HILLARY CLINTON, YES WE ARE INVESTIGATING HER - FBI

Icheoku say this is the final gathering of the storm that will soon, very soon, send down the rains tumbling down from the skies. With its flood, possibly sweeps away the Hillary Clinton's campaign effort to be the first female president of the US of A. A woman who nobody really likes but for the love for Bill which is being channeled to her; and whom American woman have rejected and branded "SORRY, NOT THIS KIND OF WOMAN" for our first female president in the White House, will possibly be indicted for her Emailgate scandal. 

Icheoku says why take a chance with such a person who has a sword of Damocles of possible indictment and prosecution hanging around her neck as the party's nominee and presidential candidate? According to a released agency's statement, "FBI acknowledged generally that it is working on matters related to former Secretary Clinton’s use of a private email server.” Icheoku says FBI are investigating Hillary Clinton because they believe there is strong probability that illegal acts carried out by her will be uncovered, otherwise as a practice, the agency usually does not waste its time on frolics. But hey, tired of the Clintons and the Bushes, just say no to another one of them, whether JEB or HILLARY. I am Icheoku and I approve this message.

NIGERIA IS COMING APART AT THE SEAMS - FOREIGN POLICY

At best, a revitalized Biafran secessionist movement will lead to mass blood shed. At worst, it will trigger the country's unraveling.  Crowds of Igbo-speaking people barricade streets across southeastern Nigeria, bringing traffic to a standstill. They wave black, green, and red secessionist flags; distribute their own currency and passports; and demand the creation of a new independent country called Biafra. It could be 1967 — or 2016. Nearly 50 years after the same region of Nigeria seceded, sparking a devastating civil war, separatists are once again threatening the fragile national unity of Africa’s most populous country. Back in 1967, the federal government deployed a quarter million troops to quash the secessionist movement, while also imposing a land and sea blockade. Over a million civilians died in the nearly three years of fighting that followed, mostly from starvation. 

Why is the southeast once again considering secession when the region’s last attempt resulted in such horrendous suffering? Part of the answer is that many Igbos, who form the majority in Nigeria’s southeast but a minority in the country as a whole, view the failure of their previous attempt at secession as the great missed opportunity of their time. For three decades after the war, military dictatorships suppressed all secessionist talk, leaving Igbos to wonder silently about what might have been. But after the country transitioned to democracy in 1999, latent separatist inclinations began to resurface once again.

The resurgence of the Biafran secessionist movement is symptomatic of a much deeper problem with the Nigerian state. The federal government’s chokehold on states and ethnic groups is fueling multiple demands for autonomy and the right to manage resources at a local level — demands that could ultimately lead to a fracturing of the country. The latent insurgency in the oil-producing Niger Delta is one example of this trend, as is the emergence of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), which has acted both as a violent vigilante group and as an advocate for the autonomy of the Yoruba people of southwestern Nigeria.

A deep disillusionment with the Nigerian government also lies at the heart of the Biafran dream of independence. Igbos have long felt marginalized and excluded from economic and political power by the Hausa-Fulani and Yoruba ethnic groups, which have dominated national politics and the bureaucracy since 1970. Many Igbos believe that the federal government (and their fellow Nigerians) have never forgiven them for seceding in 1967, and have discriminated against them ever since. They believe that in Biafra they will find all the things that Nigeria has failed to provide: good leadership, jobs, infrastructure, regular electricity, economic and physical security.

“Nigeria is a mess…with bad and corrupt leaders,” a Biafra supporter in her mid-20s told me recently. “We want freedom.”

Yet not everyone is willing to risk a war for independence. Younger Igbos born after the civil war tend to be more militant about Biafra in 2016 than their parents and grandparents, whose memories bear scars from the previous attempt at secession. One 72-year-old Igbo man, who was wounded during the 1967-1970 civil war and left bleeding and without food or drink for days, told me, “No one who experienced what happened last time will ever advocate Biafra again.”

But roughly two-thirds of Nigeria’s population is under 30 years old, making them too young to remember the suffering that accompanied the last civil war. These youngsters have plenty of reasons to resent the central government: Nigeria’s youth unemployment rate stands at approximately 50 percent. In the southeast, the feeling of marginalization only deepened after last year’s presidential election. Igbos voted heavily for the former president, the southerner Goodluck Jonathan, who lost to Muhammadu Buhari, a Muslim from the north. As an army officer, Buhari had fought to crush the first Biafran independence movement; the most powerful jobs in his new government went to the Yoruba and to northern ethnic groups. 

Now Nigeria’s new president may once again be on a collision course with separatists in the southeast. Like all previous Nigerian heads of state, Buhari regards the country’s unity as non-negotiable. He will not allow the region to secede without a fight — not least because it contains oil fields that supply three-quarters of the government’s revenue. Oil is thus an incentive for unity as well as disintegration: It gives Igbos confidence in the economic viability of an independent Biafran state, but also gives the government a powerful reason to prevent such a state from ever coming into being. If Igbos continue to agitate for independence, mass bloodshed seems inevitable.

Secession would lead to confrontation on two levels — between Igbos and the federal government, and between Igbos and other minority ethnic groups in the southeast. The latter — such as the Efik, Ibibio, Ijaw, Esan, and Urhobo ethnic groups — do not want to exchange minority status in Nigeria for minority status in a new country dominated by Igbos. To succeed in winning their own state, therefore, Biafran separatists would need to fight both a war of independence and a second war of repression against the minority groups living in their midst.

