DELE ALAKE'S APPOINTMENT, JOE IGBOKWE NOT GOOD ENOUGH?

Icheoku says like a California giant squid with its insatiable appetite and a Pacific octopus with many tentacles combined, the man who owns and runs "T-APC", Ahmed Bolaji Tinubu, continues to  gorge and gobble all posts and positions in the APC, leaving Icheoku to wonder what about the other guys? Bola Tinubu's 'all or nothing' and 'if you don't like it, to hell with you' attitude, must by now be robbing wrongly on some people's mind, particularly those who were hoodwinked into joining the APC thinking they formed a real political party when the APC was birthed? Icheoku has never seen such level of avarice and greed fused together in one person and to make matters worse, Tinubu is only interested in his fellow sons of the soil in his selections and appointments or should Icheoku rather say impositions? 

So now query, if Bola Tinubu is currently acting with this impunity of 'winner takes it all' when he did not and has not personally even won a thing, imagine what would happen to Nigeria's treasury if the unfortunate event that is the nightmare of a Buhari's comeback, ever strikes Nigeria like a bolt of lightening? Can Buhari stop the greedy Tinubu from wrecking havoc on whatever leftover the corrupt Jonathan's government doesn't lay their hands on before 2015? Icheoku really is afraid that Buhari, who could not assert himself now but hopelessly watches on the sidelines as Tinubu fills every position in both the party and his campaign, would not be able to call off Tinubu when the food is finally cooked and ready to serve. 

Imagine the latest imposition by Bola Tinubu of Dele Alake, his former commissioner for Information, as the Media and Campaign Director of the Buhari/Osibanjo Campaign 2015? Icheoku says when would deference to this man, Bola Tinubu, be enough in letting him chose who occupies any available position in both the APC and the campaign organization? Icheoku laments that not even Joe Igbokwe or is it 'Igboekweghi', that shriveling son of wherever he came from, who is been slaving for this Bola Tinubu, was considered good enough for the position? A despicable character, whose apostasy and sleaziness in defense of everything Bola Tinubu, has turned him into a scorned fellow, a somewhat pariah , among his kindred and people of the Southeast, was not deemed a fit and proper person and worthy enough, to be appointed the Media and Communication Director for the Buhari's campaign organization?  Ditto the other sellout Osita Okechukwu and you wonder the agonizing fate which awaits Ndigbo should Tinubu ever have his way by winning election 2015. 

Icheoku is deathly afraid that Ndigbo is in the cross-hairs of Bola Tinubu, who is eager to help finish off what Obafemi Awolowo and Olusegun Obasanjo combined anti-Igbo combustive hatred, could not finish? It is possibly going to be de-javu Obafemi Awolowo conspiratorial decimation of Ndigbo's wealth in corroboration with the usual suspect, the Hausa/Fulanis of Northern Nigeria. Icheoku says in 2015, Ndigbo would be better off casting their lot with Jonathan despite that Jonathan has not done much for Ndigbo. At least he has not killed too many Ndigbo just yet, admitted Ezu River and the brave MASSOB people bear a shocking testimony to his security agencies' intermittent murderous rampages on a defenseless and peace loving Ndigbo. 

Unfortunately, Oha na Eze that is supposed to be providing Ndigbo with political guidance going into 2015 is in disarray; and a dysfunctional organization which is as good as moribund have little to no utility in advancing the course of Ndigbo towards an informed 2015. Icheoku reaffirms that 2015 is indeed heavily pregnant with a monstrosity of no describable pedigree and Ndigbo should be prepared to defend themselves from whatever it might unleash on Nigeria. May God and Allah jointly help salvage Nigerians from what they have unfortunately found themselves entwined in:- a Jonathan that is not good and a Buhari that is even worse, thus making the difference between sleeping on an empty stomach and having a nightmare almost seamless. This is particularly more worrisome a choice for the Igbo nation and a fate which they are forced to deal with come 2015. But for Bola Tinubu, he is damn so TOO GREEDY, it shows!

I DIDN'T SAY THAT - JONATHAN

““I would have loved that the Nigerians in Diaspora vote this year but to be frank with you, that is going to be difficult now. Presently, the law does not allow voting outside Nigeria and so this year Nigerians in Diaspora will not vote but I will work towards it by 2015 even though I will not be running for election.Without security, there is no government. So it is not debatable, it is something we have to address and we are working towards that with vigour. But if I’m voted into power within the next four years, the issue of power will become a thing of the past. Four years is enough for anyone in power to make significant improvement and if I can’t improve on power within this period, it then means I cannot do anything even if I am there for the another next four years after.” - President Jonathan Goodluck, Addisa Ababa, Ethiopia, January 31st, 2011 during an interactive session with Nigerian diplomats working at UNECA and AU.

DONT BE AN ANGRY WENCH, GET HELP.

Icheoku says please get help and don't become a nightmare to people around you, reacting to some childhood molestation or some past bad experience or visiting the iniquities of your past life on an unfortunate victim who merely walked into your life but who did not cause or was the reason for your sadness or angry outbursts. Lola Omotayo-Okoye, the wife of Peter of the P'Square musical duo just did and today she is as wholesome as a fresh milk. Now hear her story:- 

"When I was a young girl in my early teens in high school, I was molested by a Catholic priest. I blamed myself I didn't tell anyone because I was ashamed; I couldn't tell anyone because everyone would blame me, so I carried on the guilt and bitterness with me for years. I was filled with hate and I became an angry person. I was rebellious and didn't want to listen to anybody. I later sought help from a counsellor and today I am whole again, a happy woman." 

Icheoku says way to go and even better because she is sharing the experience in order to help other similarly situated women seek the help they need.

IS APC TRULY A DEMOCRATIC MASS-MOVEMENT PARTY?

Icheoku says NO! In view of the manner Ahmed Bola Tinubu has successfully hijacked all the instrumentality and functionalities of the APC, imposing only those he personally wanted unto the party's various offices as well as hand-picking those standing for 2015 general election against the other party, PDP; it is an anomaly to suggest that the APC is a political party strictly called and not a mere gathering of the flock with their shepherd, Bola Tinubu, corralling them?  Icheoku really is at a loss how any person in APC could sincerely look Nigerians in the eyes and claim to be a member of a political party so called, when he or she has no say nor voice, talkless of an opinion on how things are done in the party. How can any of these people, especially  the supposed party honchos, people like the Fasholas, the Atikus, the Rotimi Amaechis, the Sarakis as well as other APC governors, still pretend to be bona fide members of a political party when they cannot voice an opinion nor decent or counter-argue what their overall boss decrees? How can anyone truthfully say that the dictates of one man qualifies a party as a political party? Where is the internal democracy is such an arrangement?

It is on record how Bola Tinubu forced out Momodu Sheriff from the party; ditto Tom Ikimi after the said Ikimi labored in vain clobbering the APC together; then he imposed John Odigie Oyegun on the party as his preferred chairman; then he took Abubakar Atiku's money and dumped him; he ordered the party to ensure that Muhammadu Buhari gets the ticket as the party's presidential candidate and it was done; then he picked Ambode as candidate for Lagos State governorship regardless of what the incumbent Governor Fashola said or thought; and finally he cemented his vice hold on the party by equally imposing his candidate of choice on Buhari as his running mate. Icheoku asks based on these available evidence of just one man determining and deciding the fortunes of anyone and everyone in the APC, is it fair to still ascribe to the APC the innate quality of being a political party in the strict sense of it? Icheoku asks would it be out of place to canvass for a name change and for the name TInubu, to become a prefix of the APC by changing it to read 'TAPC -  "Tinubu's All Progressive Congress?" 

