WAR ON CORRUPTION AND OBASANJO'S 'CATCH ME IF YOU CAN' NAUSEATING ANTICS.

Icheoku says the current war on corruption propaganda by President Muhammadu Buhari will amount to nothing and convince no one as anything serious and foundational, if he does not also prosecute Olusegun Obasanjo, Ibrahim Babangida and Abdulsalam Abubakar as well as Theophilus Danjuma, the four corruption incarnates of Nigeria PLC. These men are good(bad)will ambassadors of corruption; eminently very corrupt persons who are the bad influence spreading corruption in Nigeria. These are the men who give Nigerians reason to get rich at any cost and regardless of the means. These are the men who gave impetus to the end justifying the means and who are fueling corruption madness in Nigeria. These are the men who have stupendously enriched themselves in Nigeria without any obvious means of livelihood or the business they do or the scientific discovery they made that landed them into their sudden wealth. 

Icheoku says in any civilized society, these four despicable men would not be walking the soil as free men, their questionable stupendous wealth considered. Yet they are operating with impunity, deciding who becomes what in Nigeria including the who occupies the office of the presidency; railroading out of office anyone who falls out of their favor while bankrolling anyone who agrees to know-tow to their dictations into office. Therefore a President Muhammadu Buhari putting a lip to and circus show of fighting corruption must first disclose to Nigerians how much of these four men's money was deployed to purchase him the presidency. What secret undertaking was he forced to sign and how weighty is his undertaken obligations to them. Icheoku says these clarifications became important in order to reasonable evaluate the chances which his latest war on corruption has at succeeding. But unfortunately, Icheoku is not a believer that this war on corruption stands a chance in hell at succeeding with such burdened yoke of a noose tightly wound on President Muhammadu Buhari's neck.

Icheoku says it therefore does not lie in the mouth of Olusegun Obasanjo to declare himself not corrupt or for Babangida or Abdulsalam or Danjuma to beat their hands on their chest to exclaim they did not steal Nigeria's public money. They should simply establish to Nigerians the sources of their wealth; how they stumbled across their pots of gold at the end of the rainbow. Failing which, the state can and should force their forfeiture as proceeds of corruption, money laundering and other criminal vices such as drug dealing and/or loan sharking. 

Icheoku is always miffed when at every of his interview bothering on Nigeria corruption, how Baba Iyabo and Ota Deity, Olusegun Obasanjo, always emphasizes that he is not corrupt; but that every other Nigerian including his then vice president Abubakar Atiku is corrupt? Query, if Oulsegun Obasanjo is not corrupt, did he win the Mega lottery to have suddenly transformed himself from a near-penniless pauper fresh out of the prison a few short years ago to the now one of Africa's richest person? Icheoku says that every income has to have a source from which it inheres,  otherwise it becomes illegitimate and subject to government's seizure invoking financial crimes law. There exists or should exists in the statute, ombudsman's provisions that empowers the government to always act to safeguard and protect its financial health. 

As a correlation therefore, the government could step in and force a disclosure of questionable finances or simply seize them where dubious and doubtful. Icheoku says this should ordinarily be the fate of Olusegun Obasanjo except that the lean and mean Cassius of Daura, President Muhammadu Buhari is in bed with Obasanjo and the other corrupt retired generals. Therefore, being so much eternally indebted to these men, cannot afford to sheepishly tow the path of the unthinking Jonathan of Otuoke by taking them on frontally. First Obasanjo appointed then Muhammadu Buhari his Petroleum Minister and then there was the questionable $2.5 billion missing oil money under his watch that took wings from London's Midland Banks - a joker in the hands of Obasanjo that he could pull anytime to douse any fire or heat of war on corruption investigation. 

President Muhammad Buhari's tenure as PTF chairman could also yield some skeletons if push comes to shove. Then lastly, President Muhammadu Buhari's current presidency was purchased or at least facilitated to a great part by these men, both in money and contacts/influence. So a thinking President Muhammad Buhari will not want his 99 problems to include these ruthless men and would rather play it safe. Icheoku says if the none investigation of these men is the war on corruption which President Muhammad Buhari is bandying about, then there is indeed no war on corruption really taking place nor one which Nigerians can believe in. If as Nigerians and the world agree that there is terrorism of corruption in Nigeria and according to President Muhammadu Buhari, this four men in particular will not be investigated, who then is corrupt in Nigeria?

HILLARY CLINTON SERVER-GATE SCANDAL, WILL SHE SURVIVE?

Icheoku says no one knows and only time will tell whether Hillary Clinton has irreparably damaged herself in the eyes of the American people, thereby foreclosing whatever chances she might have had of ever being handed over the key to the White House. But it surely does not look good that a person who is asking the American people to trust her with the highest office in their land, the American presidency; has in addition to her indiscretion of using a private server for her emails while Secretary of State, also went ahead wiping the said server clean, and thus shown that she herself cannot be trusted or at best, trust but verify. 

Query, why would a clear-conscience Hillary Clinton wipe clean a server which she knows or should have known contained all the information she sent and received through the unsecured portal; and which will be and is now subject of an investigation if she has nothing to hide? Why would Hillary Clinton so effusively treat this issue as if it is a joke that could be so easily 'wiped out with her cloth;' and this is the same person who wants to be trusted with the American presidency? Icheoku asks what happened to her trusting the American peoples' FBI, having faith that they will do justice with their investigation and not encumber their work by wiping out the slate clean that would have otherwise helped make their job easier? What happened to her leveling with the American people about what she sent and received through her unsecured channels by not stonewalling on their release and also not tampering with evidence by wiping the server with her cloth; and this is the same person who wants to be handed over the American presidency? 

Icheoku has no opinion either way - whether she continues with her quest to become the first female American president or withdraws and recuses herself therefrom the effort by reason of the unraveling and never ebbing away server-gate scandal. But whatever she decides to do should be done fast and soon enough in order to afford the Democratic Party reasonable time to find a shoe-in and in order not to pawn away the presidency to the other guys. A matter made more terrifying a proposition because that other guys might have a bigoted white pig named Donald Trump leading their charge. Therefore Hillary Clinton must act and act fast to either get out or begin to convince the American people that she has plausible explanation for the obvious criminal behavior or at best, her acts that have very limited trustworthiness.

Icheoku maintains that practically all the goodwill Hillary Clinton has been enjoying, is enjoying and continues to enjoy to this day, is courtesy of her husband William Jefferson Clinton. Most people who like or love or admire Hillary Clinton are simply transferring their love for Bill Clinton to her by reason of being married to him. This is the reason why many people have theorized that but for Hillary Clinton's ambition to become president, she would have since walked away from Bill and out of their marriage. Some people also share the view that Bill Clinton, subconsciously does not honestly wish Hillary Clinton well in her ambition to become president. According to this school of thought, he wants her to remain a wanna-be president only; hoping that as long as it simply remains an ambition, a sort of work in progress, his marriage to her will safely remain anchored. But who knows what the sly Billy is actually up to; as all these have not been conclusively substantiated; admitted reasonable grounds do exist to believe and continue to propagate them. 

Anyway, whatever the result of the current FBI investigation of the person of Hillary Clinton, as according to former AG Michael Mukasey, 'the FBI does not investigate machines' but people, Icheoku hopes and prays that she will beat all the rap and come out tops, smoking hot as ever and go on to eventually making record as the first female president of the United States of America. It is also good too that the said AG dismissed the rumor of the current FBI investigation being a political witch-hunt by President Obama against the Clintons? A rumor, almost taking a life of its own, that it is President Barack Obama that is the one engineering the possible forced Hillary Clinton's take-down and take-out of the 2016 presidential contention. Lastly, as the nation and the world await the outcome of the FBI investigation into whether or not Hillary Clinton, as a sitting United States of America Secretary of State, received and sent classified emails using private unsecured network; Icheoku prays and hopes that the former AG was not right that "it is inconceivable that a great deal of the information was unclassified;" thereby pinning Hillary Clinton with knowledge thereto and then its violation, moppets likely of a criminal nature, which might see her doing serious term barring a pardon. Icheoku says hopefully Hillary Clinton will not in her combustible ambition to move into the White House end up being moved into the Big House. Only time will tell.

