LAMIDO, STAYING PUT IN PDP

"The allegation of my possible defection to APC is bunkum." - Sule Lamido, Jigawa State Governor.

BUHARI FOLLOWERSHIP IS IGNORANCE RUNNING RIOT - ONU

Icheoku read an article by one Peter Onu, one time Acting Secretary of then Organization of African Unity, OAU now AU, between 1983 and 1985. It is a very riveting and captivating article indeed. Below are some portions of the article as lifted:-

1. "Peter Onu of Nigeria was Acting Secretary-General of the OAU between 1983 and 1985.  At the 1985 Summit in Addis Ababa, statesmen like Julius Nyerere, President of Tanzania, lobbied for his election as substantive Secretary-General. However, there was a major stumbling block to Peter Onu’s candidature: his Head of State, Muhammadu Buhari, was campaigning against him."

2. "Despite Buhari's claimed: “This generation of Nigerians and indeed future generations have no other country than Nigeria;” when the crunch time came, his allegiance to Nigeria disappeared. In the election of the OAU Secretary-General in 1985, Buhari voted against Nigeria and for Niger instead. He secured the election of Ide Oumarou, a Fulani man from Niger; as opposed to an Igbo man from Nigeria. By so doing, Buhari became the first and only Head of State in the history of modern international relations to vote against his country in favour of his tribe."

3. "Years later, General Buhari marched all the way from Daura to Ibadan to demand of Oyo State Governor, Lam Adeshina: “Why are your people killing my people?” Again, he was not referring to Nigerians as his people. Instead, he was an advocate for the rights of murderous Fulani herdsmen who killed Yoruba farmers that objected to their cattle grazing on their land and damaging their crops. This same Buhari who voted against Nigeria in 1985, and said in 2003: “Muslims should only vote those who will promote Islam,” is now shopping for votes nationwide."

4. "If APC had wanted to be taken seriously, it would have come up with a better presidential material than Buhari. There is something anomalous about a party whose mantra is change, recycling a 73 year old man as its candidate for the president of modern Nigeria." 

5. "Buhari has little or no understanding of public policy. That is why APC will always come up with some excuse or the other not to have him participate in a debate with Jonathan. Buhari fought corruption by imposing ridiculous 300-year sentences on offenders. He fought exam malpractices by imposing 24-year prison sentences on school children. He dealt with indiscipline by flogging people to queue at bus-stops. He dealt with food shortages by sending soldiers to break into private warehouses and shops. He fought trade imbalances by taking Nigeria back to the stone age of trade by barter (counter-trade). He sought to extradite a Nigerian from Britain by drugging and crating him."

6. "There is so much about Buhari ending the Boko Haram insurgency as he did the Maitatsine insurgency in the 1980s. But the General needs to be advised that Boko Haram is not Maitatsine. Maitatsine was in two towns: Boko Haram is in three states with spillover effects into others. Maitatsine fought with bows and arrows: Boko Haram fights with sophisticated weapons. Maitatsine was a local insurgency, Boko Haram is an international phenomenon." 

7. "Buhari does not know what corruption means and how to fight it. He became Nigeria’s Head of State through the corruption of a coup d’état and he then tried to fight corruption with corruption. Imposing retroactive decrees and killing Nigerians under them is corruption. Putting an Igbo vice-president in Kirikiri, while placing the Fulani president under palatial house arrest, is corruption."

8. "Detaining people like Michael Ajasin in jail, even after they were discharged and acquitted by kangaroo courts, is corruption. Jailing journalists for telling the truth is corruption. Putting pressure on a judge in order to jail Fela Anikulapo-Kuti is corruption. Shepherding 53 suitcases of contraband unchecked through Customs during a currency change exercise is corruption. Swearing an affidavit that his school-leaving certificate is with the military when it is not, is corruption."

Icheoku says Nigerians, please do not buy into the snake oil that is Muhammadu Buhari being repackaged by entrenched special interest who are desperately fighting to retain power and remain relevance in the affairs of Nigeria. On February 14, tell Peter Onu, Nigerians share in his disappointment and frustrations, VOTE GEJ.

THE PDP PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN SO FAR - MUAZU.

“As our robust and issues-based campaign enters its final week, the Peoples Democratic Party is very much on course for a deserved victory at the forthcoming polls. We have put our best foot forward and in reviewing the campaign tour so far, I have no reason to doubt that victory will be the reward of our hard work, in sha Allah (by God’s grace).

When the campaign started, it was clear that the opposition had gone far in distorting the achievements of our great party. When they shout change, they don’t tell Nigerians what they want to change.

Do they want to change the sound educational policy of the PDP, which has been hailed all around the country as the route to transformation of the country’s democratic institutions?

In the North, the popularity of our Almajiri schools system has finally solved the educational backwardness in the three zones of the giant North. We shall follow this up with a revolution of the normadic education system started positively by the Babangida regime in the 1980s and we would have wiped out ignorance.

On the security crisis in the country, Muazu said “positive results are emerging from the combined forces of our neighbours, who have realised that Boko Haram is not just a threat to Nigeria, but also a major regional threat and the need for a combined effort to wipe out this Al Qaeda inspired menace should be dealt a fatal blow by a combined regional force.

What will APC change in tackling the insurgency as they have claimed every day of the campaign? Absolutely nothing! All that they will change is that they will apply their propaganda expertise and confuse Nigerians even more.

The PDP juggernaut is up, running and is unstoppable. Political campaigning is not about mounting the soapbox and shouting APC Change! APC Change! Change without proper analysis and costing is simply time wasting.