The worst of these humbled pies who are now mortally traumatized in their standing before the people of Nigeria, as a result of Bola Tinubu's humiliating behavior, are those loud mouth APC governors who find pleasure in attacking President Jonathan but who quickly dissolves into shivering moles with quavering mouths and trembling hands whenever their Lord of the Manor Bola Tinubu shows up. Icheoku asks how can any sane governor allow himself to be so intimidated by another governor, especially an ex-governor for that matter; yet when that governor is not respectful of the president of the country? Certain things indeed does not usually make sense including the present fact of living in trepidation and in bondage of Bola Tinubu by these APC governors? A matter made worse because these humiliated APC governors, none of which was considered fit and qualified enough by Bola Tinubu to be nominated a vice presidential candidate of the party, are still loyal to Bola Tinubu and continuously stand at attention to do his bidding and merely waiting for his command. Icheoku says such slavish servitude is indeed mind boggling and outrightly befuddling. 

May be it is just an ego thing, but Icheoku would rather just remain a respectful governor than to descend into such decrepitude cesspool in the worship of an ex-governor in order to put a facade of pretended political relevance. But hey, they are not Icheoku and Icheoku is not them; but it is safe to say that these APC governors are insanely stupid especially after the vote of no confidence Bola Tinubu passed on them that was the selection of Yemi Osibanjo as the vice presidential candidate of the party? So query, if their slavish-worship of Bola Tinubu thus far have not put them in his good books yet, why then continue? Why continue to trod the path of second-class inferior governors, instead of becoming more assertive in the face of the little man Bola Tinubu? Why don't these governors man up and stand up against Bola Tinubu's continued imposition of his will on them and their party?  It is indeed quite unfortunate  what the APC has become - just a one-man operation; but hey, if you are Bola Tinubu, why not? Icheoku says instead of insisting on internal democracy in the APC,  members of the party have allowed themselves to become so beholden to just one man, Ahmed Bola Tinubu, who dictates to everyone in the party in a cleverly crafted system of governance known  as Tinubuocracy? 

Icheoku says imagine then what would become of Nigeria in the unfortunate event this lone hijacker, successfully, also hijacks the Nigerian state? Imagine a situation where nothing flies up or down in Nigeria except Bola TInubu says so? Imagine where nothing is built or constructed in Nigeria without Bola Tinubu gets his ten percent? Imagine where nobody gets appointed into any position unless Bola Tinubu signs off on the candidate? Imagine where even the president cannot sign the country's budget into law without first including a Bola Tinubu's first drawing rights in the constitution? There are simply so many imagines of havoc, which an overbearing Bola Tinubu could and would inflict on the country that Icheoku is having a nightmare, wide awake in the afternoon, just thinking about it. The thought alone is such that sends spasmodic shudders to the spine and then ask yourself, the kind of  cataclysmic convulsion its actuality will cascade on Nigerians. APC is not a political party and its Bola Tinubu has become a freight train without brakes, bulldozing anything and anyone on his way and absolute power is not what a democratic Nigeria needs at this period. Therefore, Icheoku entreats and begs dear God, to please defer a Bola Tinubu's hostile take-over of Nigeria from ever materializing or to such an infinite future date of NEVER.

POLITICS OF 'STOMACH INFRASTRUCTURE' IS A GOOD POLITICS.

Icheoku says Ekiti State's Governor Ayodele Fayose's example of how to really empower the people by providing them with real democracy dividend, their stomach infrastructure, is indeed a good policy initiative. Icheoku maintains that it is a model policy worthy of emulating and  exploring by all other states, with a view to implementing it throughout Nigeria as a universal policy of the country. It is a trite rule of living that a hungry man is an angry man; and that no hungry person can appreciate any good in anything when his stomach is churning and rumbling, including in huge stadiums no one really needs, government secretariats that adds no value to a state or flyovers when he has no car to drive on them. As the Americans would say "there is no fun in summer when one is hungry"; hence Icheoku commends Governor Ayodele Fayose on this operation feed the people of Ekiti State 'Stomach Infrastructure' program. It is a well thought out idea that will have far reaching benefits for the lucky people of Ekiti State.

It always baffles Icheoku when some state governors or governments in Nigeria fail to appropriately prioritize their initiatives. There was this case of a Member of the House of Representatives and Chairman of then House Committee on Communication during the second republic of President Shagari's government, who went to his rural community and built a post office no one ever once used nor ever wanted. Today the building is empty and rotting away; and only provides shelter for lizards, rats and other rodents in this  predominantly subsistence-farming community. Icheoku believes that were this rural community somewhat near enough to urban areas and within operational zones of armed robbers, the abandoned post office building would have been a very good hiding den for them. But albeit it is so rural and so far removed from civilization that only rodents call it home. So ask yourselves Nigerians what manner of government official would so thoughtlessly locate a facility where it is neither needed nor would add anything of value to the community wherein it is located?

Stories abound everywhere of other such similar white elephant projects which the government usually embarks upon, mainly as a means and conduit to siphon and launder money, as they steal from the people through overinflated contracts, many of which are usually subsequently abandoned. But here in Agodi Ekiti, a man has arisen, a man of the people, a man who is actually on the ground and a man who really understood that no infrastructure ever supersedes that of the stomach. Icheoku says Governor Ayo Fayose understands that majority of the people in the state are hungry and that there is no joy for the hungry and so is doing the needful to assuage this hopelessness. Through a program he appositely termed 'stomach infrastructure', the governor is trying to first save lives and also build up the peoples' stomach infrastructure  through proper nutrition, before other things. Icheoku says it is a good policy initiative worthy of spreading though out the country.

Icheoku says well done Fayose and hopes that other states in Nigeria would emulate his good example and help to also build up their own peoples stomach infrastructures too. It is what  obtains even in advanced democracies throughout the world, where the government's responsibility includes providing nutrition to its less fortunate citizens. Social Security services, Food Stamps, Section 8, Vouchers and many other social services are for example used to provide some form of assistance to citizens of America who are down on their luck. So in Nigeria, where too many people are both down and out on their luck and nearly hopeless that a change in their fortune is within the horizon, a thinking, peoples' orientated government should intervene to mitigate or ameliorate their hardship. Otherwise what is then the need for a government, one would ask, if the peoples' needs cannot be its preoccupation; and it goes without saying that the chief need of humans is to stay alive and to do this, good nutrition is imperative. 

