GAY MARRIAGE, SUPREME COURT SAYS YES YOU CAN.

 Icheoku says the United States Supreme court has come through for Gays in America, agreeing that gay people are free to marry each other throughout the United States of America. With this ruling, the second from the Supreme Court just within the last forty eight hours, President Barack Obama has got double victories in things that he cares for and which matters to him dearly. First was his signature health-care legislation initiative The Affordable Care Act aka ObamaCare; and now the rights of gay people in America to marry themselves. Icheoku says it is a safe argument therefore to make that this particular Supreme court is a gift that keeps on giving to President Barack Obama. In a 5 to 4 decision the Supreme Court agrees that gay people like any other people reserve the right to love and marry whoever they choose and are in love with. Icheoku adds that the basic right to marry and now marry anyone anyone chooses, should as a necessarily concomitant, also include the right of A-sexual persons not to marry at all and remain as they choose to be, single but not available. These people are not gay, they are straight,  but cannot put up with all the dramas and headaches of marriage and/or they are selfishly into themselves that they cannot honestly and sincerely share their space or life with another person. There is nothing wrong with these people, thats just who they are and the way they were made. 

Icheoku says congratulations to all the gays, lesbians, transgenders and bisexuals of this world, especially those of them in America, who wants to get hitched; as the red carpet has now been fully unruffled for them to walk on and into bliss by the United States of America Supreme Court. A gay marriage experiment started by then San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, which later took a life of its own and now this; getting the final seal of approval from the last arbiter of disputes in America, the United States of America Supreme Court. Icheoku says what a revolutionary decision and very commendable indeed. As for Icheoku, marriage is a choice and so also is who anyone chooses to marry; and taking a step further, Icheoku does not mind if any person decides to even marry dogs, cats, dolphin, trees or even the ocean. That is their personal decision and they should be allowed to exercise that option freely and without any encumbrance whatsoever. Icheoku says it is also about time the greater society butts out of any person's personal business and allow people to jump off as they see and deem fit. All this baby-sitting of people by society should cease and let every adult paddle his or her boat as they see fit. 

Once again, kudos to the voices of courage that rose up to identify with those who find comfort in people of their own gender and Icheoku does not see anything wrong with that. The headache that is marriage is not predicated on who or what anyone chooses to marry, no; it is the per se burden of being yoked with another person and forcibly sharing everything in your life with them which automatically comes with such marital unions. Just like heterosexual unions have their problems and sometimes even kill each other, homosexuals are not any different, as they could be as bitchy as the worst bitchy-wife out there and some  lesbians could be as mean spirited and abusive as the worst husband from hell out there. It all depends on relativity because hell contains all shades and manners of miscreants. Good luck LGBT and may the spending now begin; afterall America is a country that is plugged into money and everything and anything that is commercially viable is always kosher. What a new boom time for the marriage industry? It is also good to know that this weekend, June 27 - 28 is Gay Pride weekend in San Francisco California and what a beautiful pride's gift from the United States of America Supreme Court, this ruling is, to all the gay people of this world particularly those of them who call San Francisco home. From Icheoku to you, happy pride's day America; happy pride day San Francisco and hooray Castro District!!!

Pres. Obama delivers the eulogy for slain Charleston pastor

DYLANN ROOF IS ALSO A VICTIM, DESERVES OUR SYMPATHY TOO?

Icheoku says the church murderer of Charleston, Dylann Roof, is himself equally a victim of a society of hate that has fostered racism and for so long. This young man was not born hating anyone; neither was he born at the time slavery was the vogue nor the height of racial struggle in America, but he learnt from someone, someone taught him to hate including the greater American society that has found it increasingly difficult to totally shade itself of its racism vestiges in order for a more wholesome society to emerge and thrive. 

But when a twenty one year old, born when Bill Clinton was president, grows up knowing about we and them; and that we are the supremacists and they are the subservients of the society; or Senator John McCain calling then candidate Obama "THAT ONE", then something inherently was wrong. Icheoku says that in as much as everyone including the worst racists of America themselves are now, because of what is popular and for political correctness, hounding Dylann Roof and calling for his head on a platter, a more solution-driven approach should be employed in dealing with him. Dylann Roof too is also a victim of racism because if he was not born in a society of hate that hates and divides its citizens and tiers everyone according to the color of their skin, Dylann Roof, would not have learnt to hate anybody neither would he have taken such heinous step geared at provoking war of superiority among Americans. Something drove this young man over the edge and into committing the most heinous crime of murder, the murders of nine bible studying Americans who happened to be blacks, right inside their black church. Why should there be black and white churches in America, one may ask if this is not racism per se? 