I expect that the APC should have handed down what their budget would look like this year if they won, and show Nigerians where they will get the money to finance their mountain of promises, but nothing of the sort has yet happened as the campaign closes.

This is the least that Nigerians deserve, not a conglomeration of failed political parties with nothing to offer than to promise heaven and earth. If the PDP was merely lily-livered, it should have collapsed with all the poaching of our best brains and the defection of our members.

Yes, we were knocked down, but we are not out. We have in fact stood up to their challenge and now pummeling them to submission.

My take on the campaign so far is that we have a great chance in the North-west and North-east, and North-central is our usual hunting ground where we normally excel.

The huge votes of Kano will be shared equally because our leadership there has done a great job, thanks to the fighting spirit of Education Minister Shekarau, coupled with the unsure steps of the governor which has prevented him from getting involved in pushing their presidential candidate.

The South-west was already rooting for the PDP after the deceit of their party was exposed with Afenifere, UPN and the OPC rooting for us while the South-east and South-south were already a no-go areas for the opposition despite their pretences in Imo, Rivers and Edo States.

I want to specially thank our star performers in the grassroots campaign train all over the country. I can shout it to the high heavens that we are the champions.” - National Chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu."

Icheoku says this statement of progress is very uplifting indeed to all Jonathanites 2015 and prays that the good Lord will crown the GEJ 2015 campaign effort with successful  second term. Icheoku says God's speed GEJ2015. On February 14, 2015, VOTE GEJ.

ROMNEY TELEGRAPHS BUHARI, MOVE OVER?

Icheoku says United States of America's recurring political decimal, perpetual presidential candidate Mitt Romney, has spoken to his Nigerian counterpart Muhammadu Buhari. Responding to his rumored prospective run again for the US presidency, Mitt Romney debunked the rumor, stating that he is not going to run for office again because, according to him, "IT IS TIME FOR NEW FACES.' Icheoku says if only Muhammadu Buhari would listen and heed the advise that Nigerians are indeed tired and bored with a face that has been on the block for over thirty two odd years. 

Icheoku laments that when Nigeria is not a banana republic nor suffering from dwarfism that refused the emergence of  new leaders, this going back to recycle a 1983 Buhari for 2015 Nigerian presidency, will not say well about the country, especially to a world that still remembers that United States President Ronald Reagan and United Kingdom's Margret Thatcher were his contemporaries then; that Soviet Union was still in existence and that Nelson Mandela was still a prisoner in Robben Island when Buhari first ruled Nigeria. What kind of message would a 1983 Buhari mounting the leadership chair now in 2015 Nigeria send to a world that is almost getting tired of Nigeria's all motion and no movement nor meaningful traction with their progress. So with your votes Nigerians, please tell Muhammadu Buhari that you heard Mitt Romney very loud and clear and that you will help him move over. Icheoku says to Buhari please listen to Mitt Romney and move over! On February 14, 2015, VOTE GEJ.   

JE SUIS TOMPOLO ET DOKUBO.

Icheoku says every Nigerian who has a conscience is a Government Tompolo and Asari Dokubo in the defense of all oppressed minorities of Nigeria. Therefore, together we all must rise up and resist the current effort to intimidate and silence a people, who are merely protesting against their continued repression and oppression by the Hausa/Fulani internal colonialists of Nigeria. Icheoku says every Nigeria of goodwill should say no to Hausa/Fulani born to rule mentality; they should say no to TY Danjuma's lopsided apportionment of blame and unbecoming attack on the two Niger Delta freedom fighters; while keeping quiet when Northerners throw their own fiery rhetoric bombs. Icheoku says such impartiality has and should have no place in today's Nigeria. 

Icheoku maintains that the North is clamoring for unity of Nigeria because of their exploitation of the contraption as is presently skewed in their favor and not because of any love they have for anybody who is not one of them; so to hell with such debased unity that does not guarantee equality and equity to all. Icheoku says the North must be told the bitter truth that were the oil in their region, they would not tolerate any other Nigerian from benefiting therefrom but would have since gone their way with their oil. If in doubt look at how they destroy non Northern peoples' properties each time they riot while sparing their own people? 

Icheoku emphasizes that the only acceptable united Nigeria will be one where there is no place for an 'Animal Farm' sort of scaled social standing/status; and where the distribution of political power and resources are evenly spread across the board through every disparate nationalities no matter how few or large they may be. But in any event, if these people will not allow us to rule them, they should NEVER be allowed to rule us, NEVER AGAIN. They have killed enough of us already trying to keep us silent, but this time around, we shall say to them ENOUGH and if they want war let them have WAR. Ken Saro Wiwa was murdered by these perverts to keep him quiet and stop his agitation for a fairer society; ditto so many other victims of their vicious colonizing mentality that believes in absolute power including muzzling their perceived enemies into complete submission and subjugation to achieve this. Unfortunately, they have pushed their luck too far and have now awaken the consciousness of the oppressed; who having nothing to owe anymore, have decided to stand their ground and fight back. So to the TY Danjumas of Nigeria, Icheoku says do not question the resolve of a man pushed to the wall. On February 14, 2015 VOTE GEJ.

DOKUBO IS A HERO, SPEAKS FOR SO MANY NIGERIANS' DISENCHANTED?

