NIGERIA SUFFERS AS DROP IN OIL PRICES EMPTIES COFFERS - BLOOMBERG

When Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari came to power in May vowing to mend the economy, fight terrorism and end corruption, Kola Karim was upbeat. Oil prices had sunk, but Buhari's arrival made him believe his company still had a chance to prosper in Africa's biggest crude producer.

Shoreline Group, the third-biggest Nigerian oil and gas producer, decided to forge ahead with a $500 million Eurobond to expand drilling operations. Then prices fell below $50 per barrel last year. The bond sale was suspended.

One hope was to rely on income from Shoreline's construction and power-generation businesses. Except that the central bank's refusal to devalue the currency meant Nigeria was starved of foreign exchange, crimping business operations. Now, with prices hovering around $30 a barrel, Shoreline plans to cut 35 percent of its nearly 2,000 staff.

"It's a double whammy," Chief Executive Officer Karim, 47, said in his Lagos office, where two enormous bronze reliefs by artist Bruce Onobrakpeya leaned against the wall. "Getting dollars to bring in raw materials is very tough. If Nigeria was earning enough from its oil revenue, we wouldn't have that." 

Karim's struggle mirrors that of the wider Nigerian economy, Africa's largest. And his difficulties show the challenges faced by Buhari, a 73-year-old former general who ruled Nigeria as a military strongman from 1983 to 1985. His task when he came to office was to push Nigeria to reform. Now he must help it survive.

The government, which in 2014 relied on oil for two-thirds of revenue, can't pay many teachers or finance infrastructure projects. With the economy growing at barely half 2014's 6.3 percent, a recession can't be ruled out this year, according to Morgan Stanley. Nigerian stocks have fallen 16 percent since the end of December, the most in sub-Saharan Africa.

Buhari and central bank Governor Godwin Emefiele have imposed currency controls that encouraged capital flight and suffocated businesses dependent on imported supplies. Emefiele, with Buhari's backing, has pegged the naira for almost a year at 197-199 per dollar, even as major producers from Russia to Mexico and Canada have let their currencies slide. Dangote Group, Nigeria's largest company, has called the foreign-exchange situation "extremely tight."

This week, the black-market rate fell to a record 350 per dollar, 76 percent weaker than the official rate. Former central-bank governor Muhammadu Sanusi II in October told business leaders that Buhari and Emefiele were "in denial" over the currency. 

The president says critics will have to "work much harder" to convince him ordinary Nigerians will gain anything from a devaluation that foreign investors from Ashmore Group Plc to Investec Asset Management Ltd. think is inevitable. The central bank says a weaker currency would only accelerate inflation already at a three-year high of 9.6 percent.

"People were expecting the Buhari dividend and that never really materialized because of the policy inertia," said Ronak Gopaldas, a Johannesburg-based analyst at Rand Merchant Bank. "There's still the perception that currency has to be devalued. But you're getting this stubborn resistance at the top."

Buhari's spokesman Femi Adesina said the president and his government have already responded publicly to questions about economic management. 

"There is no perfect policy," Kayode Fayemi, minister of solid minerals development and former policy director of the ruling All Progressives Congress, said in a Feb. 8 interview. "We have an independent central bank and the central bank should do its job to convince the stakeholders" if a change in policy is needed.

Nigerian authorities say they realize they need to diversify the economy.

"For us, this is an opportunity," Emmanuel Kachikwu, a petroleum minister and head of the state oil company, said last month in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Officials want to broaden the tax base by 5 million individuals and 500,000 companies this year, mostly by tightening enforcement. Nigeria's government-revenue-to-GDP ratio is about 8 percent, the second-lowest level in sub-Saharan Africa after war-torn Central African Republic, according to the International Monetary Fund. South Africa collects 29 percent; Kenya 20 percent.

The government says the tax measure, along with $9 billion of new borrowing from local and international investors and multilateral lenders such as the World Bank, will ensure the government can plug a fiscal deficit set to be a record $15 billion this year. Debt-service payments will be more than three times what is spent on education, and six times the expenditure on health.

Buhari can claim progress for his anti-corruption drive, said Cobus Claassens, managing director of security company Pilgrims Africa Ltd. The president has sacked executives at the national oil company and ordered the new management to clean it up, while starting probes into whether the last government siphoned off billions of dollars meant for the military fighting Islamist militant group Boko Haram in the northeast.