Icheoku asks who taught Dylann Roof how to hate and from where did he learn to treat black people as beneath white people? At merely twenty one years old, he is barely old enough to know the early years of America and all the thorny road traveled through racial discrimination, which unfortunately still continues till today. He definitely learnt it from somewhere and this "somewhere" is the thing that America needs to start addressing. The general racist tendencies of the society is what needs an extreme makeover and do-over in order to change the mindset that thinks that some humans are superior to some other humans simply because of their skin colors. This thinking and disparate treatment of people whose skin pigmentation is not white is what needs to change? This is what will solve racial discrimination and its enveloping tension in America and in actuality put a stop to this type of race-tinged mass murders in the future. 

Like Jesus asked the mob, Icheoku says any American who is without any iota of racism in him or her, should sit in judgment over Dylann Roof; but unfortunately, not many will qualify. So being that the American society maintains this prejudiced views against people, particularly against people of different skin color and has somewhat contributed to the making of Dylann Roof, is America culpable and should America be held responsible for its product's actions. Therefore, Dylann Roof should be treated for what he is, a victim of racism too; and given the help he needs.  Admitted, his crime deserves the worst punishment that could be meted to any such criminal, but would a death sentence and his eventual execution cure the malaise that is racism in America. Americans, Icheoku says, you decide.

BOBBI KRISTINA IN HOSPICE, ENROUTE TO MEET MOM?

Icheoku says sometimes love kills and love has now somewhat killed Bobbi Kristina Brown, daughter of late Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, who has been taken off all medications and moved to a dying facility to die peacefully and with whatever dignity that is still left around her? Their supposed love for her or rather spoiling her, which made it impossible for them to teach her correctly - the carrot and stick approach, turned out to be her worst nightmare, which incidentally, has now claimed her life. A young bubbly girl who grew up before our own very eyes, but who unfortunately found herself sandwiched between two very bad influences of a crackhead mother, Whitney Houston, and a rather too carefree pot-smoking dad, Bobby Brown who did not do a great job raising her and she ended up herself becoming a crackhead. Now her life is over, cut short by the same thing that killed her mother - drug overdose; and in what some people claim is an apparent suicide as she wanted to make her exit from this world the same way her mother did - overdose and then drown in a bathtub?  

It is indeed very pitiful that such a young life is now cut short by reason of people she surrounded herself with, people who did not genuinely have her interest at heart but who were merely around for the honey-pot that she is and would say and do whatever please her ears and as long as they were allowed to lick from it. Icheoku strongly believes that the fate which befell Bobbi Kristina could have been averted were she blessed with strong parents, who manned up and did what was needed to put a stop to the slide which has now taken her irrecoverably to the down under. Britney Spear is an example of one such person that was recovered from the deep six by a firm caring parent, her dad; who took matters into his hand and approached the court to help him intervene in her life. Today Britney Spear has made a huge rebound and is now fully in charge of her life and taking care of business. But unfortunately, Bobbi Kristina was not similarly parents-lucky and is now headed to a crossover as a result. The same thing that took Whitney Houston away and in the same manner is now on the verge of also taking Bobbi Kristina away and Icheoku wonders whether a different outcome would have been possible? But hey, it is life and life happens; and Icheoku prays she makes her transition quickly enough and without much further suffering. Hopefully she will reconnect with her mother, Whitney Houston, in the land beyond where they can touch bases on the demerits of doing drugs. What a life, gone too young. Adieu in advance Bobbi.

BUHARI'S DISAPEARING PRESIDENCY - OKEY NDIBE

'President Muhammadu Buhari is dangerously close to leaving Nigerians disillusioned. Forget about his failure (as at this writing) to announce his cabinet, bad as it is. For me, the deeper disappointment lies in the near-absence of the president’s voice from the national conversation.

Let’s begin, however, with the least important element of Mr. Buhari’s so far lack-luster Presidency. It’s approximately three months since Nigerians voted for Mr. Buhari, on his fourth try, to be their president. By any objective measure, three months is more than enough time for a man who sought power with a certain persistence to figure out his cabinet.