ASHLEY MADISON, WRECKING HOMES AND MAKING NONSENSE OF MATRIMONY?

Icheoku says is it not about time society finally dissolves the institution of marriage and let humans live as they were originally meant to live, wildly? What use then is all the pretentious spousal commitments to one  another when they do not intend to honor same but end up cheating on each other anyway? Now they are getting help with this cheating from none other than Ashley Madison, a casual sex and cheating network? 

Over 37 million married people were caught pants down,  like a deer in the headlights, cheating on their spouses. But thanks to The Impact Team, a hackers group, who successfully got inside Ashley Madison's database to expose this trend. The hackers demanded that the website shut down its business practice, being home wreckers or they will release records of their clients. The cheating website called their bluff and today details of those shriveling patrons who are using Ashley Madison as a cheating portal, have been made public; and there are so many holier than thou Pharisees patrons among them including a member of the Family Values activists family, Josh Duggar.  Icheoku says a website specializing in  "normalizing" extra-marital affairs and thus seriously attacking the very foundation upon which matrimonial relationships are built cannot be anything than anti-marriage and anti-society. 37 million married spouses are a lot of spouses to be cheating on each other and making nonsense of adultery. 

Icheoku says if according to Ashley Madison, life is too short so have an affair; why is it that having an affair is more important than one getting ready to meet his/her maker and explain their sojourn here in earth. Or still, could it be another clear evidence that religion and all their teachings about heaven and earth is nothing but a hoodwinking ruse? The Ashley Madison exposure goes to show that the rich and powerful can do whatever they want including paying for sex and cheating on their spouses. Courtesy of TIT, these cheating dirt-bags, who deserve no discretion whatsoever, who engage in prostitution and human trafficking and also pay per sex, are now exposed to be shamed and hopefully be forced to mend their ways. Icheoku also agrees that these lying scumbags should be having a very bad day with this lifting of the veil to expose who they really are.  Icheoku says the key, if you cannot stay married or do not want to get married, then just don't do it; stay out and remain single. 

JIMMY CARTER, AT PEACE WITH SELF AND READY FOR WHATEVER COMES.

Icheoku says a president who achieved more out of office than the conspiracy of circumstances allowed him while he was president and commander in chief of the United States of America. He impacted the lives of so many people the world over with his many pet projects including habitat for humanity using his Carter Center. He is to say the least beloved more out of office than many of his traducers allowed him while he served. So as Icheoku watched the 39th president of America, Jimmy Carter, deliver what could be termed his final farewell address, announcing that his cancer has spread to his brain, one thing and only one thing kept on reoccurring - here is a man well fulfilled and who lived a long happy life, regardless of whatever the prognosis of his cancer might turn out to be. 

90 years old; happily married for 68 years; a nuclear engineer and peanut farmer; politically accomplished individual as Georgia State senator, Georgia State governor, chair of DNC campaign committee and president of the United States of America; Nobel Peace Prize winner and a Professor at Emory University. Icheoku says regardless of the direction his diagnosis might take, President Jimmy Carter lived a long happy fulfilled life and any person in his shoes would happily answer the call whenever it is finally made. Good enough he acknowledged that much when he said "I'm perfectly at ease with whatever comes;" and also being a man of 'deep religious faith', he would not be shy to meet with his maker to get his reward for the many good works he did on earth while his sojourn lasted. 

In as much as Icheoku and the rest of Jimmy Carter fans including his family and friends would want him to stick around much longer, in case of the inevitable eventuality, his was a life well spent in service of humanity. A 'completely honest and transparent man' who would 'like to see Guinea worm die before he dies'; but reducing the scourge from 3.5 million occurrences each year to a mere 126 is as good as the disease predeceasing Jimmy Carter. His only regret seems to still be the failed Iranian hostage rescue that cost him his dream for a second term presidency. But hey, no one ever gets all the questions right all the time and in our strive through life, there are definitely certain things we have to fail in or are unable to get done, but overall posterity will judge President Jimmy Carter fairly. Icheoku says goodluck President Jimmy Carter  in beating the cancer and in any other event, it was nice he walked this earth.  

FASHOLA WEBSITE-GATE, THE 75 MILLION NAIRA UPGRADE SCANDAL?

Icheoku says channelling Al-Jazeera television, does not know what manner of a "spell" APC and its honchos have cast on Nigerians such that Nigerians are standing aloof and  awestruck, in the face of proven blatant hypocrisy of the worst kind of the party. The unbridled corruption perpetrated by those APC pretentious Pharisaic  hagglers who are masquerading as knights in shinning armor come to the rescue of Nigeria, when considered, makes that of the PDP seem a mere sleep-over party? A case in point is the recently blown wide-open graft by former Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola, using a conduit of a fabled website.  But for the ongoing retributive war of reclamation between himself and his former mentor Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, this fraud would never been brought it to light. Thanks to the feuding bandits, their 'yash' is being blown wide open for Nigerians to see how stinky-corrupt they were. It is indeed quite appalling and unfathomable that a sitting governor could blow away a whopping sum of 75 million Naira just to indulge a personal pastime, his appetite for upgrading a personal website?  

Icheoku laments that this to say the least totally very mind-bungling and to really mean it, outrageously very callous and extravagantly lacking in every judgment and circumspection. Query:- who the fuck is this Governor Babatunde Fashola that thinks himself so that important that any joker wants to read about him to warrant his fleeting the peoples resources in this manner? A substantial State's resources that could have been more usefully applied to some other more needful end and/or purpose? A matter made worse because not even the super duper grandiose websites cost this much to build and maintain/operate? The problem with Nigeria is that Nigerians are the most lackadaisically unperturbed and indifferent people walking the face of the earth. As a result their thieving leaders or pretenders to that honor, are cashing in on this inertia to so brazenly reap them off. Look at Governor Fashola shamelessly admitting to committing such a criminal fraud and he is supposedly a  lawyer and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria? He is boldfaced in claiming to have spent such a ginormous amount of money on a project that is otherwise verifiable and could be so easily verified as having been overtly overinflated? 

Then he had the temerity to be at liberty in explaining this away in so cavalier manner and with such a cursorily dismissive impetus?  Babatunde Fashola did not even make any effort whatsoever to convincingly line-itemize what was undertaken and the expenses that went into each one, to warrant or command or otherwise justify expending such humongous amount of State's funds on a mere website? Yet Nigerians are prepared to give him a pass as having at least come out to broach the issue? Icheoku says at this rate, when would things ever assume some form of seriousness  form from this their continued lackadaisical nature in Nigeria? When will Nigerian leaders start to take responsibility for their actions and Nigerians holding them to account for their stewardship? When will the media finally learn and be matured enough to live up to its expectation as the watchdog of the society; become audacious enough to ask pointy questions and demand with follow-up questions, for straight answers and clarifications, with the honed-insistence required of their profession. 

Icheoku runs a website, a blog; and had for quite some time now too. Icheoku would have since pivoted away from Google owned and operated Blogspot but choose smartly to remain with a leader in the industry. So Icheoku is fully aware of what obtains in the industry especially the nature of fees and charges for operating or running a website. Therefore Icheoku was totally flabbergasted and shocked to hear that Governor Babatunde Fashola spent about a  whopping sum of $370,000 United States Dollars (N75 million Naira) to upgrade and/or otherwise operate his website? Websites that some of them even come free with some web operators including Web.com; and as little as $500 from Yahoo, Go-Daddy etc depending on the arrangements? Websites, ranging from the low thousands to plus minus $100,000 for the super-duper websites, is what Governor Babatunde Fashola is telling Nigerians with "koro-koro" eyes that he spent $370,000 to build and operate? 

