ASO ROCK PARADISE LOST, JONATHAN'S MAN IN THE MIRROR MOMENT OF TRUTH?

Icheoku says today is the last day of the year 2015, a momentous year in Nigeria's checkered history which saw former President Goodluck Ebelesiemie Jonathan lose his second term bid and with it, lost power and keys to Aso Rock. What a better way to commemorate this than to revisit the last five years of his presidency and take stock of what actually went wrong that drove him out of Aso Rock and out of power. As far as Icheoku's school of political thinking is concerned, President Muhammadu Buhari did not win the last election; rather, former President Goodluck Ebelesiemie Jonathan lost it and a very long time ago; he totally blew it and to smithereens. 

Hopefully the erstwhile president has had time to reflect on what took him out of Aso Rock. It might also do the former president one heck of a good, during his reflection, to take a look in a mirror and see the image starring right back at him. That image, the man in the mirror, often in a fedora hat and drab native attire, is actually what went wrong with his presidency and what indeed did him in. Icheoku is emphatic that Jonathan Goodluck shot himself on the foot and then limped out of Aso Rock and out of power. No other person was responsible for the fate that befell him, his losing the keys to Aso Rock. His injury was self inflicted and in a literary sense, he committed political harakiri and self-immolated out of power. The good in his luck ran out early and turned into bad, from which he never recovered his mojo and became known sarcastically as President 'Badluck' Jonathan.

Some people would ask why is Icheoku re-opening this old wound and why not let matters lie? In response, Icheoku says it is to provide and preserve materials for historians  future researchers and students of political science, who might be interested in studying the Jonathan presidency and what eventually torpedoed it. A presidency which started with all the fanfare and great expectations that chaperoned its coming into being, only to summarily flounder out, crashed and burnt. So without prejudice, Icheoku says no other person or thing, including aggregated global conspiracies, played any more vital role in the toppling of the former president from power than the former president himself. He was his own worst nightmare, his own worst nemesis, his own worst enemy, the self-villain who personally drove the dagger of defeat into his presidential vein and carotid artery and he bled out of Aso Rock and out of power. 

The 2015 presidential election was not lost by Jonathan on March 29th, 2015; admitted that was when the dirge of his presidency was formally sang by the greater Nigerian populace. The election was lost a very long time ago, upon his being sworn into office for the very first time, when he lost complete grip of his presidency and was merely hanging in, coasting on a life support until March 29, 2015. His inability to correctly assess the situation and understand that the politics of running for a second term in office begins on the day a president is sworn in for his first term, undid his presidency. He took some early wobbly steps and faltered; and never fully recovered nor regained his balance until he stumbled out of Aso Rock and out of power. The former president made so many early mistakes in his presidency from which he never fully recovered until March 28, 2015 when majority of Nigerian voters, dejected and disappointed with his promised breath of fresh air which turned putrid, kicked him out of Aso Rock and out of power. 

President Jonathan Goodluck failed to cleverly tailor his policies and their implementations towards securing his second term. The president forgot that it is usually only after a second term's election is won, that a smart president goes into overdrive; and actually starts pursuing those things dearest to his heart, as well as rubbishing those who made him mad as well as burning those bridges he walked on to the presidency, if need be. But a novitiate first termer President Jonathan, did not know any better, so he prematurely went frontal and he paid dearly for this mistake, hounded and bundled out of Aso Rock and out of power by the same people who put him there in the first place. A president who was bequeathed with so much goodwill and who was heralded into office as the the best thing to ever happen to Nigeria's leadership firmament, because of his supposed youth, education and energy, but disappointingly failed to provide the leadership expected of him by a very  restive nation. His political naiveté and lack of understanding of how to wield the instrument of power saw him surrender his presidency to forces that eventually hogtied him and threw him out of the presidency. 

Icheoku is emphatic that the former president should not look anywhere for any other responsible party but the mirror in his bathroom, where he shall see the culprit of his failed presidency starring back at him. The late King of Pop Michael Jackson, in his song aptly titled "Man in the mirror", reminded the world that usually the guilty party for our misfortunes, which we are always busy looking for elsewhere, are usually found in the image that stare back at us in the mirror. Icheoku asks how could the former president so easily throw away such a powerful and all-important position as the presidency of a country? Only that he did not suffer nor toiled hard enough to secure it, hence the lackadaisical attitude and aloofness which he brought to bear to it. The proverbial come easy, go easy effect, that is? Thus being of a minimized value to him, he could care less if it was lost or taken away from him by the same token with which he got it - easy and cheap. A presidency which was handed to him on a platter of gold through the contrivance of Olusegun Obasanjo, hence he did not value nor appreciate what it actually takes to secure a presidency of a country. It is also apparent that he did not desire it that passionately enough as to want to seriously fight to keep it or even die, trying. 

President Jonathan is weakness personified. His overbearing wife Dame Patience showed Nigerians this much and his benefactor/s also based their decision to make him president on this assumed deficiency of his. They figured they could easily control and tele-guide his presidency because he is a weak personality that could be shoved around very easily.  Unfortunately, he did not disappoint his critics nor did he disprove this perception of him as he fiddled, dithered and differed to everybody and anyone who shouted at his presidency. Ironically, the same tragic weakness of his saw him shoved him out of Aso Rock and out of power without even much of a pushback or a fight. APC threatened thunder and brimstone, Jonathan  quivered. Then candidate Muhammadu Buhari rattled his saber, Jonathan hid in the closet, whimpering. Americans made series of threats and Jonathan scampered away and into oblivion, too afraid for his own personal safety, to venture out, respond or react. Olusegun Obasanjo fired so many salvos across his bow and Jonathan trembled and fidgeted. Then followed by Bola Tinubu, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, Oby Ezekwesili, Nasir el-Rufai, Nyako, Kwankwaso and even Rotimi Amaechi? Almost everyone in the country turned him into their favorite pastime punching bag and he merely stood there, took it severally on the chin; leading to the final conspiracy that swept him away and out of power and sent his presidency into the archives. 

Icheoku says any other courageous leader would have put up a fierce resistance to the effort to topple his presidency and audaciously fight off his attackers in order to defend his staked second term bid. But not the weakling Jonathan, who turned tail and so easily surrendered his presidency, which according to his sorry narrative was in order for there to be peace in the land. Icheoku asks what kind of bullcrap peace was he talking about and why must this supposed peace be ONLY at the back of his presidency or the emasculation of the South? Icheoku asks did President Jonathan not understand that anything worth having, including power, is equally worth fighting for and even dying for if it need be? That if one cannot die for a cause, that there is no need of professing that cause in the first place? Power which so many people have died for, trying to secure, throughout the world, including MKO Abiola in Nigeria; and which the late Obafemi Awolowo once literally begged to be allowed to hold for just twenty four hours? But with Jonathan, it was a come easy, go easy affair; otherwise whoever so easily unseats an incumbent president, especially in Africa? Or may be it was as some analysts opined, that the former president has had enough and wanted out; the reason he summarily accepted defeat, conceded the election and scurried away out of Aso Rock?

Although known Buharists and all those invested interests in the ouster of the former president would want everyone to believe that their candidate indeed truly won the election. But Icheoku as well as other impartial observers are emphatic that the former president merely conceded the election in the interest of peace. Otherwise, so many recorded blatant irregularities in the election could have provided enough grounds to cancel the election. A blatancy which saw over 700,000 underage almajiris vote in the election; then add the 100% voting record in Kano State and the over 500,000 already recorded votes in favor of the PDP which magically switched parties to APC in Bauchi State. Then add the unprecedented direct foreign intervention in a purely internal affairs matter of Nigeria. All or any of these would have seen a courageous president either cancel the election result or defiantly refuse to yield his grounds, followed by a total clamp-down of the opposition. But not the former president who rather opted to concede the election than fight the fallout war. Were Icheoku the former president, Nigeria would still be up in flames today rather than accept the travesty that took place in that election; admitted Icheoku would not have traveled the same uninspiring road to political perdition which Jonathan traversed to get to March 29, 2015. 

From day one of his presidency, the former president was  knee-jerk, very squirmish, skittish, indecisive, fidgety, wish-washy and seemingly too reluctant or rather afraid to use the powers vested in his office. Nigerians, sensing his vulnerability, obliged him and took away his authority. He lost his grip on power and with it, lost the respect of Nigerians as well as the international community and this made it so easy to plot his downfall. Jonathan became an over-exposed president, whose underbelly was an easy target for those men and women in long knives and they drove their steely weapon right through him and twisted same without mercy. 

Icheoku says leadership is not just about distributing political largess and conferring patronages and benefits on favored persons and causes. No, it entails leading the people, pointing the direction forward for them to follow; motivating them into doing big things; inspiring them to go for all that are possible; urging and cajoling the best out of them; instilling hope in them of a better and brighter future ahead; encouraging and assuring them that all is not lost. But when a president chickens out of or shirks away from this primary responsibility to provide leadership to the people or gingerly holds power or shows crass weakness, fear and timidity, the people become confused and like sheep without a Shepard, things barrel down hill from there. This attitude was what unraveled Jonathan's presidency and he never recovered nor broke the free fall until he freely-fell out of Aso Rock and out of power. 

The former president practically broke every canon rules of leadership known to man. A president or a leader must not exhibit weakness especially faced with adversities, but the former president did. A president or leader in order to effectively lead must either be respected or feared by those being led, but the former president was neither respected nor feared. A president or leader in order to succeed must be able to make the people to follow him or forcefully corral them if need be, but the former president did not succeed with either. A president or leader must establish without equivocation who is in charge of the political estate he presides over and must leave no one in doubt about his authority; but the former president also failed in this department as he did not decisively let Nigerians know that before him there was no other person who stood with a comparable or superior authority. The former president allowed so many people to run wild in the land, some competing with him and putting up appearances as if they were co-presidents or even superior to his  presidency, including Olusegun Obasanjo.