Icheoku admires the courage and bravery of this Niger Delta freedom fighter and supports him in his struggle for a total emancipation of his oppressed people of the Niger Delta of Nigeria. A people who have paid so much sacrifice on the alter of a "united" Nigeria; yet their Ken Saro Wiwa was brutally hung just for speaking out for his oppressed people. Icheoku asks when shall enough be really enough for these Hausa/Fulanis of Nigeria, who under the ruse of maintaining unity and keeping Nigeria as one, keep appropriating for themselves everything and alone eating all that belongs to all? They have forced into the throats of these South-south Niger Deltans as well as other Nigerians who are not Hausa/Fulani, so many unprintables. Icheoku praises Asari Dokubo and his team of freedom fighters and pray the good Lord will see them through in their bid to institute a more equitable Nigeria where everyone will be treated as human being and of equal status. Here please find published, excerpts of some memorable and admirable speeches of Asari Dokubo, the budding NIger Delta's Nelson Mandela:- 

1. "It’s for the North and their supporters to moderate their actions, because they had al­ways been the people to initiate violence. It’s for them to moderate, see reason and live with human beings.They want to reduce us to their level. But there is nothing we can do about it. If they want us to come to their level, there is no other option than to come to their level. We will not fold our arms and die. We will not fold our arms and watch them take the man­date that was freely given to Goodluck, that  will be freely given to him on February 14 to continue for another four uninterrupted years until 2019. So, we are not going to fold our arms and watch them fight people, and watch them have an exclusivity to violence." 

2. "In their belief that they are born to rule, they make rules they think are superior to the constitution. It was not the right of any other people when Yakubu Gowon was succeeded by Murtala Mohammed. After Murtala Mo­hammed, they brought Olusegun Obasanjo, who was overshadowed by Shehu Yar’Adua. It was their right. Then Shagari took over, Shagari handed over to Buhari and then to Babangida, Babangida hand­ed over to Abacha; Abacha handed over to Abdulsalam. Then they brought Olusegun Obasanjo, their puppet, who again handed over to Yar’Adua. You see, for the first time, some­body has become president that they did not decide for the people and now they are both bitter and angry." 

3. "They are pushing Goodluck Jonathan. They are pushing him. He did not use power like Obasanjo did in sacking Ladoja; in locking Ngige in a toilet as a governor, in chasing Dariye away, in chas­ing Fayose away, in putting Alamieyeseigha in prison. Goodluck Jonathan, because he re­fused to use these powers is clueless, is weak, is incompetent. Don’t fight with a deaf and dumb man. Whatever you are talking, he does not hear you. He can’t even express himself. So anything that enters his hand is a weapon. For us, if they make Jonathan to make a 360 degrees turn, I pity them." 

4. If it is somebody like me that is the president, ah! by now a lot of issues would have been settled, Obasanjo will not be anywhere around and be talking. It’s Goodluck. You abuse him and he will come and sit down with you and eat with you. It’s the good side of him. Maybe that’s why God has kept him alive and successful. I pray that he should not change his nature, no matter what, to become a Dokubo Asari. Be­cause, if he becomes a Dokubo Asari, nobody will be able to stay in this country." 

Icheoku says every well meaning Nigerian should support the people of Niger Delta in their struggle to freely partake in the governance of Nigeria as co-equals. Nobody in Nigeria including the Niger Deltans is inferior to these Hausa/Fulani maniacs and their born to rule imbecility and infantile madness; and at worse, if they will not let others rule them, they should not be allowed to rule others either. It is fairness, it is the right and equitable and the most appropriate thing to do in the circumstance.  The Niger Delta people also own all the oil in Nigeria and should therefore be given some respect and commended for even sharing with the rest of Nigerians, what is their personal God-given natural wealth. Icheoku says on February 14, 2015, support Niger Delta, VOTE FOR GEJ.

NIGERIAN BLOGGERS BEWARE, BUHARI IS COMING TO GET YOU FLOGGED?

Icheoku says like Saudi Arabians, Nigerian bloggers will face a very hard time in the unfortunate event the lean and mean Muhammadu Buhari has his way with a bemused Nigerian polity and secures a win. In Saudi Arabia, a blogger Raif Badawi was sentenced to TEN YEARS imprisonment and additional 1000 LASHES for merely blogging. So ask yourself Nigerians, especially the Internet generation, whether you want to take such a chance under a Buhari government or would you rather do the needful now to stop him from nearing the gates of Aso Rock. Call a friend, text a friend, inbox a friend and ask them to spread the message today that taking such a chance with a Buhari administration is suicidal and not a risk worth taking. If you love blogging then you must love not to be disturbed from blogging; so beware!

According to sources, in a model similar to Kano State Hisba religious vigilantes, Muhammadu Buhari will establish "bulala or koboko" bearing blogger-minders to whip senses back to "errant" Nigerian bloggers if elected. It will be akin  to the WAI brigade of his first coming that enforced his War Against Indiscipline rigorous rules; including inflicting physical pain with koboko whips, public stripping naked, flog-jumping, doing press-up, picking trash and swearing on the grave of your ancestors to become a better citizen who loves his president and country? Icheoku says why wait to find out since you already had a preview of what lies in wait from the example of Saudi Arabia; instead of doing something to prevent it and NOW!

Icheoku calls on Nigerian bloggers and every online operators and users to, with your votes, tell Muhammadu Buhari now that 'blogging is not bad for your back'; but that it is a healthy mental exercise and a protected freedom of speech right under the constitution. Please don't wait till the day after February 14 to tell him because the despot Muhammadu Buhari has shown times and times again that he is no respecter of either the law or the constitution and would be deaf-toned then. The time is now and particularly on February 14, so that the message will have some weight. 

