ELEVEN YEAR OLD CHILD-WIVES, NOW LEGAL IN NIGERIA?

Icheoku says with the Nigeria Sexual Offenses Law (Bill) 2015 sponsored by Chris Anyanwu and Ahmed Yerima, similarly situated child-mothers will now be a common happenstance in Nigeria where the new law makes it okay for children as young as eleven years to be sexually violated by men, many of who are as old enough to be their great grandfathers. Icheoku says what is wrong with the Nigerian society that perpetually pivots to things of the last century.

WEIGHT LOSS 101, THE FASTEST WAY TO LOSE WEIGHT.

Icheoku says it always amazes me when people say they don't know how to loss their weight or that they have tried everything possible but still cannot seem to lose some pounds? Icheoku asks have these people ever tried sealing up their mouths for crying out loud and watch their weight go down like a Somalian refugee? The science of weight gain and weight loss is as basic as ABCD; as both are a function of either excessive binging or lack of much to eat either.  

Biology and nutritional science have proved that when the body is over-supplied with food which it cannot absorb nor wants, it stores the excess as body fat leading to weight gain. Conversely, when the body is deprived of nutrition, it resorts to scrapping any body fat available, leading to emaciation or what one folk would call looking "skeletal?" So like the computer axiom garbage in garbage out, your body responds to what you put into it; so less food, means your body will shrink and excessive food, means your body will balloon. It is as simple as that and any person, whether your doctor or nutrition scientist or even your personal trainer who tells you otherwise is simply trying to keep your relationship of his or her services alive. The experiment is something that has been severally undertaken by so many researchers including Icheoku and the result has always been the same - the more you eat the more weight you gain and the less you eat the less weight you gain. Like the NFL linebackers who are literally required to force-feed themselves in order to pack the pounds and the Hollywood bulimics who are required to stayed figured to keep their jobs, it is all about your level of gluttony. The more the weightier and the less the lighter. 

A researcher once traveled through East African countries of Somalia, Eritrea, Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia to investigate why the inhabitants over there are always slim and trim.  His findings, they don't have much to eat and the little they have, they do not usually binge on. They only eat the minimal required to nourish their bodies and keep them going; unlike some other cultures which believe that fat stomachs and fat buttocks are signatures of well to do folks and evidence of good living. So today, all those fat slobs out there who are wondering what they can do to shed off some weight, the magic is simple - make a conscientious effort to zip your mouth and you will see the miracle you have been praying for come to pass. Forget about all those workouts and aerobics, weight loss pills, calorie this calorie that diets, just quit eating and watch your weight drop like mercury drops in winter. 

When Icheoku says zip your mouth, it does not mean starve yourself to death; no, just moderate your eats, completely eliminating one or two of your daily three meals regime and watch your weight drop. Just remember to pack the one meal left with a lot of proteins. You will not die feeding on one meal a day ration; many war refugees as well as famine victims including starved Biafrans survived on less. Just condition your body to accept the new ration as the new normal and your body will adjust accordingly. All it takes is the discipline to try and a trial will convince you. Icheoku asks any fat or obese person out there willing to have a go at this panacea, to receive a handsome reward from us at the drop of the first fifty pounds or more, using this time tested and honored best weight loss method known to man. Icheoku challenges you today, all the fat people of this world, to challenge yourself today and do it for not only for an improved look but also a better health. Obesity is a disease and why suffer in vain, especially for something you have a control over - your intake valve, your mouth. So instead of quivering in front of mirrors and wondering how did 'I get here;' do something about it and do it now. Zip up your mouth and watch your body offload the excessive load you forced it to labor under. It is your life and personality that is at stake, so do something about it and TODAY.

I WILL BE YOUNGEST WOMAN PRESIDENT - HILLARY CLINTON.

Icheoku says Hillary Clinton has finally revealed the open secret she has been nurturing for a very long time - she is running to become president of the United States of America. Icheoku says best of luck as the world cannot wait to have a first gentleman Bill Clinton in the White House in a reversal of role, sort of? According to Hillary, she will be the youngest woman president of America; except that there is no other woman president to compare her age with and is possible that in the future women much younger than her 67 years age might possibly become presidents in America. Icheoku asks is this another one of her making it up as she goes stories? Anyway, she is running and lets wait to see what she brings this time to the table. Best of luck HC.

MARRIAGE A LA CARTE IN NIGERIA, ELEVEN YEAR OLDS NOW ON THE MENU?

Icheoku says when one thinks it could not get any uglier or messier for any country's reputation, with the anti-gay prohibition of who to love and/or marry in Nigeria, now comes a legislation making it okay for men to prey on eleven year old female children and take them into forceful concubinage? Icheoku asks what happened to sexual maturity and why drastically lower the age of consent to such abysmally tender age of merely eleven years? What purpose was intended to be achieved by the male dominated Nigerian congress with the passage of such law? What other motive is driving these men into passing such legislation if not their crave to take undue advantage of these innocent children, one may ask? 

Icheoku admonishes that the Nigeria Sexual Offenses Bill 2015 is not far-reaching enough when it pegged the age of consent and sexual maturity of the female at merely eleven years old. An eleven year old is but a child, not matured enough to understand the ramifications of their acts and therefore cannot give an informed consent including that of their bodies being violated by very old males. This is the reason why having sex with an underage female person, who could not give a valid consent, is treated as statutory rape in most decent societies. Therefore the Nigerian Congress's legislating of the age of consent of under eleven years is very immoral and irrational, admitted it was done to accommodate Northern Nigerians' Islamic Sharia practices and proclivities of having sex with underage minors? Icheoku queries, but for how long would the rest of other civilized Nigerians be forcibly yoked to these people's personal and religious idiosyncrasies and preferences for mundanities and are forced to accommodate and live with same in this twenty first century world? 