Icheoku says President Jonathan lost his second term reelection bid the day he lost grip over the Nigerian polity. The very day he lamented that he is neither an army general nor a despot and could therefore not tell Nigerians how to behave? What manner of a leader would so hopeless confess his shortcomings and to a restless polity that is always looking for a way to cut corners, run rings around their leaders and undermine any given authority. They latched on this confessed weakness and they sat on the former president until they turned him inside out and out of Aso Rock. 

Icheoku says the former president lost his second term reelection bid the day he declared that he gets so many conflicting advises that he is confused about which one to take as the best for the country? It appeared the president forgot that his number one job as president is to figure out the road map out of the wood and how to navigate through the many advises he gets in order to get to the desired destination. He forgot that his advisers are there to merely give him "so many advises", from which he will and is expected to then choose which advise is best for the country. He forgot that his advisers were not elected by Nigerians but are merely advisers, his aides; who are there to help him travel through the maze of governance, but not to do the traveling themselves. Icheoku says such a big gaffe showed that he lacked the wisdom of governance and this got him heavily reduced in the eyes of Nigerians. 

The former president once told Nigerians that they are members of his cabinet who belong to Boko Haram. Nigerians waited in vain to see these Boko Haram members in his cabinet publicly named and flushed out of his government. But it never happened; leaving many Nigerians wondering who is actually in charge of his presidency - the members of Boko Haram in his government or those fighting the scourge of Boko Haram including the president himself. It created a heavy mistrust and suspicion among his cabinet members. It further diminished the president in the eyes of Nigerians as a president who is not in charge of his own presidency and who is also incapable of firing Boko Haram members in his own cabinet. 

The former president also once declared that he 'does not give a damn' about not declaring his assets. Icheoku wonders which astute political leader will so carelessly mouth-off his feeling of not being responsible and accountable to the people who put him in office? This abject display of lack of understanding of how to maintain and sustain the Nigerian public's loyalty did the former president in. A much smarter president, well seasoned in the art of speaking, would have couched the response in much better way as not to create the willful indifference his response created - not to give a damn about what his electorates are thinking concerning his assets declaration. What a snub of an expected president he became thereafter and it came to haunt the former president and he paid dearly for it. 

Icheoku says the former president lost his second term bid the day he declared state of emergencies in some Northeastern states and still left their governors in place. These were governors whose inability to provide and maintain security in their states led to the state of insecurity that triggered the declaration of state of emergencies, yet they were left in place. The former president had precedents of state of emergencies in Ekiti and Plateau states by former President Olusegun Obasanjo which he could have easily followed, but he choose not and did not. The worst of it, these governors later ganged up against him, accused him of incompetence and inability to rout the scourge of Boko Haram. Needless to add that one of them, Taraba State former Governor Muritala Nyako went as far as accusing the former president of committing genocide against his Hausa/Fulani people in the guise of fighting Boko Haram.

Icheoku says by not allowing former PDP chairman Vincent Ogbulafor to be jailed and also not timely firing former Aviation Minister Stella Oduah for corruption, the former president telegraphed to Nigerians and the world that he condones corruption and/or that he was too afraid to take decisive action against certain people. He became mortally damaged as Mister Corruption incarnate or its condoner in chief, who looks the other way while his lieutenants ran amok with corruption and it hounded him out of office. Icheoku says this catapulted the allegation of corruption against him especially by Olusegun Obasanjo to a totally new heights from which the president fell and crashed out of Aso Rock and out of power. Recall that APC's war cry during the last election was corruption, corruption and more corruption, in their campaign against the former president.

The former president lost his second term bid the day he fired former Power Minister Barth Nnaji, the only minister then who had a road map towards solving Nigeria's intractable power problem. The minister had a blueprint to getting Nigerians the much needed power and was meticulously following it to detail and Nigerians were beginning to see the result. Suddenly, the former president caved under unparalleled pressure by generators mafia of Nigeria, whose business thrives in keeping power supply in the country very epileptic so that they can continue to manufacture and sell more generators in the Nigerian market. Jonathan let go this performing minister, based on a very flimsy incident that could ordinarily have been ameliorated by rejecting his alleged bid for a DISCO without the need for sacking him. 

Icheoku maintains that the president lost his second term bid the day he allowed the existence of a de-facto president in Nigeria. A pseudo president, named Olusegun Obasanjo, freely pranced around the country, caused so much headache for the president without any repercussion or consequence whatsoever; to the point of outright sabotage of the president's agenda and government, yet the former president was awestruck with inaction. Obasanjo, in addition, wrote a very derogatory, damaging and defamatory letter against the former president, accusing him of everything including intent to commit "murder", yet President Jonathan did not react.  Icheoku says a courageous president would have had Obasanjo invited by security agents to establish his allegation, failing which, he will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law for defamation and attempting to raise insurrection in the land. But when Nigerians waited and awaited to see the former president react and react decisively to the accusation of raising a killer sniper squad to hunt down Nigerians, but nothing came from his Aso Rock stables, they concluded that Obasanjo's allegation was probably true and they started viewing their president suspiciously. This is when his second term bid was lost.

Obasanjo continued his disparaging of the president while the president looked the other way, tremblingly and showing unparalleled weakness and cowardice to go after him. Obasanjo continued his insult and confrontations, while the president shivered in one corner of Aso Rock, acting like he does not have the necessary authority nor possess the full weight of the presidency of the country to decisively curtail such excessive affronts. Obasanjo was literally sabotaging the former president's government, holding press conferences, interviews, press releases, holding nocturnal meetings, conspiring and encouraging open rebellion against the president and his government, including encouraging the renegade seven PDP governors to rebel against the president, yet the former president lifted no finger? Obasanjo had so much free range in the country that Nigerians were wondering who actually was in charge of affairs in Nigeria; and which of the rocks really mattered - Aso Rock or Abeokuta Hilltop Rock? A situation which subliminally telegraphed to Nigerians and the world at large that there were two presidents, simultaneously presiding over affairs in Nigeria, an indicator of a very weak presidency and he lost his second term bid as a result? Icheoku says this was when former President Goodluck Jonathan's second term presidency's dream turned into a nightmare,  a very long time ago before March 29, 2015. 

Icheoku says if only the former president had read with great understanding the two vital books of power - the Bible and The Prince by Machiavelli, may be he would have easily coasted to a second term victory, rather than the resounding defeat which he suffered in the last election. A defeat which saw him lose by a net votes of 9 million and you ask yourself how could this ever be possible? A president who previously defeated the same presidential candidate Muhammadu Buhari just 48 months earlier in 2011 with over 7 million votes, only to now lose to the same guy with about 2 million votes; which amounts to a total net loss of 9 million aggregate loss. Really, where does such ever happen; a war-chest of over 23 billion Naira budgeted and cash in hand with which to prosecute the election coupled with the power of the incumbency and the former president still lost the election?  Icheoku lambastes that only an incompetent political nymph would so easily trail off into the night and into political perdition.

Icheoku says President Jonathan lost his second term bid by severally tipping over to threats and demands of so many Nigerians. The day he cowered and bowed to Muhammadu Buhari's threatening demand for the immediate release of a detained Mallam el-Rufai, who was returning from one of his usual covert overseas trip to London on July 3, 2011 and released him, was the day the timid former president lost his reelection. The former president lost his second term election bid the day he released Major Mustapha from prison without getting any mileage from it; especially from then Kano State Governor Kwankwaso as a quid pro quod for releasing the Sani Abacha's killer CSO. Icheoku says President Jonathan lost his second term bid the day he fired IGP Ogbonna Onovo just six months into office and without any cause and did not allow him time to implement his planned reform of the Nigerian Police Force just because former Senate President David Mark did not like the IGP. The IGP was fired for allegedly not tackling insecurity in the country fast enough and just within only six months of his appointment. Nigerians now know better as insecurity increased triple-fold since Onovo's departure yet subsequent IGPs stayed put, regardless? 

Icheoku says the former president lost his bid for a second term the day he fired INEC's Maurice Iwu and replaced him with his now proven nemesis Attahiru Jega. The president lost his reelection bid the day he allowed then CBN governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi to function as a parallel chief executive officer of Nigeria, with unbridled power to disburse Nigeria's commonwealth as he saw fit; without being dismissed, arrested, indicted and imprisoned for fraud. It is on record that Sanusi as CBN governor, disbursed over 500 billion Naira of Nigeria's money to mainly his Islamic causes, including doling out 500 million Naira to his Kano State government as disaster relief without first seeking and obtaining approval from Aso Rock. A payout which many observed was a bribery down payment for his later being made the Emir of Kano? Icheoku says the former president slept on his watch as Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi freely walked all over him, disparaging the president and eventually purchased the Emirship of Kano. He was later crowned Emir of Kano, without the former president going to the ends of the earth to stop him or force him into exile or even out of this planet if need be. Icheoku laments that was when the former president's reelection bid was lost and not necessarily on March 29, 2015, a mere formality date. 

Icheoku says the president lost his second term bid the day he fired Festus Odimegwu from the National Population Commission just because Governor Kwankwaso made him do it, without first securing a quid pro quod concession from the rambunctious governor. It is on record that the former governor immediately thereafter branded the former president as being very weak, incompetent and not fit for the office of the president. Icheoku says the president lost his second term bid the day he fired Ihejirika as the army chief just because Governor Murtiala Nyako pushed for that. Recall that Ihejirika was on the verge of crushing Boko Haram insurgents when he was fired by former president Goodluck Jonathan and the rest is now history. The president lost his second term bid the day he begged Aliyu Gusau to please accept a defense minister's appointment. Icheoku asks how can any right thinking president beg anyone to accept a ministerial appointment in a country of over 170 million people; and even visited his house to further beg him, as if his life or the life of his presidency depended on Gusau saying yes and agreeing to  serve as a minister of defense? 