Icheoku says please do not wait to find out the hard way; JUST STOP HIM NOW. On February 14, VOTE GEJ; under whose administration blogging and other online activities has thrived in Nigeria and everyone is free and enjoying unlimited rights to free speech. Icheoku uses this opportunity to call on the Saudi Arabian authority to FREE Raif Badawi as blogging is not a threat to their maximum rule or control of the oil dollars flowing into their private Swiss accounts. Icheoku says 'Je Suis Raif Badawi;' FREE BADAWI NOW but will not similarly plead in the event they buy into the Buhari snake-oil some bad fellows in Nigeria is trying to sell to gullible Nigerians.

BUHARI IS A SNAKE OIL, WATCH THIS!

ARREST DANJUMA FOR CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY, NOT TOMOPOLO AND DOKUBO?

Icheoku says who the hell is this murderer, who killed his commander in chief and head of state General Aguiyi Ironsi alongside his host governor of Western State Adekunle Fajuyi in cold blood, to think he has any moral standing whatsoever to voice an opinion or in any other way insert himself, trying to abridge Nigerians hard won freedom of speech right. Icheoku says Asari Dokubo and Government Tomopolo, like Professor Ango Abdulahi, Muhammadu Buhari and other bomb-throwing Northern Nigerian Hausa/Fulani elements, have a constitutionally enshrined freedom of speech right, to air their opinion on matters of the state and as they deem fit. Therefore the current call for the arrest of the two Niger Delta freedom fighters by Mr Danjuma is not only uncalled for, but is misguided, illegal, unlawful and merely tailored to pander to Danjuma's Hausa/Fulani overlords and house masters. Icheoku says it is not right and should therefore neither be condoned nor honored; and that if there is any person that needs to be arrested, that person is Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma himself, for crimes against the humanity called Nigerians for killing their head of state. Alternatively, Mr Danjuma latest outburst should just be ignored as a product of a demented mind in the interest of the country, peace and unity. 

Icheoku asks why the sudden morph by Danjuma into a moderator of what constitutes conscionable speech by Nigerians and calling two freedom fighting activists "IRRESPONSIBLE", when he is the most irresponsible living Nigerian still alive?  A man who conspired with his other hooligans in army uniforms to kidnap and murder their commander in chief and in the most gruesome manner, lost every right to play an arbiter of decency in Nigeria. A man who hog-tied his head of state to the back of a jeep and dragged him alongside on the pavement as he drove, until his body completely dismembered and disintegrated, is an animal not qualified to sit in judgment over anyone's being responsible or otherwise. And to make matters worse, Danjuma dumped the remains of his murdered head of state in an unmarked shallow grave and till this day, has not yielded a clue where his quarry was covered in dirt for retrieval and proper burial. This is the same man now preaching about responsibility and calling for other peoples arrest for simply speaking, when he has yet to stand trial for murdering his commander in chief? 

Icheoku says this Danjuma sucks and sucks a lot and so much that his mention forces Icheoku to wanna puke. Icheoku queries where was this Danjuma when Muhammadu Buhari threatened that "blood of dogs and baboons will flow?" Icheoku asks where was this mustachioed jackal when Professor Ango Abdulahi threatened the massacre of innocent Nigerians if the feudal North fails to have their way? Icheoku wants to know where this madman was hiding when the El-Rufais and other Northern hotheads were firebombing the whole country in their attempt to blackmail every Nigerian into doing their bidding? Icheoku ask where was this hyena when Muhammadu Buhari threatened to make Jonathan's governance of Nigerian ungovernable? Icheoku asks where was this genocidal maniac when his Middle Belt people were being systematically killed, maimed and massacred by his  Hausa/Fulani overlords, using their cattle-rearing nomads as instrument of mayhem? Did he even raise a voice in protestation or come to their defense? 

But now this sucker, who was on an appeasement mission to the citadel of feudalism in Nigeria, found the mouth to ooze some nonsensical and urging the arrests of two brave and courageous souls of Niger Delta Liberation Struggle, who merely said ENOUGH to internal colonialism. Icheoku asks when Sani Abacha unleashed his reign of terror in Nigeria and with it murdered Ken Saro Wiwa and so many other Nigerians, did Danjuma not know he was duty bound to speak up then? When Ibrahim Babangida ran amok in the land including annulling the freest election in Nigeria, what said he Danjuma? When Muhammadu Buhari murdered three innocent Nigerians using a retroactive decree, where was this now modulator of tolerable speech, Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma? But suddenly, taking a cue from Babangida that despicable coup plotting, quota-system aided army generals are ganging up against Nigeria democracy,  he suddenly found the temerity to insert himself in another's free speech right? 

Icheoku heretofore also throws his hat in the ring alongside Dokubo and Tomopolo and says we are all Tomopolo and Dokubo in the matter of ensuring fairness in Nigeria, regardless of whatever it takes or costs; and in case of arrest, we are all prepared to resist or be arrested alongside trying. Icheoku is emphatic that any attempt at festooning an apparent injustice on the South-south Niger Delta people by denying them their co-equal two-terms right to the presidency of Nigeria, just like their other counterpart Nigerians, as is an acceptable practice in Nigeria, will result in resistance. Who the heck is this man to think that Nigeria revolves around him and his Northern arrogant crazies. Look at Danjuma whose political games in Taraba State is well known and documented. A man who foist a brain-dead governor on a state as their continuing governor despite the fact of his vegetative state of no functionality, is here preaching to far more decent and honorable Nigerians about some people being irresponsible? 