"Buhari is beating a drum that's scaring the living daylights out of every corrupt guy," Claassens said. "That doesn't stop them from being corrupt, but they're not so in-your-face. The offensive side of corruption -- extortion -- is dying out."

Some investors are also benefiting from gains made against Boko Haram, which has been dislodged from swathes of territory it held early last year.

Buhari "has opened the north up a bit more," Alex Kanellis, chief executive officer of PZ Cussons Plc, a U.K. soap maker that gets more than a third of its sales in Africa, said on an earnings call last month. "It's helping improve our distribution."

Still, the president's economic policies are worsening the pain caused by falling oil prices, says RMB's Gopaldas.

"The anti-corruption and security drives are positive, but they need to be matched with clear, unambiguous economic policies," he said. "At $30 a barrel, there's no getting away from the fact it's going to be really tough." - 

- An article by Chris Kay and Paul Wallace with assistance from Yinka Ibukun. 

A NIGERIAN WIFE/MOTHER PROSTITUTE, MURDERED IN THE UK.

Icheoku says all for the love of money and what money can purchase, that a married mother of a four year old boy, would, unbeknownst to her husband, be turning tricks to maintain a lifestyle of keeping up with the Jones. Now tragedy has struck as she was murdered during one of her clients calls.

Nigerian born, British married, self employed business woman, specializing on Brazilian hair and allied beauty products, was slaughtered during a date gone wrong; and left her husband wondering how she flew under the radar for so long, hawking herself, without his having an inkling of what his wife actually did for a living. A living and lifestyle of Gucci and Armani designer bags and shoes and other high-end ensemble; as well as numerous international trips and tours. The police were called to an apartment in Aberdeen Terrace Scotland where they discovered the lifeless body of the victim. They arrested her date, 25 year old Bala Wadzani Chinda and charged him with her murder. Jessica McGraa, 36 years old was married to Gareth McGraa 44 and the couple have a four year old son. 

What a double-agent 007 she was, that was capable of doubling as a sex-seller cum Brazilian hair seller; and successfully kept a lid on the illicit part of her life without even her husband knowing about if and for ten long years. She successfully led her secret life as a fly-in, fly-out sex worker and purveyor of sex which only her death just turned up. Like a traveling nurse and other workers who travel for work, Jessica traveled to wherever destination her client is, that wants and can afford her services of "the ultimate girlfriend experience." She had recently relocated from Aberdeen Scotland to Manchester Britain but still flies back to Scotland for work, servicing her clients in Dundee, Edinburgh and Inverness. She used trade names Ebony Bianca, B Bianca and Kelly Weston for her escort services; describing herself as “classic, stylish, naughty, horny, sexy” and promised to leave clients with exciting memories of the “ultimate girlfriend experience”. 

Her husband Gareth lamented that he 'thought he knew her and it hurts to find out how much she held back from him.' According to him, he did not know that Jessica was turning tricks, selling sex; but said she liked to be the center of attention, was not cheap and likes all the good things of life. She also wanted all her dreams to come through.

It also appears that she was good at what she did for a living as attested by one of her clients who described his experience with her as "The stuff fantasizes are made of." But regrettably the lady who likes the good stuff of life and who once posted on her web page that "None of us will die unfulfilled' and that 'we all shall make a formidable impact in this world', did not seem to have ended up as she planned and anticipated? It does not appear she was fulfilled or made a formidable impact in this world before she died? What an irony of life that all her dreams and ambition came to a sudden halt and shall be interred with her bones. Once again, Icheoku queries whether all these money-craze is worth it afterall? But your guess is as good as mine as it all boils down to what the preacher said in Ecclesiastes 1:2,  vanity of vanities, all is vanity. May her soul now rest.

ANOTHER NIGERIAN MAN KILLS WIFE IN THE US, AN UNENDING TRAGEDY.

Icheoku says in what now seems to be a recurring decimal, domestic violence is ripping Nigerian Diaspora to shreds, leading to increased brutality and spousal killings. Adding to this tally, another Nigerian man, in a murder-suicide, shot and killed his estranged wife and mother of his two children, before turning the gun on himself and blowing his brains out. Icheoku says is this needless fight over nothingness including the almighty dollars, worth the taking of anyone's life including committing suicide? Icheoku does not think so and once again call on Nigeria community, especially those in America, to learn to take the high road and avoid this avoidable shedding of fellow country men and women's blood.

