CHARLESTON CHURCH MURDERS, SLAUGHTER IN A HOUSE OF GOD?

Icheoku says this commentary is not going to dwell on the murders per se because it is no longer a big deal in America that people are routinely, senselessly killed. What is news here and the subject of our commentary is the pattern of these mass murders and the race of the people that continuously perpetrate them - white people, the domestic terrorists of our time. A people and a culture that seem to have zero regard for human lives and who have no scruples taking the life of anyone within their cross-hairs, regardless of the person's age or circumstance or even the supposed sanctity of the place wherein they cornered their victims. 

They have massacred pupils and  kindergartners; they have bombed children in daycare center to smithereens; they have murdered Sikhs right inside their temple; they have murdered Muslims; they have killed Christians; they have killed Jews; they have killed unbelievers; they have killed pagans; they have killed college students; they have killed high school students; they have massacred movie goers; they have killed shoppers; they have killed cab drivers; they have taken a shot at a congress woman; they have even killed presidents; they have killed convenient store owners and their clerks; they have killed doctors in their consulting rooms; they have killed postal workers; they have killed professors; they have killed grandmas and grandpas; their children have killed their parents and parents have also killed their children. Most times, their instrument of choice are usually guns, guns and more guns. This is despite the strong law enforcement in the United States of America, where over three million bad eggs are already securely locked up behind bars and you wonder if not for such strong law enforcement, which have successfully taken this great number of criminals out of circulation, what a killing field America would have indeed been? 

So the latest killings in Charleston South Carolina of black American Christians as they studied their bible is not necessarily unique; admitted coincidentally, it appears to be a hate crime since the suspect is from across the racial aisle in America, being white, while his victims were black. Icheoku says those killed could have been any other person or group of persons and killed by any person, including one of their own. It is America and in America, people kill people and are also themselves killed by other persons daily. In America, it is steadily becoming arguable that everyone and anyone is a potential killer, walking and only waiting for his or her head to go off and people are dead. It also does not matter the color of their skin as practically everyone in America is a racist or has some racist views or nurses some degree of racism in them. Unfortunately, a fired bullet does not necessarily see the color of those persons falling down as a result of being fired and who lay dead or dying at the other side  of the smoking gun's barrel's end. All that matters is that an irate person has decided that some people or person will die in their hand and they then go about bringing it to fruition and seeing it happen. It also does not matter where or when, as those killers could just happen upon their victims and simultaneously dispatch them without any provocation or meaningful reason; except where it is premeditated such as the Charleston church massacre.

In July 1993, the law firm of Pettit & Martin in San Francisco was targeted by an irate divorcee, Gian Ferri; and at the end of his shooting spree, eight lawyers lay daed in addition to himself, with a self-inflicted gun-shot wound to the head; an action which ended the existence of a once thriving power law firm. Since then, there have been series of mass killings in America including in Killeen Texas where in October 1991, a man shot twenty three people to death before killing himself; in Jonesboro Arkansas where in March 1998, when four students and a teacher were killed; in Littleton Colorado where in April 1999, two students of Columbine High killed twelve of their classmates and a teacher before dying of self inflicted gunshot wounds themselves; in Atlanta Georgia in July 1999 when a stock trader lost it and went berserk, killing twelve people including his wife and two children before also taking his own life; in Red Lake Minnesota where in March 2005, a boy killed nine people before taking his own life too; in Blacksburg Virginia in April 2007 where a student of Virginia Tech took the lives of thirty two students before killing himself; in San Fernando Valley California in October 2008, a man killed his wife, mother-inlaw, three children and himself over "extreme money problems;" in Covina California in December 2008 where a Father Christmas killed nine people at a Christmas eve party before committing suicide. 

Continuing, in Wilmington California where in January 2009 a man who just lost his job killed his wife and three children because his former employer while firing him told him to better go blow his brains out; in Binghamton New York in April 2009 where a man killed thirteen people; in Fort Hood Texas in November 2009 where an army psychiatrist killed thirteen people inside a military base; in Oakland California in April 2012 where a student killed seven of his classmates including a Nigerian Doris Chibuko inside their Oikos University classroom. According to the gunman, "I killed one, why not two, three and I kept on going until I ran out of ammunition, why not?" In Aurora Colorado in July 2012, where a man killed twelve movie goers inside a movie theater; in Oak Creek Wisconsin in August 2012 where six Sikh people where killed inside a their temple by a skinhead who later committed suicide; in Newton Connecticut in December 2012 where a gunman killed twenty six people including twenty children at Sandy Hook elementary and his own mother before killing himself; in Miami Florida in July 2013 where a renter killed six people in his apartment complex before being killed by the police; in Washington DC in September 2013 where a contractor killed twelve people inside a Naval base before being killed by the police and lastly in August 2014 in Goleta California where a man killed his parents and two sons as well as the family dog simply because, according to him, "their murders was his destiny?" 