The president’s explanation for his tardiness in unveiling a cabinet is two-fold. One is that his predecessor, President Goodluck Jonathan, had been less than fully cooperative with his transition team. The second: that he wants a thorough background check done on potential ministers to save himself the chore of firing ministers shortly after nominating them.

There are, I suggest, two other—perhaps even more important—factors that Mr. Buhari chose not to name. One has to do with Nigerians’ (unreasonably) high expectations from the Buhari administration. Aware that his cabinet will be the most closely scrutinized of any recent president, perhaps Mr. Buhari has succumbed to a sort of partial paralysis or suspended animation.

Of equal significance is the impression that President Buhari has yet to find an effective formula for resolving the conflicting demands and expectations of various factions within the fractious family of his political party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). In Nigeria and elsewhere, the disposition of ministerial posts is an instrument for rewarding various “stakeholders” who contributed, in one way or another, to a political victory. President Buhari’s unusual and bizarre string of IOUs includes real or perceived debts to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, and former Governors Bola Tinubu and Rotimi Amaechi.

Leadership involves a measure of deliberation, prudent and pragmatism. Yet, even when we allow for Mr. Buhari’s official explanation, the grand scale of public expectation, and the intractability of intra-party squabbles, one insists that the president’s snail pace is troubling. It has left some of his most fervent fans scratching their heads, scrambling for answers.

In the end, it should not matter whether Mr. Jonathan cooperated with his successor’s transition team or not. Candidate Buhari presented himself as the answer, the epitome of change, as a man capable of addressing Nigeria’s perennial problems. Nigerians subsequently hired him, in a veritably historic election, to be the chief minder of their business of state. It behooves the president to find ingenious ways of doing his job without making excuses. He may well take off in the near future, and soar as a leader. For now, however, one finds no justification for his inordinate delay in achieving a goal as basic as composing a cabinet. The delinquency suggests a failure to prepare for the task ahead.

And I say this as somebody who was on record as expecting little from a Buhari Presidency. I always stipulated that the singular gift that the man would bring to office was a modest lifestyle and a legacy of self-restraint in the department of material accumulation. I was certain that a country like Nigeria, deeply deformed by its elite’s greed, could use a man of Mr. Buhari’s ascetic temperament. But I was just as certain that the challenge of leading a complex country demanded more, far more, than a man who would not lose his head in the presence of lucre.

That Mr. Buhari, a serial seeker of the Nigerian presidency, has squandered three months since his election, a month since his inauguration, without naming his cabinet, points, quite simply, to a level of unpreparedness. And if our brand new president is unprepared in personnel matters, how is he to tackle the weightier issues of unemployment, infrastructural dilapidation, terrorism, a shambolic healthcare system, educational crisis, and electric power woes?

Which brings me to a more disquieting aspect of the fledging Presidency. Mr. Buhari’s handlers would wish to frame his disappearance from public discourse as evidence of a deliberative cast of mind. But one must ask: Is there no aspect of Nigeria’s malaise that the president has figured out a set of proposals? Is there no area where he feels the need for urgency?

It’s remarkable that, in one month as president, Mr. Buhari has not laid out a single policy proposal on any of the major national issues that concern the millions who voted for him. He has not specified even the outline of what he intends to do about Nigeria’s educational system, which has been on life support for some time. He has not defined a pathway to a healthcare system worthy of the name. With the price of crude oil still relatively low, the theft of Nigerian crude at an all-time high, and crude oil exports at wishy-washy levels, Nigerians must gird themselves for a long spell of hard times. Yet, our president has not made any pronouncement about the shape of things to come. He has not cared to remind Nigerians that the days of dependable oil revenues are, possibly permanently, behind us.

In the Nigerian imagination, President Buhari’s antipathy to corruption was supposed to strike fear in the hearts of past plunderers and stay the hands of current custodians of the public trust. Yet, Mr. Buhari has not revealed any strategy for combating corruption, or recovering hundreds of billions of dollars stolen by public officials, including many of his APC cohorts. I daresay that his silence on corruption is the biggest letdown, so far, of the Buhari Presidency. If care is not taken, the idea will soon gain ground that it’s business as usual, as far as corrupt practices go.