The former president lost his second term bid the day he allowed two brothers inlaws - Gusau and Dasuki, to hold two key security positions of defense and National Security Adviser in a multi diversified country like Nigeria.  The day the former president allowed all security chiefs positions in Nigeria to be concentrated in just one region - the police IG, the NSA, the defense minister, internal affairs boss, the customs chief as well as the INEC chairman, all occupied by Northerners was the day he lost his reelection bid. The former president was fighting for his second term presidency life with Muhammadu Buhari, a Hausa/Fulani from the Northwest and all his security chiefs are Hausa/Fulani from the same Northwest? This makes Icheoku wonder whether the former president's advisers were all Hausa/Fulani from the Northwest or who was rather advising the former president, not to advert his mind on where these peoples, especially the election chief umpire's loyalty will be pitched? 

Then to further nail his coffin completely shut, the former president who fell out of favor with his political godfather Olusegun Obasanjo, went ahead to appoint Obasanjo's closest confidant, Ahmadu Ali, another Hausa/Fulani Northerner, as his own reelection campaign organization director general. Why not instead put someone with a real axe to grind with either Buhari or Obasanjo or Tinubu in charge of his  reelection effort? Why not put someone who will put his all in his reelection bid instead of a man who had nothing to lose, either way? Why not even put Dalhatu Sarki Tafida, who got him first elected in 2011 in charge of his  reelection bid? If the former president refused and did not replace his vice president Sambo Namadi as demanded by Obasanjo as a condition for his support, because of loyalty according to the former president, why did he then replace Tafida as his campaign director general? It is unimaginable and an unmitigated politicking disaster that the former president was going into an election battle with a Hausa/Fulani Northerner, yet all his supposed confidants and lieutenants were all from the same Hausa/Fulani Northern stock? Did the former president not consider where their hearts and loyalty will be primarily - to one of their own kindred, of course. Yet the unthinking political novitiate former president, hopelessly believed in their allegiance to PDP and to him, forgetting that blood is thicker than water. That to the Hausa/Fulani North, a Northerner is a Northerner and comes first irrespective of political party affiliation or who appointed them to office and on whose pleasure they served. 

Icheoku says the ominous signs were all over the place that the former president was possibly not even going to make it through his first term, talkless of securing a second term. The day he stopped listening to then NSA Patrick Aziza and allowed his detractors to kill him alongside then Kaduna State's Governor Patrick Yakowa in a rigged plane crash, was the day he lost his second term bid? Like Aguiyi Ironsi, President Jonathan surrounded himself with people who are not his own kind and who did not care much about securing his interest and they left him high to dry when it mattered most. His presidency was a sordid lesson on how not to be on the seat of power, day-dreaming and drifting away in la-la land of political obscurity. Icheoku asks who did former President Jonathan hope would get his back when he so skewed up all security apparatus in the country and left them only in the hands of the same people who want their power back at all cost and by any and all means necessary? 

The former president showed weakness, he showed cowardice and he was neither respected nor feared, hence the sudden eruption of the society against him. He made himself a mouse and the Nigerians cats ate him for dinner, devoured by hungry and opportunists political wolves perambulating all over the country. This perceived weakness led to Aminu Tambuwal hijacking the speakership of the House without approval of the presidency and contrary to PDP's allocations of political offices.  A matter made worse when the former speaker left the PDP and decamped to APC, still holding unto his speakership. Then there was the Chibok Girls concocted abduction and the 'Bring Back their Girls' motley crew which took the president unawares. Icheoku says the former president lost his second term bid the day he made a deal with the devil in order to win his first term presidency in 2011, by conceding the entire Southwest states to Bola Tinubu's AC; the eventual springboard used for his ouster. A smarter political tactician would have either conceded Lagos with one other state or all other states excluding Lagos to Tinubu in order to still have a solid anchor in the Southwest. But not the novitiate politician who did not know any better or who was rather too arrogant or so foolish  not to articulate and anticipate then, a clear path to his reelection victory in 2015. 

That the former president has an overbearing wife, Dame Patience, who made more enemies for him than friends, also did not help matters either. The president found himself marooned and not in a decisive control of the country; not any of the six geographical regions or the governors forum nor even his own party machinery. A disruptive governors forum with his South-south region's Governor Rotimi Amaechi's became very disrespectful and confrontational and the president was powerless to depose him, when a precedent was there to follow in former Governor Ngige of Anambra State as well as the banana peels of the Senate. 

The president did not also make any friend internationally to help protect his presidency  and periodically chip a word or two on his behalf amongst the nations that do really matter. A more savvy president and astute political operator would have wooed a country like Russia and entice Putin into adopting him as his person and ask him to help him succeed and in turn pay whatever the cost. This lack of an international godfather made the former president an easy target for those Western conspirators, who wanted him out and for some reasons bordering on his anti-gay position to his re-assessing Nigeria's economy as the largest in Africa and then of course to the last straw that broke the camels back of his presidency, which made the West really so mad that they wanted him out at all cost and by all means, his purchasing of weapons from Russia. 

The president not being a poker player, lost the narrative that in poker games, you do not show your hands while still dealing. He naively informed the enemies of Nigeria, the retired army generals and oil well owners, that he is going to review their oil well contracts downwards when it becomes due for renewal early 2016 and they rallied round to abort his power to so do. The former president was also partial in some of his actions leading to Olusegun Obasanjo openly accusing him of nepotism and cronyism. He fired Immigration Controller General Rosemary Uzoma, simply because she promoted those who passed a promotional exam, who coincidentally happen to be mainly from her Southeast geographical area. But when the Custom boss Abdullah Dikko Inde from Katsina Northwest carried out a skewed promotion in the customs favoring only Northerners, the president looked the other way. 

A leader should either be loved, respected or feared; but never derided, ridiculed, looked down on or simply ignored as ineffective. His former minister of Information Ibrahim Maku walked away on him without any consequence. Five of his former ministers lost election bids to become governors under his watch, signs of the things to come. The president lost his second term bid the day he allowed then Governor Fashola to deport fellow Nigerians from Lagos without sending in Federal troops to enforce their constitutional right to call any part of Nigeria home and reside there unmolested. But the former president lacked fire in his belly and could not summon the courage to fight and win his reelection bid and with it, his second term dream went up in smoke. Then came the over 100 security agents who were slaughtered by Ombatse cult in Eggon Nassarawa State without any reprisal from his Federal government. According to his then director of SSS Ita Ekpenyong, the government has decided to leave everything in the hands of God and you ask yourself when did Nigeria become a theocracy?  These were husbands, brothers, fathers, sons, uncles and relatives of Nigerians who were on official duty for and on behold of the government and their brutal murders will not and was not avenged by the government? It was not as if the former president did not have precedents to follow in Odi, Zaki Ibiam and Gbaramatu; but Jonathn showed his weakness and Nigerians said not to forget and they did not forget on March 28, 2015. 

Icheoku maintains that the former president was too afraid for his life to effectively function as president and commander in chief. He treaded rather too cautiously, tremblingly swallowing every manner of disrespectful behavior and insults from virtually everybody. He literally never really had a firm hold on Nigeria and Nigerians. His timid aloofness helped with the gathering of the conspiracy storm which finally swept him out of office. The conspiracy assessed him and concluded that he is one easily smotherable fly that could be so easily swathed and squashed without any fight back or repercussion and they struck. Jonathan was the snake which did not act like a snake and the kids used it to tie their firewood, mistaking it for a rope or twine. This was Jonathan, a linguine-spined weakling, who sheepishly played into the hands of his traducers and could not bark nor bite and they came charging at him like African water buffaloes and stampeded him out of his second term bid, out of Aso Rock and out of power.  

Icheoku asks why must the North always have their way with their threats of violence, making the South look cowardly and without the spine to stand up to the ever feisty North? What happened to William Shakespeare's admonition that when two fires meet they extinguish the thing that fuels the fire; but that little wind encourages  fire. Why did Jonathan not draw a line in the sands this time so that Nigerians can once and for all determine how Nigeria moves forward thence. Who needs Nigeria more and why must it always be one section threatening the other and the other being the one always capitulating? Anyway what is done is done and while it is commendable of Jonathan to have taken this route out, Icheoku disagrees that the threat of the North should always be the decider of disputes in and about Nigeria.  

Should the former president have dropped vice president Sambo Namadi as demanded by Olusegun Obasanjo as a condition for supporting his second term bid? Should the president have fallen out with his godfather, the man who made him, Olusegun Obasanjo? If only he had advised himself properly that the "okra shrub never gets taller than its planter. Should Jonathan have listened and not even ran at all for second term, as many of the rebellious party governors and members demanded before they eventually decamped to APC? If the president knew that he does not have the stamina and determination to go all it out with Muhammadu Buhari, why did he not yield the presidential candidacy for a more fiery and formidable candidate to step in and run the necessary winning gamut? 

But regrettably all these are now mere Monday night quarterbacking, as nobody knew back then that the election will go the way it went. Why did the former president not forcefully react instead of the tepid response he gave to the Olusegun Obasanjo accusatory letter from hell, which accused him of all manner of things including raising an assassination killer squad? Why did the president not make an example out of those eminently corrupt Nigerians especially those of them in APC including Abubakar Atiku, Bola Tinubu, Bukola Saraki etc when the same people were taunting him and accusing him of being a corruption incarnate and his looking the other way while the thieves of state had a field day? Simply put, there are so many "WHYs" and unanswered questions about how the cookie of Jonathan's presidency crumbled and only Jonathan of Otuoke can indeed provide their answers. 