This is just but a few of the wanton mass killings in the United States of America just within the last decade. So in a broader sense, the Charleston church murders is not entirely out of place but just another statistic to the bloody murders in an American society that increasingly now seems numbed with these deaths and killings. So why this preference for gun settlement of issues and disputes one may ask?  Without a doubt, the answer points directly at the NRA obstruction of any sensible gun control laws and the easy availability of guns in America. According to these crazed out folks, why negotiate anything or even discuss disputations when you can just end it swiftly with a gun; and a zero-patience Americans are mining this easy availability of guns to the fullest. People are dying but who cares, definitely not the NRA and in any other event, the funeral industry have some business to do anyway?

Icheoku sometimes wonders if there is any deity in America that must drink the crimson liquid every now and then, the reason for all these senseless killings in America? Could it possibly be that there is a Dracula in America that gravitates towards the liquid and forces the hands of these killers; otherwise how else does anyone possibly try to explain these agonizing mayhem that Americans are forced to deal with and which are so often visited on them? What causes this wanton spillage of human blood in the supposedly God's own country or has Satan seized total control of the country and now has to be periodically pacified and appeased with bloody human sacrifice? As the bible tells us, the God of Abraham and Moses does not accept nor partake of human sacrifice as Isaac's would be sacrifice shows, so it cannot be God causing all these blood letting in America? So if it is not God and it is God's own country, has Lucifer effectively taken over America and is now directing affairs including human sacrifices? Icheoku says were these latest victims Muslims, may be their killings would have somehow been explained as a revenge attack against what ISIS or Boko Haram or Muslim Brotherhood or even Al Querida are doing to Christians over there. But no, those killed in Charleston church are Christians and Icheoku wonders what is possibly the morbid explanation for it? 

If as accepted they are Christians, does it mean that the color of their skin made them less Christians or not real Christians to warrant their being specifically targeted for elimination by this crackhead Dylan Roof? Or rather did this knucklehead killer buy into the late Reverend Jerry Falwell's teaching that white people have and worship a different God from the one black people have and worship, hence he decided that killing them is not a big deal or sinful enough since their own God is different and he will not be wrongly judged by his own white people's God? But answers to all these questions are not that far fetched because they can be surmised in just one word - terrorism, domestic terrorism. These killers are all products of a society that knowing or unknowingly breeds these racial warriors, who strongly believe in the white supremacy and the need and their obligation to guard it jealously with all they got. 

Imagine the State of South Carolina, where the massacre took place, is still flying slaves-owners Confederate flags in the state over several centuries since the abolition of slavery and the following civil war to specifically end it in America. Therefore should anyone still wonder why Dylan Flood would not think and act as he did, believing he has a solemn task to perform and that he has the tacit support of the entire state of South Carolina to try and run black people out of town. Icheoku says this killer is regrettably, equally a victim of the racist American society that fosters and encourages such despicable behavior through the regard of some people as inferior to and beneath others. Anyway, enough of the excursion; Dylann Storm Roof has now effectively morphed into a domestic terrorist and his types are known to kill just anyone and everyone who makes their day, regardless. It is equally of note that Ted Kaczynski, Timothy McVeigh, Jeffery Dahmer and now Dylan Flood are all white Americans and they all shared one thing in common - they terrorized Americans right inside here in America. But are they being called out for what they are? You decide.

DYLANN ROOF, BLAME THE FLAG?