If Icheoku were in authority, priorities would certainly be given to such benevolent policy as providing stomach infrastructure for the people. Instead of spending billions building useless "world-class" stadiums or spending hundred million Naira for just few toilets and bathrooms, Icheoku would spend millions feeding the people. It is the purpose of having a big-brother government and Icheoku hereby declares Governor Ayodele Fayose's Ekiti State government as one very good peoples oriented government. Icheoku says congratulations Governor Fayose on this worthy 'Project Stomach Infrastructure'; and says lucky are the people of Ekiti State who are so fortunately blessed to have such a good man as their governor. Icheoku agrees with the various sentiments being expressed by some of the beneficiaries of this program and whose stomach infrastructures are gradually being built, that Governor Ayo Fayose is a supporter of the common man. Also that he is a grass-root politician to the core and that he will go down in history as the only governor in Nigeria with a genuine interest of the people at heart and also a welfare package for the people, which example is very rear in Nigeria. Icheoku says well done Governor Ayodele Fayose and may you govern long and thrive.

TINUBU'S SURROGATE YEMI OSIBANJO, IMPOSED ON BUHARI?

Icheoku says it has happened yet again as the man who owns, controls and runs APC has fully cemented his stranglehold on the party. By also choosing the vice presidential candidate of the APC, Ahmed Bola Tinubu has  recorded a complete sweep in the picking and imposing of candidates on the party and for every office of the party. From the party chairman to its secretary to Lagos State governorship candidate to its presidential candidate and now to its vice presidential candidate, only one man was the chief decider of who gets what. Icheoku says Asuwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu is indeed a master political tactician and by imposing his surrogate on Buhari as his vice presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu would by extension, be the vice presidential candidate by proxy of Yemi Osibanjo. Icheoku is beginning to admire the political sophistry of this man, Bola Tinubu, who has time and again, proved himself a very deft political player and always had his way regardless of how pissed up or loud his detractors may appear to be. 

Icheoku says the statement made with this very vice presidential candidate's selection is that all the APC governors, including Rivers State's Rotimi Amaechi, were not good enough for a raise? A vote of no confidence was practically assed on them by their godfather and chief benefactor, Ahmed Bola Tinubu; otherwise why did he not promote one of them to the higher office of APC vice presidential candidate? It appears Bola Tinubu scored all of them very lowly, a testimonial that none of them performed creditably well in his judgment and therefore did not merit or deserve a promotion. What a snub of no mean proportion this Osibanjo's selection is, that an erstwhile commissioner was promoted over and above the governor he previously served under, to now become the party's vice presidential candidate. Icheoku says the only possible explanation for this political insolence on these APC governors is that Bola Tinubu does not want any of them including Lagos State Govenor Fashola to climb past him in Nigeria political ladder. Some school of thought has it too that Bola Tinubu began planning Fashola political stalling when he induced him to deport those Igbo Nigerians from their Lagos home and thereby successfully alienated Fashola from the Igbo nation as a pariah. 

The other fact of consequence with this vice presidential candidate's selection is that it once again shows that Bola Tinubu does not care or give a hoot about what anybody says about his intimidating and overbearing domination of the APC. Icheoku says because of this, the man Bola Tinubu does not hide his political agenda or intention from any APC member and usually, publicly, declares his support or interest accordingly and ahead of time. ABT is also a man of resolute fidelity who does not abandon his anointed candidates midway, but successfully sees them to the finish line. He has this sort of 'stop me if you dare and can' scorch-earth audacity. Icheoku says with this Bola Tinubu's  successful manipulation of all the APC nominations, if by dint of luck and handwork, the APC pulls off a victory in 2015, Nigerians would for the first time see a trinity of leadership with Bola Tinubu becoming part of the presidency as a defacto president and vice president combined and pulling the strings behind the curtains. Bola Tinubu would become so powerful that Umaru Dikko's Shagari era would be a too long ago child's play power-grab.  But hey, the APC have to first win the election before he can assert himself and authority and however he chooses. 

The question many analytical observers are actually asking is whether this time, Muhammadu Buhari would reap any electoral mileage out of the chosen Yemi Osibanjo? That Osinbajo is a born-again pentecostal christian, we know and likewise Buhari's former Tunde Bakare? That Osibanjo is a lawyer, we know and likewise Tunde Bakare? That Osinbajo is a Yoruba Southwestern Nigerian, we know and likewise is Tunde Bakare? So what changed now to make this latest Muhammadu Buhari's running mate any different and such that would positively affect the fortunes of Muhammadu Buhari this time around? Icheoku says the problem seems to be with the head of the ticket and not who the tail is; and it probably would not make any difference had Buhari choose even Baba Iyabo or the CAN president Oritsejafor. It is not who Buhari chooses that is the matter but what Buhari means and represents to millions of Nigerians, especially the discerning ones among them. Buhari offended Nigerians' sensibilities and should admit that he ered and make amends for it by first accepting responsibility and asking for forgiveness.

Honestly speaking, Icheoku believes that Muhammadu Buhari is politically damaged in Nigeria and baring a miracle this his latest attempt at the presidency will also meet the proverbial hard rock. Buhari made Nigerians mad, have not apologized for his intransigent misbehavior and for this Nigerians are still bearing him a lot of ill will.  If Icheoku were advising Buhari, we will urge him to goo on a national television, prime-time, and apologize to Nigerians for his highhandedness during his first coming. It will be as simple as "For those who feel offended that because of my youth, I overreached during my military days, I apologize. It was not deliberate meanness but i thought i was doing the best i can under the circumstance to right some perceived national wrongs." Please forgive and forget and lets build our nation together. Icheoku believes that such humbling would elicit commendation from Nigerians and they will be prepared to forgive and forget and to move on. But a continually self-effacing Buhari, pretending that Nigerians were not offended with his first time around, would be mistaken at the rejection which awaits him in 2015. 

But absent of this mea culpa, it does not matter that Buhari accepted a Bola TInubu's surrogate as vice presidential candidate this time as Osinbanjo would not affect his fortunes. Just like Buhari's other former running mates during his three previous presidential runs, Osibanjo is but a local politician with no national name recognition and does not bring any value-added to the ticket. Moreso Osibanjo is too petite, lacks gravitas and does not exude a leader's confidence or inspiration. Osibanjo also has no proven track record of administrative and political accomplishments; and equally lacks knowledge of the broader Nigeria polity to be an effective vice president of Nigeria. Icheoku says Osibanjo does not inspire many Nigerians as should a desirable leader, which many Nigerians crave for and desire to rather have. Yemi Osibanjo is seemingly too debonair and lacks the street-smartness atypical of many a Nigerian politician and might not ably withstand the brawl and bawdily of Nigerian electioneering politics? Nigeria is not there yet with playing refined gentleman politics of ideas by qualified individuals because the overbearing control of gritty and grimy godfathers, who are still picking and choosing whomever  they please and placing them into offices like Bola Tinubu did with the present Yemi Osibanjo.

Icheoku makes bold to project that Yemi Osibanjo would end up like the other pastor/lawyer vice presidential candidate, Tunde Bakare; who could not win or drag needed supporters from the Yoruba Southwest across the line for his then ticket with Buhari. Conversely, Icheoku would be very reluctant to dismiss this Osibanjo out-rightly as a political nitwit, because having accomplished so much in his chosen legal profession, he may be one die hard political operative. For him to have successfully convinced his mentor and  benefactor in chief, Bola Tinubu, to anoint him as the APC vice presidential candidate in a field that was saturated by so many wanna-bees, shows that he has something up his sleeve. The other exception however is that no one is privy to the deal he reached with his said benefactor including  to probably temporarily hold the office at his pleasure. Icheoku says is it possible that Yemi Osibanjo reached an agreement with Bola Tinubu that he will later make way, either by resignation or through impeachment, in order for Buhari to appoint Tinubu as his replacement vice president. Is it possible that Yemi Osinbanjo already executed a post-dated letter of resignation which will be used to force him out in the event he later changed his mind?