Icheoku says suddenly, feeling threatened that any disruption and upheaval in the Niger Delta would uproot his multi-billion dollars oil wells assets, which were gratuitously bequeathed him by the midget of Kano Sani Abacha, and cause them to be seized and internally nationalized, Danjuma is now crying blue murder and urging preemptive strike. Icheoku says to this human excrement called TY Danjuma, please spare Nigerians including Icheoku, your hogwash ranting of an arrest. Icheoku wants Mr Danjuma to know that the days Nigerians trembled, cowered and hunkered down in fear at the mere mention of his name because of his proven noxious brutality and viciousness is no since over.  Nigerians are no longer afraid of multiple Danjumas and would stand their ground this time, should they again ferment their usual trouble. It is now 2015 Nigeria and no longer the sixties when Danjuma and his band of marijuana-smoking crack heads held the country hostage to their brutality. ENOUGH of this venomous vile fellow called TY Danjuma and his holier than thou call to silence some Nigerians freedom of speech right of expression. What a piece of cow dung in human skin and covered in cotton fabric this TY Danjuma really is who thinks he can order people around out of uniform. What a  rabies infested hound-dog.

REDEEMERS, BORN AGAIN AND OTHER CHRISTIANS OF NIGERIA, BEWARE?

Icheoku calls on all Christians of Nigeria, especially those fellow-shipping with the Redeemed Ministry as well as other Pentecostal Ministries in Nigeria to beware of the kite of Pastor Yemi Osibanjo being flown by the Miyetti Allah mafia just to take power back. Those of you who have fished before or who are conversant with the tricks of fishing, when you put an allure on a hook to bait a fish, you don't do that out of love for the fish but as a means to finally serve it on a dinner plate. But unbeknownst to the victim-fish, the flagellum being dangled before it is simply a manna from heaven or a bequeath of good water that keeps on giving? This is now the inconvenient truth with Nigerian Christians, especially those pentecostal Redeemers whom the APC and Muhammadu Buhari are baiting with the allure of a pastor vice presidential candidate. Icheoku says Muhammadu Buhari and his mafia fishermen are not dangling a pastor before Nigerian christian community out of love but simply to get their votes and later dump them alongside their pastor. 

So Nigerian christian community, Icheoku says be warned, because when it sounds too good to be true, it might as well be a phony so  you better watch out. The Fulani Mafia with their Southwestern collaborators have now deployed a joker from their bag of tricks in a pastor vice presidential candidate just to enable them get your votes and get back power. Please don't swallow the bait as it will not do you any good to trade in what you currently have, the pilot, for an anticipated mere co-pilot in the Nigeria airplane. As every Nigerian is probably quite aware, the office of the vice president has no constitutional powers but as much power as the president decides to allocate to it, period.  So it therefore necessarily follows that a very mean president can completely emasculate the vice president and convert him to a mere glorified clerk at Aso Rock. It happened with Olusegun Obasanjo regarding Abubakar Atiku whom he nearly impeached but failing, made his life a hellish nightmare which eventually forced Atiku into self exile.  It also happened with the late Umaru Yar'Adua regarding  Jonathan, during their early days before the president took ill. It later continued and became even worse such that then vice president Jonathan was totally excluded from the running of the government to the extent that he did not have any knowledge about the president's real state of health,  the president's being stealthily flown in the dead of the night into Nigeria and until he died. 

Going back in time, it is on record that Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida similarly used Ebitu Ukiwe to consolidate his coup and later frustrated him into resigning when he railroaded Nigeria into OIC without even having the courtesy of informing his supposed vice president or chief of staff? Even the midget of Kano, Sani Abacha's frosty relationship with his then vice president or chief of staff, Oladipo Diya, ended with Diya in handcuffs and condemned to death. Story even had it that during Shagari's government, the then Kaduna Mafia supplanted President Shehu Shagari's vice president Alex Ekwueme with Umaru DIkko, who in turn dictated everything that happened in Nigeria then. 

So why travel down this memory lane, one may ask? Icheoku in response is only endeavoring to illustrate that a Pastor Yemi Osibanjo might be similarly, equally used to get power and later dumped, like all these past vice presidents. Olusegun Obasanjo used Atiku and his PDM to secure power even after losing in the PDP convention to Alex Ekwueme; but after consolidating power, he still dumped Atiku. So what stops the Hausa/Fulani North-westerners from hijacking the Buhari presidency once the Osibanjo's job is done and then tell the Bola Tinubus of the Southwest to take a hike? President Umaru Yar'Adua did same after winning the presidency when he surrounded himself with only his trusted Fulanis from the Northwest as his kitchen staff and literally consigned the then vice president Goodluck Jonathan to the inner office as a glorified clerk at Aso Rock. 

Professor Wole Soyinka says history matters and that records are kept for a reason, not only to refresh faint memory but to serve as a guide for the future. So it if has severally happened before to somewhat have developed a pattern, with successive Nigerian presidents and heads of states so disrespectfully diminished their vice presidents offices and standing, what guarantee is there now to ensure that Yemi Osibanjo would be treat any differently. What layers of protection exist to ensure that a Pastor Yemi Osibanjo "vice president" would not be left out in the cold, once his job to help elect Buhari is finished,  at an inner recess somewhere inside Aso Rock; while the kitchen staff of a "President" Buhari conduct matters of state in core Fulani language which no untrained native ear is capable of understanding and repeatedly so treated until he is frustrated out and into dysfunctionality. Icheoku is not a seer nor a prophet, but foresees a Yemi Osibanjo who would certainly suffer the same fate in the hands of those people, who are already queued up and laying in wait like vultures of fortune, who will suddenly swoop in and play palace guards to a Muhammadu Buhari presidency. 