What manner of a people or country is this retrogressive and instead of thinking how to take people including their little young girls to Mars, are busy legislating how to take advantage of little children and forcibly so, as wives? Icheoku asks what happened to maturity and age of making an informed consent? What is wrong in marrying fully grown adult females, instead of preying on innocent little children who barely know their left from their right or how to even wipe their behinds or maintain other basic hygiene? Icheoku does not know about you, but this legislation is one heck of a mighty children abuse, which can only be tolerated in an archaic society, bent on retrogression and not one geared and prone to a progressive future. This legislation is a great absurdity and a great disservice to the Nigerian womanhood; and any woman who stands for it is not deserving of being indeed called a mother. How can Nigerian women allow their men dominated legislative houses to pass such a law which unduly discriminates against women and which seeks to take undue advantage of their very young girl-children's naiveté and force a life of sexual-slavery upon these little innocent girls? 

Icheoku bemoans this law as not clever but primitive; it is nothing short of a ploy by randy sex perverts to damage young little innocent girls and force a life of perpetual sexual servitude upon them. Young innocent little girls of barely puberty, now to become mothers and wives and you wonder what has taken a turn for the worse in the Nigerian society. What are these men afraid of by not taking matured women as wives except that they are perverts who want to dominate, conquer, subjugate and molest these fledgling young minors and abuse them as they like and without fear of any fight back. Like Icheoku previously condemned the anti-gay law when it was passed as being retrogressive, Icheoku hereby also condemns and rejects the latest legislation coming out of the stables of Nigerian legislative houses as very retrogressive, abusive, uncaring and damaging to the psyche of those would be child-victims of those old perverts seeking to take advantage of this new law. Icheoku therefore calls on President Muhammadu Buhari not to sign the bill into law because it is repugnant, mind boggling and not intended to achieve anything or to move the society forward. 

Moreso it comes with its attendant health risk of increased sufferers of Vesico-vaginal fistula (VVF); a result of damaged vaginal muscles by over-sized penises trusting violently into this yet to be fully developed and matured young children vaginae. Icheoku asks why would any civilized society want their innocent little girls to be so damaged, both physically and mentally, being exposed to sex at such a very tender young age of eleven years? In short this law is indeed crazy and crazier because some of these legislators have little children of their own who are girls or are they saying they will not agree for other men to seek their hands in marriage, while it is okay for them to so do to other people's children? Recall that Senator Yerima of Katsina State has a ten year old child-wife he imported from Egypt; and Emir of Kano Mohammed Sanusi III was on record very recently denying that he had taken a child-wife as was being rumored. Icheoku asks what is wrong with these people that have no scruples destroying the lives of innocent young children in this manner, instead of directing resources towards their good education into becoming doctors, lawyers,  academia and future leaders of tomorrow? Why must it be these men's instant sexual gratification that is in paramount occupation of their minds and every thing they do is geared towards satisfying their unquenchable libido? Icheoku says Christie Anyanwu screwed things up with this legislation and only President Muhammadu Buhari can right things at this stage by refusing to sign the bill as it is and send it back to the house for upward review of the age of consent and sexual maturity which is currently pegged at eleven years.

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ELECTION DEFLATES BOLA TINUBU, HIS MYTH BURSTED?

Icheoku says never in the recent history of Nigeria or any other country, has a dish of revenge been served rather so quickly, than the just concluded National Assembly election and inauguration of its eightieth session. The APC which did not see anything wrong when former Speaker Aminu Tambuwal was elected speaker of the House of Representative with the active help and connivance of their principal merger partner ACN and in total disregard of  Tambuwal's PDP's preferred candidate for the office; and Tambuwal's subsequent crossing of carpet to the APC without first resigning the office, is now suddenly crying foul that Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representative went against the APC's directive by standing for election? Icheoku asks is this a case of what is good for the PDP goose not being good for the APC gander or what; or is it a case of setting a precedent without fully being aware that like with what you wish for, you might be someday forced to equally comply with such precedent? So if Aminu Tambuwal had the APC's backing to disregard his PDP's directive, why should the APC now be seen to complain when their own member similarly disregards its own directive?

Icheoku is of the opinion that if it was good then, according to the APC's propaganda, to elect the leadership of the National Assembly based on merit and not on partisan mediocrity, regardless of the party in power's directive, it  should also be good now to similarly follow the same controlling authority? The National Assembly decided that there is greater merit in having Bukola Saraki as their Senate President and Yakubu Dogara as Speaker of the House of Representative, while rejecting and discarding the otherwise anointed candidates of the APC, so let the wisdom of the National Assembly similarly prevail now as it supposedly did before. Regardless, what is done is done and Bukola Saraki is now the president of the Nigeria senate and Yakubu Dogara is the Speaker of the House of Representatives, so all the huffing and puffing of the APC in  protest of a party's directive which was not followed notwithstanding, constitutional democracy had its place and members of the National Assembly effectively rejected imposition on them of leaders by outside unelected power brokers of the party, masquerading as party leaders. 

Icheoku commends this streak of independence by the National Assembly and hopefully they will maintain this trait in order to provide a viable guide for the new government of President Muhammadu Buhari. An effective legislature is imperative in any vibrant democracy and a legislature's leadership which emerged outside the tele-guide of the party or president will be the best to just provide that. So with North-central Bukola Saraki as senate president, Southeast Ike Ekweremadu as his deputy; Yakubu Dogara from Northeast and Yusuf Lasun from Southwest as his deputy, these tickets seem somewhat geographically balanced, especially when the president who is from the Northwest and the APC party's chairman from the Southsouth are factored in. Icheoku hopes that the new officers of the National Assembly will in oneness of purpose, help the newly elected president of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari, provide a way forward for a nation in distress, through qualitative goal-directed legislations, devoid of crass partisanship and political gamesmanship , and which are solely geared towards finding a workable path forward and effectively engaging the forward gear for Nigeria.

As to other triggered implications of the just concluded National Assembly election, Icheoku says it effectively clipped the rather soaring wings of Ahmed Bola Tinubu, who was on the verge of morphing into an all too powerful political colossus of the APC, which intent and purpose, fueled the conspiracy to stop Bukola Saraki in the first place. Icheoku laments that the Bola Tinubu's failed gang-up against the emergence of Bukola Saraki as senate president was a power play that terribly went awry. Bola TInubu wants it all and Bola Tinubu does not want any competition at the citadel of power, hence anyone strong enough to raise his head must be brutally cut down. Bola Tinubu did not want a very powerful Bukola Saraki who he cannot dictate to manning the tiller at the senate, so a minion of his was preferred; but nothing is as good as a similarly deft political power player like Bukola Saraki and the rest of it is now mere history. Bola Tinubu, the political fox was finally out-foxed by Bukola Saraki and is now left licking his wounds. A political mortal wound from which he might never fully recover, if at all. Now denuded and unmasked, the mysticism surrounding him and which had catapulted him to the political godfather numero uno and the man running affairs of the APC, is now bound to start unraveling and eventually completely dissipate.  