Icheoku emphatically states that the only credibility the lanky cattle-man of Daura can have, going forward in his prosecution of his one-point agenda of fighting corruption in Nigeria, is to permit the EFCC to pounce on Governor Babatunde Fashola immediately, pull him in for interrogation and possible arrest and thereafter place him in custody without bail, pending his prosecution for a great fraud which he perpetrated against the people of Lagos State Nigeria. Icheoku once surmised that there are only two categories of Nigerians - those who have stolen and those waiting for their own opportunity to steal. This particular former governor of Lagos State, by reason of this website-gate scandal alone, has now lost the last modicum of respectability which otherwise remained following his deportation of fellow Nigerians out of Lagos. Imagine this shrew-looking governor dipping his filthy thieving hands into Lagos State's coffers to make away with 75 million Naira, purportedly for a useless website which adds nothing to anyone but more uselessness. This is a state where so many youths are jobless, with many others living a life of hell, plagued by un-passable ever waterlogged horrible roads; yet this unthinking Senior Advocate of Nigeria found it a greater priority to spend 75 million Naira building and running a website? 

Icheoku says may be Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu was right afterall and should be supported in his current war to permanently put this Governor 75 million Naira website away in the doghouse where he rightly belongs? A good deed many be to just help ABT put Fash out of contention in the current PMB administration, for being such a proven fraud who could in this manner, so blatantly steal from Lagos State? May be also Governor Babatunde Fashola deserves  all that are currently being offloaded on him by the team from Bourdillon; as this scandal alone, proven by his own personal free admission, qualifies him as a then thieving chief executive of Lagos State. Unlike the proverbial rat which does not eat the fish kept under its watch, this special rat of Lagos State not only ate such fish but is now trying to explain away an inexplicable expenditure which he should never have made and therefore should be forced to make restitution in full, with additional penalties paid as recompense. 

But regrettably Nigerians' apathy and their willful indifference to issues affecting and concerning them somewhat borders on the fringes of a hopeless lunacy, otherwise they would have demanded for an example to be made out of Governor Babatunde Fashola. No people in their right frame of minds will tolerate nor allow such pillage of their common treasury by their elected or rather "selected" governor to go unheard or unpunished; without first shouting themselves hoarse in their quest to be heard and for an action in deterrence to be taken. A case now further exacerbated by the dismissive manner with which the thieving governor who perpetrated such fraud, according to his own very free admission, is treating it as "a justified" expenses? Icheoku laments that this Babatunde Fashola SUCKS and his fraudulent website funnel of misappropriation, a stinking sewer. Icheoku encourages the PDP to henceforth demand without ceasing for  a ramped up prosecution of corruption in the country and lets see how the Babtunde Fasholas of the APC will not be the first ones lined up for execution. The only regret is that Icheoku forgot that Nigeria is not China, and the beat goes on. Fie Fashola, away with the thieving former chief executive of Lagos State and may Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu take him prisoner of his own devices. 

NAACP JULIAN BOND, DEAD AT 75.

Icheoku says the former NAACP chairman and civil rights activist extraordinaire, who prominently featured in the civil rights movement era, marching with Dr Martin Luther King alongside many others, has passed on. Julian Bond was 75 years old and died of brief illness. Icheoku wonders when Mr Brief Illness left the shores of Nigeria and traveled all the way to a land so distant, to America, to kill someone? Icheoku says may his restive and restless civil-rights equality for all soul now get some well deserved rest IJN. 

Hopefully he will meet up with MLK as well as many other similarly departed freedom loving heroes and heroines of America who were involved in the struggle for and made civil rights possible for black Americans. May be together, they can strategize and petition the Almighty One to directly intervene in the affairs of America towards conclusively improving race relations therein. Icheoku says adieu brave and courageous one and may the good Lord richly reward your effort while your sojourn here lasted. Many came and left without leaving any footprint on the sands of time; but Julian Bond walked the land a giant. RIP Bond.

FASHOLA CALLS TINUBU A PIG, SAYS HE WANTS TO DESTROY HIM?

When you wrestle with a pig, the pig gets happy and you get dirty." With that former Governor Babatunde Fashola identified and took a dig at his erstwhile political godfather and mentor in chief, Ahmed Bola Tinubu, insinuating that Tinubu is the pig who wants to destroy him, Fashola? Icheoku says although there is no smoking gun, conclusive evidence, directly pointing at Bola Tinubu as leading the current effort to destroy Governor Babatunde Fashola; but circumstantially it is very obvious who the man behind the mask is. 

A very strong suspicion points at the Lion of Bourdillon, who although not Cecil the lion with the black mane, but also has its own dark side as Babatunde Fashola is beginning to find out. Incrementally, Bola Tinubu is piling up on the former governor, one allegation after another and one accusation following another; all in an effort to rubbish Fashola and destroy whatever legacy he might be banking on. By this tactical outflanking, Bola Tinubu wants to turn Fashola into a much hated political pariah and peradventure force President Muhammadu Buhari into distancing himself from the former governor and if successful, will automatically abort whatever chances Fashola ever had of being named a minister in September. 

Icheoku says the treachery of men, especially the political class, is such that many decent people are always very reluctant to accept any gift of an office they will only live to regret someday. Like in Al-Pacino's Devil's Advocate, the movie, Keeanu Reeves found out the hard way that when the devil (Al-Pacino) bequeaths you a gift, the devil owns you. As expected therefore, Governor Babatunde Fashola having accepted the gift of Lagos State governorship from Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu should have known that there is nothing like a free lunch anywhere. He should have known that ultimate slavish-loyalty is expected of him and remained the loyal houseboy he was that made his governorship possible without more. He should have been bidding to whatever his overlord Tinubu orders or tells him to do; as well as first taking and obtaining express permission prior to whatever action or even any utterance he wants to make. 

But Fashola, the new renegade, wants to become an independent his own man; except that the man who made him thinks otherwise and is now primed to sending him politically deep six by rubbishing whatever Fashola thought was a resounding legacy he had left behind while he held sway at Alausa-Ikeja, Lagos. Fashola should have taken a lesson from the dethroned Jonathan of Otuoke that it is always futile and near suicidal to accept the gauntlet thrown by  your  godfather. Just like Jonathan of Otuoke continues to regret his ever calling Baba Iyabo a "motor park tout" which foreclosed any chance at a make-up; so also will Babatunde Fashola live to regret his now calling Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu a "pig". Icheoku says with this latest name-calling, Fashola has crossed the line; and the escalating bitter war between the two men can now only get worse and more asinine as no political roof in Nigeria will be wide enough to accommodate both of them, not after calling Tinubu a PIG. 

That being said, why does Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu want Babatunde Fashola completely decimated and rendered a political eunuch, one would ask? In answer, Icheoku says because two kings do not share a kingdom, period. Unlike the novitiate Jonathan of Otuoke who tolerated a co-presidency with then de-facto President Olusegun Obasanjo, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu understands that power allows nor admits of no competition whatsoever. Like the king of the jungle, before which every other creature must take flight or be driven off or eaten or simply killed and consigned to nothingness, Bola Tinubu cannot stand the rising profile and threatening political presence of Babatunde Fashola and fail to do something about it. Icheoku maintains that one of the quick sands that helped swallow the presidency of former President Goodluck Jonathan was his allowing Olusegun Obasanjo to freely roam the country as if he was a co-president in his presidency. 