Concluding, Icheoku lays all the blame for the failed second term presidency squarely on the feet of former President Goodluck Jonathan; who is also equally solely responsible for the loss of power by the PDP. If he knew he was not brave and courageous enough to defend the PDP's hold unto power, why did he covert the PDP presidential ticket and refused to hold presidential primaries? Why did he commandeer the PDP presidential candidacy only to forfeit it and turn it over to the APC? Why did he not fight the fight of his life to retain a presidency which belonged to the PDP when it mattered most? Hopefully, following his extended long vacation out of Aso Rock, the former president will find time to sit down and put his thoughts on paper, a memoir of some sort, to help Nigerians and historians get a peep into his presidency and possibly a grasp at what went wrong with it. Until then, it is safe to conclude that former President Goodluck Jonathan is not a good role model on how to fight for a cause one truly believes in; leading to some Nigerian women now referring to their weakly husbands as Jonathan and also calling any sissy-girlie man, a Jonathan. It is an unforgivable case of where weakness was not a virtue otherwise which Mandigo-man wants to be so referred to as a Jonathan? Definitely not Icheoku and also not all those brave and courageous souls and worthy associates. So long President Jonathan and please hurry up with writing your memoirs.

N85 POST SUBSIDY FUEL PRICE, UNREALISTIC HOGWASH.

Icheoku says Nigerians have never been told a bigger fat white lie or rather Fulani lie as the promised pegging of price of premium motor spirit aka fuel (gasoline) to 85 Naira, following the forthcoming fuel subsidy removal. Subsidy presupposes the  paying part of a price or taking the edge off something in order to make it much easily affordable by the intended beneficiaries. So if subsidy is removed and this formerly prepaid portion is reinstated, requiring payment in full of purchase price, how then can this new price still be lower than what obtained when subsidy existed? Icheoku says if fuel could not be purchased at N85 with fuel subsidy in place, what kind of mathematical magic is the government planning to bring to bear, to simultaneously remove the subsidy and still peg the price to N85? 

Icheoku does not know about you but this math does not add up; except of course, Nigerians are being asked to just believe and the miracle will just work itself out? Only in the dreamland of Gulliver's Travelers' Island of Lilliputians would this pan out and pan out as promised - simplistic fantasy. This feat, if achieved, will make Nigeria the cheapest place on planet earth to purchase gasoline; and not even in Saudi Arabia, the oil well of the world, would gasoline then be retailed so low. Venezuela, another country whose citizens enjoy heavily subsidized gasoline, will be jealous with envy. So can someone in the know, who has a clue on how the government plans to achieve this, please shine more light on this abracadabra proposition, to enable Nigerians have a clearer understanding of what they are expecting in the new year when the subsidy finally goes south. 

A cursory check of gasoline (fuel) prices around the world, using data from Bloomberg Business Report analysis 2013, shows Nigeria ranked 55 out of 63 countries of the world where gasoline prices were cheapest in a survey. It is interesting to note that then gasoline was retailing in Nigeria at $2.34 per gallon on the average. So at plus minus N200 to a dollar, and at four liters (3.78541) to a gallon, it showed that gasoline then retailed at N468 per gallon or N117 per liter. At the same period the study was conducted, the most expensive gasoline country in the world was Turkey at $9.89 per a gallon; Norway $9.63; Italy $8.87; France $8.38; Hong Kong $8.15; UK $8.06; Ireland $8.05; Germany 7.96; Israel $7.67; Japan $6.70; Brazil $5.40; South Africa $5.06; India $5.00; China $4.74; US 4.56; Russia $3.47;  Nigeria $2.34; Iran $2.15; UAE $1.77; Egypt $1.14; Saudi Arabia $0.45cents and Venezuela $0.06cents. 

This was with subsidy still in place and now suddenly the Nigerian government of President Muhammadu Buhari, who equally doubles as the country's petroleum minister, is flying a kite that with fuel subsidy removed, the price of gasoline will still be as low as N85 per liter? So query if it was N117 per a liter when subsidy was in place, how could it possibly be brought down to N85 per liter when subsidy is removed? Icheoku is trying to do the math but regrettably so far, it does not seem to add up. A matter made worse with the plummeting world oil price currently hovering below forty dollars; which President Muhammadu Buhari during his campaign stomp speeches promised to stabilize back to its glorious days of optimum high prices? But unfortunately it has also turned out to be another dummy among the many of his unfulfilled campaign promises which he sold to Nigerians. 

For the purposes of this oped, we will peg global oil price at $40 dollars per barrel (42 gallons of crude oil). Now an optimally functioning refinery, with modern catalytic converter/breaker, can abstract 12 gallons of diesel fuel and 19 gallons of gasoline (PMS) and other byproducts such as bitumen, kerosene, 4 gallons of aviation fuel etc from just one barrel of crude oil. So at N340 per gallon, plus or minus N280 for diesel fuel, etc how profitable would operating a refinery in Nigeria be? If the government plans to import the refined products, who will bear the extra cost incurred in order to sell at N340 per gallon (N85 per liter  multiply by four).  Running and operating a refinery is cost intensive including overhead cost (salaries, allowances and benefits of staff both local and expatriate), cost of crude oil,  cost of power or its generation, cost of transportation of both crude and refined products, logistics, turnkey and turnaround maintenance; and of course necessary addictive to refining out the derivatives. 

So assuming a barrel of crude oil is purchased at $40 and to get it refined and take the product to the pump, another $25 was added, thus bringing the total cost to $65. At N250 per dollar that will be N16,250, just to get one barrel of crude oil to the Nigerian customers at the pump. Now retailing at N340 per a gallon, that will be N6,460 from 19 gallons of refined out gasoline (PMS, fuel); at N320 for diesel fuel, that will be N3840 from 12 gallons of refined out diesel fuel; give and take N100 for aviation or jet fuel bringing in another N1,600 from 4 gallons of it; then add bitumen and lubricants or heavy oil plus minus N1,000. So based on this estimates, a total of N12,900 is realizable from one barrel of crude oil which was brought to Nigerian consumers at a cost of N16,250? Query, from where does the government plan to amortize the differential of N3,350? Who pays for the deficit and how does it get written off? This is what the subsidy supposedly cushions and now what?

Icheoku is not a board certified oil industry expert nor a statistician, but using commonly available data, it is very easy to arrive at an empirical deduction that the promised N85 per a liter of gasoline will not see the light of the day. It is neither  feasible nor attainable; and will, like virtually all his other campaign promises, most likely see its sunset before its sun ever rises. It is virtually a mathematical impossibility but for which Icheoku will gladly apologize and rejoice alongside many other Nigerians, in the event it pans out. But hey, Icheoku can't wait for the magic-wand of the lean and mean Cassius of Daura to make gasoline readily available and much easily affordable by many Nigerians. But given that he has severally disappointed on so many other promises, excitedly looking forward to this one coming to fruition would be a sure way of inviting a heart-attack in the new year. So until then, Icheoku says to Nigerians to gird your loins as the climbing will be arduous and tortuous; and this is but the beginning of that onerous journey. But Nigerians were warned except that they did not heed the warning, so Sai Buhari; Sai four more years in 2019.

JONATHAN OF OTUOKE, TOO AFRAID TO CALL FOR NNAMDI KANU'S RELEASE.

Icheoku says on July 3, 2011, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai was arrested at Nnamdi Azikwe airport Abuja, returning from London where he had delivered a speech about  alleged fraud of the then President Goodluck Jonathan's government. Less than twenty four hours following his arrest, then CPC presidential candidate and now President Muhammadu Buhari issued a fierce warning to the president and demanded the immediate release of el-Rufai. The squirm and ever fidgeting Jonathan trembled and buckled under the weight of Buhari's threat and quiveringly, immediately released the mallam. According to the SSS, el-Rufai's act constituted a threat to national security and disturbance of public peace and inciting disorder and subverting the government. The SSS said "Nigeria belongs to all of us and no one should take laws into their hands as no one is above the law." 

But Buhari thundered that in a democracy issues must be resolved through the courts and not through the arbitrariness of just one man. That the main reason for el-Rufai's arrest was his disclosure that the government allocated N208 billion in the 2011 budget just to the office of the NSA alone. That free speech is a constitutional right and implies the obligation by the state to defend even those whose views are not congruent with it or the powers that be. In a statement signed by his spokesman, Yinka Odumakin, Muhammadu Buhari said "He condemns this brazen act of intimidation, harassment and flagrant violation of citizens right to free speech in a democratic atmosphere." Even Femi Fani Kayode quipped in that "those that speak out are not the ones to be worried about; that the president should stop "this display of shameless paranoia; that the president cannot silence dissent and opposition by brazen display of brute force and intimidation because when he do that, he only makes it grow; and finally that if it is el-Rufai today, who will it be tomorrow?'

This was a few short three years ago in 2011 and now in 2015, the two have traded positions, Muhammadu Buhari is now the president and Goodluck Jonathan is now a citizen. President Muhammad Buhari is the one now intimidating, harassing and flagrantly violating a citizen's right to free speech and in a supposedly democratic atmosphere.  Meanwhile Goodluck Jonathan is no where to be seen   now reminding President Muhammadu Buhari of his statement and position then, in the matter of Nnamdi Kanu? Icheoku says what is the problem here Jonathan of Otuoke, is it that you cannot man up and demand that President Muhammadu Buhari does not abuse a citizen's right to free speech in the matter of Nnamdi Kanu as he demanded of you in the then matter of el-Rufai? If Jonathan could sheepishly cave in to the threat of Muhammadu Buhari and released a man his SSS accused of inciting public unrest, why could Jonathan not demand that President Muhammadu Buhari equally cave in now and release a man whom the court granted unconditional bail?  

Conclusion, former President Goodluck Jonathan of Otuoke is a pinhead weakling who is timidly too afraid to be gutsy. Icheoku says he lost his presidency because of fear and now is on the edge of also losing his freedom because of fear. So Jonathan of Otuoke, Icheoku asks, when are you going to start being assertive in Nigeria and in the affairs of Nigeria? When are you going to start acting as a leader whom so many people look unto? When are you going to speak up and speak out in the matter of Nnamdi Kanu, who is being illegally detained by President Muhammadu Buhari in a democratic atmosphere? If Muhammadu Buhari could demand of you and secure the release of el-Rufai from you, why can't you do the same and demand and secure the release of Nnamdi Kanu from him too? Nigeria is supposedly in a democratic government and a president is refusing to obey courts' orders and release a person being illegally detained and Jonathan of Otuoke is quaking and shivering in a corner, maintaining deathly silence? What a huge joke, little wonder he was so easily swept out of the presidency and out of Aso Rock without ever breaking a sweat. 

PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI IS THE TROUBLE MAKER - ONUIGBO

I write with a heavy heart, on this Christmas day, as a result of what is going on under your leadership regarding the Biafra agitation and the leader of the IPOB (Indigenous people of Biafra), Mr. Nnamdi Kanu. Let me first say that I, as an Igbo person, supported your election and campaign passionately for it on social media, but I am now on neutral grounds, because of the way you are handling the cry for Biafra though I will always support any good strides you are making for the people of Nigeria.

1. Some of the reasons I supported you are: 1. Your wife said during a pre-election interview that you promised to lead by listening to the concerns of the people and doing what the people want. 

2. As a former soldier in the United States Army, I knew that the discipline you have as a retired general of Nigeria Army is what is needed to clean up the corruption that has long retarded the progress of Nigeria.

However, during your interview in the USA, I believe at the State Department  after your election you were asked a question about how you would handle the Niger Delta on amnesty and women issues, your answer was that and I quote, "constituents that gave me 97 percent votes cannot, in all honesty, be treated equally with constituents that gave me 5 percent." Both videos of your wife promise of your leadership and your admission of prejudicial treatment of people who did not vote for you is there on Youtube for anyone and the whole world to see.

Mr. President, the problem with this whole situation is that with the way you are currently treating the IPOB matter means that your wife has lied about you wanting to lead by listening and leading according to the needs of the people. Moreover, I, as your initial supporter, was very bewildered and embarrassed when I saw that video where you admitted that you would lead by preferential treatment of those who voted you into office. Those who voted you into office are majorly from your region, the north, as well as the Southwestern region.

Igbos were the ones that only gave you 5 percent vote because they did not trust that you would lead with integrity. And guess what you are doing now! You are proving them right. You are showing that their fears were valid. Mr. President, leadership requires that you must be fair to all and sundry no matter how you feel about them. You cannot lead with a vindictive spirit to get back at those who didn't want you to win. 

Just look at President Barak Obama for example. Barack Obama has and still suffer from a severe opposition of a great number of Americans who don't like him, but guess what, he still leads everyone with equal and fair treatment.

A leader that is temperamental enough to vilify a group of people because they did not vote for him is not yet a leader. A seasoned leader overcomes all negative emotions that tempts him to mistreat any section of people under his leadership. Otherwise, it is a dictatorship and not democracy. Also, remember that many Igbos and Yorubas, who did not want you to become the President, accused you of being a dictator, and I have to say that you are proving them right for holding Nnamdi Kanu hostage.

I must mention that I am not for or against Biafra. I am for peace and fairness for all. If it were within my power, I would lead my people, the Igbos, to focus on what they are good at and leave Politics to those who want it so bad. On the other hand, I have seen that my people are very unhappy in Nigeria and feel grossly marginalized. And since they have been bold enough to start a protest, they need to be heard and not ignored or shoved aside. They are human beings with feelings, values, and aspirations no matter how inconsequential anyone might see them.

So in that case, I support that there should be a referendum and due process to make a country of their own. Now there is a possibility that we may not get all the required vote to amend the Nigeria constitution; but in that case, we would have seen that due process was given and anyone that fights it would be called a trouble maker. Right now, the trouble maker is the leader that have imprisoned the leader of a group that wants to move on to a better world for themselves. YOU are the trouble maker, Mr. President! You can stop all this by releasing him and demanding for him to go through the right process.

I have written partially on this in the past and to your attention as well hoping that your social media crew would bring it to your attention, but I have not seen any meaningful or positive action taken towards this case. Some people have advised me that if the Igbos really want to secede, they would not have to go through you and others have educated me as well that all that is needed is for the IPOB to forward a motion for Referendum through the Nigeria National Assembly.

You might wonder why then am I writing to you if we knew what steps to take. I am writing to you because you are the President of a country in turmoil who has the power to quell the disaster that is brewing under you. The solution to put a stop to the agitation for Biafra is in your hands. All you have to do is take a leadership step by releasing Mr. Nnamdi Kanu and advising him and the group to begin the process of Referendum. If the motion holds, good, if the motion fails, then you have done your job as the President.

May I please remind you that the British, the Russians and the UN have wisely made suggestions for the immediate release of Nnamdi Kanu and for Nigeria to allow a Referendum to go through, but with all due respect, it all seems to have fallen on deaf ears. The only response I have seen from your office is a statement that NO GROUP WILL BE ALLOWED TO TEAR NIGERIA APART. Mr. President that is not a responsible statement in the midst of what is going on.

Nigeria has never really been one. There is a deeply ingrained spirit of tribalism in Nigeria that has infected the political and economic fabrics of the nation of which is one of the biggest reasons driving the Biafra agitation. Igbos feel totally marginalized and rightfully so. This situation is like a bad marriage where one partner is very unhappy and keeps wanting out of the relationship, and the other partner refuses to corporate because the relationship benefits them more.

Your energy will be better served fighting BokoHaram rather than fighting IPOB agitation that has a simple solution. And I must say that how you are handling this situation makes it look like all of a sudden Mr. Kanu has become more dangerous than BokoHaram that is still killing people actively in Nigeria when Mr. Kanu has not killed one person. When people protest for a cause, it is the responsibility of the leaders to address the issues surrounding that cause, not imprison the individuals. The cry for Biafra did not start today. It has been going on for ages that also led to the massacre of over one million Igbos around 1967. I am not a good student of history, so I will not pretend to go into it. But I am sure you know what I am talking about. 

I implore you to please listen to right conscience and make the judgment that will bring positive resolution to this case and prevent lives from being wasted over a civil war. You have the power to do this by the simple step I have mentioned above. Once again, let me say it again. Release Mr. Nnamdi Kanu and instruct him and his group to go through the right channel through Nigeria National Assembly to put forward the motion for a referendum. Though you are old, you still have a young family that will live on after you. What legacy do you want to leave?

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Captain Ij Onuigbo, US Army (rtd)

SOUTH AFRICAN JUDGE BERATES PRESIDENT BUHARI, IT WOULD SEEM?

"A court is the guardian of justice, the cornerstone of a democratic system based on the rule of law. If the state  does not abide by court orders, the democratic edifice will crumble stone-by-stone until it collapses and chaos ensues." - Judge Dunstan Mlambo of Guateng Division High Court of South Africa  criticizing President Zuma's government for letting Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir leave South Africa in June despite an outstanding International Criminal Court warrant of arrest for him. Icheoku says like Zuma like President Muhammadu Buhari; obey court's order - release Nnamdi Kanu.

DISGRACEFUL CONDUCTS, NEED TO REINTRODUCE WAI.

Icheoku says if they won't and don't do it while traveling abroad in other peoples countries, why do it in their Nigeria? Why do Nigerians conduct themselves properly while visiting other peoples' countries but on touching down at Muritala Mohammed airport or any other such points of entry in Nigeria turn into such beastly primitives? Why do Nigerians do this to themselves and only while in their country; rubbishing  themselves and their country's image as a lawless people who are inhabiting a lawless place, where anything goes? Why revert to these animal instincts once in Nigeria or is there something wrongly wired in their DNA or Nigeria's society's body-fabric which frowns against orderliness and/or being law-abiding? 

A matter now amplified with President Muhammadu Buhari disrespectfully disobeying valid orders of courts to set Nnamdi Kanu free? If these Nigerians are following the example of the likes of their President Muhammadu Buhari in not obeying rules of law and that of human orderly co-existence, what does this say about the stereotyping of Africa being a jungle? Is there no solution to this malady or is it a case of if you cannot beat them, join them? Sometimes when you ask some returned former Diaspora Nigerians why they are behaving like those they rejoined back home and not positively impacting them with what rubbed off on them from their long sojourn overseas, their usual response is that the damage is so grave that they will not make any impact whatsoever, so why bother trying to risk being branded oyibo. 

But how long will things remain this way or do these people drive joy in being and remaining the way they are? The other day it was Oba Akiolu of Lagos who was photographed on the streets of London, while walking back to his hotel room, clutching his dinner bag, a dinner he went to the diner to buy by himself. He was wearing a nondescript caftan; but in Lagos he goes about in a retinue of hangers-on and feels so much important and omnipotent as to threaten drowning some people in the lagoon without any consequence? Many of these supposed Nigeria "big men", top-heavy politicians and supposed leaders of the people, while overseas on visits, dutifully and fearfully conform to every rule of law and orderliness. But on arriving back to Nigeria changes into the lawless scoundrels they present themselves as, leading to the question, why do they do it? 

Their compliance with rules and laws abroad shows that they have the capacity to do nice and abide by rules and laws in Nigeria, but deliberately choose not to.  So what is the problem and what is Nigerians' general problem of always running their country aground? Why do they happily revert to this abhorable behavior when in Nigeria but put up their best behavior overseas. Seriously speaking and in as much as Icheoku does not care a hoot about the man from Daura, but at least his legacy WAI worked. Nigerians should therefore seriously consider reintroducing WAI to help curb the excess indiscipline in the society. So let War Against Indiscipline be reintroduced in Nigeria to help cure the cancer of indiscipline and foist a functioning society where rules and laws as well as orderliness can endure. 

PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI, A DESPOT WHO HAS NOTHING TO LOSE?

Icheoku says the dumb Nigerians who ignored all the warnings, including a steeped history of violations of the laws of the country and still voted the lean and mean Cassius of Daura into office, are now gnashing their teeth, bemoaning a fate which they literally brought upon themselves. True to type, the despot is at it again; he has again thrown the rule of the laws to the dogs and has been acting as if he owns Nigeria or that Nigeria belongs to him; and that the only laws that matter is that which he wills. Nigerians watched as he appointed only his Northern Hausa/Fulani mallams to all the top positions in Nigeria in total disregard to Federal Character requirement; and now it is time for him to once again rubbish the laws in his usual manner; the same law that made his presidency possible.