Icheoku says now that Bola Tinubu's political backbone has been broken, with none of the members he preferred and anointed as leaders of the National Assembly being elected, it will be tough for Bola Tinubu to regain his clout over the APC, a clout which was almost somewhat turning him into a political legend. The other bad news for the Jagabana of Borgu-land is that the horse trading which produced different leadership at the National Assembly other than those he anointed, have greatly compromised his authority and exposed his political power as being only limited to the enclave of the Yoruba Southwest. It goes to show that Bola Tinubu wields little or no influence outside his native Yorubaland, hence he could not or was unable to arm-twist politicians from outside his Yoruba-land and make them  fall in line and kowtow his bidding. Like the former leader of Yoruba people before him, Obafemi Awolowo, Bola Tinubu might similarly end up as Obafemi Awolowo did, just a local politician who could not and did not rise above being a mere local champion of Yoruba people and was unable to transform into a true Nigerian statesman with national influence and followership. 

So with Bola Tinubu thus effectively contained, checkmated and pigeonholed where he truly belongs, a local political kingmaker of Yoruba Southwest, Icheoku says may be the opportunity has now finally presented itself for the APC to build itself into a truly formidable functioning political party and not a clannish gathering of disparate interests, some of which are beholden to just one man named Ahmed Bola Tinubu. A political party should be and is an association of people primed and geared towards capturing and maintaining political power; but not an amalgam of minions doing the bid of just one person, their master overlord. When such supposed association of persons becomes a one-man show or enterprise, with just one man dictating and determining the fate of everyone member therein associated, then it is no longer technically a political party o called but something else. This was the case of the All Progressive Congress until the latest coup de`grace at the National Assembly that moved against Bola Tinubu's continued hostage-taking of the party. Icheoku says it is a very good opportunity for members of the APC to finally take their party back from Ahmed Bola Tinubu  by sustaining the putsch against hin which will eventually see him off and over the cliff.

Icheoku had initially called for the humbling of then candidate Bukola Saraki as a payback for his betrayal of his former party and President Goodluck Jonathan. But on a hindsight, it would appear that the evil moved against and which was sought to be defeated and was defeated with Saraki's election, is far worse a greater menace than a mere hurt feelings which his desertion of the PDP foist. As with any given situation, when faced with two evils, it is always a rule of the thumb to go with the lesser of the two evils. In this case, somewhat making up with and forgiving or rather tolerating an estranged former PDP party member and help him secure the senate presidency, seemed to be a more palatable option than to allow Bola Tinubu to further consolidate his stranglehold on Nigeria with the election of his handpicked and anointed candidates for those National Assembly offices. 

Icheoku in an earlier article had lamented that Bola Tinubu is the bull in the China shop of the APC and that his obsessive greed will be the party's waterloo, its greatest undoing - the proverbial Achilles heels of some sort. A man who wants it all or nothing and you wonder if the word greedy has a synonym named ABT or is even his middle name? A conquistador of some sort, whose crave for power is maniacal; but who has now been jolted by the courageous total rejection of his anointed candidates by the National Assembly. Icheoku says it was a good deed done to the country by the National Assembly to put a break on Bola Tinubu's ravenous gulping machine of political offices in the country, because a man that ambitious might eventually put his newly found political power to a very bad use. In demystifying Bola TInubu, it has been revealed that even Robbin Hood had his own limitations and that none Yoruba speaking Nigerians have little to no regard at all for the little man from Osun State. A mini-me politician, who like "nwa-nza" the bird, does not know how very limited his political power is and that his political influence in Nigeria is somewhat strictly confined only to his Southwest Yoruba enclave. 

The other good news out of the National Assembly election is that it shows the political dexterity of Ike Ekweremadu, the long serving senator from Southeast Enugu State, who cleverly manipulated himself into relevance in an APC dominated senate, having been reelected the deputy senate president. Thankfully, former Enugu State Governor Sullivan Chime, who stood down his initial ambition to vie for Ekweremadu's senate seat, also helped enable this development because only a long-term senator like Ekweremadu could have easily achieved this feat. 

However with the National Assembly elections now concluded, the North has effectively taken full, total and complete control of all political power structures in Nigeria. The North now have the president (executive), the senate president as well as the speaker (legislature) and the chief justice of the federation (judiciary). Icheoku says this is exactly what taking "their" power back now looks like - a complete routing of the rest of the country, without the decency to at least share a bit of it? Icheoku admonishes that never in the history of Nigeria has so much powers, in short all the powers, been vested in just one, out of the three regional tripod that Nigeria stands on. Even during President Shehu Shagari era, when both the Senate President Joseph Wayas and Speaker Edwin Umezoke came from the Southeast region, the president was from the North and so was the chief judge. Ditto when President Goodluck Jonathan was president, the senate president and the speaker as well as the chief judge all came from the North; likewise did President Obasanjo and President Yar'Adua distribute powers in Nigeria among the regions. 

So Icheoku queries, were those National Assembly power horse-traders not mindful of this very delicate power balancing act requirement which still sustains Nigeria? Are these politicians not aware that Nigeria rests on a political tripod that must be gingerly maintained by spreading power structure equitably among them, hence the need to apply this factor when they decided on this lumping of all the powers only on just one leg of the tripod? Icheoku laments that what took place at the National Assembly might sound lofty and ideal and democratic in the eyes of some pontificators, especially its current beneficiary from the Northern region, but were the tables to turn, would these Northerners accept such concentration of powers only in other region and against their Northern power interest? Your answer is as good as Icheoku's; as Icheoku calls for an urgent revisit of the election in order to balance out power more evenly among the original tripod of the country. As it currently stands, Icheoku aligns self with the APC that it is "unacceptable", admitted for a different reason, for all the powers in the country - the executive, the legislature and the judiciary, to be effectively concentrated in just only the North. Icheoku maintains that it does not augur well for the country's national security interest that such a skewed disproportionate power structure distribution should be allowed to stand or remain in place in a multifaceted Nigeria; and this is not a case where cutting the nose to spite the face will otherwise make it right or cut it or justify it. In the interim, Icheoku says congratulations to all the elected officials of the National Assembly.