The Nigerian government has made clear that it views the Biafra issue as a danger to national unity, and Buhari has said he regards the movement as “treasonable.” Last October, security forces arrested Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the secessionist Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) movement, on charges of sedition and treason, and ignored a subsequent court order to release him. The symbol of the Biafran independence movement, Kanu is regarded as a dangerous man by authorities. He is alleged to have tried to procure weapons in the United States, and once told a public gathering, “[I]f we don’t get Biafra everybody will have to die, as simple as that.” But by arresting and detaining him, the government only added fuel to the Biafra fire, causing the protests to intensify and spread across cities in the southeast over the past three months.

Even if the government calms the Biafra storm, its standard refusal to consider demands for regional autonomy all but guarantees that another insurrection will emerge somewhere else in the country. Making matters worse is the demographic time bomb that ticks faster each day in Nigeria. A dramatic “youth bulge” has turned grievances of the type felt by young Igbos into a national security risk in marginalized communities across the country. Every few years, young people from one of these communities rise up and shake the country’s unity. Ethno-regional separatist groups such as the OPC in the southwest, Boko Haram in the north, and the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta in the oil-rich deep south are notable examples.

Yet the government has no viable plan for dealing with uprisings like these beyond sending in the army. Two years ago, the former national security adviser, Sambo Dasuki, revealed that Nigeria’s military was deployed in 28 out of the country’s 36 states —  a fact that suggests it has become more of an internal occupation force than a defender against external aggression.

Nigerian governments have a long history of treating serious problems as molehills until they become volcanic-mountain-range problems. In 1995, the government executed Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other activists who had dared to call attention to economic exploitation and marginalization in the Niger Delta. The core complaints raised by the activists were never addressed, however, and soon they had given rise to an armed insurgency that reduced Nigeria’s oil output by 50 percent and cost it billions of dollars in lost revenue. In the early 2000s, the government also ignored a small religious sect in the northeast — only to watch it morph into Boko Haram.

As resentment mounts among Igbos in the southeast, the Nigerian government cannot afford to allow yet another molehill to grow into a mountain.- by Max Silloun

PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI, THE PARADOX OF HIS DOUBLE SPEAK.

"Some Nigerians claim that life is too difficult back home, but they have also made it difficult for Europeans and Americans to accept them because of the number of Nigerians in prisons all over the world accused of drug trafficking or human trafficking. I don't think Nigerians have anybody to blame. They can remain at home, where their services are required to rebuild the country." - President Muhammadu Buhari speaking in London. 

“I believe a lot of you are doing well and are better off here. So, the question of facilitating your coming home does not arise. We don’t want you to come back home and be unemployed. Don’t come and add to our problems. If you have something doing here please continue doing it”. - President Muhammadu Buhari speaking in Benin Republic.

Icheoku says which Dr President Muhammadu Buhari is this that made the two statements? Can the real Dr President Muhammadu Buhari please stand up so that Nigerians can know which version of Dr President Muhammadu Buhari to look forward to, for guidance, in the continuing governance of the country. Icheoku is afraid that this man is gradually but surely losing grip of his faculties. Unfortunately for Nigeria, their president has no tutelage in the art of diplomatic speak and niceties; what a jerk, who does not know that he is the number one image-burnisher of Nigeria.

BIAFRA AGITATION, A MIX OF CRISIS AND OPPORTUNITY - JOHN CAMPBELL

Nigeria’s old Biafra problem has reared its head again and with it, the specter of disintegration. For a thirty-month period between 1967 and 1970, Nigeria was embroiled in a bloody civil war as its eastern region unsuccessfully tried to secede from the country under the banner of the Republic of Biafra. 

The latest episode in the Biafra crisis revolves around the arrest on October 19, 2015 of Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of a secession movement called the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). Kanu is presently facing trial for sedition and treason. Since his arrest, protesters demanding both his release and an independent Biafra have repeatedly clashed violently with security forces with resulting deaths. 

On the international front, the European Union’s foreign policy chief recently weighed in on the matter with a policy statement and the controversy is on its way to the International Court of Justice at The Hague. To be sure, though the wider Igbo community do not support secession, the grievances about ethnic Ibo marginalization touted by the Pro-Biafra activists resonates highly with them. 

In context, Nigeria by character is fundamentally a tribal society with longstanding distrust among the various ethnic groups, in addition to deep seated primordial loyalties. Rightly or wrongly, most ethnic Igbos believe that since the end of the civil war in 1970 and prior to the arrival of Goodluck Jonathan at the helm of affairs in 2010, Nigeria’s central government deliberately pursued a discriminatory policy aimed at marginalizing the Ibos. It is this tribal factor that largely explains the overwhelming Ibo support for Jonathan’s re-election despite the administration’s unfortunate record of high corruption and underperformance. By contrast, Muhammadu Buhari, a northern Muslim, is particularly viewed with suspicion and distrust in much of Igbo-land.  

Incidentally, separatist impulses and/or cries of marginalization in Nigeria are not limited to the Igbos in the Southeast. For example, after the mysterious death of Moshood Abiola as a political prisoner in 1998, separatist sentiments were heard among his Yoruba kinsmen in the Southwest around that period. Also, there was deep frustration and deadly violence in northern Nigeria after Jonathan defeated Buhari in 2011 amidst claims that the presidency should have been rotated to the north as allegedly promised; a dispute that terribly aggravated the Boko Haram problem and deeply divided the north and the south. 