To all these murderous Nigerian men, Icheoku admonishes that before your woman became a nurse, you had a life and so what if she decides not to share her toiling income with you? To the women, please be more careful and prayerful and learn to avoid pushing your men off the cliff of frustration in order to save the community from all these sad developments. 

In Middle River Maryland, Jeremiah S. Igomigoh aka Muhammdu Igomigoh (possibly converted to Islam) 49 years old shot and killed his wife and baby mama Nnenna Ogbonna 44 years old over alleged financial dispute and then turned the gun on himself, thereby rendering their children complete orphans. A gruesome act made more horrifying as his visiting mother inlaw and mother of his wife, who came to baby sit their newly born four months old child, witnessed the macabre display of anger. Icheoku says it is not worth it and prays the good Lord to show mercy and give all these feuding couples the grace to know that there is more to life than dollar bills. May their souls now rest. 

HILLARY CLINTON EKES OUT A WIN, BUT NOT GOING ANYWHERE.

Icheoku says if the aging woman who wants to be the first American female president cannot convincingly trounce a 75 year old, frail looking, silver-haired grandpa, how is she going to fair when faced with the political bulldozer that is Donald Trump. The Democratic Party will be making a very serious huge mistake fielding Hillary Clinton as their candidate in this election for all the reasons which has thus far made her unattractive to the American people. As shown this far, from Iowa to New Hampshire and now Nevada, the American people have continued to reject her and at best given her a very lukewarm and tepid reception on the campaign. 

Hillary Clinton is not the first female candidate Americans want and it is showing in the polls. Icheoku urges the Democratic Party, if indeed they stand a chance at retaining the White House, to please harness into the new energy Bernie Sanders have brought to the election campaign, the youths, and nominate him their candidate. If they fail, Donald Trump is going to easily run away with victory come this November. Simply put, an untrustworthy fast aging woman, who hardly makes eye contact, is not the the type of first female president Americans deserves, desires and wants; and therefore Americans will not have her. Just like another Bush has been forced to turn tails, any other Clinton will suffer the same faith and if not now, in November. Please Americans, say no to another Clinton in the White House. I am Icheoku and I approve this message.

DONALD TRUMP, SIMPLY UNSTOPPABLE.

 

Icheoku says with yet another state in the bag, the man who will make America great again, is apparently now speeding through the autobahn to the White House. South Carolinians overwhelmingly voted to affirm the current momentum in the country and Icheoku agrees that The Donald is what America needs right now. There is wall in Vatican City; even Jericho had its great walls, ditto China, so why not America? Anyone visiting someone usually comes in through the door, so why support anyone jumping into your house through the window and America is a macrocosm of our respective homes. Donald Trump is not saying do not come to America; only that you have to come the correct and right way - through available legal migration channels, period. The little boy agrees and Icheoku concurs that we should build that wall and together help make America great again. Congratulations Donald on your fat victory in South Carolina; GO TRUMP.

DONALD TRUMP FEUDS POPE FRANCIS, CROSSED THE LINE?

Icheoku says this is coming from the same pope who not too long ago told the world 'who is he to judge' of people who choose to love and marry differently?  Then the politically-correctness pope deferred to the powerful world gay community but now suddenly is ready to judge and adorning the garb of a judge is now making pronouncements as to who is or is not a christian? Judging a brave, bold and courageous American who is standing up firm against politics as usual; against politicians not doing their job to secure American borders from illegal migrations and infiltrations; and promising to make America great again. 

Query, why does the pope lock his doors in the Vatican City or are those four walls of his apartment not a form of wall to fence off unwanted and uninvited trespassers and intruders alike? Why is the Vatican city walled off and why does entry into the Cistern Chapel regulated and its doors locked as and at when due? Some would argue that it is for the safe keep of the frescoes and artworks dotting the whole place. So what is then wrong in trying to also keep Americans and what is in America safe with a wall? This then leads to the question why does the pope and his church keep their treasures here on earth? Why did they not listen and heed the provisions of Mathew 6:19-21; Matthew 19:21 and such other many verses of the Bible that warns against earthly possessions. So speaking of who is not a christian, does the fact that the Vatican owns properties and assets valued at over $35 billion while many God's children all over the world are languishing in abject poverty and starvation still make them christians? 