Icheoku says a society which glorifies their very inhumane brutish past where fellow human beings were enslaved and used as workhorses cannot expect her citizens to be any better. Icheoku says Dylan Storm Roof was not born during slavery but grew up being indoctrinated by the "merits" of that discriminatory practice of his forebears which ironically still continues till today in the form of racism, racial inequality and racial discrimination in America. So why blame him for the massacre at Charleston when to him he was only helping to propagate the racist bigotry of South Carolina, a state which still honors and flies the slave racist Confederate flag, which according to their skewed logic is to honor their past and you ask why honor such reprehensible sordid past? But hey, until America braces itself to face its horrible past, present and most probable future of discrimination based on the color of skin, such murders as happened in Charleston will always be with us. Icheoku calls on South Carolina to take down that flag and NOW.

DYLANN STORM ROOF, THE KNUCLE HEAD WHO MURDERED IN A HOUSE OF WORSHIP.

Icheoku says William Shakespeare captured the conceit of man quite succinctly when speaking through King Duncan in Macbeth, said, "There's no art to find the mind's construction in the face." It now appears the great man of letters also had in contemplation, the Charleston AME church killer, when he uttered those immortal words. A  killer in the house of God, who though looks very youthful and is indeed very young at 21 years old; but who has turned out to be a bloody cold-hearted calculated killer. Icheoku asks who would ordinarily attribute such dastardly crime to this freshman-looking youthful face; except that they come in different sizes and shapes and demeanor, the heartless killers of this world. 

A young man whose father did not see any other thing of value to get for him for his twenty first birthday present other than a gun and good to type, he made sure it worked as good as purposed - the merchantability test, sort of and nine innocent people are now dead as a result. Icheoku says if only the National Rifle Association can repent of their sins and anchor a sensible gun reform control law on this tragedy. But hey, Dylann Storm Roof just joined the ranks of American white domestic terrorist, who terrorized American citizens right here inside their own very country.

RACIST WHITE SKINHEAD KILLS NINE BLACK WORSHIPPERS?

Icheoku says no place is safe in a gun saturated America and every day one makes it through is considered a bonus on life. Imagine parishioners gathered for their evening fellowship in their church, being waylaid and shot to death by a racist white skin head; yet these people will turn around and preach about God, heaven and hell? In Charleston South Carolina, a historical black church, African Methodist Emmanuel, had nine of its worshippers including its pastor gunned down just a few hours ago by a racist white skin head. Icheoku asks when would all these craziness abate in the United States of America when the NRA continues to say NO to sensible gun reform? Icheoku says it is increasingly become arguable that at the rate people are being senselessly killed daily in America, especially black people, that even the Boko Haram infested Northeastern Nigeria might afterall be somewhat safer than the United States of America? But hey ...

PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI, AGING RATHER TOO FAST AS BOTOX WEARS OUT?

Icheoku is just wondering if anyone else has noticed the increased acceleration in aging of President Muhammadu Buhari ever since his swearing in into office? The president has physically and very dramatically too, added extra few years to his already very advanced old age since that May 29th, 2015, when he took the mantle of leadership in Nigeria. Icheoku says this apparent transmutation to somewhat a ghostly apparition from his campaign image, gives credence to the school of thought that had it that PMB was undergoing Botox treatment during the last election campaign, the reason he looked rather somewhat more youthful and very energized then than he really should be. Now that the rigors of office has held him down with no time to jet out to his cosmetic surgeons for follow-up treatments, his real age is beginning to creep in and unto him. Like the She in Sir H Rider Haggard classic novel 'SHE, the history of adventure,' who shriveled after taking a second fire-bath, the president has indeed now begin to truly look his age, suddenly turning into a shriveled old man before our own very eyes and it clearly shows. 

Icheoku asks will a very restive Nigerian people afford to patiently wait as their very old president fights the agonies of old age and accept the slow speed at which he will preside over the country, if his inability to name his ministers almost four weeks since being sworn is any indicator? Icheoku says only time will tell but it sure does not look good nor gives anyone reason to be hopeful that his pace will later pick up if ever. But hey, Nigerians swallowed the fraud that was a campaign of change and they will have to live with their decision's consequences. Even the president himself, it would seem, is beginning to regret his action to seek the office of the president at such a very advanced old age. Now he is lamenting that his very old age might be in the way of his trying to be the best president he can be and for which Nigerians voted for him. Icheoku however wishes PMB all the best and urges him not to ever hesitate to resign or abdicate from office if he feels he cannot do it any more or that the demands of the presidency is rather too daunting for his now old frail sinews. 