But whatever happens and assuming APC manages to ease out PDP from office, the office of the vice president is not after all that a big deal. As Olusegun Obasanjo proved to Nigeria with his humiliation of then vice president Abubakar Atiku, a vice president is but a glorified clerk in Aso Rock? Any mad president such as Obasanjo, could so frustrate his vice president that such vice president, if he had what it takes, would simply resign to retain his sanity and maintain his dignity. Atiku did not so do, but whether Osinbanjo would, the jury is still out and would remain out until providence deals it's hand. Icheoku in essence is saying that a vice president could only have as much power and influence as the president wants him to have or benevolently confers on him. Ditto, State deputy governors, who are just wallowing in name only and which forced the deputy governor of Kebbi State to resign just recently because of redundancy. 

So given that Obasanjo did it to Atiku; Yar'Adua did it to Jonathan and Jonathan could but is not yet doing it to Namadi, what stops Buhari from consigning Osibanjo to the kitchen or even locking him away in a closet in Aso Rock, afterall Yemi's very petite stature would conveniently fit into such confined spaces? Nigerians especially those who found home in the APC are taking for granted the fact that Jonathan has been very magnanimous in empowering his vice president Namadi. But that does not in any way show that a vice president has suddenly become a powerful position or commands so much influence that it should begin to matter who is in occupation therein. Therefore whether Yemi Osibanjo or Bola Tinubu wearing the mask of Yemi, it does not matter because no one knows what the unpredictable Hausa/Fulani has up their sleeve? What if they are merely playing dumb all along, just tagging along with all Bola Tinubu's dictates simply to get their power back?  What if after they become mission accomplished and they decided to kick away the ladder of Tinubu that helped them scale over the fence of Jonathan? Icheoku asks what would be the remedy in the event Miyetti Allah and their alter-ego, Buhari, decided later to lock out both Bola Tinubu and his Yemi Osibanjo from power. But who knows and Icheoku does not have any clue whatsoever nor an insider knowledge either. 

Finally, Icheoku would like to end this piece by once again reiterating the indelible place history has now placed Bola Tinubu in Nigerian politics. With the Yemi Osibanjo selection now firmly tucked in under his arm, Ahmed Bola Tinubu has fully confirmed his absolute and total and complete control of a major political party in Nigeria. Icheoku says now that ABT has cemented his majority shareholding and near full ownership status of the APC, from Icheoku to Asuiwaju, congratulations; all the best. Icheoku says congratulations also to APC, Buhari, Osibanjo as well as other members of the party that are working tirelessly and assiduously to give Nigerians a viable opposition party alternative. It is a new day and indeed a good day that finally there is a viable party to challenge the PDP for the hearts and minds of Nigerians and provide them with an option if desired. Once again, to the man behind all the powers of APC, the spirit that breathes life into APC, the oracle of APC, the deity of APC who bequeaths anyone he chooses with political offices in APC, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, Icheoku says respect. February 14 2015 is a Valentine's day and a day of reckoning, when Nigerians will be persuaded to fall in love with either Jonathan/Namadi or Buhari/Tinubu by proxy of Osibanjo. Until then, Icheoku 'dey laugh ooo' in anticipation; salutes all and says may the electioneering campaign fireworks now go into full gear and full throttled. 

BUHARI AND A 'MINI-ME' RUNNING MATE?

Icheoku says finally at last, little people will now have their day in the court of Nigeria politics and stand on a stool to be seen and recognized. The APC has clobbered together two polar opposites in an unholy presidential ticket matrimony? The presidential candidate is quite tall while the vice presidential candidate is too shorty he is so little to be a leader; except that in the event the ticket wins, he might become Nigerian Napoleon Bonaparte with the syndrome? Boy, is the APC vice presidential candidate one very little, petite, short dwarf or should Icheoku just say one finicky midget for crying out loud? 

At less than five feet tall, that would make him the shortest and smallest person to ever dream of becoming a vice president of Nigeria. But hey, it is Nigeria and therein, everything is strangely possible. All hail Nigeria's APC for giving Nigerians this mixed blessing of a tallie and his dwarfie running mate presidential dream or rather nightmare team. Icheoku says with this ticket, February 14, 2015 have indeed become more heavily pregnant and Nigerians will deliver whatever is inside that protruding stomach but Icheoku prays it is not a monster nor a Frankenstein?

JONATHAN BRIBES LAMIDO FOR SUPPORT 2015?

Icheoku sometimes envies the political tenacity of the Hausa/Fulani political class. Imagine just one man holding President Goodluck Jonathan  hostage with his support for the president's reelection bid of 2015, with the president begging him; but he will not and did not bulge until the president paid his demanded kings ransom? Icheoku says a huge feat like this, pulled off by just one governor, would be rather very difficult if not impossible for the entire Ndigbo to replicate? Could Ndigbo imagine this and be ashamed that what they could not contemplate, was achieved by just one governor. 

Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State personally confirmed this development after meeting with President Jonathan at Aso Rock where the president literally agreed to pay the price for his support. According to the governor, “I had a frank discussion with the president today in Abuja and I am convinced that he will redeem his pledges; therefore, I will support him.  The president made commitment to fulfilling all campaign promises he made to my state in 2011. President Jonathan further assured me that the Federal Government would refund the money spent by my state government to construct Dutse International Airport; and also promised to rehabilitate and complete the Hadejia Irrigation Scheme and the Gaya-Jahun-Miga road project." 

Icheoku says President Jonathan having now fully paid or agreed to pay the king's ransom for Governor Sule Lamido's support, the governor will now as a trade, support  Jonathan's 2015 reelection bid? Icheoku says this is politics 101 at its best, but which type of wheel-dealing politics  unfortunately the rambunctious Ndigbo lacks a capability. Like a cheap prostitute, Ndigbo are once again offering their support to Jonathan free of charge, despite the fact that they have not reaped any benefit for their previous 2011 almost en-bloc support. Anyway this is what usually happens wherever there is a leadership vacuum as is presently afflicting Igbo nation. A desirable but currently unavailable leadership, which would have galvanized and articulated Igbo nations position and then make pointed demands of Jonathan as a trade for their support in 2015. Icheoku laments the pitiful fate which has befallen Ndigbo, a rudderless people with no real political value nor actual political relevance in Nigeria. What a shame!

PUTIN'S EGO, TAKING RUSSIA DOWN?

Icheoku says it is only a man so full of himself and in a rather comical and ironical way, that does not know when to pack it up and go? One of Kenny Rogers' song is very instructive on when to stop the gambling and call it a day. Icheoku says Russian strong man Vladimir Putin has reached that critical stage in his facedown with the West and should now do the needful in order to stop the bleeding Russians and their economy is currently undergoing. Icheoku says Putin should know that his strength is only perceived within Russia and similarly limited to inside Russia, but not when the entire civilized world is banded together against his aggression in Ukrainian Crimea as well as Eastern Ukraine. As a result, his bloated ego, his living in the past of a once "glorious" Soviet era coupled with his attitudinal cockiness,  has pushed his country's luck rather too far and today a once growing Russian economy is spiraling south and at a whirlwind pace, so fast, it hurts. Icheoku calls on Vladimir Putin to do the statesmanlike thing  and for the love of his fellow Russians and their economic well-being, help plug the increasing leakage of the country's economy. 