Does this their attitude of keeping stuff, including those their Father Mbaka of AMEN Nigeria did not know what to do with upon his transfer, not negate these biblical injunctions against accumulating earthly treasures and possessions; especially when millions of God's children are languishing of hunger and abject poverty from India to Africa to Latin America to even the United States of America? Icheoku asks what has the Vatican done to help out these millions of starving Kenyans, Ethiopians, Eritreans and other impoverished African countries who are suffering from famine, starvation, wars and other disasters. Yet the Vatican is awashed with billions of dollars and you wonder who are they stashing the money for and they are Christians? The good news however is that no one tells Americans what to do or who to chose to lead them. Therefore, the Vatican should stop trying to influence the outcome of the upcoming  American presidential election because it is not their business who Americans chooses to lead them. 

Moreso, Americans do not try to influence the outcome of Vatican's election or concave, when they decide who they want to lead them as pope of their church. Lucky enough, Americans are always wary of the Vatican and it nearly cost John F Kennedy his election and subsequently hounded John Kerry, another Catholic divorcee, who unsuccessfully ran for United States president because Americans do not trust Vatican and do not want their president beholding to the pope. The pope's uncalled for outburst can only help consolidate Donald Trump's ongoing revolution to make America great again; because in matters of American welfare and issues, Americans come first before the pope. Americans cannot take orders or allow their election to be influenced by just one religious leader out of the so many other religious leaders of different religions which the world has. The pope is leading about 1billion people in a world that has over 7 billion people. so?

The somewhat Vatican's attempt at intervening in America's presidential election reminds Icheoku of Fela Anikulapo Kuti's song "Religion na (is) politics". it makes one to wonder what is the pope's business meddling in a purely internal affairs of America - the expressed intent to protect the borders of  an independent sovereign state of America. It is such meddling and always telling people what to do and how to behave and morality including their shifting positions on gaydom, divorce and now birth control that is continually depleting its follower-ship. People are smarter today than to be led by the nose from the Vatican City. Icheoku recalls that Britain broke away from the Catholic Church for among other things, the   payment and disbursement of Peter's pence; giving rise to  the formation of Anglo-Catholic (Anglican) church. 

Icheoku is delighted that the Donald told the pope to wait a minute, as his plans is merely to protect a sovereign territory's borders and that it has nothing to do with the Vatican or any other country for that matter. Good enough too, the Donald is a real man with two great steal balls in his groins and so took on the pope decisively. Like with the past battles, he took on the establishment and survived; he has taken on illegal immigration and survived; he has taken on the mighty Bush family and survived; he has taken on politics as usual and survived; he has taken on Muslims terrorists and survived; he has taken on all manners of interest and pundits and survived and will again survive the current pope's interpretation of who is a Christian.  A pope who has been engaged in active papal politics since his ascension and who is known, like the bouncer he once was, to bend hands until he mission accomplish an objective, will be told not this time. He did it with Cuba and Obama and suddenly fifty years old frozen relationship is being thawed. 

Now he wants the southern border to be thrown wide open for the country to be overrun by Mexicans; except that the pope did not ask Angel Merkel and the Germans how funny they are finding their own Syrian refugees experiment. Icheoku says for the pope to butt out from trying to influence the outcome of the coming American presidential election and to quit playing politics with America's national security interest, an initiative which Donald Trump has taken on strongly as protecting the borders will be his priority number one. Nobody is against anyone coming to anyone's house; but please do it through the door and don't try to jump in through the window, especially at night, otherwise you become a burglar who deserves to be treated as one. Finally, Icheoku says if it means Donald Trump taking on the entire world in order to make America great again, so be it; but the task at hand must be mission accomplished including building the wall, the Trump Wall. Donald Trump lets make America great again, build that wall.

SO WHAT IF DONALD TRUMP IS A RACIST?