No smart president ever makes such a costly mistake and Jonathan of Otuoke paid dearly for that. Former presidents either have their silent-loyalty firmly secured or are hounded out of town or clamped into prison and in some cases, even dispatched to the great beyond. That is how you wield power and that is how you secure power; but never to allow like Jonathan of Otuoke did, a pretender to the presidency to constitute himself into a threatening nuisance to your hold of the reins of power. That is what power purchases and only those who paid heavily for power truly knows what indeed they purchased; hence they do not take kindly to any meddlesome interloper trying to challenge their authority or who wants to put sand in their garri. Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu fully understands power and perceives Babatunde Fashola as a existential threat to his political authority in the Yoruba Southwest Nigeria. Therefore his well-informed decision not to have such rivalry around, hence his decision to destroy him and confine him into the heap of political garbage of a mere once was former governor of Lagos State only and nothing more?  

A strategic thinker and political operator extraordinaire, Ahmed Bola Tinubu has long since set his eyes on destroying Fashola. He started by forcing Fashola's hands to deport Igbos from Lagos and successfully branded him before Ndigbo as an intolerant Yoruba man Igbo-hater, in the mould of Obafemi Awolowo whose hatred for Ndigbo was rather legendary. The then houseboy-governor Fashola bit the bait, too afraid to say no to his master Bola Tinubu and went ahead to commit the worst political harakiri of his life which forever foreclosed his chances of ever winning any national office requiring Ndigbo's participation and votes. Icheoku says the damage inflicted to Fashola's rising political profile by the deportation of those fellow Nigerians from Nigeria's Lagos, is such that he cannot ever recover from. Just like Awolowo never recovered from his anti-Igbo identity until he took his last breath and is still hated even in death by every true nwa-afor Igbo, so is the fate being currently shared by Babatunde Fashola before Ndigbo. 

Furthering his downsize Fashola agenda, when Fashola wanted to nominate his successor governor, a fast thinking-ahead Bola Tinubu said no to him and instead imposed his own chosen candidate on the party and now on Lagos State. Again, Fashola wanted to run for the senate but Bola Tinubu said no to him. When President Muhammadu Buhari took interest in Fashola and wanted to draw him closer to his government, Bola Tinubu intervened to force President Buhari into beating a retreat and to the extent that the president tremblingly dropped Fashola from the list of his last presidential delegation to Washington DC. Now even Fashola's prospective ministerial slot is in jeopardy as the all or nothing, take no prisoner Bola Tinubu, is once again standing in the way. Bola Tinubu is against anything that will add an inch to the once growing high political profile of Babatunde Fashola, which apparently has suddenly now become stunted by reasons of Bola Tinubu's machinations.

So it is very easy to see why the piling up on Babatunde Fashola is taking place - just to cut him on the knees; and the source of it all, Bourdillon. The other time it was leaked that Fashola left Lagos State in a great financial ruins with huge unnecessary debts, many of which were rather of questionable origin and purpose? Next was that Fashola  awarded over-valued contracts to his cronies and friends and subsequently made out like bandit in a reverse collection of gratuities as payback, all on the back of Lagos State taxpayers? Next was that Fashola lavished a whopping sum of Lagos State's 78 million Naira just to "upgrade" his personal website? Now the latest of the smear is that Fashola had several dalliances which resulted in his fathering children outside wedlock? 

Icheoku says who knows the nature of the next ton of bricks waiting to be unloaded on poor Fashola; all in an attempt to stop him, cut him to size and/or even permanently consign him into political irrelevance and oblivion.  Without any scintilla of doubt, no other person is behind this current Fashola travails than the man who owns and single-handedly runs Yorubaland politics with his operational headquarters located on Bourdillon Drive Ikoyi Lagos. That Ahmed Bola Tinubu is also spending "large amounts of money, paying agents including CACOL to bear false witness against Fashola" is a disclosure that was made by Fashola himself. All Icheoku merely does is to report and analyze what was spoken or said or acted out or upon. It is equally on records that an incensed Fashola has even told Bola Tinubu to shove any intended prospective ministerial appointment of him, Fashola, into his you know where; as according to Fashola, he is not looking for a job? 

However Icheoku takes umbrage at Fashola for suddenly realizing that "allegations of wrong doing are not resolved without evidence, neither are they resolved in press conferences." Babatunde Fashola never gave Jonathan of Otuoke any such benefit of doubt when he was doing the hatchet job for his mentor and his APC party; alleging all manner of unprintable that helped in bringing Jonathan down and out of Aso Rock. Now Fashola can understand how Jonathan of Otuoke must have felt, being wrongly accused by the Fasholas of APC of things he did not do nor ever thought of doing. Icheoku says if only karma timorously visits traducers as it is now visiting Babatunde Fashola, what a wonderful world it would be.  Icheoku prays that  Babatunde Fashola never survives from the ongoing political lynching against him as being orchestrated and directed by Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, his former godfather. In any event, may Babatunde Fashola be permanently bruised bloody from inside out as a result. It is always good to once in a while serve doctors with their medicine, so that they can taste the tanginess of what they ask their patients to take. It is also not a bad idea at all, starting this reverse prescription with Babatunde Fashola as he doubly-deserves whatever is currently coming at him. An erudite young man and a lawyer preferred a very old semi-illiterate despot to a fellow young man PhD as president and you wonder what came over him?

Finally whether Fashola says Bola Tinubu wants to remain in the mud or that Bola Tinubu should look in the mirror or that Bola Tinubu is throwing mud at him or that Bola Tinubu should look at his own hands; and irrespective whether or not Fashola has moved on or supposedly done his job, all are irrelevant. The crux of the matter is that Fashola is being damaged by Team Bola Tinubu and they are doing a yeoman's good job at it. The mud they are throwing at Fashola is sticking and making Fashola dirty and even very pig-dirty indeed. This is Team Bola Tinubu's primary objective, this is the task at their hands and unfortunately for Babatunde Fashola, they are succeeding. The essence of Team Bola Tinubu's mission is to cause the perception of a dishonest Fashola to stick in Nigerians' minds and not necessarily to establish a veracity thereof. Babatunde Fashola should therefore be resolved that he will soon be politically damaged beyond repair, if not already. Icheoku says, just another lesson on how not to pick fight with your god or as the incomparable China Achebe would succinctly and appositely put it, in his classicus 'Things Fall Apart", no one picks a fight with his CHI and gets away scot-free with it. Salute.

SHEKAU, FINALLY DEAD?

Icheoku says, channeling Paul Bremer, the former de facto American Governor General of Iraq, "Gentlemen, we got him." Abubakar Shekau, that is. The former brutal leader of Boko Haram terrorist urchins is dead. This much was confirmed by Chadian leader Idriss Deby, who said that "Boko Haram is decapitated" and also that Boko Haram has a new leader named Mahamat Daoud. Icheoku says whether Abubakar Shekau is now actually dead as he was rumored to have died several times in the past; or simply quietly retired and withdrawn from the battlefield by the same  people who hired him to do their dirty job is irrelevant. Icheoku says provided his exit from the headship of the terrorist munchkins will lead to some peace being restored in Nigeria's Northeast, that is what matters and counts. What a riddance!!!!!

SURVIVING BUHARI'S PRESIDENCY, NDIGBO NEEDS A NEW STRATEGIC THINKING.

Icheoku says an aphorism has it that "it is either you are sitting on the table or you may be on the menu as part of the dinner." This reflects to a great extent the current state of affairs of complete exclusion and fate of Ndigbo in Nigeria under the present government of the man from Daura. The lanky one; the Cassius of Daura, President Muhammadu Buhari, who has successfully and audaciously excluded Ndigbo from all the very important positions of government so far filled. A matter made worse because neither the president nor the vice president nor the senate president nor the speaker nor the chief judge is an Igbo person. The result, there is no single Igbo person in occupation as head of any of the three arms of government - the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. 