Icheoku says but for the law that made elections possible, could there have been any election on March 29, 2015 ushering President Muhammadu Buhari into Aso Rock? But for the laws, during the many times he previously lost elections, could he have gone to the court seeking redress for his claim of election rigging? But for the laws, what would President Muhammadu Buhari be alleging that Nnamdi Kalu broke and in violation of which, he is holding him in detention and now illegally and in violation of valid orders of courts? But regrettably, the usually loud Nigerians have suddenly gone numb and quivering in a corner, as this megalomaniac law-breaker once again sets forth to continue from where he stopped in 1985. Icheoku says not this time President Muhammadu Buhari as Nigerians will resist any attempt by you to once again turn Nigeria into a gulag; illegally arresting and detaining people as well as ignoring valid orders of court to release such detainees. 

The mind boggling thing about the whole situation is that pretentious individuals who like to be seen as defenders of human rights are looking the other way while Nnamdi Kanu continues to be illegally detained by President Muhammadu Buhari. The Nigerian Bar Association is also keeping mum and you wonder what use is it anyway when it cannot demand of the government to obey valid court orders? Icheoku wonders what it will take to wake up Nigerians for them to start defending their hard won right to be free in their own country. The issue now is no longer about Nnamdi Kanu or his innocence or lack thereof of whatever trumped up charges. No, the fork on the road now is that President Muhammadu Buhari has gone rogue and reneged on his promise to be a law abiding "converted democrat." A vagrant scofflaw who does not give a damn about the laws of the land and who is ignorant of the epochal position of the courts as interpreters of the laws, with sole authority to determine anyone's guilt or lack thereof. 

Many have opined that President Muhammadu Buhari is doing as he pleases because he has nothing to lose since he will not be again asking Nigerians for their votes in 2019. But first, Nigerians will have to survive until 2019, hence they cannot play possum while this man runs away with violating the laws and victimizing everyone before then. Icheoku queries who is even sure that the man will keep his promise not to run in 2019 since he previously reneged on a similar "I will not-run again" promise before. A man who claimed he is not corrupt only for Dasuki-gate scandal to reveal that he collected N850 million of the largess through his personal assistant? Icheoku is urging Nigerians to start now to demand of this man to understand that he is now under a democracy and must therefore submit himself to rules governing democratic governance; instead of continuously thinking that suddenly a time travel has put Nigeria back in 1985. 

Icheoku says it may be Nnamdi Kanu today, but who knows who it will be tomorrow? Who knows the next person President Muhammadu Buhari might decide to lock up and throw away the keys regardless of offense or courts pronouncements?  Possibly he is testing the waters to see how Nigerians would react or try to resist his attempt to rewind his 1983-85 draconic vice-hold on Nigeria. Icheoku asks are Nigerians ready to go back in chains and for this new slavery?  A matter made worse because the Ota deity, Baba Iyabo, Olusegun Obasanjo, has not yet fired off one of his  satanic verses to President Muhammadu Buhari; and you wonder whether his infractions so far are not egregious enough to warrant such an epistle from Ota? The other near senile Wole Soyinka, who disappointed so many Nigerians when he switched from his "why Buhari cannot be president" to "why Buhari was the best thing to happen to Nigeria", has equally remained transfixed while this man is wrecking the gains of the past sixteen years of Nigeria's successfully holding alight democracy. 

Anyway, Icheoku and other law-loving interested parties will continue to holler about this gradual descent into lawlessness by a man who is unashamedly anti-law; and who thinks that every knee in Nigeria should bow before him. It is equally very shameful that Nigerian Bar Association has not risen in fierce defense of the rule of law and the need for this Buhari government to submit itself to the laws of the country. Then add some other useless fellows, including one supposed former chairman of a Bar Association in Lagos, who likes to believe that he learnt how to use the left hand in a very old age and who has been parading himself as a human rights advocate; yet he has not uttered a word about the crass infringement of a citizen's right to due process by demanding that the government respect a judiciary pronouncement and release a man who was duly granted bail and unconditionally too. What kind of insipid fellows these provisional human rights advocates are that sway in their activism depending on what time of the day it is? Very shameful.

It is indeed pitiful that this is again happening in 2015 Nigeria and with so much conspiratorial silence of nearly everyone. How pathetic a people are Nigerians, especially those of them, whose only bona fides claims to being lawyers are their wig and gown. Icheoku queries which lawyer would idly sit by and watch, while the very thing that he professes to be a defender of and which he uses as a vehicle, is being challenged in this manner. A court of competent jurisdiction sat over a matter which was brought before it by the government. It gave an order but the same aggressive party that initiated the action before the court refused and would not honor the pronouncement of the court. Icheoku says that Nigerian lawyers are not throwing fits of fury, demanding compliance of government and threatening strike to pressure the government is unfathomable. It is indeed mind numbing as this is no longer about Nnamdi Kanu; but about the laws of Nigeria which is once again being trampled upon by a despot who has refused to shed his cloak of dictatorship. President Muhammadu Buhari, Icheoku says, respect the rule of law and comply to an order of court and let Nnamdi Kanu go. Enough of your creeping dictatorship; 1983 is so yesterday and this is almost 2016.

MERRY XMAS TO YOU ALL

Icheoku says to all God-fearing human beings of this planet earth, merry christmas to you. And to all those hell-destined Somalians, Bruneians and all such other anti-Christ Islamists of this world, Icheoku says why are you this perverted? Why are you banning and prohibiting your people from freely worshipping as they see fit? Why did you kill Christmas? But know you all anti-Christians that a Donald is coming to sit on judgment against you, his name is Donald Trump and you will get trumped IJN.

SHIITES SKIRMISH, FALANA'S CALL FOR PROSECUTION OF ARMY IS WRONG.

Icheoku says Nigerians are full of funny louts, people who flip like flagellum, depending on which direction the wind is blowing. Suddenly some of these people are mouthing off that the army should be prosecuted for doing a job which they were assigned to do, protect the security of the country from both internal and external attacks. 

Regardless, where was Femi Falana when Olusegun Obasanjo sent the army to lay waste Odi and Zaki Ibiam? What was his reaction then and why did he not similarly call for the army to be prosecuted for carrying out its professional duties as commanded by their commander in chief? Before Odi and Zaki Ibiam were Zango Kataf and Kalakuta Republic; yet Falana did not call for the army to be prosecuted then? Icheoku queries if the army that ravaged Fela's Kalakuta Republic then did not have an identity, how possible is it then that the same unknown soldiers now have prosecutable personality? 

How does Femi Falana plan to identify the very army that went to Zaria to face-down some errant law breakers, who were barricading the street and refusing the army chief passage? A matter made worse because those miscreants were just there, primarily to cause trouble and not because they were protesting against some matter they have grudges about or were trying to draw attention to some issues bedeviling them. Icheoku can only conclude that it is only the Yoruba 'kparakpo' thing, where no Yoruba does any wrong but every other person in Nigeria errs, that founds Femi Falana's recent call to prosecute the army. 

If Olusegun Obasanjo could order the army into action, why not Dr President Muhammadu Buhari or a person acting under or with his authority? The simple explanation is that the Yoruba people are just too contrived and pitiful; and being so self centered, they take positions on issues depending on how they are impacted and/or affected by it. Apparently, like Sanusi Lamido Sanusi once said, they are the biggest problem with Nigeria as their treachery and selfishness seriously work against Nigeria true unity. 

The good news however is that President Muhammadu Buhari has become tone-deaf to everything and anything going on around him, including whatever is being said by anyone. As a result, he does not hear nor listen to anything anymore and will most likely not hear the unfounded call by Femi Falana to prosecute the army. Otherwise Icheoku would have counseled to ignore it because unknown soldiers cannot be held accountable for their actions. They merely carried out orders; they are ghosts and ghosts do not exist and therefore cannot be sanctioned.

NNAMDI KANU, A GREAT MAN OF GREAT COURAGE FIGHTS ON.

Icheoku says they don't come a dime a dozen, such men and women that change the world. William Shakespeare was right that some people are born great, some have greatness entrusted to them, while some others achieve greatness.  Yes, Nnamdi Kanu falls in the category of great men contemplated here as he has achieved greatness.  His name has been written in indelible gold ink as the man of great courage who stood up to say enough of marginalization and enough of tribalism and in any other event, to 'let my people go'. Icheoku says highly commendable and indeed very admirable and imitable too. 

Luckily, several months in detention and continuing, he is still standing very tall and unfazed; his spirit not broken and the people are still solidly behind him and cheering him on. Icheoku says not since the advent of the late Odumegwu Ojukwu and the Great Nnamdi Azikwe on the stage of  Igboland, has any Igbo person commanded such organic follower-ship by true blooded Igbo people as Nnamdi Kanu. A followership to die for; a follower-ship worth dying for and a follower-ship for which so many people have laid down their lives already and which follower-ship many more people are still prepared to follow suit, if need be. The follower-ship was not purchased, staged, contrived nor contracted; but purely an undiluted outpouring of love, for a brave and courageous son of Igboland, coming straight  from the heart. 

Like Jesus Christ said, do not be afraid of those who can only torture or kill the body. The Great Nnamdi Kanu understands this and this is part of what founds his courage and the abiding spirit to soldier on and he is soldiering on.  Icheoku says victory is assured and so within sight, it sizzles. Following his re-indictment, Nnamdi Kanu did exactly what Icheoku expected, allege the probability of not getting a fair trial and force the judge to recuse himself, which he did. Icheoku also expects that whichever judge that is finally assigned the case or who agrees to take the case would punt the case back to the government, demanding to know why an earlier order of a brother judge was not obeyed by the government. Thereafter, as a reprisal, the judge should then just dismiss the entire case for lack of prosecutorial merit. 