However, the surprising success of the National Conference of 2014 offers Nigeria a silver lining, namely, that Nigeria’s diverse constituent groups seemingly want to continue coexisting with one another if fair terms of coexistence can be arranged. 

Among the most valuable proposals adopted at the National Conference was the provision for power rotation among the regions in the country. Given the country’s tribal character with its unfortunate, albeit understandable, obsession with control of the national government, the power rotation option for all its rather wooden or inelegant character, seems particularly utilitarian. Quite simply, Nigerians need to take the pragmatic step of first forging a country prior to attempting to build or develop it. The notion of “power rotation” may seem crude to democratic purists, yet, each society being different, it does have genuine utility in the current Nigerian context, comparable to the archaic device of the electoral college in American presidential contests, which made the new constitution acceptable to the smaller states. 

In this regard, Nigeria’s National Conference of 2014 and the American Constitutional Convention of 1787 in Philadelphia can be viewed as parallel events aimed at renegotiating and improving the terms of national coexistence. 

In the end, nothing short of proactive measures by Nigeria is needed. And there is genuine opportunity in this crisis for the Nigerian government to profoundly strengthen the country. Since the continued detention of Kanu in disobedience of court orders is simply incompatible with the rule of law in a democratic society, the government is bound to release him. However, the government can take the wind out of the sails of Kanu and other ethnic separatists around the country by publicly committing itself to a reasonable timeline in which to implement the National Conference recommendations. This path offers the Nigerian government a genuine opportunity for a positive outcome in the current crisis.

NIGERIAN PRESIDENT'S EMPTY PROMISES - ALISTER DAWBER

The Nigerian leader clearly overstated his ability to stop the Islamists. The attack in the village of Dalori began when three female suicide bombers detonated their explosive belts in the name of Boko Haram. 

Four hours later, after the jihadists had firebombed houses with local people locked inside, 86 men, women and children were dead. “They came in through the bush, some of them riding on motorcycles and some in cars,” a resident of Dalori, in Nigeria’s violent north east, told Channels Television. “People ran helter skelter for safety. Some crossed the river behind our village and we made distress calls to the soldiers but no help came. They started shooting and burnt the town. They even beheaded some of us and set the elderly, who could not escape, on fire." 

Boko Haram, the band of Islamists that has sworn loyalty to Isis and which wants to extend its writ across West Africa, is a group that President Muhammadu Buhari has previously said he has beaten. Its continued presence is an embarrassment for the retired army general. To make matters worse, as news of the attack filtered through, his government had been forced to go cap in hand to the World Bank and African Development Bank, asking for $3.5bn in loans as the fall in the price of oil has caused the Nigerian economy to falter. Last weekend was probably Mr Buhari’s worst since winning the election 11 months ago – and it capped an uncomfortable time in office. 

He came to power on a promise of ending the endemic corruption that had become rife under his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, and offering his own guarantee as a military man that Boko Haram’s days were numbered. 

He has largely over-promised and under-delivered. 

“There is a difference between what he would like to do and what he is able to do,” said Richard Dowden, director of the Royal African Society.“He made a promise to tackle corruption, in a country where the only way to get something done is to bribe somebody. Nigeria is almost ungovernable, but he has also been slow to make reforms.” If Mr Buhari, “a straight talking military man” according to Mr Dowden, has had little time to cement changes in Nigerian society, he has been quick to laud apparent successes against Boko Haram. 

In an interview at the end of last year, he said that the Nigerian army, criticised in some quarters for its ineffective performance against the insurgents, had “technically defeated” Boko Haram. It is true that the military has enjoyed a number of successes, and Nigeria’s regional standing has gained currency – there is now more cooperation between Nigeria and its neighbours. But, as the attack in Dalori shows, the fight is far from at an end. President Muhammadu Buhari has previously said he has beaten Boko Haram.

The war between jihadists and the Nigerian government has killed 20,000 people in the last six years and driven nearly 2.5 million from their homes. Mr Buhari has promised “normalcy” for the people in the North-east areas around the town of Maiduguri, the worst affected area, but it appears that the normality is Boko Haram’s ability to act with impunity. If the Nigerian president has been too quick to declare his successes against Boko Haram, he has had little chance to solve the other problem in his in-tray. Nigeria’s economy relies heavily on oil – about 70 per cent of national income comes from sales of crude – but the recent collapse in its price has caused the country’s deficit to grow. Just a third of Nigeria’s income is expected to come from oil revenues this year. 

Gene Leon, the International Monetary Fund’s representative in Nigeria, told the Financial Times that Nigeria faced “significant external and fiscal account challenges”. Africa’s biggest oil producer is looking to borrow up to $5bn to shore up its economy. Up to $3.5bn will be sought from the World Bank and African Development Bank, with the rest borrowed from the capital markets. “We have held exploratory talks with the World Bank. We have not applied for emergency loans,” said the finance minister, Kemi Adeosun. Some of this, at least, has been sheer bad luck for Mr Buhari. The price of a barrel of oil has halved since he was sworn in last May. According to the IMF, Nigeria is expected to report growth of about three per cent for 2015. If accurate, it would be the lowest growth rate for more than a decade.

HILLARY CLINTON, SIMPLY NAUSEATING.