2015 NBA CHAMPIONSHIP FINALS, GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS WINS CAVALIERS.

Icheoku says King James could not do it alone as no man is ever a forest no matter how big; but it was a good championship finals regardless. Despite falling short on projection that King James will lead the Cleveland Cavaliers to their first ever championship win, Icheoku hereby congratulates the Golden State Warriors for a stellar performance that saw them eventually winning the 2015 National Basketball Association championship trophy. To Golden State Warriors Team MVP Stephen Curry and co, as well as their coach Steve Kerr, Icheoku says well done for a job well done. At last it was a mission accomplished after forty long years of waiting. Congratulations.

SPOKANE NAACP RACHEL DOLEZAL, LOVES BEING BLACK BUT IS NOT BLACK?

Icheoku say unlike Tina Turner who sang 'what's love got to do with it,' the now erstwhile chairperson of Spokane Washington's chapter of NAACP, Rachel Dolezal, must now be humming her own tune 'what's skin pigmentation got to do with it?' Except that she was outed by her own estranged mother, the woman who gave birth to a blue eyed, blonde girl, she named Rachel. A woman who cannot any longer, stand idly by and watch the white fraud she raised, masquerading herself as a black woman and milking its attendant benefits, including attending black colleges and now rising up to the chairperson of  the largest colored organization in the United States, NAACP, Spokane chapter. A case of the heavens having no fury like a woman scorned; except that in this case it was her own biological mother who wanted a pound of flesh from a daughter who had walked away from her life. 

Icheoku asks why does it matter that Rachel Dolezal preferred to be black and forgoing all the inherent benefits which being a white person confers in America, especially a beautiful, blue-eyed, all American blonde? King of Pop Michael Jackson once attempted bridging this deep racial chasm in America, through a radical transformation of his look, all in an effort to be accepted in a racially divided America, but did not succeed. His ill-fated transformation included vaporizing his black pigmentation through skin lightening chemical treatment and also doing a nose job; but regardless, he was still treated as that black kid from Gary Indiana and it hunted him throughout his career until the same forces fast forwarded his death by suicide of overdose. Icheoku recalls that it was during this his futile effort to become an acceptable "white person" in America that he released his record "Bad" and a title track therein "it doesn't matter if you're black or white". But America told him to his face that it does indeed matter what pigmentation your skin is and they closed so many doors at his face leading to his once protesting Sony Records Tommy Mottola in company of Reverend Al Sharpton. Anyway, that is by way of laying some background to the latest story of the morphing of a very white Montana girl named Rachael into a black lady named Rachel Dolezal, the Spokane's Washington's chairperson for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Persons. 

As with the unfolding case of Rachel Dolezal, the color of the skin does indeed still matter a lot in a racially divided United States of America. It seems literally to be the everything that gets anywhere, as it still plays a major role in America, regardless of all the sanctimonious "me so good" of a United States for all, where everyone is supposedly equal. A Rachel Dolezal, who, but for a furious mother, no one would have known that her true biological makeup is Caucasian; and who successfully fooled everyone in America into believing that she is black and for so long, admitted not black enough by reason of her being biracial. Icheoku hers was a case where the love of being black was not sufficient or enough and could not operate to remove the white blood or white genealogy which is her DNA. Icheoku says since this lady had successfully passed herself off as a black person and for so long, it wouldn't have made any difference had she gone all out by injecting herself with black pigmentation to truly turn black, once her enraged mother decided on outing her. 

Then one asks, whatever happened to where the heart is in this matter and so what if she was biologically born white? If indeed she truly believes that she is a black lady  trapped in a white skin, why shouldn't she be allowed to remain black and stay a closeted white? Why is it not okay to allow her choose the skin color she is comfortable in? Icheoku harps if it was okay for Kaitlyn "Bruce"Jenner for example to choose to become a woman, why is it not okay for Rachel "White person" Dolezal to elect to become Rachel "Black person" Dolezal instead? Afterall this is America and in America anything goes that supposedly makes any person happy and in order for that person not to be discriminated against? But unfortunately, it is not always so in America and in Spokane Washington, a predominantly white region of America, they would not have any of their bimbos parading and passing off as black. So the pressure mounted and a hounded Rachel Dolezal capitulated and resigned her office as chairperson of that chapter's NAACP; but whether or not she will eventually come out clean as to her true skin pigmentation, the jury is still out. But who cares and should anybody care, definitely not Icheoku. 