This is the only way President Muhammadu Buhari will be forced to shed his despotic cloak which he now wears under a civilian babaringa. By so doing, the court will finally baptize President Muhammadu Buhari into a full functioning democrat; and pull him away from his current "converted democrat" status. How can a reasonable, responsible and law abiding government, under a democratic dispensation, disobey a court's order; and in turn, shamelessly go before the same court (same jurisdiction as the court of unconditional bail) to ask for an order for itself, in respect of the same cause and matter. Icheoku says shameless and utter nonsensical; and total disregard for the rule of law. What a havoc wrecked to the independence of the judiciary and challenge to the co-equality of that third arm of the government to the executive. 

Anyway, the whole world is watching and paying very close attention to the travesty that is unfolding in Nigeria under the supposedly "converted democrat" who has no respect for the tenets of democracy, principal of which is adherence to the rule of law. Like Bishop Kukah rightly posited and which Icheoku adopts here, President Muhammadu Buhari should know that 2015 is not analogous to 1983; that Nigerians "are now in a democracy where dialogue, diplomacy and patience are the hallmarks of good leadership." According to the still truth-speaking bishop, “My position on Kanu is straightforward. I am not in any way saying that he is innocent but in order to avoid upheavals and tension, the government should settle through engagement. One of the parties has to trade something for something else. We are not in a military regime. Dialogue is the solution.”

Icheoku says be-eni; the whole truth and nothing but the truth. BUT would President Muhammadu Buhari listen or become deaf like the pharaohs of old Egypt until it is too late. Only time will tell. Thankfully team Nnamdi Kanu achieved somewhat a victory by successfully moving the Justice Ahmed Mohammed's court to recuse himself from hearing the case. The charge reading "unlawful society" is rather ridiculous as the government is branding indigenous people a society; forgetting that societies are formed as opposed to a people that is and has been in existence from time immemorial. Further, if the detained concealed goods in a container as is being alleged, was it not the duty of Customs and Excise to find such and impound them if need be? As for possession of firearms allegation, Icheoku wants to know who gave those murderous Fulani cattle rearers greater right to bear arms, far and above that of Nnamdi Kanu, assuming indeed he was found in possession of firearms? 

Icheoku condemns the government's action in refusing to obey a valid order of unconditional bail of the activist which was granted by a court of competent jurisdiction. Icheoku also says the government acted illegally by continuing to hold the activist post bail and as a result has lost every moral authority to now seek redress from the same court it flaunted its order. Icheoku says Nnamdi Kanu's defense team should in addition to whatever other remedy being sought, seek the indictment of the Department of State Security Services for contempt of court for their failure or rather refusal to abide by respective court's ruling on bail including one for Nnamdi Kanu's unconditional release. Whatever case the government might have cannot go on until they obey  subsisting court orders and thereafter, they can rearrest and re-indict the activist if they so desire.

In his powerful submission for recusal of judge, Nnamdi Kanu said "Based on information available to me, I cannot get a fair trial before this court. I will not sacrifice the due process of law founded upon the principle of natural justice on the altar of speedy release from detention. In other words, I will rather remain in detention than subject myself to a trial that I know amounts to perversion of justice. There have been several court rulings delivered by competent courts of jurisdictions which the DSS never respected.” Icheoku says very true and correct; as those seeking equity must first do equity. God bless Nnamdi Kanu and God's speed to the fruition of his cause IJN.

SOMALIA BANS CHRISTMAS, VOTE FOR DONALD TRUMP.

Icheoku says it is about time the Wesy wake up and smell the coffee that is Islamic countries attempt to islamize the entire world. They will not let us build churches in their countries, will not let our women dress as they choose, will not let us drink alcohols, will not let us open night clubs and dance and party as we like, will not let us go topless in the beaches, will not let us even have sex; yet they want us to accommodate their values and cultures including their women dress up in terrorizing veil and burquahs. Now they have banned christmas and you tell me this is not the sign of things to come down the pike. 

In Northern Nigeria, they have sharia law and their Boko Haram military wing has been trying to spread islam throughout the country. In Saudi Arabia, there is not even a single church or worship center and they are cutting off peoples head for as  little as drinking or even writing an opinion. In Iran, we know how the country turned into an ISLAMIC republic, which the tiny African country of Guinea just recently became too. They are killing us; they are violating our values and our way of life, forcing their cultures everywhere that you begin to wonder if they liked their culture so much, why did they leave their nooks of the world to venture to the West. 

Icheoku says enough of all these political-Islam correctness. It is about time the West demands reciprocity from the Islamic world and if they don't agree, then lets ban their ways and culture from spreading in the West. Any of them that don't like it should go back to wherever they came from, failing which, they should be put in prison or forcibly deported. All these foul cry about anti-islam and associated hogwash is just what it is - crocodile tears that means nothing; and nothing short of brash reaction will halt their determined march to force their brand of worship on everyone. Now Christmas is gone, banned in both Brunei and Somalia Islamic countries and you wonder what is next. 

Icheoku says Donald Trump is right; Donald Trump is the answer to the question of Islamic spread and threat to overrun the world and Donald Trump is the right man to lead America and the West at this very trying times. Icheoku is emphatic that no other person in both Democratic and Republican Parties is better suited and more qualified at this fork on the road with threatening Islamic spread, to be president of America, and in a falling-apart world than a man who fears none of those pin-heads Muslims and who is prepared to align forces to defeat Islamic terrorism and Islam itself, if it gets to that. 

Enough of these pandering and cajoling of these muslims. We really do not need them to remain who we are, not anymore as 2015 is not 1970. They can go drink their oil as we now have our own and other non Muslim countries'  supply sources; and at worst, we can nuke them and still have the oil secured down the ground. What manner of rubbish is this anyway that people can no longer have rest and live in peace just because of these mallams who have no worth for human life and who think that they can have their way by terrorizing everybody. ISIS or ISIL have killed off nearly all christians in their part of the world; Saudi Arabia treats christianity as a taboo which is punished by death, meted out with chopping off the head of apostates. First it was Brunei and now Somalia too, has banned Christmas?

TINUBU'S CALL FOR FUEL SUSIDY REMOVAL, A MISADVENTURE - AJULO

THE recent insistence by Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu that President Muhamadu Buhari must remove fuel subsidy come January 2016 is quite unfortunate in many respects, it is another misadventure of National Leader of APC and his party.    It smacks of lack of sense of history, betrayal of the common people and utter disservice to the memory of Late Professor Bala Usman the 10th anniversary of whose death Senator Tinubu chose to make such flagrant insensitive postulation. 

To begin with, there is a lot of question mark on the choice of a Tinubu for such assignment as doing justice to the legacies of Comrade Bala Usman. One need not be too grounded in the political history of Nigeria to recognize that there was a clear-cut difference between the revolutionary, socialist ideas of Bala Usman and Tinubu’s fair weather eclectic, pseudo-capitalist principles which unavoidably pander to the needs of neo-liberalism. 

Bala Usman was a teacher of the youth, students, peasants and the working class. He stood for fundamental social transformation in favour of the downtrodden as against the greed and graft, which form the bedrock of Nigeria’s neocolonial ruling class ideology. Throughout the 80s and until he passed on, Bala Usman was a vehement anti-fuel subsidy removal agitator and organizer. He was very clear in his enunciation that Nigeria, as an oil producing country could not sell petroleum products to Nigerians at the so-called global market price. His political economic analyses to substantiate this, delivered at various lectures, conferences and seminars, spanning decades are there in the archives for anyone who cares to see. 

It is therefore rather preposterous to make such anti-people proclamation of undying love for fuel subsidy on Bala Usman’s anniversary. If at all Senator Tinubu never had encounter with Bala Usman or his mountains of intellectual production, thoroughness demands that when asked to speak on such occasion he should have really done his homework, and as questions. After all, there is no harm is asking when a man finds himself in a new terrain where the road signs are strange to him. 

But then it would appear that Senator Tinubu was on another of several missions to hoodwink the masses, using a platform that he has no moral claim to but only politically found expedient in his mission to fulfill the by now too familiar stock-in-trade of his party. Doublespeak, backstabbing and swindling of the masses by way of answering “Progressive” and flying the “Change” kite while being at the beck and call of international capital and local compador bourgeoisie is the name of the new strange political game in town, and Jagaba ‘n Borgu seems not to be prepared to be outdone by any contender, being the de facto leader of the change motley.   

Not content with chaperoning the mass of the people into the One-Chance change bus, Senator Bola Tinubu persistently goads on the government of President Muhamadu Buhari to continue to shortchange the working class and the rest of the masses by any means and at all times. The leader of APC, whose then Action Congress Of Nigeria (ACN) took the former President Goodluck Jonathan’s government to the cleaners and openly supported protest against fuel subsidy removal in January 2012, should realize that Nigerians are watching and already asking questions.   

What his party promised was not retrenchment, downward review of minimum wage, tightening of belt, half-hearted and selective anti-corruption crusade and a weak currency. Change meant in the people’s perspective security, job opportunities, living wages and general economic prosperity. What Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu proposed on the platform of one of the foremost leaders of the Talakawas is a recipe for economic epilepsy and political eruptions.    

The arguments put forward to back such dastardly assault on the interest of the working people are as puerile as they are malicious. Although nothing better could have come from an oil magnate and exploiter of labour, it would have been expected that more convincing demagoguery was wrought. The arguments are pedestrian, lack depth and too routine to convince anyone in this digital age.   

For instance, it sounds rather lame an argument to say money saved from subsidy will be used for infrastructural development, or to present the appearance that subsidy is an unusual phenomenon. The fact remains that governments all over the world subsidise one thing or the other. In Nigeria it is only fuel government claims to subsidise.    