In a rare soul-baring moment, President Buhari confessed that his age, 72, is an impediment to his effectiveness. It was a devastating confession, one that Nigerians had better reckon with as we re-calibrate our fantasies about the new president’s superhuman powers. Those who saw in Buhari the answer to all questions having to do with Nigeria must adjust their expectations quotient.

The question is, when did Mr. Buhari realize that age would be a debilitation? If he felt that age or infirmity would hamper him, why did he present himself for office? Was he not always aware that, even for those who view the Presidency as a four-year ticket to endless jollification, the office poses arduous challenges?

One has the sneaking suspicion that age may not be the sole issue here. As I proposed before the elections—and now reiterate—both the APC and the dismissed Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are ideologically indistinguishable. The drama in the National Assembly, where the PDP essentially stole the APC’s thunder in determining who and who will shape Nigeria’s legislative agenda, has demonstrated this essential fact. Nigerians must hope that Mr. Buhari not been hemmed in by forces he has little power to shake.

Time will tell. But this much one can claim with confidence: the first month of the Buhari Presidency has been far, far from inspiring.

P. DIDDY NEVER LEARNS, ARRESTED AGAIN FOR A BRAWL?

Icheoku says you know the justice system is seriously gunning for you when a mere altercation becomes "a terrorist threat  and an assault with deadly weapon"; and you ask yourself, is what qualifies as a 'deadly weapon' now this so open-ended to also include a kettle bell? Sean P. Diddy Combs was arrested for assault with a "deadly weapon" which was later amended and upgraded to three counts:- one count of assault with a deadly weapon, one count of making terrorist threats and one count of battery. Icheoku says it is evident from these charges that Sean P. Diddy might be looking at doing some serious time and it appears they have finally cornered him. 

But it is Sean Puffy Diddy and he seems not to learn from prior events in his life? This is a guy who narrowly missed spending time in the slammer by dint of luck and a very good defense attorney, charged in 1999 with weapons possession and firing same inside a crowded New York City night club as well as bribing his chauffeur to take the fall for that but was acquitted. Again he was arrested for beating up Steve Stoute of Inter-scope Records but was ordered to attend anger management class following an apology for his misbehavior. Later in early 2015, the same P. Diddy was again accused by an Arizona guy of hitting him on the face but the matter settled with P. Diddy paying off the guy before charges could be brought. Now the same Puff Diddy or P Diddy or Sean Combs or whatever alias he currently identifies with or goes by, has again lost his mind, blew the gasket and assaulted a football fitness trainer and with a "deadly weapon?" Icheoku asks when will P. Diddy grow up and realize that as a black man in America, that he is permanently in the cross-hair of the American justice system which cannot wait to put him away where he "belongs" or at least tag him as an ex-convict marker. 

Icheoku says that many a prosecutor or District Attorney in America will be salivating to be the vehicle that will finally put P. Diddy away, where he supposedly belongs; and will not hesitate to spring at any opportunity to so do, is a well known fact. Unfortunately too, Johnnie Cochran who used to fiercely and zealously get these guys' backs and who served as the ever ready dutiful Rottweiler, always standing between them and the big house, have since been killed and there is no other person out there with such dexterity of purpose and who really cares and have these peoples interest at heart, now to defend them.  But regardless, this fact of consequence seems to be lost on people like P. Diddy or it may not be sufficient to make them calm down and walk the very fine thin-line with their antennas honed-in and rather very carefully. 

Icheoku asks what is P. Diddy's business even attending his son's football coaching or training or practice session and if he must, why did he not see the football as a game; and the coach or trainer as a person doing his utmost best to make his son the best player he can be? What happened to his candor and respectability or how else does he plan to explain his bad behavior to his son; or that his behavior was the best way to be a daddy or that simply giving blacks in America another tattoo as very unruly and ill-mannered people is desirable? Icheoku does not get it as there is nothing there to get that a fully grown man and a father for that matter, should, while attending his son's practice game, so take matters into his hand, roughing up his son's trainer and with a "deadly weapon?" 

May be it is about time indeed, P. Diddy is sent to prison so that he can learn some hard lessons of life that he cannot always walk free from all these street-thug's misbehavior which is not befitting a person of his status, especially being black in an American society that is always stereotyping black men as ANGRY. Funny enough, he never looks at people like Jay-Z or Dr Dre to emulate their exemplary behavior or try to  behave like them. This two people are equally very successful black Americans but they do not allow their success or fame to get into their head with thinking that they have become untouchables and can do as they please or get away with everything and anything. 