Icheoku says please give me a break; who is not a racist in America? Which white skinned American, majority of who are descendants of slave owners including Hollywood Ben Affleck, is not a racist?  Since the last time Icheoku checked, a racist is defined as "a person who believes that a particular race is superior to another" and so now please someone show Icheoku that pale skinned American who does not believe in the white privilege? By extension, which of these candidates running for the presidency of the United States of America lives in a black neighborhood or black community? How many of them attend black churches? How many of their children go to black school or one in black neighborhood? How many of them even have a black friend?

Bill Clinton did not marry a black woman? Bill Clinton also, in his numerous dalliance, did not have sex with any of that woman who is black? Ditto Hillary Clinton, who none of her personal assistants is black and their daughter Chelsea did not marry a black man? In the neighborhood where they live and possibly the church they attend, there possibly does not a black person reside nor attend? Their antecedents, especially with Jesse Jackson during his run for the presidency in 1988 as well as Barack Obama's 2008 run did not establish their truly being in bed with black people. How many black friends do they even have, speaking about a white couple that loves black people dearly and are not racists? Who increased incarceration of blacks in America, Bill Clinton. Ditto the other guys in the other party as well as Hillary's challenger Bernie Sanders. But suddenly it is election season and Hillary is speaking and talking black, visiting Flint in solidarity with black folks being poisoned with lead; as well as visiting Al Sharpton and black churches to show her blackness. Icheoku says only the gullible is deceived and will be deceived. 

This responds to numerous inquiries by various people as to why Icheoku is supporting Donald Trump despite all the bomb-throwing, somewhat racially tinged rhetorics associated with him during this election cycle. Icheoku is emphatic there are two types of white people - those who show you their teeth in pretentious smile that they love you, only to drive the knife right through into your heart once you turn your back; and those who will tell you upfront that they are more comfortable with people who look like them and share their values. Any other thing in between is rare. So among all the racist white people running to succeed the nigger currently in a "hostile occupation" of their White House, Donald Trump does it for Icheoku, because he is at least honest and upfront with his feelings towards people who do not look like him nor share his white supremacy values. 

A popular aphorism has it that the devil one knows is always better than the devil lurking in the garb of an angel, only to strike you dead at any slightest opportunity. The worst enemy anyone could have is that enemy who is pretending to be a friend - the Brutus of this world. Julius Ceasar was stabbed severally but it was only the stab by Brutus that Caesar regretted with his now famous quote 'Et tu Brute?" Nigeria's late MKO Abiola once said that "with a friend like IBB no one needs an enemy." So it is not those already identified enemies which one is already guarded and protected against that constitute the problem; nope, it is those enemies pretending to be friends, who have access to one's inner recesses, while plotting how to drive that dagger right through underneath the rib cage. Icheoku listens to Rush Limbaugh too; another no go area for pretentious people, who brand him a racist; while disregarding their own appalling resume on race relationship in America. The wise listens to his enemy to know what the attack plans or flange of attack will be and then hone in his defenses accordingly. 

Icheoku says but for the upcoming election, Hillary Clinton as well as Bernie Sanders would not have cared enough to give a hoot about the abject poverty bedeviling millions of black Americans in America. It is not just about the photo-op which Flint Michigan provided this two candidates as caring, they should as a matter of seriousness, travel through American inner cities and communities of color to witness first hand the level of poverty in which fellow Americans are living which even some poverty-stricken third world countries cannot be proud of. But this is America, the food basket of the world and the wealthiest nation on earth, yet some of her people are suffering abject poverty simply because the color of their skin is somewhat different and below par. Anyway, the campaign season is full stream and hopefully Donald Trump will clinch the Republican Party's nomination and go ahead to win the presidency of America. Then and after then will  Icheoku revisit his suitability for president of the United States of America, if need be; but please give Icheoku a break he is a racist because all of them are.

'PROPHET OF GOD AND MAN OF GOD' CHURCHES, CLAMP THEM DOWN - PUMZA FIHLANI

Some governments and organisations in Africa are starting to think churches should be held accountable to a being other than God. Of concern to many with interests in the Christian faith are the "prophet of God" or "man of God" churches. These are led by self-proclaimed prophets or messengers who are believed by their millions of devoted followers to have the power to perform a range of miracles from healing the sick, curing Aids and even raising the dead. But who dares take on these seemingly untouchable men? 

Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta recently called for the regulation of churches. The government there says the move is aimed at stamping out bogus churches. "They are thieves and not preachers. We have to consult and know how to remove them," the president is quoted as saying by Kenyan newspaper Daily Nation. When approached for comment on the skepticism around their sometimes bizarre practices, the response is often a variation of "we are being targeted" or "the Bible says the man of God will face opposition. Christ himself faced opposition". 

But the controversy is not unique to Kenya. Nigerian evangelist TB Joshua made news following a building collapse at his Synagogue Church of All Nations church in Lagos, which killed 116 people. A coroner's report blamed the collapse on shoddy work, saying the structure had not met safety standards but Mr Joshua's church denied this, instead blaming the collapse on a mysterious plane which had been flying above the double-storey building shortly before it was reduced to rubble. Of those killed, more than 80 were from South Africa, illustrating the international nature of some of the bigger churches. 

In South Africa, two churches - Rabboni Ministries and End Times Disciples Ministries - made headlines here when the churches posted images of their leaders feeding followers snakes and rats, or instructing congregants to drink petrol and eat grass. The images caused a nationwide outcry. At the time, the man dubbed the "snake pastor" by local media, Prophet Penuel Mnguni, said he was "doing God's work and didn't need to explain God's ways to people".  

Having tried to contact the prophet a number of times without success, I set off to locate him in the last place he was known to hold services. In the scorching Pretoria heat and after hours of driving, one resident, in extension 13 in Soshanguve, a township outside the capital, told me my search was futile. "It's Sunday but you won't find him anywhere here. He'll never come back here. We burnt his church and chased him away," he said. "Some people threatened to kill him if he ever returns. People here are angry at what he did - that's why he ran away." A few other people confirmed the "ban" and that seems to be the end of that. 

Some organisations are also curious about the business of the church. South Africa's Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities (CLR) which summoned 40 churches, said their wide-ranging sessions found that "commercialization is definitely there… and abuse of people's belief systems". "The sector needs to be regulated," CLR chairperson Thoko Mkhwanazi-Xaluva told the BBC. "We've found that other religions such as Islam and the Jewish religion are systematized for disciplinary codes and monitoring but Christianity, because of its volatility in terms of anyone being able to start up their own church, we feel there is a need for regulation, self-regulation," she said. The challenge though becomes - whose role this should be, the government or the church body itself? 

Pastor Conrad Mbewe, of the Kabwata Baptist Church in Zambia, says charismatic churches have a stronghold on the continent because "Africans are hugely spiritual". "Africans do not question the existence of God as in the case with many in the Western World," said Mr Mbewe. "It is believed that there needs to be a conduit that enables communication between humans of the various layers of spiritual beings, which include angels, demons and spirits. They see these prophets as messengers from God," he said. He told me that financial swindling and sexual abuse were a concern for church leaders in Zambia. "We have been made aware of incidents of sexual abuse, which is said to take place when they attend overnight church gatherings." 

There is evidence that bogus churches target vulnerable people, Ms Mkhwanazi-Xaluva told me. "Issues of poverty and unemployment are at the core of people's reliance on these types of churches. We've found this group is incredibly desperate and will do whatever they are told to do if promised that it will change their lives." This is not to say all evangelical churches are bad, the same way we cannot say all orthodox churches are good and without controversy. The majority of the Christian community and its leaders are well respected here. 

The South African constitution allows for "freedom of religion". This means the constitution protects everyone's religion, as long as it acts within the ambit of the law - this also makes it easy for anyone to start a church. Reverend Moss Nthla of the Evangelical Alliance of South Africa, which has more than three million members, accepts that the Christian family is facing many challenges but says the government cannot be called upon to address spiritual matters. "It is difficult to see how the government would regulate churches; we've got reports of politicians themselves being faithful members of some of these controversial churches - some of which are a law unto themselves." "There needs to be at the very least, a bare minimum standard that we as Christians can set and adhere to and any church found to be operating outside of that needs to be stigmatized  We would have failed as church leaders if we do nothing," said Reverend Nthla.

THE POPE HAD A GIRLFRIEND, A SAUL ALSO AMONG THE PROPHETS?