Their chief foreign exchange earner oil has taken a dive for the worse in the world market and is threatening to take down their currency Rouble along too. A result of now severely biting economic and monetary sanction imposed by the West and their Asia allies for his meddling in an otherwise purely internal affairs of a sister country, Ukraine. Icheoku adds that the government in Kiev was justified in trying to quell the uprising in its eastern region, their legitimate territory and no one including Putin's Russia has the right to question their action; after all the same Putin did it in Russian Chechnya. Icheoku therefore says that Russian lacks the moral standing to query the actions of Kiev and interfering in the internal affairs of the country is both wrong and condemnable and is here therefore condemned. Further, it is also wrong for Vladimir Putin to rush in and grab Ukrainian Crimea under the pretext that he was saving Russians there living. Such armed brigandage is an unacceptable behavior of a civilized modern day leader of a country as big as Russia. The days of acquiring territories of another by force is since over, the reason there is United Nations and no pretext whatsoever justifies Putin's land grab of Crimea. 

Icheoku says if those Russians living in Ukrainian territories no longer finds it home enough, they should like the Jews of the world are doing, vacate therefrom and move back to Russia but they must leave the land for its rightful owners. They are not allowed and must not be allowed to move with the land back to Russia. It is not done and should not be tolerated. It is akin to telling Israel to invade France, United States, Argentina or even Iran, simply because Jews live there and therefore those lands should automatically become Jewish lands? Icheoku says Putin lost the argument because there is no one country on earth that is purely homogeneous in population and Russia will not be an exception. Crimea as well as all the lands of Eastern Ukraine belong to Ukraine and any resident therein who does not like the fact that they speak Russian and are living in Ukraine, should simply migrate back to their own agreeable motherland; after all Russia is a vast country and would always find accommodation and space for all its returning Russian citizens from Ukraine and elsewhere. 

Icheoku says now the bleeding of the Russian economy must stop and only Vladimir Putin can do this. The war of world's economic supremacy cannot be won by Russia, not when they control none of its levers. The condition for lifting the sanction is not that strict, all Russia is expected to do is just vomit the swallowed Crimea and pull out Russian military from Eastern Ukraine. Thereafter, Russians can watch their Rouble roar back to life and peradventure Saudi Arabia would be persuaded to put a stop to the plummeting oil price so that Russians can reset and start building back lost territories of their now moribund economy. Icheoku says the people of Russia are hurting and even the rich is also becoming poorer due to loss of value of their monetary assets. What any feeling and caring leader would do now is whatever is needed to help stop this slide down a slippery slope. Icheoku says there is no ego that is too much at stake here because the primary reason for any leader's existence, is to protect his people. Putin should know that with the Western imposed sanction continuing erosion of their Rouble and the free-falling oil price that it is the Russian people that are at the tip of the spear and needs some immediate reprieve and NOW. Please Vladimir Putin, this is your "tear down this wall" moment, make the West lift the sanction, do what is needed.

EMIR OF KANO SANUSI, NOW A BOKO HARAM TARGET?

Icheoku says the mallam extraordinaire himself is now officially in the crosshairs of Boko Haram and like his predecessor Late Emir of Kano Ado Ibrahim, might be similarly targeted for elimination by the terrorists? Abubakar Shekau, the elusive Supreme Commander of Boko Haram Islamic Insurgency Force, has issued a fatwa on  Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II. The terrorist want the Emir  dead and said his terrorist jihadists will attack Emir Sanusi whenever an opportunity presents itself. Calling Emir Sanusi a fake Muslim, Shekau said “Now listen to me Emir of Kano. I am talking to you and only you because of your recent utterances. Let me inform you now that you are late, you should know that you are only but the King of Kano, King of Central Bank, King of money, you are only Sanusi Lamido. 

Our own government is defined as government of the Allah by the Allah and for the Allah not as you define your own government as the government of the people by the people and for the people. Emir of Kano Sanusi you are late, that our triumph is just for a period of time so you said.  Yes you can say that our success is for a period of time, because you are a king of Bank and a loyal citizen of his country. Because you are made the Emir of Kano that is why you got angry and was calling on the Vigilante groups and hunters to attack us. Let me tell you that the hunters and the vigilante groups will fail and you will also fail. We will kill you, we will kill people, we will capture hostages and keep selling some.” 

Icheoku says with the latest threat on the person of the Emir of Kano, the second highest Muslim leader in the Nigeria, this Boko Haram have indeed proved beyond all shadows of doubt that they are not Muslims or a different kind of Muslim which kills fellow Muslim in the name of Islam. Icheoku queries who then is the true Muslim if Boko Haram in the same breath condemned every Islamic sect in the country as heresy and which should be completely exterminated. Now Nigerians, you now know; so let every one join hands in bringing this madness that is Boko Haram to an immediate end; as no one knows who they would target next. Icheoku prays Allah to protect the Emir from any harm this Boko Haram terrorists might plan or wage against him.

I HAVE THICK SKIN BUT NOT THICK MIND - BOLA TINUBU.

"I ask the people to remove religion from the electoral equation now that the tickets of both parties are balanced and mixed.  I ask you to select the ticket best able to end the downward slide that Nigeria has endured since this government took over. I ask you to remember that too many Christians and Muslims alike are poor. Most of all, I ask you to remember that the true religion of the PDP is poverty,  APC comes to bring prosperity to the people.  Please vote for that. I have committed myself to seeking what is the best for this nation before seeking what is good for myself." - Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu. 

PAKISTAN TALIBAN'S BRUTALITY MAKES BOKO HARAM LOOK HUMANE?

Icheoku says when one thinks Nigeria's Boko Haram kidnap of hundreds of school girls which they later sold into slavery has topped it off, here comes the other marauding Islamic beasts of Pakistan, killing hundreds of school children. At least Boko Haram took their captives alive but the Pakistani Talibans were too blood thirsty and showed no mercy. The Taliban gunmen stormed a school in Peshawar and slaughtered over 140 school children and their teachers including their headmaster or principal in the worst of the worst barbarism ever witnessed in the restive Pakistan. Icheoku says give me Boko Haram's kidnapping Chibok school girls any day than the Pakistan Taliban massacring hundreds of innocent students in this manner. 

However this is not the first time a school massacre has ever taken place as Sandy Hook Elementary School New Jersey also witnessed such when an estranged man went into a kindergarten and killed over twenty school kids before killing himself. Unfortunately, these so many killings are beginning to numb peoples minds and also desensitize their humanity. Icheoku says but what led to this loss of innocence that the whole world is currently experiencing with virtually no peace anywhere. To the bereaved families in Penshawar Pakistan, Icheoku says please accept pour condolences and we pray your government gets a handle on the murderous Taliban insecurity situation in your country. 

NDIGBO ARE SO COMPLETELY MARGINALIZED, IT IS MADDENING?