Icheoku says a flip-flopping Nurse Ratched who dances and somersaults on issues depending on the trajectory of polls. First she was against Gay marriage and strongly defended Defense of Marriage Act but now have swiveled 180 degrees to say that she is in support of Gay marriage. First she was against TPP but now claims she supports it. First she was for Canadian oil pipeline but now says she is against it. She was against Obamacare but now says she is all for it. She is in the back pockets of Jewish lobby groups and was against Iranian nuclear deal but now claims she engineered it; but without first obtaining a copyright patent permission to that claim from the man who truly and successfully pulled it off, Secretary of State John Kerry. 

She was also against two states solution to the Middle East Israeli/Palestine conflict, but now says she is supporting it. She was first against Jennifer Flowers, Paula Jones, Monica Lewinsky but now claims she understands women issues and twill fight for them and that her husband, billy-goat Bill Clinton severally abused those women. First she was in support of Boko Haram, refused to brand them terrorists and advised President Obama against acting against them because they were simply innocent Muslim Northern Nigerian youths protesting a Southern Christian minority president who is marginalizing them. First she was dinning and winning Wall Street and did not disclose to Americans that she collected over $600,000 kickback packaged as speaking fees and NOW says she is against Wall Street. 

First she was against medical marijuana use but now claims she is so into it that even her husband once puffed a roach but did not inhale. Above all, she and her husband are racists, black haters, but pretending otherwise. What happened to Ron Brown? What did he say about Jesse Jackson running in 1988? What did he tell late Ted Kennedy about that boy Barack Obama who should be making and serving them tea than having a fairy tale desire of winning a White House presidential residency. Now you know why ICHEOKU, in addition to the Clinton and Bush fatigue, is horn-mad angry and up in arms against electing Hillary Clinton president. She is not the right woman to break the proverbial ceiling of a female American presidency. She is a fluky, candle in the wind, dancing with the poll, contriving and untrustworthy hag; a Jezebel of our time. The good news however is that Americans generally agree that this woman is not worthy of their trust and it is showing with a 75 year old grandpa wiping the floor with her. Icheoku says GO BERNIE; GO TRUMP; as either candidate is far better than an angry, vengeful and never makes eye-contact Hillary Clinton in the Oval office.

JONATHAN THROWN OUT OF OFFICE, NOW LEFT HOLDING THE PLATE?

Icheoku is just wondering whether it is not about time every defense of Jonathan and by everyone ended; so that Dr President Muhammadu Buhari can get hold of him and teach him some lesson on how not to play knee-jerk partisan politics; and/or accept defeat and concede an election without first abstracting water-tight binding concessions from the incoming president not to mess with his outgoing government. Icheoku has arrived at a conclusion that anyone continuing the present acceleration on Jonathan's defense-lane, should have a serious rethink. Defending Jonathan is increasingly becoming very difficult, a somewhat effort in futility and conscientiously too painful to carry on, especially with the latest disclosure that someone was paid over 900 million Naira by NIMASA for a non existent phony contract; and this Jonathan said there was no money to construct the second River Niger bridge? 

If he knew that the mess was this bad, why did he throw in the towel so easily and so quickly? Honestly, each time Icheoku sights this man of Otuoke, opening his mouth concerning the last election, were he a child, wishes that twelve lashes on his bare buttocks would be in order. Imagine the exposure which he has left so many of his faithfuls and is busy running around all over the place accepting useless awards at the expense of the protective shield of seat of power which he traded for nonsensical recognitions? Like a child, they are now giving him toys to distract him from the real deal which they snatched from him and which he so easily ponied up without even a single fight. Where does power ever yield so easily or was it not American President Jefferson who once boldly declared that the tree of democracy (liberty) must be watered from time to time with blood of citizens, both tyrants' and patriots'. Yet he told the world that he accepted defeat because he did not want to see Nigerians die defending his honor to a constitutionally provided second term in office. 

Icheoku says world recognitions and awards, my foot. Now the junta-like 'converted democrat's government have searched Jonathan's Vice President Namadi Sambo's office and are gradually inching their way towards their main target - the man of Otuoke. PMB and OBJ just met about twenty four hours ago to, as some would speculate, finalize their plans on how they will go about humiliating Jonathan; and when eventually those handcuffs are finally locked on his wrists, what a pitiful sight to behold it will be. Admitted that his governance was quite below par and that he lost the last election; but the fact that he conceded the election without proper consultations including securing guarantees that his behind as well as that of his disciples will be secured, left so much to be desired. The effect of that thoughtless act is manifesting itself n the very thick fog of uncertainty which has enveloped the land as well as all these other craps crawling all over the place. 

Icheoku says may be Jonathan should just please disappear and stay out of sight for now to allow people and Nigeria to heal. May be he should just go away somewhere for a fellowship in some university in Southern Australia or New South Wales or New Zealand or even Reykjavik, so that he can be momentarily forgotten now that the wounds he inflicted are still so fresh. It will do Nigerians a whole lot of good, especially psychologically, not to be bothered anymore with Jonathan or listen to what he has to say as no one is that really interested anymore in whatever he has to say regarding that election. Like many Nigerians, ICHEOKU often gets pissed off, thinking about all the things Jonathan could have done differently but which he sheepishly and naively failed to do right. Now look at where Nigeria is today; look at where Nigerians are today; look at where his party the PDP is today; look at where PDP members are today, especially those who worked their butts off fighting for his reelection. The people have found themselves being hounded all over the place like common curs and you wonder who brought about the fate upon them. It is simply painful and pathetic to say the least, that one man's indecisiveness and queasiness wrecked it for everyone.