Then add the Inspector General of Police; director general of Customs and Excise; Immigration chief; National Security Adviser; head of State Security Service; head of Army; head of Navy and head of Airforce - all positions filled without any Igbo person? Icheoku queries who will therefore get Ndigbo's back when matters affecting them as integral part of Nigeria is being deliberated on, at their back, without any of them being present? The signs are ominous and only a strategic thinking on their part will see Ndigbo through this very insensitive government of President Muhammadu Buhari. Ndigbo will need to adopt a "clever and smart" app in navigating the minefield that is President Muhammadu Buhari's presidency in order to survive the evil being hatched against them. Icheoku is not a seer but prophesies that he is evil that will so exclude an entire one third of a country's population and in this brazen manner of "to hell with you, Ndigbo." It is grave and it does not bode well for Ndigbo,  being so blatantly marginalized in this manner and you wonder whether President Muhammadu Buhari is by his actions so far, telegraphing a sinister message of "NOT PART OF OR WANTED IN NIGERIA" to the people of Southeast Igbo? 

Icheoku only prays that this latest anti-Ndigbo actions will help in galvanizing Ndigbo into a more cohesive and united people they used to be, who will once again start speaking with one voice of IGBO KWENU; and it does not and should not matter whether Joe Igbokwe decides not to "kwe" alongside. But whatever provocations of marginalization, Ndigbo must not bite the bait and give this proven demon an excuse to go ballistic on them with his dogs of war and instruments of mass destruction since he cannot wait to finish his unfinished business against Ndigbo. Ndigbo must think outside the box and play to survive the next four or eight  years, assuming brief illness does not intervene earlier and on their behalf. What a time to be a Nigerian when nobody wants you in Nigeria including a president who had sworn under oath to respect the tenets of the constitution, promised to be president of all and everyone; but who unfortunately is now showing his true colors, baring his fangs against a people many of whom gave him and his party their votes. Icheoku says the cattle-man President Muhammadu Buhari is simply wasting his time as no weapons fashioned by anyone including himself and/or Bola Tinubu shall prosper against Ndigbo, the God's anointed people of Nigeria IJN. Icheoku says "IGBO KWENU, KWESI ENU IKE.....IYOOO!!! IYAAAA!!!!!"

PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI, SIMPLY IGBO-PHOBIA?

Icheoku says once again the little-hearted cattle-man president of Nigeria from Daura, a man who could not grow out of his old hateful and vile self, hating a people who did not do anything to him but merely refused to lie supine belly down in utter hopelessness and complete  surrender, has done it again. This time he appointed a seven-man team to streamline his war against corruption WITHOUT even a single Igbo person therein. Imagine a people who constitute more than one third of the country's populace being so continually marginalized and deliberately stayed out of the government by a supposedly Nigerian president of and for every Nigerian?  Icheoku says what other explanation do the APC apologists and Buharists, especially those of them from Igboland, Joe Igbokwe and Osita Okechukwu, have to proffer this time as reason for this continued slight and marginalization of Ndigbo? 

Fortunately, Icheoku does not care about this lean and mean Cassius of Daura; neither does Icheoku expect anything palliating from his one-man show styled government; and needless to hope that Ndigbo will get anything from him and/or his one-point agenda government either. Icheoku is emphatic that President Muhammadu Buhari, despite his very tall stature, appears to be a very little person inside. He is very small minded with a very small pint-sized unforgiving heart of bile beating inside of him. He seems to keep malice; does not know how to move on from his past - two vices which obviously constitute the greatest albatross hounding the man from Daura. 

Icheoku has come to the conclusion that President Muhammadu Buhari does not necessarily hate Ndigbo; rather he is most probably intimidated by them. As a result, he does not like the queasy feeling usually occasioned by having people you are deathly-afraid of being very close around you; hence his proactive decision to keep them out of his government and out of causing him needless panic-attacks or even the attack of the heart. Icheoku maintains that President Muhammadu Buhari's current trend of sidelining Ndigbo from his government is a calculated decision geared to permanently keeping Ndigbo out and at arms length? Recall that as a former coup plotting despotic head of state, only one Igbo person, the late Chike Offordile, made his cabinet as the then Attorney General and Minister of Justice of the Federation. Needless to rehash the many innocent Igbo politicians including Ikemba Nnewi whom he clamped into detention without cause or reason during the said first coming from hell. But lets move on.

Icheoku says this conclusion is the only derivable meaningful and articulable reason why the continued shut-out of Ndigbo in the present President Muhammadu Buhari led government of Nigeria. It shows that the lean and mean man of Daura has some unfinished business to finish with Ndigbo, which even the Asaba massacre in addition to other atrocities were incapable of atoning for; hence he must step up his war of attrition against Ndigbo by denying them their rightful places and positions in a Nigerian government led by him. Otherwise how else does anyone fathom an explanation to the continued exclusion of Ndigbo by the lanky fledgling from the far North or is the Biafran war still raging and not yet over in his closed-out mind? 

If in the eyes of President Muhammadu Buhari, the Nigerian war of attrition against Biafra was indeed over and that there was no victor and no vanquished as claimed, and that Ndigbo are still integral part of the greater Nigeria society,  why then the continued exclusion of them by him in the affairs of governance of Nigeria under his watch? A  people, so eminently and most competitively qualified, completely excluded in almost twenty five key appointments and still counting, so far made by President Muhammadu Buhari and he claimed that only "qualified" people were appointed into those positions; thus leading Icheoku to ponder what possibly amounts to qualification in the eyes of this President Muhammadu Buhari? The president's just announced latest seven "wise-men" appointment, mostly constituted of scholars and academia, yet no Igbo person is professor-enough or a PhD-enough in the estimation of President Muhammadu Buhari to "qualify" for inclusion therein?

The summary of his allergy for Ndigbo is that his comfort-zone does not permit nor tolerate having an Igbo person within a close proximity. This and only this is what is driving his anti-Ndigbo actions as so far displayed with all the appointments made to date by him.  Icheoku opines that it is not President Muhammadu Buhari's hatred for Ndigbo that drives him nuts or makes him see red at the sighting of an Igbo person; nope, it is his fear of Ndigbo and phobia could drive anyone over the edge. Otherwise he would have heeded the long well known and established rule of survival to always keep your friends close but your enemies closer so that you can keep an eye on them. Therefore were President Muhammadu Buhari to hate Ndigbo, he would have kept them very close in order to keep an eye on them and monitor them closely. But he does not hate Ndigbo, only that he does not feel comfortable with their very much intimidating presence, hence his decision to keep them very very far away removed and out of contamination. Icheoku says President Muhammadu Buhari is simply intimidated by Ndigbo's brazen audacity, a can do entrepreneurial spirit and their will to survive against all odds; so he would rather keep them at bay in order to enable him breathe much easier. 

A man who once on a visit to Onitsha back in the 80s, marveled out loudly that the civil war could not have been fought on this land due to the level of development and recovery he witnessed; following their conspiratorial civil war to cut Ndigbo to size. He was literally out of his breath to see the devastated Igboland of Onitsha so rebounded and recovered, following the ravaging civil war of attrition waged by himself and his marauding beasts from the North assisted by their Southwestern collaborators. He was quoted then as saying "is this place part of the Biafra land which we completely destroyed?" So this lean and mean man who was  so overwhelmed with the feat achieved by Ndigbo with a mere twenty pounds handed to them at the end of the war, still marvels at the heads and hands that could engineer this feat of recovery and within such a short period of time. 