GOVERNOR LAMIDO TELLS APC, TALK IS CHEAP.

“During campaigns, APC were busy blackmailing the PDP; they did not raise any developmental issue; they were busy harping on the dysfunctionalities of the nation, which included Boko Haram, corruption and other security issues. They never knew a day of reckoning will come. They tried to break and distort Nigeria’s harmony, they tried to turn tribe against tribe, brother against brother, raising false hope. They made a lot of promises and must now fulfill them without all these excuses they are beginning to make, because there was no pre-condition of good or favorable economy when they were making those promises, while soliciting and asking for Nigerians votes. ” - Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido.

SOUTH AFRICA NOW TAGS HIV POSITIVE PEOPLE, THE MARK OF THE BEAST?

Icheoku says in as much as it is the surest way to keep unsuspecting would be victims protected and carriers at bay from further spreading their death-virus, the latest trend in South Africa to permanently mark people living with the HIV/AIDS virus seems to be rather too invasive and overreaching? These people are victims themselves and as people suffering from a disease, further traumatizing them by marking them in this way is rather inhumane and should have been avoided, regardless. But when viewed against the background of those wicked people who knowingly infect people with the virus, by intentionally spreading it, then any measure taken to arm people with notice of carriers, including tattooing sufferers with HIV marker, may seem rather very urbane. When the Kenya girl who intentionally infected over three hundred people with the virus just to avenge her own victim-hood is recalled, then President Zuma's government's decision to place indelible marker on victims and sufferers might not be too mean afterall. 

President Jacob Zuma recently signed into law a bill that will require or rather compel every person who tests positive for HIV/AIDS virus in South Africa to have a marker around their pubic area indicating their positive status. According to the promoters of the legislation, it is to protect those who cannot say no to sex; which in the words of the president, "If you cannot read between the lines, you should be able to read between the legs or around that region because that's where the status will be indelibly marked.' Continuing, the president said that the choice to be HIV positive is now not only in your hands but also "in your pubic region or genitals for that matter?" 

As to display his leadership by example style, President Jacob Zuma now also wears the mark of the beast around his pubic region, admitted, his is still negative. Icheoku says so when next you sleep with any South African, make sure the place of coitus is well lit up and enough to read in between his or her legs or genital or around the pubic area. If you see the sign, the mark of the beast, then abandon everything and run as fast as your legs can carry you away from your potential killer. Do not say you have not been warned and now duly placed on notice with this marker; except you are so drunk on quenching your libido fire that the sign don't at that moment matter to you. But it might be a decision you will live to regret later, so learn to pull back and suck it up. Icheoku agrees that the South African government, by this measure, are proactively protecting those still without the virus and who wants to be helped with not getting the virus. 

Icheoku adds, imagine what a corruption-free South African it will be were every corrupt person there, including President Jacob Zuma, to have their corruption status marked on their forehead in like manner? Why not, just an idea whose time has since come and which is worth experimenting with? But hey, at least the president have started the marking on HIV/AIDS positives, so who knows where it will eventually lead to, as the world of South Africa are now witnessing the biblical marking of the beast debut in their country. Icheoku says another first for South Africa and hopefully it will checkmate the wildfire like spread of that killer-virus in that country of Nelson Mandela. The measure, if successful, might also prove itself worthy of replication throughout all those other HIV/AIDS virus ravaging countries of sub-Saharan Africa. Icheoku says nice experiment though; so now before you say yes or do, ask to see the mark, your marker please?

CHINA RIGHTS UPTURNED DEATH-FERRY, THE EASTERN STAR.

Icheoku commends the Chinese people and government for speedily salvaging their stricken 'Eastern Star' ferry that went Titanic last Monday night in the Yangtze River.  Unfortunately however, majority of the 456 people that went down with the ferry were not lifted out alive with the boat on Friday, although their drowned bodies were. Of the total passengers aboard the ill fated ferry, only 14 people including the ship's captain have so far been found alive, 396 bodies have been recovered while 46 others are still missing. 

Icheoku commiserates with  the bereaved families, the Chinese people and government, for   their very tragic and painful loss. Icheoku cannot begin to imagine the agony of families left behind who are now wondering what went wrong and what freak accident turned a fun sightseeing outing on a scenic river into watery deaths for so many and presented an existing nightmare for so many others alive. May the souls of  all the Yangtze River drowned, now rest in peace. 

CHUCK BLAZER'S STOMACH, WHAT FIFA BRIBES CAN DO FOR YOU.

Icheoku says it is no longer a question of if but when, handcuffs will be slammed on the wrists of the now resigning and soon to be disgraced former president of FIFA, Sepp Blatter. The facilitator of the bribery himself and the man now officially known as the Whistle Blower of FIFA, Chuck Blazer, has spoken and what he said is rather very damaging. He admitted that he, alongside other executives of FIFA were in the habit of demanding and accepting bribes to influence their decision as to where FIFA organized tournaments are held. In other words this executive has literally confessed to their committing a crime. Bribery, which could pass for lobbying in the United States, is usually given to influence an outcome. The crime inhers in the guilty mind to influence a predetermined outcome; so a smarter FIFA executives would have deferred receiving those perks until after such tournaments are completed, in which case they will no longer be bribes but become mere gratuity from a happy host country, which is not an offense nor punishable. 