'A CHILD IS BORN, THERE IS NO GOING BACK' - FATHER MBAKA.

Icheoku says if his activity is of God and from On High, he will prosper and thrive again, regardless of the remoteness of the new place of his posting. If he is under the anointing, no matter what his traducers may do to inhibit and stifle him, he shall overcome. So regardless of whatever undertone, that possibly founded his being posted outside his former parish, Icheoku says Father Mbaka shall rise again, provided of course, he is professing as empowered by the Holy Spirit. Gladly enough he has accepted his faith like Jesus did at Gethsemane and have proceeded to his new assigned parish. Whether or not his dwelling has been downgraded from a duplex to a one-room is irrelevant; because as a soldier of God, he is supposed to live a life of spartan and not comfort; and should never be found to have any strong attachment to earthly things. 

That being said, this is not suggesting in anyway that Icheoku is bought into all these spiritual activism which is saturating Nigeria including the Enugu Adoration Ministry now under focus. The mission here is to rejoinder the farewell speech given by Father Mbaka and respond to some of the issues raised with his sudden transfer out of his GRA Parish to the new Nike Parish. It is pertinent to point out that Father Mbaka  was merely transferred to where the headquarters of his adoration ministry is located; and not to some remote inaccessible nondescript place inside a jungle somewhere. Father Mbaka was transferred to his AMEN (Adoration Ministry Enugu Nigeria) headquarters situated at Umuchigbo Iji Nike Enugu. It is also important to note that the Catholic Church routinely transfers their reverend fathers from parish to parish every five years. Further, that Father Mbaka has remained in one parish for over twenty years'; thats more than four transfer cycles, without ever being transferred or going on any transfer whatsoever. 

The question therefore remains, why was he never transferred, why now and what suddenly changed to make his transfer become imperative? Is it as some school of thought are bandying about, a reiteration for his political activism, especially his prediction during the last Nigeria's presidential election that President Muhammadu Buhari will win the election. Where did the pressure to transfer him come from and if it was pressured, why did the church not transfer him to a very remote village very far from Enugu surrounding if indeed they want to punish him for falling outside the line. Icheoku may never know what other actual underlying reasons may be, except to accept that it was a routine transfer. A transfer which was probably worked out or understandably delayed during the reign of the former bishop until a new bishop came to enforce and apply the law on transfer of priests evenly and fairly.

Anyway, back to the farewell speech and matters arising therefrom. Icheoku says it is a misnomer sort of and self contradictory for Father Mbaka to say 'where will he keep these assets that he have given to the Catholic church of Enugu?' Icheoku says the concept of giving presupposes the desire to also part with possession of the gifted property forthwith. When you give something to somebody or an entity, you should and ought to part with possession thereof the gift simultaneously to effectively complete the gifting. Except if by his assertion, Father Mbaka is suggesting that the Catholic Church is a beneficiary of an executed Will wherein the transferred interest in those "Adoration Ministry's Assets given to the church' will only vest upon his demise? Otherwise why worry about where to keep the assets since the owners, the Catholic Church, should be left to worry about that. Better still, why not in the spirit of chastity, simply give those things away to people and charities that may find them useful; instead of hogging them around and worrying himself sick about where to keep them. As poor as the church mouse presupposes too that people in the service of God should not acquire material things or vest their minds in them. Father Mbaka could also have auctioned off those assets and  reinvested the proceeds in the propagation of the Adoration Ministry or just give them away; and that is problem solved.

The other issue that is worth responding to is the apparent untruth told by Father Mbaka when he claimed that 'he is going to suffer because he has no place to lay his head'. Moving from a duplex to a one-room accommodation is not the worst thing that can happen to any person including an evangelist of Christ, many of whom do not even have physical shelter in some remote places they go to spread the good news. So what if the new parish does not have all the comforts and niceties of his former parish; how would that inhibit his gospelling? Icheoku admonishes that routine downgrading is simply of fact of life and anyone complaining about suffering because he is moving from a duplex to a one-bedroom accommodation is simply a self-made victim of entitlement and high maintenance. Things happen and in life, situational changes do happen periodically. The better and proper approach is to accept same and move on. If Father Mbaka is complaining about reduced comfort level, may be; but to say that he has no place to lay his head is being economical with the truth which is meant to elicit needless sympathy and whip up sentiments. 

Father Mbaka is a soldier of God and in the battle field, soldiers only have their ponchos. So for Father Mbaka, any accommodation should be sufficient; provided he can do his necessaries - shit, shave, brush and bath; and of course close his eyes when sleep calls. A mansion will not a better priest make him and our Lord Jesus nor John the Baptist never lived in comfort, regardless. So as a man of God, he should make do with whatever is available in his new parish. What is important is the souls he wins for Jesus that will make heaven and not how big his place of abode is. Icheoku retorts that 'a-one small room that has only one small bed, one small table, little toilet and bathroom' is not a mega suffering by any standards. Father Mbaka does not have a wife or partner to share a bed with so why should he complain about the size of his bed being small? A toilet has only one function, to serve as a receptacle for a person's waste product, so how small can a toilet be that it will not be big enough for the anus to discharge its function, if one may ask?