Icheoku says for the first in the history of politics in Nigeria, the Igbo nation has been completely and totally shut out and consigned into the cold doldrums of irrelevance in Nigeria political affairs? Today Ndigbo are lost, wandering without a shepherd, in the vast wilderness that is Nigerian politics and as a result, nobody fights for what belong to them any longer. An otherwise formerly vibrant political group, but who, due to the vacuousness of a few presently masquerading as their leaders but who suffer the mentality of the vanquished, has been left out of contention in Nigeria political affairs. Currently Ndigbo are treated with such levity and as if they don't matter at all and anymore in charting the destiny of Nigeria in which they are fellow stakeholders? Ndigbo are compelled to fruitlessly beg for practically everything and anything they NEED, including a bridge, things which other nationalities in Nigeria get for granted? Recall that the same Jonathan administration has since completed a bridge over River Benue for Kogi/Nasarawa people, but River Niger..........???????

Icheoku queries why should a bona fide member and co-owner of something has to first beg other equally co-stakeholders for their own share of the general pie? Something does not sit well with this picture and Ndigbo has to wake up and forcefully demand as of right what is rightfully theirs. The great ZIk and Owelle of Onitsha, Timber and caliber KO Mbadiwe, Iheonukara Mike Okpara, Akanu Ibiam, Dennis Osadabey, Mbanefo, CC Onoh, Mbazulike Amechi, Nwafor Orizu, Dee Sam Mbakwe and other Igbo champions of the yore, some of who must be turning in their graves and wondering what went wrong with Igbo feistiness and assertiveness in Nigeria? How could Ndigbo stand aloof and watch as other tribes in Nigeria appropriate for themselves alone all that they collectively own together? Icheoku refuses to believe or blame it on the Biafran war of forty something odd years ago and says this got to stop. Why are Igbos playing inferior to other tribal nations in Nigeria; why? why? why, Ndigbo why? 

The worse of it all is that other Nigerians including minorities are occupying the high table of Nigeria with Ndigbo holding the beggarly plate at the floor and tearfully begging to be given even some morsel from their feast? But what do they do in response, they are continuously ignoring Ndigbo and dictating what to hand to them as if Ndigbo are no longer a congruent part of the entity called Nigeria? If these other Nigerians have peradventure severed Ndigbo from Nigeria, let them be courageous enough to voice it out and let Ndigbo know they no longer belong to Nigeria; but this impetuous marginalization of Ndigbo cannot go on or remain unchallenged forever. Icheoku says if this state of complete isolation is not perturbing any other Igbo person, it perturbs Icheoku; and Icheoku adds that any unperturbed Igbo person is not worthy of the Igbo semen and ova that beget him or her and should hide his face in utter shame. Why must this situation be allowed to continue, as this people, in defiance of Dee Sam Mbakwe caution, continues to eat the fish which belongs to the man still awake without being asked why? Please can someone tell Icheoku it is not about time, Ndigbo man up and stand up for their rights in Nigeria? 

How a whole nation of Ndigbo, a very prominent leg of the tripod that holds up Nigeria together, could be so completely ousted from its political affairs, without any consequence, still forces Icheoku into stupid stupor? How could the country still stand and function on only two legs when the third has been thus severed, discarded and practically thrown away? Icheoku laments that for the first time in the history of Nigeria's self governance, two major political parties, PDP and APC, are operating seamlessly without any Igbo person in any key office or position? Both parties'  presidency (candidate), vice presidency (candidacy), party chairman, party secretary as well as the other main party leadership position, chairman of board of trustees, are held by none Igbo people? So thus marginalized and locked out, what then is the relevance of Ndigbo in continuing the membership of the Nigerian state, when they are not needed and do not matter any longer and in such a way that the ship of the state could still be so safely steered without them in the engine room? 

Icheoku does not know about the rest of other Igbo people but this crass attitudinal indifference by these other Nigerians to the plight and concerns of Ndigbo is surely one heck of concern to Icheoku and should be for any true son or daughter of Igboland. Icheoku wonders how did things get so bad for Ndigbo in Nigeria? When Icheoku was beginning to conclude that it is only the Jonathan administration and his PDP that has so marginalized Ndigbo in every manner and facet in Nigeria and for the very first time in Nigeria, here comes the APC, equally telling Ndigbo that they don't matter in Nigeria, not anymore? The APC presidential candidate is a Northern, their vice presidential candidate is potentially South-westerner, their party chairman is a minority South-south, their party secretary is a Northerner, their chairman of board of trustees is a North-central and their spokesman is a North-central too? So where does this arrangement leave Ndigbo? Please Icheoku need answers if you have got one.

How have the mighty Ndigbo fallen? How did the once beautiful bride of Nigerian politics, whom everyone and every political party in Nigeria once sought after, including Ndigbo hater-in-chief Obafemi Awolowo, come to this inconsequential grinding halt in Nigerian politics. How did Ndigbo hit rock-bottom in Nigeria politics? Something has definitely terribly gone wrong in Nigeria and particularly in Ndigbo nation, that such thumbing in the face would go on thus far without any serious challenge or even total  confrontation. It appears the Biafran war defeat did not actually come with the end of hostilities in 1970; it seems the final "defeat or routing" of Biafrans suddenly came now under the cunning fox that is President Goodluck Jonathan? Not even under the other Igbo-hater Baba Iyabo has Ndigbo had it this badly; otherwise how does anyone try to fathom an explanation for the hands which Jonathan has dealt Ndigbo since he came to power, largely with the help of Ndigbo bloc-vote. 

Icheoku says for the first time in Nigeria history and under President Jonathan's watch, no Igbo person is occupying any of the office of the presidency, vice presidency, speaker of the house, senate president, chief justice of the federation, attorney general, army chief, police chief, navy chief, internal affairs minister, chairman joint chief of staff, customs chief, immigration chief, cbn governor, ports authority chairman, railway chairman, nnpc group managing director, petroleum minister or any other highly sensitive and/or very lucrative position in the government. To add insult to injury, the same foxy Jonathan, cleverly looked the other way as no Igbo person was made either the chairman or secretary of his political party, the PDP; yet some town criers want Ndigbo to believe that this very Jonathan's love for Ndigbo is akin to biblical David's?  Icheoku says "am losing my mind thinking about "this kind of love as I never see am oo." Please anybody who knows Jonathan should tell him that Ndigbo are complaining bitterly and loudly too and might take vengeance with their votes come 2015, Buhari or no Buhari.

NIGERIA CAUGHT IN THE WEB OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICS?

Icheoku says world oil price plummeted further today, to a  new low of $55 per a barrel. Today's price is the lowest the gluey substance has been in recent years. It dose-dived from its high peak of $110 just a few weeks ago to the new half-off price and there is no sign in the horizon that OPEC would ever see a new price rocket, not anytime soon? There is even speculation among financial analysts and oil traders that before Christmas, just nine short days hence, that the world might see oil price forced down below $40 per barrel and Icheoku asks what would Nigeria, a country whose 94% of foreign exchange earner is oil-based, do? If nothing else adequately explains the dark gathering clouds, lets say it is simply ominous. The economies of these OPEC countries particularly those with no other solid industrial base to help cushion the effect of this oil price bottom-drop, will seriously  take a hit. 