Icheoku hereby calls on P. Diddy to search his conscience and advise himself that regardless of the outcome of the present legal tango, that this should be the last of such misbehavior coming from him. P. Diddy has nothing else to prove to anyone or to himself and should just chill while enjoying his good life as such boisterousness is not a sign of someone who is together with his faculties. Just like OJ Simpson, when this people put a bulls-eye on anyone's black person's back they will hit their marker, although it might take some time and some plotting.  As William Shakespeare said through Julius Caesar in a book similarly so titled 'Julius Caesar', the Ides of March has come but not gone, so P. Diddy should learn to always be wary and vigilant and strive to always protect himself from all the wolves of America trying to get him because they will not and will never stop trying. The fact that other raps against him were beaten, does not mean they have or will leave him alone or that he has now become a Teflon Don who nothing can stick on. , so watch it and mend your ways before it is too late. To Sean Puffy Diddy Combs, Icheoku says, please watch your actions and mend your ways before it is too late. ENOUGH is ENOUGH.

TAKING DOWN THE FLAG WILL NOT CUT IT, RACISM IN AMERICA BROADER THAN FLAG?

Icheoku says although the current move in South Carolina to take down the racist, slave-owners' Confederate flag is a good step in the right direction; but like President Obama rightly pointed out 'merely  not using the derogatory word 'NIGGER' to address a black American does not necessarily mean there is no racism in the country.' The country needs to do more and should indeed do more if it sincerely wants to move the issue of race relations in America forward and to a more better acceptable and tolerable place. Icheoku says America needs to be more proactive, instead of all these fire service approach as the current reaction to the Charleston church race-killings, in broaching, tackling and decisively dealing with the issue of racism in America. 

Racism is a problem which is very pervasive throughout the American society, regardless of its present day mostly subterranean nature. Therefore taking the flag down from the grounds of South Carolina state capital is more of a mere symbolic gesture, concocted to pacify the current rage over the church murders in Charleston, than a real solution to race problems in America. So after the flag is taken down and the current media hoopla, camera and lights are panned elsewhere, then what? Has the black American been able to get a job? Has the back American been able to be accepted in the society as a person, especially in certain neighborhoods where he or she is not a welcome sight? Has the black American been able to get loans and credits from banks and at the same rate and terms as his/her average white counterpart? Has he or she  been able to get mortgage rates comparable to his.her white counterparts? Has the black American been able to walk the street freely without unduly being conscious of the police who would apprehend him or her rough him or her up or even shoot him or her for somewhat trivial reason? Has the black American male been able to be seen and treated like a human being and not just that angry black man? 

Icheoku is emphatic that there are simply so many forms of racism in America and only those who wear the shoes, the victims of racism, actually understands the pain because they feel the pain. These are the targets of racism, the victims of racism in America, the people that actually have and should have the sole prerogative to attest to the ugly effects of being discriminated against because of the color of their skin. Icheoku says the current renunciations of racism will be more effective the moment it begins to address the mindset that fosters it; the moment it begets full integration amongst all races that call America home; the moment a black kid and white kid can freely play in the park without the white kid's parents coming to yank their child away from the playground because he is not supposed to mingle with the black kid; the moment white people and black people will not practically live in a separate but equal society; a society where blacks have their own neighborhood while the white people have their own neighborhood and a white person can kill a black person for merely straying therein; where black people have their own black churches while white people have their own white churches or where late Jerry Falwell could proudly proclaim that white people have a different God from black people; where white kids have and enjoy all the privileges including best schools and better job opportunities while black kids are left holding the bags. 

Icheoku says until the longing of Martin Luther King of an America where Americans will be judged by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin are put into effective practical use, all these current rhetoric  on race or taking the flag down will continue to sound hollow; and at best are only as good as the sound bites which they are.  These existing racial differences in America are the things that need to be taken down alongside the confederate flag; but not just only the symbolic flag flying on the grounds of South Carolina and throughout Southern United States of America. 