Icheoku says it is also very arrogant of Father Mbaka to say that 'whoever that has offended him, he has forgiven', without also having the humility to ask those he possibly offended for same forgiveness.It is unthinkable and at best self idolization for someone, a mortal, to assume the position of infallibility and omni this and that to think that only he could be and was offended while disregarding the many if not millions he offended which possibly triggered the retaliatory eviction from his erstwhile parish. A more modest man would have said all those I offended, I ask for your forgiveness as I have forgive all those who possibly offended me. Even Jesus on the Cross did not arrogate to himself the power of forgiveness but said "Father, forgive them for they do not know what they did." He even went further by alleging that the devil made his transfer possible, claiming that it was a mistake to effect his transfer. Icheoku bemoans that this man failed or cleverly chose to forget that transfers among the catholic clergy is a routine which is exercised every five years. 

How he managed to survive and avoid being transferred for so long, close to twenty years, was a fact lost on his audience as he cleverly shielded how he pulled it off, except if it was through the usual Nigerian factor which bends the rule when convenient for some people and holds it highly when lesser mortals are involved. Who does he think he is that people or a person should cry for simply enforcing the law on transfer of priests. Better still, was Father Mbaka expecting to be treated differently and specially just because he is Father Mbaka and better than all of his colleagues in the priestly calling who are subjected to moving from one parish to another every five years. If the tables were to turn and another priest was so privileged of no transfer for twenty years, would a crusading Father Mbaka who hate injustice and who advocate for the oppressed have kept quiet and not raise a storm about the partiality? 

Icheoku says Father Mbaka somewhat got it right that his only possession and that which he should have is his bible and nothing more. But he was earlier complaining of having no where to store stuff which is irreconcilable with his later saying that he is moving out with only his bible? Icheoku says if anyone is politicizing the church, it is Father Mbaka who is needlessly making a mountain out of a mole hill by turning a routine priestly posting into a sympathy gravitating exercise. A man of God not peeved at the development would have quietly departed for his new posting without evoking all these emotional sentiments including claiming that the bishop was being fed falsely. Icheoku queries is this falsehood as to his being overdue for periodic transfer which every priest goes on or that he ought and should not be transferred because he is somehow so special to be above priestly rules? 

By saying that the bishop was being fed falsely, Father Mbaka is introducing another element and dimension to the matter as he implicitly accused diocesan staff of collusion and falsehood. As a true man of God, he should have simply accepted the transfer in good faith, with total obedience, as the will of God and without raising any dust about it. whatsoever. Icheoku says Father Mbaka may not be a recalcitrant priest but his actions thus far, including questioning the validity and appropriateness of his transfer, the first in twenty years, suggests otherwise. If his former parish was Egypt, why did Father Mbaka not complain as the ancient Israelites did? And if his new parish is the promised land, why is he complaining about moving there? 

The problem here is that Father Mbaka has personalized the ministry in himself and now sees the ministry as himself and vice versa.If the ministry is of and from God, with or without Mbaka it will go on and this is how ministries of God should be and behave. Just like the catholic church itself which has transcended through so many generations and continuing, simply because it was not personalized in Peter but the church which guarantees successors to Peter. Icheoku says it is rather regrettable that Father Mbaka tried to appraise what went into building his former parish as if it was by his power that they came to fruition; with the implication being that he somehow owns the parish? 

Icheoku asks what was Father Mbaka trying to achieve by stating "My own vineyard I keepeth not. All these while we have been keeping vine­yards, building for Christ. How many trailer loads of cement came here? All the monies I made from my cassette and other private crusades all of them were used to build this church. We cannot quantify it but let God be glorified." Honestly it befuddles the imagination, admitted that he seemed to later realize it by saying Amen to the will of God. 

Finally Father Mbaka should not regret anything but see his posting as the church carrying out its routine priestly transfer assignments. He will definitely triumph in his new place but should not hold his transfer against anyone or input some ill-motive to it. However, if he still feels strongly about it or that some people are out to get him, he can split out from the Catholic church and start his own church ministry; afterall the Anglican Church split from the Catholic Church due to Peter's pence so he can walk away not to be inhibited. But going this route might not be the best for a man who professes the Holy Spirit and the Eucharist. Icheoku therefore wishes Father Mbaka all the best and God's speed in his new parish and possibly God will use him to also redevelop the new parish and replicate there what he did with his former parish. In his own words, a child is born there is no going back, and so is Father Mbaka not going back to GRA but to Nike, where hopefully his wonder working will continue. And to all those who said religion is politics, including Fela Anikulapo Kuti (Religion na politics) Icheoku says who knows?

SAUDI ARABIA TAKES PROXY WAR WITH IRAN TO NIGERIA - KIT O'CONNELL.

On Dec. 12, Nigerian government forces carried out a brutal massacre against the country’s minority Muslim Shia population, with some media reporting over 1,000 killed, after the military imprisoned and tortured the group’s important dissident leader Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky.

The news of the slaughter of a minority religious group emerges as Nigeria announced it is considering joining Saudi Arabia in the fight against Daesh (the Arabic acronym for the group commonly known in the West as ISIS), linking two nations known for repression and repeated, disturbing human rights violations. Saudi Arabia, in turn, has a history of promoting the extremist religious ideology of Wahhabism that inspires terrorist groups like Nigeria’s own Boko Haram, the terrorist group that the country is still struggling to control, and even al-Qaida and Daesh.