Of course, in the real sense, what it translates to and why it is being opposed is that subsidy removal is a euphemism for increased fuel price in the Nigerian political economy. So what Senator Tinubu tacitly proposed is that the poor masses must be made to pay more for fuel from their already lean pockets in order to fatten the pockets of capitalists like himself and his friends. That is the simple meaning of good business climate to them.   

Sincerely, the government of President Buhari needs to be told to stop running from pillar to post and leaving the country afloat like a rudderless boat in the middle of a stormy sea. The solution to the present socio-economic quagmire is already there in black and white. The government needs to swallow its pride and revisit the 2014 National Conference report, in which most of the issues that confront him today (economic, political and even security) are clearly analyzed and solutions proffered.     

The more the government shies away from this the more things will continue to fall apart. The government needs to diversify the economy, restructure the country, devolve power and operate proper fiscal federalism, while domesticating and making justiciable all international conventions of human and people’s rights to which Nigeria is signatory. That is the only way the government can make real and permanent change.       

On the part of the people, the real nationalists, progressives, democrats and humanists need to close ranks irrespective of political party and other difference, to forge a common platform against the neoliberal assault being championed by the likes of Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu. A people united can never be defeated.

NIGERIA AT CROSSROADS, THE ELUSIVE NATIONHOOD?

Icheoku says the only reason certain things, actions of some individuals and groups, as well as  state actors themselves, are getting away with the things they do in Nigeria is that Nigerians, as a people, are not united and do not stand united against them. Nigerians  protest individually, usually from their tribal or regional perspective, and depending on whose ox was gored and stand hands akimbo when others' ox is involved. Once the act does not touch or concern their ethnicity or tribes men and women, they treat it as not their business, hence don't usually get involved in it or in trying to resolve it. 

This is the reason the oppressors and the henchmen and women of Nigeria get away with whatever atrocities they commit; because in the tripod based Nigeria, it is always easy for the oppressor to double-team with the unaffected against the affected.This is the problem afflicting Nigeria and until Nigerians begin to see a person's or group's or ra egion's problem as their collective problem, Nigeria can never move in the direction of attaining nationhood. Icheoku says the day Nigerians will start seeing each other as brothers and sisters who share in the same common destiny of the Nigerian state, that day will their dream of nationhood be attained and achieved. That day of euphoria is when things will generally get better for everyone, including the unaffected, the affected and the oppressor. 

Icheoku says take for example the current marginalization of Southeast Ndigbo in Nigeria affairs which the Yoruba Southwest does not care about. In their thinking, it is purely Ndigbo problem which Ndigbo themselves should sought out with President Muhammadu Buhari, if they feel so marginalized; despite the fact that the issue is glaringly starring everyone on the face. Take also the issue of Boko Haram which is ravaging the Northeast but which every other group and people in Nigeria who are not in the affected region see as the North's problem. According to these non affected people, it is "dem, dem wahallah" so let them deal with it as they see fit. Further take the constant killing and pillaging that has refused to abate in the Middle Belt, where Fulani cattle rearers and local inhabitants farmers are constantly at war with each other, fighting, maiming, killing, burning and looting each other. Other none affected Nigerians see it as the problem of the Middle Belt, hence it is theirs to solve if they so desire. 

Continuing, take the problem of nomadic cattle rearers in Southern Nigeria, which was highlighted with their recent abduction of a Yoruba High Chief Olu Falaye. As far as other Nigerians were concerned, it is a purely a Yoruba problem which only the Yorubas have to confront if they want it solved. Ditto the kidnappings and killings by the same wandering nomads of peoples of the Southeast and South-south region. Furthermore, very lately, Southeast and South-south region, formerly of Biafra, have rekindled their agitation for an independent state of Biafra. Many protesters have been killed by security agents; many have been detained and even their leader has been in detention for quite some time now. The government of President Muhammadu Buhari has so far refused to honor a perfected bail which was granted by a legitimate court of the land; which bail was further affirmed by a Higher court which ordered the unconditionally release of the accused. The government has refused to honor these rulings, the guy is still being held, albeit illegally; but as far as other Nigerians are concerned, it is Biafran people's problem and they should solve it if they so desire. 

Icheoku queries when has the breach of the constitution of Nigeria to a fair and speedy hearing, which a bail facilitates become a regional problem? What is the use of law if it is not broadly, fairly applied throughout the spectrum of the people that are under it? It is akin to an Igbo proverb wherein the chicken was laughing at the guinea fowl which is being deep-fried, not knowing that its turn will come in a few days later. Life lessons is not usually about the dead as the dead has died and moved on; no, it is always about the living, who has refused to or did not learn a thing from the dead. Today it is Nnamdi Kanu and the Biafrans whose rights to fair and speedy hearing as well as life, is being trampled upon with flagrant disregard to two duly constituted courts' orders and unlawful killings; tomorrow, it might become Otumba Adams and the Oduduwas or the AREWA or Niger Deltans. 

What goes around, comes around; but regrettably in the usual partisan Nigerian fashion, even the supposed human rights lawyers in Nigeria are keeping mum while the constitution is being violated and in a democratic dispensation. Icheoku has not seen any of the Nigerian pretenders of defenders of human rights and the constitution raise their voice to condemn President Muhammadu Buhari's government for disobeying two valid subsisting courts orders. Not even the Nigerian Bar Association or other various States or Cities Bar Associations officials have voiced against this and you wonder why their selective advocacy and campaigns on human rights and abuse of the constitution. The funny thing is that these Nigerians will not miss any given opportunity to identify themselves as human rights lawyers and you wonder what shameful face they presently still parade themselves in, with a man who was ordered released from jail still being detained in utter violence to the letters of the constitution and the authority of the judiciary, which two institutions they were sworn to uphold and defense zealously.  

What face would these people use to stand in front of cameras or interviews to identify themselves as former chairmen of this and that Bar Associations or Human Rights campaigners or advocates when they have not said anything about the vagrant refusal of President Muhammadu Buhari to respect two valid orders of court. Icheoku is emphatic that a law abiding president or government must first comply with subsisting valid orders of courts and could summarily rearrest the accused if they want to. But to so completely disregard the two orders of courts as if the courts don't matter anymore or that the executive is superior to the judiciary, in a three tier government of co-equals, is rather benumbing and mind bugging. A matter made worse by the graveyard conspiratorial silence which the lawyers of Nigeria and their associations have maintained all this while. Icheoku here once again call on President Muhammadu Buhari to honor his uttered word that he is now a "converted democrat"  and respect the law of the land hich every democrat is mandated to respect.

Icheoku says all these nonsensical madness in Nigeria will go away and simply disappear the day Nigerians start seeing each other as one; asking questions and demanding answers as one; seeing each other's problem as their own problem; and collectively acting as one towards finding solutions to their problems. That is the day Nigerians will truly heal and their country will indeed morph into a nation with Nigerians singing hallelujah that finally at last, they have a country which has finally transformed into a nation. 

But regrettably, like many other things Nigeria, this wishful thinking is simply utopia as Nigerians agree among themselves that they are not one people, nor even a country talkless of a nation. Nigerians don't see themselves as one, neither do they see each others problem as a communal problem needing and requiring a communal joining of hands to fashion out a solution. As a result the massacre of Middle Belt people by the Fulani nomads will continue; the vagrancy of those nomadic Fulani cattle rearers in the South will persist; Ndigbo will continue to agonize their marginalization in Nigeria until something happens either to redress this situation or grant them their independent existence as a nation or a truly federating unit of Nigeria; Boko Haram and other Islamic militants will continue to run amok in Northern Nigeria and of course the Yorubas will continue to suffer whatever peculiar problem that is common to them. 

At the end of the day, everybody gets shafted and a big conundrum will be left for everyone to stew in. They will continuously shout at each other, pointing accusing fingers at one another, fighting, crawling, scratching, maiming and killing one another for what a simple unity could have solved more peacefully. It is a very unfortunate situation indeed but the reality on the ground, which is bedeviling Nigerians, that after 55 years of attaining their independence, true nationhood has eluded the country. Nigerians, Icheoku calls on everyone to please wake up and smell the coffee that there is a need for a true united Nigeria. Further, a true unity, far and beyond the sloganeering unity which is served only when convenient, will indeed take care of all these separatists agitations in the land. Let every Nigerian be the change which everyone desires to see in Nigeria; and peradventure help move the country forward and into doing greater things. The country has crawled around for too long and it is about time it started running; only if the country can become united. But what a shame!

NNAMDI KANU, THE JOSHUA OF OUR TIME.

Icheoku says like Moses, Ojukwu lead Biafrans out of Nigeria but stopped short of the promised land, that is Biafra actually alive and thriving. This is the prophetic text Nnamdi Kanu has come to fulfill; who like Joshua, will actually lead the people of Biafra right into Biafra. 

Icheoku can't wait as we pray for the Almighty protection and fortitude to enable this true son of Biafra to mission accomplish his objective. Icheoku calls on all true blooded Biafrans to support the effort and for those bastardy Biafrans, who are Biafrans in name only and when convenient, please butt out of the way with your cynicism and backbiting as the assured is near and nearer than you can imagine and/or believe. SAI NNAMDI KANU; SAI BIAFRA.

ICHEOKU'S PERSONS OF THE YEAR 2015, FAYOSE, KAYODE AND KANU.

Icheoku says it is good for a man to take a stand of conviction and stand resolute on it, regardless of how unpopular others might see his action. It becomes even better when it is a conviction founded on truism, but which others are too afraid to venture out on. This three men have been profound on speaking out their minds as it relates to the state of affairs in Nigeria, irrespective of who the godfather concerned is. 

For being courageous and bravely standing in front of a moving train that is Nigeria under the weight of corruption and injustice, Icheoku says Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose, 

former Aviation Minister Fani OluKayode and Indigenous Peoples of Biafra leader Nnamdi Kanu have earned our persons of the year 2015 recognition. They have etched their names in the sands of time and history will say them well. Congratulations F.K. and K.