Icheoku says action speaks louder than words, so let white Americans show black Americans and indeed the entire world that they are now ready to do good to and by their fellow Americans and then put their words into practical effects. But for Senator Lindsey Graham and Governor Nikki Haley of South Carolina to suddenly feel jolted because of the Charleston church murders into now calling for the take down of the confederate flag that has flown in South Carolina for several decades now, is merely pandering to the moment and the current hysteria in the country. Why haven't these elected officials done something about the flag all these years or did they think it was funny reminding fellow Americans of their slavish past or that some people proudly resisted the attempt to grant fellow human-beings full human-being status of civil rights, flowing from the abolition of slavery? Such was their crazed-out desired intent to continue to keep fellow human-beings as their slaves that they took up arms against the country to retain their slave owning capacities and abilities; which they now celebrate through confederacy and its nauseating confederate flag. 

One thing with politicians is that they are like willow grass that always bend with the wind of opinion. Just give these panderers a few weeks when the current media attention will fade away and they will be singing alleluia to the merits of keeping the flag flying in honor of their war heroes past?   Their mantra is whatever gets them elected and keeps them in office is germane enough, regardless of the abhorable nature of it or the hurt it visits on some. But hey, at least taking down the flag is a right thing to do and a good start. If the death of the nine church-killed is what gets it done or becomes the kick-starter of solving race problems in America,  then may be, their death was not in vain afterall. But more than that, it is about time white Americans sincerely started listening to the cries of racism in America towards doing something about it. Every American is an American and therefore this discrimination based on the color of skin is not only not right, it is reprehensible and should not continue to have a place in America. The golden rule says "do unto others as you would like done unto you"; but why white Americans turn deaf ears to this rule bemuses Icheoku. So, it will be a thing of joy if white Americans would find some good in their heart to use the instance of the church-murders in Charleston to recommit themselves towards solving the race problem which is bedeviling the America society.

RACISM IN AMERICA CUTS ACROSS PARTY LINES.

Icheoku agrees with Colin Powell but adds that both Democrats and Republicans are equally as guilty in the continuation of racism in America. Late Senator Larry Byrd was a democrat and a grand capo of KKK. Former President Bill Clinton who told Late Senator Ted Kennedy that then candidate Barack Obama is supposed to be serving them tea is a democrat and his disposition then to Barack Obama was racist. So it cuts across party lines and still persists among virtually every white person in America who will not live in black neighborhood; whose children will not go to black schools; who attends only white churches; who has no black friend; who will not employ black person; who will not allow a black person to become an inlaw; who does not give a damn about black people and who saturates the prison with black people. Icheoku says they are all racists, admitted many of them would rather have you believe they are not racists but will by the same token tell you that they are more comfortable being around their kind but not black people. So now go figure what other definition of racism exists?

WHAT THE WARDEN SAID TO THE PRISONER, IF I WERE YOU?

A Warden was once addressing an unruly inmate, on the need to learn how to be a better prisoner and also to develop a staying power since they are going to be seeing each other for a very long time. The inmate was sentenced to multiple life terms totaling one thousand years with no possibility of parole or early release for good behavior. So bound and shackled, the inmate was frogmarched into the Warden's office, preparatory to doing a three weeks stay-cation inside the hole for breaking prison rules of good behavior. 

The Warden said to the prisoner, "I did not bring you to this place neither did I send you here, the judge did; and he wants you to spend a very long time in here. My job is to keep you here and make sure you comply with the order by preventing you from ever escaping from this place until the completion of your time or death, which ever one comes first. I also intend to keep my paycheck coming. This your acting out or being a tough guy or rather being a very needy sissy inside here is entirely misplaced. You would have done that right inside the courtroom before the judge struck his  gavel on the block. But since you missed that golden  opportunity, it is now lost forever. There is no much choice left with you in this matter - it is either you put up and do your time cooperatively or I will make you do it the hard way. So the only choice you really have if that is a choice, is to do your time and it is my job to make sure that you do it. The other unfortunate thing for you too is that only one person calls all the shots here. That is the Warden and that is the reason you are here now before me. To reiterate, I am the Warden and this prison is my empire. I am a maximum ruler and within this walls, I rule  with absolute authority. Therefore how you choose to spend your life in here or rather how comfortable you want me to make your stay here is entirely up to you. If you want me to advise you again on how to curry some favor and not make your experience here too harsh, be my guest; but in any other circumstance, just ask yourself how much of bull-crap are you prepared to really eat and swallow. If I were you, I will choose wisely. Once again, be reminded that I am the Warden here and we don't come a dime a dozen and there is a reason for that. 