And Zakzaky isn’t the only activist to face imprisonment in recent months — Nigeria has a reputation for quashing political dissent no matter where it’s source. However, the arrest and crackdown came just months after Muhammadu Buhari, a retired army general, successfully won election on a promise to restore order to the country.

While Zakzaky is known as an outspoken dissident in Nigeria, it’s unlikely that his words or deeds alone provoked the savage crackdown on his Islamic Movement. Instead, Eric Draitser, the editor of the independent media site Stopimperialism.org, told MintPress that Zakzaky is a pawn in a global imperialist conflict.

“Basically, I think that almost everyone has misread the Zakzaky massacre,” Draitser said. “Almost nobody who has written about the issue has placed it in the appropriate context. The context is not Nigeria. The context is a much broader global proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Qatar on the one hand, and Iran on the other hand.”

In this light, Draitser said, the arrest of Zakzaky has as much to do with the January 2 execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a Shiite cleric from Saudi Arabia, as it does with local politics in Nigeria. Instead, it’s part of the Saudi’s attempt to destabilize and provoke the Iranians around the globe.

 The Islamic Revolution in Iran that ousted U.S. and British forces was bolstered by the belief that third world dependence on the West was an intrinsic result of neocolonialism and monopoly capitalism, with the only remedy being “working class internationalism.” Inspired by Iran’s success, Zakzaky founded Nigeria’s Islamic Movement in 1979 and began spreading his flavor of Shia Islam in the country. About 45 percent of Nigerians are Muslim, and, prior to the rise of the Islamic Movement, they were almost entirely Sunni. Shia remain a small but significant minority of the country’s population.

Bat-el Ohayon, founder of sub-Sahara African consultancy Afrique Consulting Group, told Newsweek’s Conor Gaffey that “Shiite Muslims are generally well-integrated in Nigeria and do not suffer direct discrimination or persecution,” but that “there is specific and isolated conflict” with Zakzaky’s Islamic Movement, which is largely centered in Zaria, a major city in the northern part of Nigeria.The conflict between Zakzaky’s movement and Nigerian leadership comes not from any doctrinal differences between Sunni and Shia, and not simply because the leader of Nigeria’s Shiite minority is unapologetic in his support for universal human rights and in his opposition to Nigeria’s alliances with Israel and Saudi Arabia. In July 2014, 34 protesters were killed by Nigerian forces while celebrating Quds Day in Zaria, including three of Zakzaky’s sons. Quds Day, or “land day,” is an annual holiday honoring the struggle of Palestinians against Israeli apartheid. 

But these positions alone would have been unlikely to provoke such a controversial attack during the early days of Buhhari’s presidency. As Draitser pointed out, it’s Zakzaky’s ties to Iran that most likely provoked the arrest and attacks:

“There are many sources, including U.S. counterterrorism sources, sources from the Middle East and all around the world that have painted Zakzaky as a proxy of the Iranians. Zakzaky and his family have made many trips to Iran that have been subsidized by the state. And as a general rule, this is even understood by those who are Shia and in support of Iran, basically, Iran bankrolls all these movements. And there’s no doubt that Iran has been bankrolling the Islamic Movement in Nigeria.”

“So then the question becomes,” Draitser continued, “why would Zakzaky and his followers be targeted by the Nigerian military? For what possible reason?”

Draitser explained:

“As Saudi Arabia and Qatar have seen their position slipping in Syria, with Iranian engagement in that war on the side of the Syrian-Arab army, on the side of Russia and so forth, they have now counter-moved against Iranian interests in other parts of the world. 

That is where the Zakzaky massacre falls into place. That is where the execution of Nimr al-Nimr and the other Shia followers of his falls into place. This is part of a global push by the Saudis and the Qataris to push back against what they perceive to be Iranian proxies and Iranian influence.”

Draitser added that the Saudis also blame the Iranians for the Houthi takeover of Yemen, and the Saudis subsequent involvement in a bloody conflict there. Meanwhile, he argued that the Saudis and Qataris have also been strengthening their power throughout Africa through the support of Wahhabi Islam-inspired terrorist groups like Boko Haram and al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.

“My theory,” Draitser suggested, “is that the Saudis and/or the Qataris made a significant payment to a high-ranking Nigerian military official, perhaps even the general in charge, to wipe out Zakzaky and his movement as a message to the Iranians. I think that is the only explanation of why the Nigerian military would do this when you consider that they’re actually focused on Boko Haram, the inverse of the Islamic Movement.”

In a December interview with PressTV, Ibrahim Musa, spokesman for the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, echoed Draitser’s suspicions:

“So possibly, this government has decided it will finish what [former President Goodluck] Jonathan had started. We believe it is a conspiracy between the Wahhabi, the Israelis and their American surrogates.”

Nigeria is ‘Israel’s biggest ally’

Since the late 20th-century, the Nigerian government has maintained close strategic and economic ties with Israel, a major U.S. and Saudi ally.  A Sept. 2014 report from Arutz Sheva, a right-wing, Zionist news source from Israel, called Nigeria “Israel’s biggest ally.”

Arutz Sheva reporter Jonny Paul added, “Between 2012 and 2013, Nigeria’s exports to Israel rose from $165m to $276m.” 50 Israeli corporations have built branches in Israel, and over 5,000 Nigerian corporations operate in Israel.