Icheoku insists that there is no possible scenario whatsoever wherein such bribe taking FIFA executives can exclude their president, the boss who must sign off on all of these deals, from all the main need to know bribery process and also in sharing the booty of their criminal behavior. Therefore Icheoku asserts that Sepp Blatter is as guilty if not more guilty than this canary singing with a very high pitched tone and telling the world, yes we took bribes. Icheoku says there cannot be any better evidence than that of a percipient witness who is prepared to go on oath, especially one also facing some time in the big house. Anyway, just take a good look at the fat stomach of Chuck Blazer and judge for yourself that may be no additional evidence is needed or required than a stomach which speaks volume of what FIFA bribery has purchased for him. Then don't forget to look at the squirrelly eye of Jack Warner, whose greed to shortchange Chuck of his own cut, forced Chuck to rat. Let somebody now please tell Icheoku that Sepp Blatter is not in neck deep in this lagoon of corruption that is surely going to drown him.

FIFA'S BLATTER FINALLY DOES THE MOST SENSIBLE THING, GOOD RIDDANCE.

Icheoku's most favorite television channel is National Geography, especially when they bring into our living rooms, the real life situation of wild animals in Africa's Serengeti National Wildlife, the Mara River Wildebeest annual migration and such shows of other 'top-dog' animals of the vast plains and jungles of Africa. Icheoku affirms that were humanity to trade places with these jungle dwellers, the United States of America will certainly be lions, the king of the jungle. Like the lions which are not afraid of any animals, the United States of America is not afraid of anybody. Like the lions which take on and take down any animal they determinedly want to, regardless of size or famed viciousness, be it elephant, giraffe, water buffalo, hyena etc - just name it, the United States of America takes on and takes down any person or country that detrimentally mixed things up for them. So like the lions which are not afraid of making a go at it of anything, the United States of America similarly does not and have now trained their eyes on Sepp Blatter. Icheoku says unfortunately for Sepp Blatter, the end can only go one way - Sepp Blatter is going down  and Sepp Blatter will go down hard. 

So when Icheoku opined just a few days ago, precisely on May 31st that Sepp Blatter can and should still resign regardless of having won a reelection as FIFA president, Icheoku made this call based on some analytical data that what America wants, America usually gets; and even if it takes moving the mountain or going to the end of the earth to have their way, America always so do. When the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with its nearly infinite resources, announced that FIFA officials are being indicted for corruption, Icheoku concluded that, summarily, brings the reign of Sepp Blatter to an end. From historical perspective, there is no way the Department of Justice will be investigating Sepp Blatter's underlings for corruption without him being their main target. The DOJ are merely trying to first sweep away the little shrubs around before making their way to the big iroko. As is usual with their modus operandi, they will turn the little guys against their boss - get the little guys, make a deal with them and make them rat against their big boss. 

This is exactly where the investigation is now finally headed, the arrest and indictment and trial of Sepp Blatter for corruption. So query, how can a boss of FIFA who has been in charge of the organization since 1998, a total of eighteen years, not be aware that such gross corruption as saw 150 million dollars exchange hands took place in the organization? Icheoku says it is either he is a partaker of the criminality or he is an incompetent buffoon who did not know what was going on in a place he is supposed to be in charge of and should therefore be held liable for gross negligence and incompetence, regardless. A crime usually can be either a commission or an omission, especially where one is in authority such as a FIFA president over FIFA. But Icheoku is not buying and refuses to buy into the bullcrap claim of innocence by Sepp Blatter and it seems, neither does America too. So having smelt blood in the water, the Department of Justice, it would appear, are now dizzying for the final kill.  

Sepp Blatter, in short, instituted the corruption sleaze that is suffocating the FIFA and this is the only reason he always wins every election or rather coronation as president of the body since ascending the throne of FIFA in 1998. The other buzzards around him knew the kind of money they are making with him as the helmsman, so why would they disturb the gravy train that keep on churning by taking a chance with electing a total outsider to come and disturb their fun? As Icheoku called on our two previous articles, we again repeat, that a total outsider, the proverbial stranger who did not know that a king named Joseph once ruled the land, is the best person needed at this moment to sanitize the rot that is FIFA. Such a no nonsense seasoned administrator should come to FIFA, armed with a meat cleaver not a surgical scalpel, and do the needful in order to salvage FIFA. FIFA needs a new lease of life an in order to save a FIFA that is currently on life's support. Icheoku therefore says it is good for the mankind of soccer (football) that the face of FIFA and its bottomless sewer of corruption, Sepp Blatter, finally got the message and is now on his way out; which of course is the only possible outcome of his current debacle of presiding over a corruption infested FIFA. Good riddance.

BRUCE JENNER NOW FULLY TRANFORMED?

Icheoku says he-she seems to be saying "my name used to be Bruce but you can now call me Kaitlyne and you can proposition me too if you indeed go that way too. Icheoku says this is one of the reasons President Jonathan lost the last election because he messed up with the wrong power bloc when he signed into law, Nigeria's anti-gay legislation. Icheoku says whatever works for any individual and provided it makes them feel better in their own true skin. But the she-man looks darn gad pretty though.

PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI'S ANTI-CORRUPTION WAR, FINALLY TAKING SHAPE?

Icheoku says in just two days, post inauguration, Nigerians are beginning to have a glimpse on how the planned crusade against corruption by President Muhammadu Buhari will be prosecuted? Forty eight hours and four casualties already; except it is in the inverse proportion form. It appears that the new Nigeria's president is going to be all hot-air and no real action on fighting corruption in Nigeria because he greatly compromised himself, accepting campaign funding from notoriously corrupt Nigerians, and now seems to have inadvertently bound himself to them? So Icheoku says with this four developments so successively registered just within forty eight hours of his being sworn in, is anyone in Nigeria still in doubt that it is going to be all the same this inbound four years of his presidency. 

First the president makes a secret declaration of his assets and you wonder why bother to declare at all and not, like the former President Jonathan, tell Nigerians that he does not give a damn, if the content will be shrouded in secrecy and not made public?  Icheoku asks of what use then is the asset declaration if it is not a real open declaration in the strict sense of that word? Second his wife Aisah Buhari, wore a thirty four thousand pounds (34,500 pounds) Cartier Baignoire Folle 18-Carat White Gold Diamond Ladies wristwatch to his inauguration? Meanwhile this were the couple that campaigned on their being penniless and as poor as church mouse and you wonder this catapulting to the world's 1% of the 1% just within forty eight hours of ascending the presidency? And assuming for purposes of playing the devil's advocate, this ultra expensive wrist watch is a gift, who gives such stratospheric high end gift if not for the purposes of corruptly mining something out of the new administration? Icheoku says a trite rule of law has it that not only must justice be done, but it must be seen to be manifestly done; so President Muhammadu Buhari cannot be preaching war on corruption while an immediate member of his family, his wife, is accepting corrupt gift from parties wishing to corruptly milk the administration. 