But serving as a devil's advocate, Icheoku says if "white" is a skin-color and NAACP is an association for the advancement of colored persons which by extension encompasses or should encompass persons colored of white, so what difference then does it make whether or not Rachel Dolezal is white; and why should this paradigm affect her membership and/or leadership of a chapter of NAACP? Icheoku says Rachel Dolezal is a colored person, of white color and therefore should be a bona fides NAACP material by reason of their membership charter. Therefore, Icheoku aligns self with the position of the national body of NAACP that "anyone's racial identity is not and should not be a qualifying criteria or disqualifying standard for either NAACP membership or its leadership;"  hence Icheoku urges for the matter of Rachel Dolezal to be accordingly treated. Icheoku disagrees that there is any "ultimate betrayal" in what Rachel Dolezal did as her action merely progressed and did not in any way retrogress the association. Icheoku regards such disparaging claims as that of jealous detractors out to nail her, regardless. Icheoku emphasizes that her action in turning black, was rather a display of great love and affection for the black race rather than anything sinister or ulterior; especially  when it is no longer hip to be 'black and proud' in America that even some blacks are craftily distancing themselves from being black. 

So rather than chastise her, she should be commended for bravely standing up to be counted amongst the now endangered specie and perpetual minority of the American society. What should be paramount here is her honest intention to make things better for the black people of Spokane Washington and not her ways and means of getting her objective mission-accomplished. Further if a white man, Don Harris, could head a chapter of NAACP in Phoenix Arizona, what does it matter if a white woman, who is hiding her true colors, is the head of Spokane NAACP chapter? Icheoku says it is an open secret that so many gay men and women of America are still hiding in the closet and openly parading themselves as heterosexuals. But this does not make them any less gay or indeed change who they truly are; so why single out a white lady who is hiding her whiteness and discriminate against her for being similarly closeted, although as to her true color rather than sexuality? Icheoku does not see anything wrong nor different from being a closeted gay man or woman and being a closeted white person since both are trying to mask a true identity  while presenting a facade because of discomfiture as to the real face behind the mask. Therefore a white lady who is not comfortable being white in a racial America should and ought to be allowed her privacy to white anonymity and if she elects to be black, so be it?

JESSICA EWING, ACUTELY GAY LESBIAN KILLS 'EXPERIMENTING' LESBIAN-LOVER?

Icheoku says this is why it is always good and for purposes of full disclosure, to spell out the terms of engagements upfront so that parties could decided whether they are in or out; and whether such rules of involvement are good enough and acceptable by them. Icheoku calls it disclosing how you roll - whether straight or crocked, sideways or both ways? There should be no room full of surprises in the affairs of the heart; talkless of toying with peoples' emotional wellbeing simply to satisfy your curiosity as to your own sexuality. Icheoku admonishes that it is not okay to just embark on experimenting with one's own sexuality without factoring in the possibility that your partner might have fallen in love; and become so much involved with you that just backing off casually like that might prove an intolerable act of a heart break resulting to some unforeseen consequence. 

Jessie Ewing could not stomach the fact that the girl she fell in love with, Samantha Shrestha, was merely experimenting with her and wanted out after completing her experiment?  Her reaction, she whacked her and now stands convicted and sentenced to 45 years in prison without parole and another 40 years suspended, a total of 85 years, for her murder.

Jessica Ewing, a seriously-involved lesbian, strangled to death Samantha Shrestha, who was merely experimenting with her sexuality, whether she should be going both ways,  straight or crocked; rather than watch her walk away and walk out of her affection. According to the killer, she could not stand being used as a guinea pig in the affairs of the heart because she has no place for anyone's experimentation of sexuality with her and thereby toying with her heart, love and affection. Continuing, the killer said, “I loved Sam. I couldn’t believe she would say that I was some experiment to her. It hit me where I was most hurt.” Icheoku says this is what caused her to snap and kill, rather than watch her heart broken to pieces by an unserious, experimenting lesbian wanna-be. Unfortunately however, just like she wrote in her diary, now her future is going to be hellish and an eternity spent in prison because  forty five years term is not a picnic by any standard. At twenty four years old, by the time she comes out at 69 years, her life is practically over. Icheoku says what a lesson in how not to let your emotions overcome the better part of your judgment, regardless. 

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.