In September 2015, a stampede in Mecca killed over 700 and injured 800 during the annual pilgrimage. While the Saudi government tried to blame unsafe behavior by the pilgrims, according to Nigeria’s The Daily Trust, Zakzaky retorted, “For the government of Saudi Arabia to blame pilgrims for killing themselves is ridiculous and a form of human degradation, which is also criminal. They are saying this in order to cover up the real cause of the tragedy.” He put the blame instead on the Saudi royal family, who were visiting the site during the deadly incident: “According to him, the Al-Saud prince whose convoy caused the tragedy and all those [complicit] in the crime should be punished by death, as they caused the death of thousands of innocent pilgrims.”

The Daily Trust quoted Zakzaky as blaming Saudi leadership for not just the disaster at Mecca, but suffering throughout the Middle East as well. “The Saudi authorities cannot fool the world or exonerate itself from the heinous crime and monumental tragedy, as the world knows who is killing their brethren in Yemen, Bahrain, Iraq and Syria,” he told the paper.

Zakzaky’s arrest, then, comes as Nigeria is in the process of deepening its diplomatic ties to Saudi Arabia, including potentially joining Saudi Arabia in its widely publicized “anti-terrorism” alliance. “Nigeria has been formally invited to be a member of the alliance and President Buhari is looking into it,” government spokesman Garuba Shehu told Reuters on Dec. 17.

Many critics have met the announcement of the Saudi-led anti-terrorism alliance with skepticism, and suggested that it’s merely another front for spreading Wahhabism, the extremist political ideology that has widespread support in Saudi Arabia, but also inspires terrorist groups from al-Qaida to Daesh to Boko Haram. In December, New Eastern Outlook also joined Zakzaky and numerous others in attacking Saudi support for terrorism:

“In reality, decades of documented evidence reveal that the Saudis are the primary conduit through which Western cash, weapons, support, and directives flow into mercenary armies of extremists, indoctrinated by Saudi Wahhabism – a politically-motivated perversion of Islam – and sent to execute joint Western-Saudi  geopolitical ambitions in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and beyond.”

Shockingly, an army spokesman tried to defend the brutal crackdown on Zakzaky and his followers by citing years of largely peaceful civil disobedience by the group. Col. Sani Usman, a spokesman for the Nigerian army, told The Guardian on Dec. 16 that there had been “loss of lives as a result of the Shia group members blocking roads and not allowing other passersby to go about their lawful businesses and activities” and added:

“It is important to note that over the years this group has subjected ordinary citizens using public roads to untold hardship, delays, threats and disruption simply because they insist on using public space irrespective of inconvenience and hardship on other law abiding citizens and motorists. This cannot be tolerated and must stop.”

Civil disobedience, widely regarded as a human right in the face of intolerable conditions, cannot justify the army’s vicious crackdown, which claimed the lives of Aliy, another of of Zakzaky’s sons, along with hundreds of others.

Zakzaky and his wife Zeenat went missing for days before Nigerian police admitted in late December that they had him in custody, and that he was undergoing medical treatment for injuries sustained during his violent arrest. However, citing ongoing investigations into Zakzaky’s activities and what he called “orders from above,” the inspector general of the Nigerian police reportedly refused to grant access to any of his supporters. While Zakzaky’s supporters continue to insist they’ve been peaceful, the Nigerian army has attempted to implicate the group in an assassination attempt on the army’s chief of staff in Zaria.

Zakzaky’s Islamic Movement continue to protest for their rights and for their leader. A group of women from the movement marched on January 6to demand the release of Zakzaky and other arrested Shiite Muslims, according to Africa News:

“The women mostly in black attire marched to the offices of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Secretariat, in Kaduna holding different placards and asking for the release of the leader and other members of the sect.”

Hajiya Aisha Hassan, secretary of the Shiite Women’s Wing, told the assembled journalists that the government must acknowledge the massacre “by paying Diyya, (Death Compensation) to all affected families and relations,” and added:

“We call for immediate and unconditional release of our revered leader his Eminence Sheikh El-Zakzaky and his wife.”

The U.S. State Department has joined human rights advocates in calling for an investigation of the massacre, but Nigeria seems unlikely to act fast enough. And Zakzaky’s arrest comes amid a widespread crackdown on dissident voices in Nigeria. Police continue to hold Nnami Kanu, leader of the Biafran separatist group in custody and on Dec. 18, Nigerian forces also shot and killed five of his supporters during a rally for the leader. Sambo Dasuki, a former Nigerian security chief, is also under arrest, allegedly for embezzling billions from the fund set aside to fight Boko Haram.

On Jan. 2, Femi Fani-Kayode, a former Nigerian culture minister, took to Twitter to warn that the mistreatment of these Zakzaky and these other prisoners threatened to destabilize the country according to another report from Newsweek: 

And America too, is complicit in these attacks, according to Draitser. “The instability in Nigeria is, to a large extent, being fomented by the United States because the United States views Nigeria as a proxy and an ally that is shaky at best. Remember, that Nigeria has made major overtures with China in the couple of last years.”

In September, Taylor Butch, writing for International Policy Digest, wrote that Nigeria was China’s “New BFF.”

“Bilateral trade levels between China and Nigeria have exponentially increased since the two countries established strategic relations ten years ago,” he added.

With Nigeria, and its oil riches, in play between the more powerful nations of Saudi Arabia and Iran, and the United States and China, the suffering of its people seems likely to continue for some time.

“I think it’s quite likely that what we’re seeing is an attempt by the U.S. to prevent a realignment of Nigeria,” Draitser concluded.