Third, his government immediately directs the EFCC to drop the case against former Bayelsa State Governor Timipre Silva's N2.5 billion corruption charges; and of course then the anti-democracy Zimbabwe's strong man Robert Mugabe, was invited to witness a democratic change that took place in Nigeria without abstracting commitments of his own country being allowed to freely elect its leader. Icheoku says gradually but surely, the Pharisee in President Muhammadu Buhari is beginning to crawl out of its shell and for Nigerians and the whole world to see. But hey, a gullible Nigerian polity bought into the snake oil that was Muhammadu Buhari and handed power  over to him because of his fake vaunted credential of being an anti-corruption crusader. And this is only just within 48 hours in a four years term. Icheoku says, like the Ota deity, Baba Iyabo, many discerning Nigerians just dey laugh oooo!

AMERICA EXPRESS ED GILLIGAN, DROPS DEAD IN THE AIR?

Icheoku says what is life afterall, even when all the money in the world and the best health-care system money can buy, cannot purchase one even an extra second of life in this world? Few days ago it was Vice President Joe Biden's son, Beau Biden, who succumbed to cancer; and today the president of AMEX, Ed Gilligan, dropped dead midair enroute New York Ciy, while returning from a business trip to Tokyo, in his company's private jet. Icheoku says what is this life really worth, here today and gone tomorrow; yet some people are living it like they have written a death-defying app already and securely guarded. Anyway, it is the irony of life; and like the preacher said in biblical Ecclesiastes 1:2, vanity of vanities, all is vanity. So for all those who have the capacity, Icheoku says please live a life with meaning and as if we are all on borrowed time here. American Express president and chief executive officer, Edward Gilligan, was 55 years old and may his restless soul which saw him rise from an intern to president and CEO of that financial services company, now rest in peace. Adieu Ed.

WESTERN GAY RIGHTS DEMAND, WILL BUHARI BUCKLE?

Icheoku says every attention-paying Nigeria knows that former President Goodluck Jonathan's problem with the West snowballed after he signed the anti same-sex (gay) marriage bill into law, officially banning same sex marriage in Africa's most populous country; thereby making Nigeria a gay-unfriendly country where it is not acceptable to be gay.  US Secretary of State John Kerry immediately attacked the law, stating that "Beyond even prohibiting same-sex marriage, this law dangerously restricts freedom of assembly, association and expression for all Nigerians. People everywhere deserve to live in freedom and equality. No one should face violence or discrimination for who they are or who they love." US ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power followed with her condemnation of the law, saying "the law is a big setback for human rights for all Nigerians?" 

Icheoku says but these two officials of the United States of America government did not explain why Saudi Arabia is still the best friend of America despite the gross human rights violations in that kingdom, including the public beheading of gays and lesbians therein? The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia does not ever get any condemnation whatsoever nor have the eyebrows of America and the West raised when they carry out their persecution of the minorities of their country, including the beheading of gays and lesbians? So why this different treatment for different countries and varying standards of what constitute freedom and human rights violations set by the United States of America as it appertains to different countries, one may ask? 

So having got the green light, powerful gay lobby groups including the likes of Elton John and Apples' Tin Cook went into action, calling for their pound of flesh and eventually the head of this anti-gay president of Nigeria on a platter for daring to show the red light to gaydom in Nigeria.  Fortunately, with strong allies in the White House and 10 Downing Street, they organized and organized, manipulated the media including the staged Chibok girls abduction and successfully pigeonholed the former president into a corner, marked and branded, as the most clueless, unthinking buffoon in Africa, who must be got rid of. That the gay lobby also worked against securing the much needed help in the fight against Boko Haram including weapon sales is equally a fact of consequence. It is also within the public domain that the APC and their then presidential candidate made series of deals with their Western backers and sponsors, including to revisit the issue of gay-marriage in Nigeria? 

So Icheoku asks how far will the now President Muhammadu Buhari go to honor some of these deals, including the very one which is now known as the contract with the devil, the gay-rights question, being favorably revisited? Icheoku asks can a bill which has already been signed into law as an operational law of the country be so suddenly changed just because some powerful bloc in the West demanded it? How will the PDP senators see and react to this affront on the general Nigerian psyche? Would they allow a President Buhari to impose on the whole Nigeria, a deal he and Bola Tinubu privately reached with their Western backers in their desperate course of trying to win the presidential election in Nigeria? Now that President Muhammadu Buhari has secured the bargained for presidency of Nigeria, will he renege or shirk his own part of the bargain; and if so, what are the repercussions and ramifications, both for his government and the entire Nigeria? Would the West let him off the hook or are they going to come down heavy on his head with a sledge hammer and vanquish his presidency too like they did with Jonathan?

Icheoku is a firm believer that contracts must and ought to be respected but not one very repugnant to a society and which was contracted privately by private individuals in their rabid desire to get hold of power. Like the Devil's Advocate, where Keanu Reeves sold his soul to the devil in order to become a successful attorney and thereafter, like Andy in Living in Bondage, agonized that they did not explain it very well to him before he took that plunge, Icheoku is convinced that President Muhammadu Buhari must be similarly agonizing how he was made to enter into such a Catch-22 deal. The G-7 has already invited him to attend their forthcoming groups meeting on between 7-9 of June, 2015 in Berlin Germany; asking him to bring his "wish-list" of what he wants from them on behalf of his government and the country Nigeria. Icheoku hopes that energy/power will top that list, followed by stopping illegal oil bunkering and shutting its markets in Europe etc, repatriating back to Nigeria all the country's looted money in their European and island territories banks, Boko Haram routing, investments, and other assistance programs including growing and deepening democratic politics in Nigeria, retraining Nigerian police force and other security agencies as well as adequately equipping them.  