Anyway it is international politics and as always when two elephants fight, the little shrubs suffer; so caught in the crossfire of the turf war over Ukraine between the United States cobbled Western powers and Vladimir Putin led Russia, other little flies in the oil producing business like Nigeria, Venezuela and Iran are now partaking in the bitter meal prepared for Russia. An oil price smack-down attack primarily targeted at Russia to force them on their knees and eventually make them vomit the swallowed Ukrainian city of Crimea as well as stop their meddlesome interloping in eastern Ukraine, is now affecting these other countries. It is the unintended consequences of Washington DC concert with Riyadh against Kremlin or what Collin Powell would rightly call collateral damage in a warfare. 

So Icheoku wants to know what a country like Nigeria, which had made provisions in their economy based on the high $110 oil price, would do now that their foreign exchange earner is selling half their original budgeting estimate? Where do they plan to find the balance or are they going to cut down on services and capital developments to fit into their new reality. Anyway, Iran, Venezuela as well as emerging new oil sheiks of America, who found fracking the new money spinner, are now licking their wounds because of the multi billion dollar investments they have made so far in the fracking industry. The Americans, projecting to overtake Saudi Arabia as world's largest oil producer within the next few years, are now wondering what hit them and contemplating the next step forward, having seen their golden goose now laying silver eggs instead, due primarily to one country's machination? 

Icheoku says the world now know why the Kingdom of Saud is a very important player in world oil politics, such that whenever they sneeze, the world oil supply and price catches either cold or fire, depending on their intended objective. A small country with a population of less than seventeen million people, controlling more than 69% of the total proven oil reserve in the world, is one heck of a big player in the manipulation of oil supply and price. The only good news out of this is that for the first time in nearly twelve years, Americans are now beginning to see pump gasoline price go below $2 ($1.89)per gallon from the very high of $6 per gallon at its peak.  Icheoku says like a fat kid loves cake, we are loving it, the fact of this new gasoline pump price. It is one man's loss which spells gain in another man's wallet and as a consumer, Icheoku is loving the price war.

We also pray that, like the biblical Pharaoh struck deaf, that Putin never listens nor hears that oil price is going down the toilet alongside his Rouble currency which has lost half its value so far; and may Saudi Arabia continue to stick it to OPEC and may their almighty oil go as low as $7 per barrel for all Icheoku cares. Possibly with the Nigeria situation, a useless oil might help quell the ever restive Niger Delta original terrorists? Icheoku asks who would not want to fill his tank with less than $20 from the high eighties we paid before the current bonanza, for crying out loud. As for all those country who rely solely for their foreign exchange earner, on the volatile oil, which unfortunately they do not have control over, Icheoku says may be it is about time they put on their thinking cap and figure out how to live a life without the black liquid. 

SYDNEY SIEGE, ISLAMIC TERRORISM PERMANENT STATE OF FEAR?

 Icheoku says unfortunately our world forever changed since that fateful Tuesday morning of September 11, 2001 when the whole world helplessly watched as two planes plowed into World Trade Center buildings in New York? Icheoku asked then and continues to ask now what would make some young men so incensed that they would fly jumbo jets into a building, killing themselves as well as several thousand innocents in the process? Anyway, America has since moved on from the events of that day, admitted no one has forgotten nor will ever forget the unfathomable horrific tragedy that was 9/11. Since then, in response to the attack, several wars have been waged and fought on several fronts and countries and some of them are still continuing till date and may never conclusively see an end. Was what those 9/11 hijacker did reprehensible, you bet; was the response commensurate and specifically tailored to meet the provocateurs'  provocation, Icheoku says not when the attack on Iraq is factored in; as that was rather a stretch and an off-course frolic excessiveness, notwithstanding the passion that was provoked in Americans by the attack on their financial headquarters.  

Unfortunately the same Islamic terrorism has been popping up everywhere from Nigeria to Somalia to Kenya to Mali to Europe to Russia to Israel and practically anywhere and everywhere they find soft targets and sometimes like in Syria, became embolden enough to take on a sitting government. Today it reared its ugly head once again in the land known for its kangaroos and koala bears as well as vastness. It struck in a cafe in downtown Financial District Sidney Australia in what has become known as the Sidney Siege. There an Islamic zealot, Man Haron Monis, held over a Lindt Chocolat Cafe, taking so many hostage; which hostage-situation lingered on for over sixteen hours before the security forces stormed the cafe, freeing the remaining hostages but not before the gun man as well as two others, Tori Johnson and Katrina Dawson, died in a crossfire. Icheoku says may their souls including that of the gunman now rest in peace. 

Icheoku says what a shock indeed it must have been for the Aussies who always marvel at how Americans manage to cope under the siege of gun violence that has since taken over America? Ironically while the siege of Sidney was going on, another crazed-out gunman in America, Bradley William Stone, shot and killed six people in Philadelphia suburbs,  including his ex-wife, his ex-mother in-law, his ex-grandmother in-law, his ex-sister in-law and her husband and own his daughter by the now dead ex-wife. Icheoku makes bold to say that in America people are sort of now used to the fact that people die and people get shot and people also get killed by gunshots. It is a kind of past time and no longer a biggie that we kill each other every day and sometime on public television or caught on camera like the choke-hold death in New York or the little twelve year old boy in Ohio that was shot dead without being giving a chance to drop his toy-gun? But the Aussies, not being used to gun violence, must be sorrowfully wondering what kind of a bad Christmas present this Islamic lunatic brought to their Sidney; but in America, we clean up and we move on.

Icheoku says the Western culture has been dismissively waving off these sporadic attacks by Muslim terrorists as lone wolf attacks, but Icheoku says it is about time it is treated for what it is - a conflict of cultures, trying hard to dominate one another. It is about time the West called a meeting with these Islamic countries that produce these lunatics and find a way to tackle the ideology that feeds this kind of reprehensible behavior. Admitted it is going to take a long time to achieve a workable solution but it is a course worth exploring in order to effectively stop the bleeding which their activities is causing both our purse, our human resources as well as our collective general psychology. Admitted also that the West might win all the big battles of declared battle grounds, but how do we go about winning the little tiny minutia battles like the Sidney cafe Siege, which we do not know where and when they will pop up?  

Today in our world, we have al Querida worldwide, al Nasura Front, ISIS, Boko Haram, Maghreb, al Shabaab, Yemeni and other sundry pockets of Islamic terrorists running amok in different parts of the world. Query, if this terrorism is not religious-tinged, why are all these terrorists  groups all MUSLIMS and the spread of Islam motivated? Icheoku says it is about time the West stopped lying to itself about the motivation of these terrorists who possibly have backers from their Islamic home countries, and accept the declared war by the Islamic culture against their own civilization and give them a bloody nose and once and for all resolve the question of supremacy. Icheoku says now is the time to do this or the West will forever continue to live in fear and trepidation for not knowing when and where this terrorists would strike. 