This shock infected him with chronic voices which now habitually live inside his head. He is constantly hearing voices in his head telling him that Ndigbo must be contained; Ndigbo must be stopped; Ndigbo must be held with suspicion and therefore Ndigbo must be kept at bay. This is what is manifesting in his decision to completely exclude Ndigbo from his government and unfortunately, it is beyond his ability to counter his psychotic instructions even if he wanted. Icheoku says President Muhammadu Buhari deserves the pity of Ndigbo rather than complaints of marginalization because the man is possessed by his demons and is very delusional as to the phony existential threat to Nigeria which Ndigbo poses. If only he is a Christian, he sure needs and could use some deliverance.

Icheoku therefore calls on Ndigbo to maintain their cool in the face of all the provocations and irritations of their marginalization and completely being kept out of government by the present government of President Muhammadu Buhari. Ndigbo must not and should never do anything untoward or which would further rattle the already edgy president into taking rash reactionary action against them; as an intimidated man on hair-trigger alert could be as dangerous as a rattle snake. Ndigbo must therefore learn to ignore this four years and treat same as a cold war and lost. They must walk tall with their heads held straight up high and with princely gait, go about their hustling. They should know that the president of Nigeria does not sleep with his two eyes shut because he is too scared and very afraid of them and this should somewhat be their consolation prize. 

Ndigbo should temper their expectations from the President Muhammadu Buhari's government, knowing fully well that nothing lasts forever especially a four or eight year termed office. Like every other past traducer of Ndigbo, the current storm will eventually blow away someday and as always, a staying power with equanimity will always triumph. Ndigbo should learn how to just simply smile while they go about their business and give President Muhammadu Buhari the silent treatment which his actions so far entitles him. Let President Muhammadu Buhari appoint every other Nigerian but Ndigbo into offices if he likes, Ndigbo will not die but as always will survive and survive well. Ndigbo are survivors, Ndigbo have survived before and Ndigbo will survive the current traducer, President Muhammad Buhari of Daura. Icheoku says it is President Muhammadu Buhari's inferiority complex that is worrying him and forcing him to keep Ndigbo out of their well deserved positions and places in his government and not that they are not "qualified" or decent enough to fill the positions being denied them. So to President Muhammadu Buhari, Icheoku on behalf of Ndigbo, says SAI BUHARI.

KACHIKWU'S STORIED APPOINTMENT, THE NEEDLE HAS NOT MOVED?

Icheoku says yes, Igbo Deltans as well as every other Igbo people, anywhere and everywhere, are bona fides Igbo people just like their kits and kins majority of whom are concentrated in Southeastern Nigeria Igbo heartland. Icheoku had once written an article on the imperatives of this fact of consequence, encouraging Ndigbo to start an honest claim to Rivers State and Delta State as full Igbo states. Arguing further that the River Niger supposed demarcation notwithstanding, families are often and could be spread across rivers. As obtains everywhere including the Northern part of Nigeria, Ndigbo Southeast should not because these their brothers and sisters live across the River Niger now disclaim them as fellow Ndigbo. The said published article was prelude to the election of the late Ralph Uwechie as then president of Ohaneze Ndigbo. 

So with the premise laid out, Icheoku emphatically  says that Dr Ibe Emmanuel Kachikwu, the new Group Managing Direct of NNPC, is now officially the first Igbo appointee of the President Muhammadu Buhari's presidency. Icheoku says congratulations to both the appointee and the appointer as by this, President Muhammadu Buhari has reluctantly finally acknowledged that there is at least a "qualified" Igbo person to admit into his government? Recall that the president said he appointed only "qualified" individuals as service chiefs to head the various wings of the Nigeria armed forces as well as security agencies, implying the lack of any qualified Igbo person for any of the positions? It is very obvious that this president's lack of truthfulness or rather version of truth is akin to someone starring at a blazing hot summer sun and still deceptively mouthing that it is very dark outside. But lets move on.

Icheoku says the excitement of the appointment ends in the fact of the complete and total Igbo-ness of Dr Ibe Emmanuel Kachikwu having been established beyond doubt; being true 'nwaafor-Igbo' and is now officially the first Igbo person to be appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari into his government after over twenty five other top-notch appointments so far made by him. At last, an onye-Igbo has made it through the proverbial eye of the needle that is President Muhammadu Buhari implied bar against Ndigbo making it into his government. Icheoku wonders if the biblical camel walking through the eye of the needle is this tough and if it qualifies as an apposite allegory here.  President Muhammadu Buhari shamelessly claimed that no Igbo person is qualified enough to make any of his appointment thus far? With all known facts about Ndigbo competency and qualifications considered, Icheoku wonders if it is rather being well-versed in reading the Koran and/or reciting other Islamic verses and incantations or being proficiency in other Islamic practices and cause is what having "necessary qualifications" means in the eyes of President Muhammadu Buhari? 

Anyway, but what indeed is the worth of the office of the Group Managing Director of NNPC to Ndigbo and of what use is it particularly for Ndigbo that they should be salivating that one of them is now assigned the task of revamping the moribund corruption-cesspool that is Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation?  Icheoku asks is this appointment just a ploy to tap into Kachikwu's great knowledge about the oil industry and use him to clean the Aegean stable that has become the NNPC; and later have him dumped or shoved aside to make way for a chosen Hausa/Fulani prince? How does such a herculean assignment benefit Ndigbo, especially when the new GMD will later be subsumed under a Minister of Petroleum who as the political head and bureaucrat in chief will have power over him and his actions? The former Petroleum Minister Diezani Allison Madueke went through such four GMDs within a spate of five years, using and dumping them as she willed. So any incoming Petroleum Minister might similarly "use and dump" Dr Ibe Kachikwu or consign him to irrelevance if he or she chooses and even have him summarily dismissed if so pissed off by him or his actions? 

So what indeed actually is the benefit of this appointment to Ndigbo that elicits all the euphoric excitement in Igbo speaking Nigerians one may ask; other than that it creates a sense of belonging for Ndigbo within the greater Nigeria society. Icheoku says appointing an Igbo technocrat as head of the NNPC to be eventually placed under a Hausa/Fulani or Yoruba or even a minority bureaucrat Minister of Petroleum does not necessarily in any way confer any added advantage or benefit to Ndigbo or ordinarily empower them. But regardless, Icheoku says President Muhammadu Buhari by this appointment has finally found a "qualified" onye Igbo to admit into his government and hopefully he will continue to look hard enough to find other "qualified" Ndigbos as he continues to fill available vacant positions in his government. Kudos to him - the man from Daura in finally finding a needle in a haystack?  Icheoku prays that Dr Ibe Emmanuel Kachikwu will bring the can-do spirit and attitude of Ndigbo to his new assignment at the NNPC and get the expected job done, done well and done quickly too. Icheoku says in his onerous task of repositioning the NNPC to be better and do better with managing Nigeria's oil resources, he shall succeed and also triumph IJN. 

AMERICAN PRESIDENCY, NOT FOR THE 'TOO OLD' OR THE 'TOO TIMID'?

Icheoku says the vetting for the 2016 presidency of the United States of America has just begun, with the Republican Party marshaling ten of its wanna-be presidential candidates to audition for the right to fly the party's flag in the November 2016 presidential election against the Democratic Party. The debate was overall interesting but lacked the hyped fireworks generated by the anticipation of a bare-knuckle fight amongst these candidates, especially against the pre-debate leading candidate Donald Trump. Icheoku would rather the organizers of he debate at least had a woman-candidate among them, just like they had a black candidate for sensitivity reason. 

Icheoku says one of the finest things about America is its presidential democracy, particularly the manner and process that paves the road traveled to get to the White House. Like American Idol's auditioning, American presidential debates is always very fascinating, especially at this early intra-party stage watching all these men who want to fly their party's flag in the coming election and eventually become the CEO of the United States of America. A matter made more interesting because only one of these men would become the candidate, admitted it does not automatically guarantee the coveted seat. 