Icheoku says that the bait of Yemi Osinbajo should not be too tempting or irresistibly enticing to sway the votes of his fellow Redeemers and make them to abandon a president with real portfolio, real power over the purse and over the military, the police and other security agencies and settle for just an ordinary vice president without any constitutional real authority.  Query:-what would happen if Yemi Osibanjo becomes yet another any of these former vice presidents like Abubakar Atiku and Nigerians begin to once again witness the gathering of the usual Northwestern Hausa/Fulani clan, feasting alone on Nigeria national cake with their PASTOR vice president no where to be found around the table? 

For his so much love for the Yoruba Southwest which Muhammadu Buhari is now professing in his settling for Yemi Osibanjo as vice president, Icheoku rebuts that he stood-by, did nothing and silently watched as his compatriots annulled MKO Abiola election? Buhari also  stood silent when the same clique overthrew Ernest Shonekan interim government? Buhari stood quiet when the same cabal accused and nearly killed Oladipo Diya for a phantom coup treasonable felony? Buhari stood silent when the same anarchists murdered Kudirat Abiola, Pa Rewane as well as many other Yoruba notables? Icheoku adds that Muhammadu Buhari stood silent when the same Northwestern goombahs accused Olusegun Obasanjo of plotting a coup, convicted him and was waiting to execute him before the then Clinton White House intervened and they reluctantly commuted it to 25 years to life imprisonment. In service of their cause, the same Muhammadu Buhari accepted the juicy office of chairman of PTF from the same Sani Abacha, whom he later went on to eulogize as the best leader Nigeria ever had. Needless to add that Muhammadu Buhari's love for Yoruba Southwest made him cancel the Lagos Metro Line project just to mention but a few of his love for the Yorubas that is now making him tizzy. 

Anyway, Icheoku is not attempting to rehash a dirge here or preach to the choir once more on a Sunday, but just for the records and in case Icheoku would be so unfortunate to someday lament 'I told you so'. Concluding, Icheoku asks Nigerian Christian community to show Icheoku the evidence that their Pastor Osibanjo would be any different and would be a safe and secured vice president unlike his predecessors? Where is the confidence that it will not be deja vu the same people and their penchant for notoriously breaking their words? is there a possibility that they would, this time, stick to the bargain, once they are sworn in through their alter ego Muhammadu Buhari? Like the saying goes, the bird in hand is better than the many in the bushes; so why would Nigerian Christian community toy with the idea of just being merely accommodated and tolerated in a Buhari's Aso Rock when they already have the mansion's keys as well as the best room in the house. Icheoku maintains that a Redeemer pastor as Buhari's vice president, is merely a ploy deployed by the Hausa/Fulani mafia to snatch power back from the South; and thereafter they will do with power what they do best with power -  however they please. But Icheoku will not like to witness a baboon Yemi Osibanjo, who after all the election campaign's handwork, becomes translucent and invisible or at best a frosty mildew in Aso Rock, while the monkeys feast on the spoils of office. So Redeemers, other born-again and born-before Christians  as well as other Christians in Nigeria, be a wise fish, please don't take the Osibanjo bait. On February 14, 2015, VOTE GEJ.

ELECTION 2015, NO FOREIGN INTERVENTION PLEASE !

WHATEVER THE RESULT, NIGERIANS PLEASE DO NOT GIVE THESE VULTURES REASON TO DESTROY THE COUNTRY. THEY ARE FULLY PRIMED, WAITING,  EAGER AND READY TO SWOOP. BUT LOOK AT SYRIA, IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN, SOMALIA, YEMEN, LIBYA AND THEN CHOOSE LOVE OF COUNTRY OVER ANY FOREIGN INTERVENTION. ELECTION IS NOT A DO OR DIE AFFAIR AND LUCKILY IT COMES EVERY FOUR YEARS, SO IF NOT IN 2015, MAY BE IN 2019. TO THESE PRETENDERS OF GREAT LOVE FOR NIGERIA, PLEASE SAY TO THEM, NO BUT THANKS, NO TO ANY INTERVENTION.

A DICTATOR IS ALWAYS A DICTATOR.

“The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, is not a substitute to President Jonathan. There is no way you can compare a democrat to a dictator. No matter the coloration or the number of pastors you placed around him, a dictator will always be a dictator.” - Senator Smart Adeyemi, member National Unity Group.

CHANGE 2015, CHANGE NIGERIANS DONT NEED?

Icheoku says the APC wants Nigerians to change from democracy to dictatorship; from moving forward to sauntering backwards; from happiness to sadness; from hope to doom; from living in freedom to living in bondage and from a PhD holder president to one whose First School Leaving Certificate is missing or at best questionable. But Nigerians are saying to APC that with a change like the one they are offering, no Nigerian needs a change. Nigerians, Icheoku urge you to just tell APC and their tired horse Buhari, no, but thanks, no. Look at their faces, they are all very mean, sad and melancholic people and who needs sadists running our collective affairs in Nigeria? Definitely not Icheoku and hopefully not any sane Nigerian, including you. As Professor Soludo rightly encapsulated them, these are "Aggrieved Peoples Congregation" up to no good and out to do Nigeria grievous harm. Say no to APC, reject Buhari.

Icheoku says Muhammadu Buhari is not the type of change Nigerians want or desire or deserve; not now, not on February 14, 2015 and not at any other future time. Muhammadu Buhari is part of the problem Nigerians have been tirelessly trying to solve all these years following his caustic shock and interruption to governance in Nigeria though his bloody military coup of December 31st, 1983. Moreso, Muhammadu Buhari belongs to the ancient school of thoughts and has no idea of how todays world functions. Further, no amount of APC re-branding can make this old wine become new again, including  putting it in a new skin or dressing him in borrowed robes of a democrat, which he is definitely not. Icheoku says Muhammadu Buhari should be left in the rear view mirror of Nigeria past harried coup plotting era where he truly belongs and allowed to live out whatever is left of his very advanced near-senile old age. 