But what is the bargain the Industrialized nations G-7 will make or demand and get in return for all they are willing to do for President Muhammadu Buhari and his Nigeria? Icheoku does not know nor have all the answers, but sure, the reversing of the anti-gay law will certainly be one of them. But hopefully, President Muhammadu Buhari will find the courage to, like President Macky Sall of Senegal, tell them to refrain from seeking to impose their values on other people and beyond their borders. That unless they are ready to make a fair reciprocal trade of accepting our African polygamy values in their own Western countries as a condition for us in Africa accepting their gaydom lifestyle, there should and of course there will be no deal.

FIFA IGNORES PROBITY, ELECTS CONTINUINTY OF SEPP BLATTER BAZAAR?

Icheoku says as expected the honchos who are benefitting from the sleaze that is FIFA once again voted to retain their benefactor in chief, Sepp Blatter, who once again won the just concluded election continuing as chairman of that world governing soccer body. No one expected that the Jordanian challenge stood any meaningful chance at toppling the machine that is Sepp Blatter and his boys at FIFA but Icheoku had thought the developing arrest for corruption of some FIFA executives would have provided some wind to the sail of the challenger; but it never happened. While congratulating the winner as courtesy demands, Icheoku says that the embattled chairman can still find some place in his mind to abdicate and make way for a thorough cleansing of the stable and if he chooses not, the corporate world whose financial muscle backs the multi billion organization can force the issue by withholding their purse. 

PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI SWORN IN, THE NEW HELMSMAN OF NIGERIA.

Icheoku says Nigeria defiled all odds and permutations of the world, especially those Western countries who do not mean well for Nigeria and successfully transferred power from one president to another. Icheoku says congratulations to Nigerians, their erstwhile President Goodluck Jonathan and the new man on the block at Aso Rock, President Muhammadu Buhari. Icheoku says every Nigerian should congratulate him or her self for this milestone as against all odds, they proved the naysayers wrong and did not go the way of uncivilized, failed states. Way to go Nigerians and may the good example set and sacrifice made by the now gone President Jonathan never be lost in all subsequent occupiers of that exalted seat at Aso Rock; starting with the its first beneficiary and now new President Muhammadu Buhari, when eventually his term comes to an end.

Icheoku listened to the inaugural address delivered by President Muhammadu Buhari and read it all over again to make sure that a full grasp of it was first got before writing this piece. It was a well crafted speech with specs of his Washington DC minders and benefactors, cleverly sprinkled and infused in it; such as "share in increased prosperity/productivity?" Icheoku also noticed the reference to "Medicare", an American social medical program to its indigents and elderly; except that Nigeria has no such medical services in the country. However it is an acceptable practice all over the world of letters, for speech writers and speech givers to periodically assimilate good contents from elsewhere and as a result, Icheoku will not devote much time on this observed foray into Obamanism in the speech delivered by President MB. 

Overall the speech was well written and delivered; and its contents and aspirations, upwardly optimistic too. But that's where the fork on the road really forks off because talk is cheap, especially such lofty sugar-candy mountain type-talk. Icheoku says the world similarly witnessed such patronizing speech with America's President Barack Obama during his hay days, whose advent in the American political stage as the highest political office holder in the land has not productively, economically and socially, transformed or benefited black people of America; who instead, have for most part now, ended up as the new endangered species of that once new world. Such lofty speeches are usually what they are - hot air baloney, tailored for a feel-good effect; but which in actuality and reality, never usually equalizes the paper and ink they were written in and on, at the end of the day. They are usually good as sound bites but putting them on the reality convoy-belt of actually midwifing them to fruition, is the heavy-lifting arduous task, which never leaves their drawing table. 

The president spoke, among other things, his determination to fight impunity headlong in Nigeria. Icheoku will now throw some light on this question and speaking of impunities in Nigeria, there cannot be any greater impunity in the country than the born to rule mentality of Miyetti Allah Northern Nigerians. A people who believe in their inalienable right to perpetually stride over the power structure in Nigeria without yield or compromise. A people who are convinced that their position is always right and that other's are always wrong and that it is always going to be either their way or the highway? That it is either they are in power and dictating to every other Nigerian always or the blood of baboons and dogs will soak the land? This is one grave impunity threatening the continued existence of Nigeria which President Muhammadu Buhari should try and tackle for the long term survivability of Nigeria. By reason thereof, Icheoku was expecting to hear and would have loved to hear the new President Muhammadu Buhari clarify and affirm that he would have himself accepted the result of the presidential election in good faith, had he lost; without plunging the country into an irrecoverable political armageddon, regardless of his pre-election signed peace initiative? 

Icheoku says how about the other grave impunity of Northern Nigerians debit dads, who are by necessary implication, helping with funneling thousands of street fighters to Boko Haram; by reason of their uncared for children whom they bring to this world without taking care of them, now finding solace in whatever Boko Haram has to offer to them amidst their abject hopelessness? Icheoku says these debit-dads create the sociological problem of almajiris by recklessly impregnating under-age teenage girls who they take as wives and without adequately caring for them and their resulting children. As a result of this absent father syndrome, these children end up as streets urchins and social miscreants wherein Boko Haram finds an endless stream and supply of fighters and mischief makers with whom they terrorize Nigerians? Icheoku says how about that, Mr President Muhammadu Buhari, as a very needful impunity which is plaguing Nigeria and deserving your government's readily attention, among other things? 

Icheoku is emphatic that the problem of almajiris which breeds fighters for Boko Haram is the worst form of corruption as it attacks the very social fabric of the Nigerian society, wearing its productivity ratio drastically thinned down. The problem of these jobless and homeless youths of Northern Nigeria, a riveting social menace of the Nigerian society, must be frontally addressed by President Muhammadu Buhari, if indeed he means well and wants to wholesomely fix those things that are broken in Nigeria. Sometimes when Icheoku sees the pile of bodies of Boko Haram fighters killed, Icheoku wonders which families lost these so many people; don't they feel the pains of such loss and what are they doing about preventing it? Are they indeed doing something proactively to safeguard any future occurrences by corralling their non initiate children out of Boko Haram and out of terrorism? 