The election is not until November 2016 but the process has since begun and has now begun with every seriousness.  Icheoku will stay tuned as usual and hopefully until the conclusion of the process on the second Tuesday of November 2016. Watching the debate however, Icheoku will like the eventual Republican Party's ticket to include Ohio Governor John Richard Kasich, either as the candidate or the vice presidential candidate. He is from Ohio, a battle ground state that is always very determinative in who becomes the president of the United States of America. He is also a seasoned politician and seems to have a grasp of virtually all the issues that makes an American president, great and very presidential - apparently in charge and in control. So with such gravitas, such ticket will give any Democratic Party's ticket a fight for their money. So with that said, let the campaign now begin.

GWEN STEFANI PULLS OUT OF HER MARRIAGE, DIVORCING?

"While the two of us have come to the mutual decision that we will no longer be partners in marriage, we remain partners in parenthood and are committed to jointly raising our three sons in a happy and healthy environment. To this end, we respectfully request privacy from the media during this time." - Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale. 

"Icheoku says this thing called marriage, does it indeed really works or do some people just actually make it work? The other day it was Ben Afleck and Jennifer Garner calling it quits and before them were Nick Carter and Mariah Carey respectively saying "I do no more" and now Gwen Stefani and hubby Gavin Rossdale. Icheoku asks did all these people do an Usain Bolt for lack of trying or they did not try hard enough or simply just another evidence that the societal imposed and instituted yoke is imply too burdensome for anyone to bear without complaining and for so long? Icheoku does not know nor have an answer to any of these question, but if your own marital partnership is working out fine, kudos to you; admitted that a divorce is always a preferred option to a perpetual residence in a living hell or worse still, dispatching your spouse to the other side of life. To Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale, Icheoku says may you find happiness in your decision, all the best.

LIFE IN SAUDI ARABIA, BORING - THREE SAUDI ARABIAN WOMEN?

Icheoku says three Saudi Arabian women, on inquiry about life in Saudi Arabia, in one terse word, chorused BORING. There is nothing to do - you just cook, clean, eat, bear children, get fat and then die; and worse still your husband can also marry three additional wives, regardless of what you feel or think about it. As a young unmarried woman, you are not allowed to have boyfriends and must maintain your virginity as a marital gift to your eventual husband irrespective of the age you find a husband; who is permitted to kill you if he discovered he had married a non virgin. This is if your own parents did not kill you first for bringing shame of unchastity to the family. 

They are not allowed to socialize, go to night clubs, drink any alcoholic beverages or get involved in any "worldly vices" as according to their religious mullahs, their prophet frowns against such things. Icheoku wonders what they then do with all the abundant money in their kingdom - may be shop and shop and shop and little travel? But what type of life is that when no one can admire you or actually appreciate you, especially for the good work God made out of you by creating you? Needless to add that they are not allowed to drive, swim, wear skin-exposing outfits, vote or even read certain magazines or journals considered ungodly or not conforming to the Islamic code of morality. One of the women even quipped "garbage bags and Ninja turtles" when referring to the cover-it-all black outfit they are usually forced to wear. 

Icheoku does not know about these women but if Icheoku were to be similarly situated, it would have been an immediate Usain Bolt out of the kingdom or a total exit from this planet earth if earth's boundaries are as circumscribed by the drawn map of Saudi Arabia. Why begin the hell experience so early while still here on earth, since it is an assured destination for more than 99.9% of human beings anyway, one may ask? Icheoku surmises that it is a factor of these women being brain-washed and brain-dead  not to know that the ultimate goal of these religious mullahs is to keep them controllable and under control. An objective these mullahs readily achieve by meting the ultimate brutality on these women, including separating their heads from their shoulders as well as stoning or chopping off of body parts, just to make their statement and make it loud and clear. So with maximum fear instilled in these Saudi Arabia women, it becomes very easy for those domineering chauvinistic Saudi Arabian males to have their way. 

Icheoku says the worst of this this situation is that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with such high human rights violations and punishing brutality on their citizens, still enjoys a very cozy relationship with America and the rest of the West, leaving many critics pondering what manner of double standards this indeed really is. But hey, those women should wake up and smell the coffee that  lean freedom is better than fat slavery; and all those things they are festooned with are merely used to purchase their docility and do something to free themselves from this slavish bondage. How can any human being live like caged animals with no freedoms in this 21st century app-world?

FIRM UP THE NAIRA, TAX DOMICILIARY ACCOUNTS AT 50%.

Icheoku says the problem of Nigeria is not necessarily corruption because the c-word is a universally general application word and a phenomenon not peculiar to Nigeria. The problem of Nigeria is lack of love for country and country men and women; and as rightly articulated by President Muhammadu Buhari just recently, the country is everyone for him or herself and God for all. A kind of wild wild West of yore one would argue. Icheoku says that some level of corruption and even criminality are unavoidably tolerable in so many countries and would have similarly been okay in Nigeria. But the problem is that these Nigerian culprits, particularly those who are looting the country dry,  instead of investing their loot back in the country's economy towards creating jobs for the teeming jobless youths of Nigeria, take their loot and stash them overseas. 

They put their loot in foreign bank accounts where such provide cheap money for those host countries' economies; while their country of origin wallows in abject need and want. Icheoku recalls that back in historical times, Britain used to confer knighthood on their countrymen pirates who hijacked and brought home ships laden with goods and merchandise from the high seas. Ditto was America's wild wild West forged with sheer banditry and common valor. But with Nigerians, they think less about what they can do for their country or its men and women; hence all that they steal from the country, they embark on capital flight to nest for themselves and their families and generations yet unborn. Then their next move becomes to oppress their country men and women who fail to yield to their excesses or bow and tremble before them. Imagine a scenario where the over $150billion traceable deposits of Nigerians in foreign banks are reinvested in Nigeria, there could easily have been hundreds of Dangotes employing hundreds of thousands of Nigerians and who will still be calculating unemployment rate in Nigeria at over 57 percentile?

Now the trend of domiciliary accounts has caught fire in the country and with it a drain on scarce foreign currencies, leaving people who actually need these foreign currencies stranded with nothing or very little and definitely less than would satisfy their immediate needs. Foreign currencies stashed up in private domiciliary accounts with merchants needing them to pay for their imports and other foreign business transactions left holding the plate in their quest to meet their obligations to pay for their merchandise. Icheoku says how could a people hoard currencies they don't need to use immediately when the United States mint as well as other foreign countries' mints have not gone out of business of printing their currencies nor are they planning to shut down their operations? Why would a people just keep things for keeping sake and not realize that such primitive thinking is hurting the overall economy of their country; except that they do not of course see Nigeria as their country but merely the cash-cow that provides perpetual milk for them to milk till death, without any remorse or contrition whatsoever. 

The bad news is that regardless of the amount one has in his or her domiciliary account, a country like the United States of America lets you into their country with just up to $10,000 and nothing more. So why then will these hoarders not allow those who really need these foreign currencies to share in their pile by lifting their hold on them? Imagine a situation where over $1billion is currently held in private domiciliary accounts in Nigeria while the exchange rate of the dollar for example is going up through the roof with many merchants unable to fund or finance their overseas businesses. Pilgrimage-makers, students, holiday-makers as well as tourists are finding it difficult to source reasonably priced funds to pay their passage, while this amount of dollars (one billion) are stashed up in bank vaults and held over as domiciliary deposits. 