Nigerians, Icheoku cautions that we cannot continue with all these all motion and no movement, one step forward, two steps backwards convulsive jolts, which has bedeviled our march towards progress since independence. A state of near complete quagmire which was caused by certain entrenched conspiracies in the country, including a man who once truncated our democracy named Muhammadu Buhari. Query why is it that each time some one is trying to figure out how to move the country forward, something always happens to intervene to halt the march forward, either a military coup or needless change of government and it is deja vu the drawing board all over again. Icheoku is emphatic that President Jonathan has finished his presidential internship with his first term and would during his second term give it his all, such that Nigerians can and would indeed really witness the change they crave and deserve. Icheoku says it is now time for Nigerians to say and truly mean it - FORWARD EVER, BACKWARD NEVER. So on FEBRUARY 14, VOTE GEJ.

NIGERIANS WHATEVER YOU DO, KEEP MOVING FORWARD - MLK.

Icheoku says except that Nigerians will not listen, otherwise all the warning signs are there that a Muhammadu Buhari presidency is not what Nigerians need at this time. It would be an irreparable backward misstep for Nigerians to take now if they allow Muhammadu Buhari of the past generation to lead this new app-generation. Simply put, he is not a good fit for the job now, he cannot do it anymore and therefore should not be allowed to even try.

At least if Jonathan is not fast enough for NIgerians' liking, they should encourage him to move at a faster pace but not to embrace the non-alternative devil may-care that is Muhammadu Buhari who has the blood of Nigerians in his hand. Even Martin Luther King has now sent a telegram to Nigerians from the grave, warning Nigerians against embarking on this Buhari fantastical experiment. According to MLK, "if you cannot fly then run; if you cannot run walk; if you cannot walk crawl; but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward." 

Icheoku says Nigerians, you have now heard from the King  of liberation theory himself that the mantra for Nigerians should and ought to be FORWARD EVER, BACKWARD NEVER. Buhari belongs to the past and should be left where he belongs, in Nigeria's rear-view mirror, period. This twenty first century does not need a twentieth century thinking grandpa to drive the agenda. Buhari is stale and Buhari is possibly afflicted with dementia; and a twenty first century Nigeria, desirous of moving forward, does not need such a Buhari; not now, not tomorrow and not the day after February 14 and not at any other future time whatsoever.  So on February 14, 2015, VOTE GEJ.

THE SINS OF JONATHAN - ABRAHAM OGBODO

The APC camp is unrelenting. It has decided that come rain or shine, the 72-year old ex-general must make Aso Rock on May 29. A certificate or something that approximates that has been shown to put paid to debates on whether or not the party’s flag bearer in the February 14 presidential election is educated to a level of becoming Nigeria’s president. 

In effect, all things being equal, it has been agreed that Buhari is good enough in all measurements to preside over Nigeria, the most populous and biggest economy in Africa, otherwise known as Giant of Africa in the 21st century. There is little more to add. Some people are saying it is in order to try a school certificate holder or school certificate attempted and a grand old man since the PhD holder and the young man that has been running for six good years has performed below installed capacity. 

Jonathan himself is the cause of these wild speculations. There is a saying in Yoruba that the hawk will lose its essence if it fails to catch chicken. And as essential as salt is, it will become white sand if it loses its taste. What I am saying is that power, especially in this part of the world, is created to be exercised not to be incubated. Maybe the narrative would have changed significantly if Jonathan had tried to come out as a Nigerian head of state, something in the mould of Olusegun Obasanjo. His gentility and attempt to be democratic when he should be rough and dictatorial have not helped him at all. 

Even his best weapon - the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) – in this political war of attrition was not put to effective use. He has lost the purpose for which former President Obasanjo created the EFCC. If the commission had been appropriately applied, his arch-rival in next month’s presidential election, General Mohammadu Buhari would have been probably running around trying to clear himself of alleged misappropriation of N26billion of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) under him. He would not have the time and presence of mind to jump from one state capital to another campaigning to unseat Jonathan as president. 

Under Obasanjo, no Aminu Tambuwal would have come from nowhere to become the House Speaker against the supreme will of Baba. He would have asked for the head of the little rascal to be brought to him on a platter of wood and he would pay the cost even if it meant sinking the National Assembly under the weight of Ghana-Must-Go bags. That is the way of politics in Nigeria and everywhere too. The end has a way of justifying the means almost always. 

But Jonathan is a gentleman. He allows the means to condition the end. He has said so many times that his ambition to remain President is not worth any bloody fight. That was why after months of sustained pummeling, Tambuwal so easily moved to the opposition to continue the onslaught against Jonathan and the PDP. The President has maintained the infuriating stance that nothing, including his political survival is worth a good fight. Tambuwal is still the House Speaker in spite of President Jonathan. I do not know of any other democracy in the world where the minority party produces the leadership of the legislature. 

Also, when a certain Mallam El Rufai was chased out of town under President Umaru Shehu Yar’Adua, Jonathan came fully on board to relax the conditions for his return. Now the hunted Mallam has completed a full circle and among the pack of ruthless hounds hunting Jonathan with a real threat of making a meal of him on February 14. This is the way the gentle crumbles in Nigerian politics. I can say for sure that the dirty game of politics does not have a dirtier and more brutal outlook than it has in Nigeria. And until something snaps to create a new template, its players must attend the Baba Olusegun Obasanjo School of Politics as a pre-condition. 