Finally whether or not President MB delivers on all his campaign promises as he further re-pledged during his inaugural address, Icheoku does and will not care nor will be bothered. Icheoku knows that politicians are usually filled with garbs and often heavy on hot air and very little on performance; and without a commensurate will or resources to effectively transform their words into actionable developments on the ground. Icheoku therefore urges Nigerians to curb their enthusiasm as their great expectation will soon default to the usual despondency and forlorn dreams that were not fulfilled. This will not be lack of trying or the absence of intention to see them through,  no; but a lot of unforeseen  things that often aggregate together to conspire to let out the steam and take the wind out of the sail. Icheoku says even if President MB has the best intentions, scant resources, volatile world oil market, internal sabotage as well as foreign conspirators' machinations will likely put spanner in his wheels. 

Therefore as Nigerians tame their expectations as they  should reasonably do and are expected to do under the circumstance; they should focus more on the sincerity of purpose of the president to run an all inclusive Nigerian government, for Nigerians and by Nigerians. Provided he is steadfast in working as a Nigerian president, for all Nigerians, regardless of region, tribe or religion, then President Muhammadu Buhari would have earned Icheoku's admiration as well as every other Nigerian. The president must therefore work for the unity of one united Nigeria and not one mortgaged to only the Hausa/Fulani core North or some special interests groups or blocs, including foreign meddlesome interlopers, who do not mean well for Nigeria nor would like to see Nigeria attain its true natural status in the world. These people are already gnashing their teeth that their prophesy from hell that Nigeria will be disintegrated in 2015, which they assiduously worked to see come to fruition, did not pan out or materialize as they projected, and now they would find other ways and means to continue to further subvert Nigeria. Icheoku is not being a Hezekiah, the prophet of doom; but as a student of world geo-political calculations and permutations, knows that the jury is still out about the future of Nigeria and its march to greatness and therefore, states that it is not yet uhuru for Nigeria, President MB being in charge now, notwithstanding. 

Icheoku emphasizes that once President MB governs like a president of Nigeria and not president of Northern Nigeria only and not allow the feudalistic cabal or a member thereinto to hijack his government, like President Shehu Shagari allowed Umaru Dikko, then Nigerians would have reason to hope again. So on this note, Icheoku welcomes the new president of Nigeria and wishes him all the best. Lets keep the faith and help the new government stay focused in a narrow straight line of accomplishments, without any frolic or veering off the course. Icheoku prays that the Nigerian media including the social media will not visit on the new president the nightmare they dumped unto the now former President Goodluck Jonathan; and not needlessly so rattle him that he loses his focus and instead of governing, just spends his presidency fighting to hang in there, to survive, by treading waters until an opportunity to bail out equally presents itself. Icheoku says former President Goodluck Jonathan was a victim of the anti subsidy-removal protests which nearly torpedoed his government and he never truly recovered from the shock until he finally took a bow out of Aso Rock and out of power. May President Muhammadu Buhari not share a similar fate nor any other convulsing shocks to his government that will deviate his focus. 

Anyway, thanks to a man who is very squeamish President Goodluck Jonathan, President Muhammadu Buhari has now been sworn in as the new president of Nigeria. However the now gone President Jonathan did Nigeria one heck of a good by what he did, yielding power, a very good precedent he has meritoriously now set in place. Icheoku says one good thing about setting precedents is that if respectably followed by subsequent beneficiaries, it helps greatly in creating and ingraining functionality and foundational growth in any given political entity, leading to a more well stabilized and lasting polity. It now behoves on President Muhammadu Buhari to dutifully, as expected, similarly pass on the torch or baton, whenever his time comes, to the next guy without any let or hesitance. 

Hopefully too the dog eat dog disposition of Northern Nigerians Hausa/Fulanis that saw then Muhammadu Buhari overthrowing President Shehu Shagari, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida overthrowing Muhammadu Buhari and Babangida killing Mamman Vasta etc for attempted overthrow of his government, will not lead to a Northern coup against Muhammadu Buhari or even a Sokoto State officer overthrowing President Muhammadu Buhari to avenge President Shehu Shagari's experience in the hands of the same Muhammadu Buhari. On this final note, Icheoku now pours libation for the new President Muhammadu Buhari as follows:- May his presidency be without anyone making the country ungovernable for him. May he have the clarity of mind and oneness of purpose to now begin to wrought all the promised miracles he made to the Nigerian electorates during his presidential campaign, in anticipation and expectation of their fulfillment, they massively gave him the mandate. Icheoku says congratulations to President MB of Nigeria, admitted that the funereally pall now cast over the country with the change of batons at Aso Rock will take sometime to dissipate, if any time soon. 

PRESIDENT MB SPEAKS GLOWINGLY OF PRESIDENT GEJ, A BEFITTING MESSAGE.

"I would like to thank President Goodluck Jonathan for his display of statesmanship in setting a precedent for us all that has now made our people proud to be Nigerians wherever they are. With the support and cooperation he has given to the transition process, he has made it possible for us to show the world that despite the perceived tension in the land, we can be a united people capable of doing what is right for our nation. Together we cooperated to surprise the world that had come to expect only the worst from Nigeria. I hope this act of graciously accepting defeat by the outgoing President will become the standard of political conduct in the country." - President Muhammadu Buhari.

Icheoku says well said and dutifully too. What a great magnanimity of the President to once again publicly acknowledge and for the umpteenth time too, the very pivotal role played by former President Goodluck Jonathan in bringing about a new politically refocused Nigeria. Icheoku maintains that were the former president not a God-fearing man, who does not want to spill needlessly the blood of Nigerians just to stay put in power, not only would there not have been a new President Muhammadu Buhari sworn in today, but possibly there would not be a Nigeria still existing as one country and at best a Nigeria in cataclysmic turmoil. Icheoku appreciates the new president for recognizing this fact of immerse consequence and hopefully, he too will reciprocate same when his time also comes for such a display of statesmanship. Congratulations President Muhammadu Buhari and congratulations to the now former President Goodluck Jonathan.