Icheoku says there is really no need for any individual hoarding foreign currencies in domiciliary accounts when they are needed to pay for imports and other foreign currency based transactions. There is no country in the world where such is tolerated except in Nigeria where people with primitive mentality like to hoard everything, including what they do not immediately need. Nigeria's currency is the Naira and all monetary deposits in Nigeria should therefore be in Naira. Anyone needing to travel or transact any foreign business requiring foreign currency should be able to just walk into a bank and purchase what he or she needs but never be allowed to hoard any excesses whatsoever. Icheoku says that hoarding foreign currencies in domiciliary accounts is not the way to go and should therefore be discouraged forthwith and seriously frowned at with drastic deterrents put in place.  

Icheoku says the solution is for the government to dis-incentivize this hoarding by making it unprofitable to hold dollars or any other foreign currency when one doesn't really need them. The government should henceforth tax such deposits at 50% to discourage people who just like to hold unto stuff just because they can and wants to; and not necessarily because they have a need for their immediate use. That way, anyone needing foreign currency can simply walk into the bank and purchase what he needs while the excess is left for those other Nigerians who need some too. Alternatively, the government should establish a maximum deposit ceiling of $20,000 for each individual, regardless of means and anything else above that should be taxed at 75% or declared illegal. 

Icheoku says it is only in Nigeria that such dual currency accounts deposits are largely tolerated even to the detriment of the overall economy of the country. Icheoku therefore calls on President Muhammadu Buhari to tear down those domiciliary accounts and flush out funds held therein into the open market to help boost foreign exchange supply needs of the country and peradventure, also help firm up the Naira. Such a move will generally be in the overall interest of the economic well-being of the country. It will also greatly help in bringing down the ever skyrocketing value of the dollar to a more tolerable rate against the Naira and thus make the Naira more valuable once again. Icheoku says to Nigerians to say no to foreign currency hoarding, say no to domiciliary accounts.

'BRING BACK THEIR GIRLS', WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

Icheoku says it appears that the ugly Oby Ezekwesili had made a calculated decision to rein in her motley crew and stop them from marching again as a trade off for her expected slot in the September unveiling of President Muhammadu Buhari cabinet ministers? If this is the case, does it then mean that she never had conviction with her protestation since the Chibok girls are still missing and that she merely carried out her activities just to sabotage the erstwhile President Jonathan's chances at a reelection? Hence, once they succeeded in achieving their objective, mission accomplished President Jonathan's ouster, suddenly the Chibok girls are no longer missing nor kidnapped and/or their cause is no longer of any paramount importance to continue to keep them in the fore-burners? So, where is the ugly duckling Oby Ezekwesili now and what has become of her rabble rousing, menopausal, wild-eyed feminists, who were previously pounding the pavements in Nigeria, protesting the failure to rescue some kidnapped school girls from Chibok? 

Although they paid a courtesy visit to Aso Rock early in July, following so much lull and public outcry, but it seems they have once again simply melted away. Icheoku asks what has become of these anarchists and why have they stopped marching since the Chibok girls have not yet been rescued or was there no Chibok girls to be rescued in the first place? Icheoku has always maintained that the Chibok girls drama was a mere calculated ruse used as part of the script in flushing out the man from Otuoke from Aso Rock. Now with a new president Muhammadu Buhari in Aso Rock and three months down the road, no one is seriously talking any longer about some kidnapped Chibok girls; including Oby Ezekwesili and her band of rabid females who have equally since stopped marching in this regard? Icheoku asks what is going on and happening with the Chibok girls saga and who is fooling who in Nigeria; a matter not help because the level of gullibility usually exhibited by Nigerians in issues of this nature is indeed very high. 

With the visit to Aso Rock, the 'Bring Back Their Girls' motley crew seems to have adopted a different approach to "Bringing Back their girls?" Instead of their usual rowdy protestations, these hired guns have now chosen to dialogue with the government instead, a courtesy they never extended to the former President Jonathan of Otuoke and if they did, was never in this respectful manner with which they approached the new sheriff in town, the man from Daura. A sort of change of modus operandi in their operational tactic, one would say. It was no longer business as usual with their usual streets-creed themed rowdy protestations. Instead they made a more dignified b-line to Aso Rock where they were warmly received in audience by one of their mentors and the beneficiary-in-chief of their crass activism, President Muhammadu Buhari. Although Icheoku has nothing against their latest change in strategic thinking, to dialogue with the president instead of raising hell on the streets of Nigeria, but says if only they extended the same courtesy to the former President Goodluck Jonathan, whom they helped hound out of office. Anyway, what is done is done as the man from Otuoke has since scurried back to his native Bayelsa State, but let us hope that Ms Oby Ezekwesili will keep faith and continue her marching until those Chibok Girls regain their freedom; assuming there were any Chibok Girls that were kidnapped in the first place to begin with. 

It is also noteworthy that over sixty days have passed since the "Bring Back their Girls" supported party, APC, won the presidency and were sworn into office; yet those Chibok girls which they are "bringing back" have not been brought back? Those Chibokans are still in their kidnappers' mercy and custody, neither located nor rescued, thus leaving Icheoku and millions of other thinking Nigerians wondering, what's going on really? Why has Oby Ezekwesili and her band of agitators lowered the heat of their agitation with those Chibok girls still out there and yet to be rescued? Why have they tempered their protestations and bomb-throwing fiery speeches or is the rescue of those girls from Chibok no longer as important today as they were during the dying days of President Jonathan's presidency? Is this another vindication of former maximum ruler Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, who once asserted that every Nigeria but the late Gani Fawehimni has a price and once you make them an offer they cannot refuse, they will bite?  So could the information that Oby Ezekwesili has been wooed with a promise of a ministerial appointment in President Muhammadu Buhari's coming September cabinet and thus compromised her agitation for the rescue of those Chibok girls, indeed be true? 

Anyway, in the affairs of man, it is always what profits them most that usually counts and comes first; so Icheoku fully understands if and why the wind has suddenly been taken out of the sail of the 'Bring Back Their Girls' activism. This is a clear indication that Oby Ezekwesili desperately wants to secure a slot in President Muhammadu Buhari's cabinet and would bury her conscience in order to achieve that. Oby Ezekwesili also knows that the man from Daura, unlike the one from Otuoke,  does not care a hoot about what Oby Ezekwesili thinks; neither would he be moved by an Oby Ezekwesili organized and led bunch of meno-pausal feminists walking the streets of Nigeria, protesting the none rescue of some kidnapped Chibok school girls. On a hindsight, Icheoku says if only Jonathan of Otuoke had deployed the Okadigbo tear-gas on this 'Bring Back Their Girls' activists when it would have mattered most, possibly he would be enjoying his second term now. But hey, what is done is done and in some cases cannot be undone as was the Jonathan's planned second term which suffered a miscarriage and was aborted. So from Icheoku to Oby Ezekwesili and crew, until the Chibok girls are rescued, Nigerians will not accept anything less from you. So start marching again and start shouting more loudly until those girls from Chibok regain their freedom. Just make sure to pressure President Muhammadu Buhari to 'Bring Back those Your Girls' the same way you pressured Jonathan of Otuoke, as anything short of their release will be unacceptable to Nigerians.  

CHRISTOPHER DUNTSCH'S SURGICAL HANDS, A DEALY WEAPON - PROSECUTOR?

"His hands amounted to a "deadly weapon" because he used them to improperly insert medical devices and screws into patients meant to alleviate nerve and other pain. He operated on the wrong part of a patient's spine, damaged nerves and left one woman with chronic pain and dependent on a wheelchair. He also left a sponge in another patient following surgery." He is therefore guilty of using 'deadly weapons' in the commission of the offense of murder of his two patients - Prosecutor. 

Icheoku says a very creative charge indeed that the hands  of neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch now amount to  deadly weapons? Lets hope too that they will be equally introduced in evidence as exhibits during trial. Indeed a very interesting development in criminal prosecution.