In effect, Jonathan needs another PhD from the OBJ academy to do good business in the Nigerian political environment. Roughness is the subjective factor in the power calculus. Without it, other factors cannot add up to tilt the scales. It is not enough to be knowledgeable, urbane, visionary, passionate and all of the attributes that constitute a virtuous scale. When all of these are assured, an effective player must exchange a certain percentage, say 50, of his milk stock for bile to sharpen the Machiavellian instincts needed on the field of play. 

Jonathan has consistently missed this point and it is almost too late to return to it. For now, he can only pray that since the universe is on the side of truth and justice, things should happen in a manner on February 14 to set the bad records straight. And the record is that the APC which is loaded with rough necks and rabble rousers, from Lagos to Sokoto and from Maiduguri to Port Harcourt, saw early enough this unusual desire of Jonathan to be the only good man in Sodom and Gomorra and capitalized on same to make life very uncomfortable for the Bayelsa born President. 

It would seem that while Goodluck Jonathan was lost in cloud seven conceptualising a new Nigeria where politics would be played without rough tackles, the opposition only carefully processed the playing field and returned with the verdict that the rules could not be changed in 2015 and whoever that was attempting to rework the rules should be tagged clueless and a weakling who must be changed going forward. 

Nothing was done to straighten issues when this scenario of a weakling was being created and foisted. It was condoned instead in the false hope of building a new political order. For instance, is it not truly a mark of weakness for a Nigerian President to declare a state of emergency in any part of the federation without dismantling the existing regional political structures to make for freer federal access to contain such emergency? Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa did not spare the regional government in 1964 when he imposed emergency rule in the former Western Region. And when Obasanjo did his in Plateau and Ekiti States, both governors were sacked. 

But Jonathan imposed emergency rule in the three states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa without sacking the governors. It is counting against him because these same governors are part of the crowd causing him sleeplessness. What he would have done to show strength and sleep well was to sack the three state governments and begin immediately a military air campaign to level all the cities, towns and villages with the faintest presence of Boko Haram. That is how to become a strong leader with a lot of clues in Nigeria. Obasanjo did so in Odi in Bayelsa State and Zaki Biam, the birth place of former Chief of Army Staff, Major General Victor Malu. Baba is today adjudged a strong leader with a lot of initiatives to contain trouble. 

Even Yar’Adua who was sick had enough strength to send the Air Force to level Okerenkoko in Delta State when some militants killed just one Nigerian soldier. Therefore, to think always of the collateral consequences of a narrow interest action and refuse to act to create the much-needed impression of strength is not good politics. Now, the opposition has managed to convert the gentility of Jonathan to docility and it is asking that he be replaced with Buhari so that the presidency can regain its characteristic rigidity and brutality. 

The message is sinking because the Nigerian crowd is like the Roman Mob that listens to both prose and poetry and acts on the last impulse. Buhari is the last impulse. Anyhow, it will amount to a change if Buhari wins the presidential election. This seems all that the APC wants from the ongoing process – just change for the sake of change. The nature of the change has not been properly interrogated because Buhari the change agent being taunted shall flunk big time on all indices if brought under scrutiny. He is being protected and guided by sheer propaganda to the presidency. 

This is the danger in the Buhari choice. By all measurements, he neither possesses the mental infrastructure nor the temperament to manage a modern state. He is just a piece of mirage defined as reality largely by the inability of President Jonathan to act decisively. Like all mirages, he shall evaporate upon arrival. 

FEMI KUTI WILL VOTE FOR NO ONE.

“In the presidential election, I will not vote because I do not believe in any of the candidates.” - Femi Kuti.

OBAMA VISITS INDIA , FIRST LADY LEFT TO HER OWN DEVICES HOLDING HERSELF?

Icheoku says this is what happens when a country has a bachelor-president or prime minister or head of state and a visiting foreign dignitary is  accompanied by a wife who will have no corresponding first lady to embrace and hold private tete-a-tete with. It happened in India during President Barack Obama's ongoing three day visit to that country of Mahtama Gandi and world famous Taj Mahal; as President Barack Obama is seen embracing the bachelor prime minister of India, Narendra Modi, and there is no India first lady to keep Mitchel Obama company. Icheoku says presidents and heads of states not having wives to serve as first ladies is increasingly becoming the norm these days with countries like France, Philippines and India as example of countries with bachelor presidents/prime minister holding the fort.

Anyway Icheoku has nothing against any man who decides to remain sane and not dabble into something he cannot adequately manage or maintain a grip over. But for any man to aspire to lead a nation, where both men and women abound, common sense dictates that such a man should have some female around him, whether wife or mistress, to help take care of women related matters such as when a Mitchel Obama accompanies her husband President Obama to visit, so that she will have someone to talk women issues  and gossip about other stuff with. Now imagine how a Mitchel is left starring into an openness, hoping that an Indian first lady would miraculously appear while her husband is in a warm embrace with the prime minister? 

However Indian Prime Minister made bold to state during his election campaigning that families sometimes cause public servants to be corrupt as they aspire to provide for them and their future generation? He convincingly won the last Indian election because Indians saw and believed in what he told them that because he has no family he will have no reason to steal from them since there is no one to bequeath it to. It worked as truth always does work and in Modi Indians see a truthful politician they can trust and they trusted him with their overwhelming vote and continuing goodwill. Icheoku will use the opportunity of this comment to once again congratulate Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his election as Indian leader and prays that all the good in his vision for a new working India would meet fulfillment. To President Barack Obama and First Lady Mitchel Obama, Icheoku says hope your Indian trip is meeting your expectations. Goodluck fellas.