsible politician, whose ambitions for power supersede the national interest. Who then are the dogs and baboons that Buhari has in mind to soak in blood if and when he losses yet again coms 2015?
Are they his children or are they those of others?

With the Boko Haram insurgency in the north, Buhari played to the Northern gallery yet again, calling the Jonathan government “the biggest Boko Haram.” Wole Olaniyi was a fly in the wall at a meeting in Kano Government House designed to persuade PDP rebel governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, to decamp to the APC. Assuming that only Northerners were present, Buhari declared the Boko Haram was a “strategic plan” by the government of Goodluck Jonathan to “destroy the North.” When Jonathan declared a state of emergency in Yobe, Borno and Adamawa states, Buhari still saw this with Northern goggles, insinuating that the President is waging war on the North.

President of the North
Without a doubt, Buhari has massive support in the North. Indeed, he is the most popular Northern politician in the North today. But that precisely remains his undoing at the centre. The more he has been identified as a Northern champion, the less attractive he has become as a national choice. Even in the North, his support base is limited to the Muslim population. He does not appeal to Northern Christians. Then there is the added factor of the opposition of his implacable opponents among the Northern elite. Men like Babangida and Atiku would rather die than allow Buhari get to Aso Rock.

One thing is certain, the South-South and the South-East will not vote for Buhari in 2015. Not only that; there are no buyers for Buhari’s sectarian politics in the South-West. No matter what Tinubu might be telling him, the people of the South-West will not vote for Buhari in 2015. We already had the template in 2011, when Buhari tried to sell himself, first by balancing his ticket with a Yoruba man; and then by making sure the Yoruba man is a Christian; a pastor no less. But it just did not wash. It will not work in 2015.
The worst thing that can happen to Northern presidential aspirations in 2015 is for Buhari to be on the APC ballot. That is a sure guarantee that the North will not be providing the next president. Buhari would be a shoo-in in an election for president of Northern Nigeria. But in an election encompassing the entire country, the best he can envisage is to be a kingmaker. He cannot be king. The nearest Buhari will get to Aso Rock in 2015 is by attending the Council of State meetings.

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

WE WILL DEEP THE KORAN IN THE ATLANTIC OCEAN - BUHARI.

"I will continue to show openly and inside me the total commitment to the Sharia movement that is sweeping all over Nigeria. God willing, we will not stop the agitation for the total implementation of the Sharia in the country. Muslims should only vote those who will promote Islam. We are more than the Christians if you add our Muslim brothers in the West."- Chief Imam/Caliph Muhammadu Buhari. 

Icheoku says now you know where the heart of Muhammadu Buhari truly is. Records are kept for a reason, admitted Buhari would rather wish that such his past fiery Islamic rhetorics and propagation statements simply disappeared. But hey, Nigerians will decide if such a zealot is deserving of the highest office in the land in 2015. Say no to Buhari, 'baa abu' Buhari. Not this time and not in the future of Nigeria as is presently constituted and still existing.