Icheoku says a true story, but the morals of this story should not be lost on anyone as the wise can sometimes also learn from an imbecile. It is about choosing your fights smartly and the need never to embark on fights you don't have the ways and means of winning. Former President Goodluck Jonathan failed to imbibe this lesson of life when he half-heartily engaged his political godfather, Baba Iyabo, in a fight; and the later had him for lunch and spitted whatever he couldn't digest of him back to his humble cradle of Otuoke. Icheoku says if you must take on any person, first make sure that your odds of defeating them are high or at least be prepared to die fighting. But to stay alive and watch their venomous vengeance consume you is not part of smartness defined. Always avoid misplaced aggressions or transferred aggressions, because aggressing the wrong party is never a good state to be in, in any given fight. So when choosing your fights, like the proverbial chicken in the pot of soup story, always remember that the pot is merely doing its job and was not the knife that severed your throat. So if you must bend your neck, do it with the knife that caused the original hurt or harm, but please leave the pot alone as it was merely a receptacle of your lifeless body. Finally remember that any lesson learnt is always worth any story told. Salute.

KILLER NOODLES BANNED IN INDIA, WILL NIGERIA PROTECT HER OWN CITIZENS?

Icheoku says in view of the recent ban of the killer noodles, Nestlé Maggi 2 Minute Noodles, in India because of its high content of lead and Mono Sodium Glutamate (MSG), what is Nigeria and other impoverished countries of Africa doing to, in that respect, protect their citizens from harm and unnecessary death from cancer, liver and kidney diseases attributed to such noodles consumption? Icheoku says it is without doubt that kidney and liver diseases cases have skyrocketed in Nigeria since the introduction of some of these quick-fix meals and people have been dying as a result without the government rising up to the occasion to do something about it. So now that the Indian government have braved it and banned this high toxic instant meals, will Nigeria, following their lead, similarly act to protect her own over-exposed citizens by closing its market to these killer noodles? Will Nigeria man up and say to these corporate mercenaries to stop poising and killing her citizens with their toxic products? Icheoku says they should, because that is the best proactive measure towards safeguarding her citizens from harm and death occasioned by these hazardous products.

There is no gainsaying or second guessing the fact that over exposure or consumption of lead leads to health problems including cancer; and these noodles have been proved to contain excessive amount of lead in them. It is also a scientific fact that MSG adversely affects kidney and liver function as their residue and byproducts are not easily processed by these organs, hence  their accumulation causes liver cirrhosis and kidney failures. Icheoku asks what is the government of Nigeria, through its NAFDAC, doing to ensure that the same Nestle` killer noodles being sold in Nigeria and consumed by  Nigerians does not have such high concentration of poisonous lead and MSG as the ones perish sold in India; but which has now been banned from the Indian market in order to save the Indian people from needless deaths. Icheoku says Mono Sodium Glutamate is known for its bleaching properties which makes it easily usable as washing agent (magi-white) in bleaching white clothes. So, in the same vein, when excessively consumed, it corrodes the walls of the stomach as well as intestines, leading to ulcer, colon and stomach cancers? 

Therefore, should such product that is known to have this killer propensity still be allowed to freely sell in Nigeria markets, its attendant downsides considered? Icheoku says it should not; and as India has done, so should Nigeria and other countries similarly close their markets to this killer-noodles until their corporate manufacturers and marketers make them safe for human consumption. Excessive lead and MSG are purposely used in making these noodles to boost their quantity and easy addiction and therefore, being purely profit driven, their producers should  be forced to improve their Q&C and reduce the lead and MSG content of these noodles. Icheoku commends India’s  ban of this killer Nestle` Maggi instant noodles over safety concerns and with it now being withdrawn from Indian markets to protect Indian consumers, urges Nigeria to similarly so do in order to protect her own citizens from untimely death from liver, kidney and cancer attributable to excessive lead and Mono Sodium Glutamate. All these for profit corporations, whose greed almost always takes precedent over consumers health, especially in developing countries, must be told enough. Icheoku therefore calls on Nigeria government to ban Nestle`s instant noodles from the Nigeria market and NOW.

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?