The worse of them all are the enemies in our midst, who are freely living among us and yet plotting evil against us. Icheoku says is such conduct still becoming of a good GUEST's behavior or is it better to just deport all these fanatics back to their various home countries and remain permanently shut out from the West? Why would they leave their oppressive Islamic countries for the West, yet bring along  with them their violent way of life. Icheoku says if they had it so good with what they had back home, why did they live their countries in the first place? But regrettably, the West is not even serious tackling these terrorists everywhere, otherwise why have they not supported Nigeria in their fight against Boko Haram by at least selling them weapons. Icheoku says it is very unfortunate that Nigeria has been begging to buy weapons from the West to help them fight Boko Haram; they are not asking the West to give them hand-out but want to pay for them,  yet the West would not deal. So please can anyone with better knowledge tell Icheoku how this war on global jihadist terrorism would be fought and won if the West continuously remain very  selective in what they consider Islamic terrorism worth fighting and those ones they treat as mere Africans' problem? 

Anyway living in fear of these jihadists has become part of our way of life in the West and there is no silver bullet to shoot down this phobia. All Icheoku could advise is for everybody to be of permanent good behavior and also remain in permanent peace with his/her maker, just in case the next visit to a Star Bucks coincidentally becomes the day another one of these lunatics would be holding the place up and life as we know it evaporates as result. What a sad commentary the Sidney Siege is and Icheoku prays for strength and God's fortitude to families of all the deceased; and also courage for the rest of us still around not to cower under such continuing acts of terror. Their Sidney siege is but a rest-stop in their universal siege and the world must fight back and fight harder and if more bloody, so be it. But winning this war on terror is not going to be anytime soon if ever. On a hindsight, may be we should have left them alone under Saddam Hussein butchery and not unnecessarily stir the hornet's nest in the first place. Now they have scattered everywhere and are unleashing their sting as they see fit and get the opportunity. Icheoku says they have murdered peace and should themselves not know peace! 

LIFE IS CRUEL, DEPORTATION IS UGLY?

Icheoku says you are looking above pictured, part of some one hundred Nigerians recently deported from Norway, as they are trying to figure out what indeed happened to them at Muritala Mohamed airport in Lagos. Icheoku says with experiences like this, which now occur in Lagos nearly on a daily basis, one begins to wonder if these checking out is indeed worth it after all? Look at the guy in red pants left bottom, carrying all he was able to acquire in Norway in his see through garbage bag, and you wonder whether his plane ticket and the cost of obtaining Visa out of Nigeria was even realized? 

Anyway it is life and life is somewhat cruel and shows no mercy. Like with every deportation, they get you and you are gone; and it does not matter what you own or have, including money in the bank; admitted with plastic cards, you can access your money from anywhere in the world including the Sambisa Evil Forest, provided you first check with Boko Haram to ascertain their charges and fees? Icheoku says as is usually with such uprooting, it will take time to decompress, but these people will survive. What an unhappy Christmas, the Norwegians have brought to these Nigerians by forcefully returning them from a land whence they escaped. Life is indeed cruel.

WINNIE MANDELA, A STRONG WOMAN NOT GIVEN HER DUES?

Icheoku just re-watched "Mandela, long walk to freedom", a movie about the life and times of the South African legend; a man who sacrificed so much of his life to achieve freedom for his people. A very good movie indeed - well acted and nicely choreographed too as well as its scenic cinematography. But the movie is not the purport of this essay, it only provided Icheoku with a brain-jolt to look into the real heroine of the apartheid struggle without whom, possibly Nelson Mandela would not have become the legend he became. 

Icheoku says Winnie Madikizela Mandela played a very important role, may be of equal significance if not more important than Nelson Mandela himself, in the struggle for a free South Africa. While Nelson was imprisoned, she dutifully held the fort, raising their children while simultaneously, bravely organizing and leading the uprising that eventually toppled South Africa apartheid government. She also suffered untold discomfort from the same apartheid South African government trying to make her abandon the struggle. From Nelson Mandela's early activist days to his imprisonment to his release and eventual presidency, Winnie was rock-solid behind her man and lived her life in full commitment to the ideals of the struggle. For these Icheoku says Winnie Mandela has earned her place in the pantheon of history as a heroine of the South Africa liberation struggle and should be so fully acknowledged and recognized.

Icheoku is emphatic that but for Winnie, Nelson would possibly have compromised the struggle or accepted a release from prison deal from the government or even worse, died brokenhearted behind the walls of Robbin Island prison? But any man would brave the situation. knowing fully well that he has an indefatigable wife or partner getting his back and that while he was gone, someone was taking care of business on his behalf. Icheoku asks which man would not pray to be so blessed with such a woman as Winnie Mandela faced with similar circumstances? While Nelson Mandela was locked away, Winnie held fort, Winnie took care of business and Winnie sustained the struggle for liberty of the oppressed black majority under White minority apartheid South Africa. An epitome of strength and courage, who herself was severally harassed, intimidated and locked up in solitary confinements just to break her resolve but she did not bulge nor cower. 

Icheoku says if a "STRONG WOMAN" ever existed, Winnie Mandela is that she; and Icheoku is one proud loving man of  strong women, provided their strength is in holding fort when duty calls but not on needless confrontations and disrespectful, scornful mannerism towards their husbands. As demonstrated by Winnie, strong women should be source of strength to their husbands but not their nightmare; they should be capable of effectively stepping in and filling their husband's big shoes when duty calls and do it without much complain. Icheoku says Winnie Mandela delivered this lesson with big equanimity; she taught aspiring "strong" women how to be strong and still remain a beautiful woman.  Just like femininity is still in vogue and beautiful, Icheoku maintains that any woman can be strong while still remaining a woman but not an unneeded usurping Madam Husband? 

Icheoku however has issue with Nelson Mandela for walking away from Winnie despite her sacrifices on his behalf, waiting for twenty-seven long years without eloping with other eligible men and they were many indeed that came after her, while Nelson was gone. Icheoku refuses to accept that her indiscretion was such an egregious unforgiven sin for Mandela not to find a place in his heart to tuck it away and forge on. At over seventy years old when he was released from prison, most men would have pretended nothing happened and lived his life out with his loving and dutiful wife who stood firm and bravely carried the torch of freedom-fighting while a caged Mandela could not do much from behind his prison walls. Icheoku maintains that if Nelson Mandela could forgive his tormentors and oppressors, why did he not find it honorably doable to also forgive Winnie's indiscretion? 

But hey, the story of Nelson Mandela and apartheid struggle is legion and everywhere; but Icheoku states and unequivocally too, that Winnie Madikizela Mandela was not given her due recognition for her role in both ending apartheid and making Nelson the man he really became. Hers is atypical of the saying that behind every successful man there is always a woman and a very strong woman for that matter. Icheoku says if every 'strong' woman walking the face of the earth should be like Winnie Mandela, then may there be no weakling sissy left standing. Winnie, Icheoku says, thank you for loving Nelson the way you did and for also courageously holding the fort while he was gone. 

Winnie Madikizela Mandela, please just know that history will properly accord you the  elevated place of honor which you rightly earned and deserve. Icheoku says, Icheoku, Africans and the world know who the true wife and African queen of Nelson Mandela is. Icheoku says your place in history is incapable of being wiped or wished away, admitted that the masochistic African male society, that only sees women but refuses to hear or acknowledge them for their roles in the society, would rather the whole praise went to your husband Nelson Mandela alone; but your role remains indelible and will inure forever. Icheoku says well done Mama Africa, we thank you, we love you and we wish you a long, healthy and happy life.