Icheoku says recalls a story told by mother about one Irish missionary catholic priest back in the day. According to the narrative, the priest was preaching the gospel in the community church one Sunday way back in 1955 and told the congregation that on the last day they might be surprised to enter heaven to find the chief priest of the local deity seated in heaven and looking over in hell find the pope, the bishop and even himself languishing in hellfire. The moral of story, provided you stay upright and do what is right, you will make heaven if one exists. The bible also tells us that those who do nefarious things in secret or who use the cover of darkness to perpetrate evil deeds, that the good Lord in heaven who created night and who also sees in darkness sees them. That if you deceive your fellow man, you cannot deceive God Almighty. 

Giving the fast developing story that the late Pope John Paul II, who was even canonized a saint, had a girlfriend whom no one ever knew about, Icheoku says why continue this life of deceit? They too, men in cassock, are human beings and have same desires of flesh as we mere mortals; so why not just burst open all these pretensions of celibacy and come to terms with their humanity. Why hide it and act as if they are superhuman and surreptitiously go around satisfying their urge behind closed doors. Icheoku calls on the Catholic church to use this epiphany and reconsider their celibacy law and lift the ban on their priests from exercising or fulfilling their fleshly calling. If 1 Timothy 3:1-4 and Leviticus 21:7 & 13 stipulate that men in cassock should be husbands and fathers and in that way will know better how to manage their flock, why must the church be different. Icheoku nearly forgot the story of Mary Magdalene and Jesus, so the pope might actually be in order here,  for crying out loud. 

According to the developing story, Pope John Paul II had an "emotionally intimate affair” with a married Polish-American philosopher, New Hampshire academic, Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka lasting over 32 long years and pictures and correspondences abound to prove it. The rest of the story below:- 

"The future pope, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, and Tymieniecka met in 1973 when he was a teacher at Lublin University in Poland. Tymieniecka’s loved ones sold her letters to the Polish archivists in a seven-digit deal following her death in 2014, the BBC reported. But instead of celebrating the incredible score, Polish archivists kept the fascinating papers under wraps until the BBC finally got a look at them recently, the British broadcasters said. 

The archive includes pictures of the future pope in shorts, on a lakeside camping trip with Tymieniecka, and in full ski gear on the slopes with her. Nothing in the letters shows a forbidden love affair that would break John Paul’s vow of celibacy. But the pair appeared to share a deep emotional intimacy, with John Paul once telling her she was a gift to him from God. He said in that missive: “If I did not have this conviction, some moral certainty of Grace, and of acting in obedience to it, I would not dare act like this.” 

Tymieniecka stayed in close touch with John Paul after she moved to the United States and even during his reign as pope. She visited him the day before he died in 2005. The relationship between John Paul and Tymieniecka wasn’t a secret — and was first disclosed in Carl Bernstein’s 1997 book, “His Holiness.” But Bernstein said these papers shed remarkable new light on John Paul. “We are talking about Saint John Paul. This is an extraordinary relationship,” Bernstein said. “It’s not illicit. Nonetheless, it’s fascinating. It changes our perception of him.”

JEB CALLS GW TO THE RESCUE, WILL HIS DADDY BE NEXT?

Icheoku says first he sauntered on the terrain all by himself, alone, only to discover that playing in the big league requires more than just a family name. He found it too tough to handle and so scurried back home to call on mom who-knows-best, to come and bail him out. His mother unsuccessfully tried to market him to the American people who call New Hampshire home, as they rejected him and with thundering outcry screamed ENOUGH OF THE BUSHES. Not fazed and like every mama's boy who is exhibiting Frat-tendency of 'why not me' entitlement, he has once again ran back to his family for another round of bailout. This time, it is his big brother, a former president, whose presidency left so much sour taste in so many Americans mouth that he has dragged to the campaign trail. 

A presidency which many right thinking Americans wished never happened and at best, is better forgotten; but which in eyes of the mama's boy, was the best thing to happen to America and a very successful  presidency to brag about. Icheoku says if George Walker Bush's presidency was good enough for JEB, so much as to want and wish an encore, a repeat, a reincarnation of it, then his aspiring presidency is one American people would be better off without and therefore should not be embraced. American people will be better of with it aborted right now than to relive the presidency whose havoc the world is still reaping till today. GW, whose presidency did not and could not "MISSION ACCOMPLISH" anything, is who JEB is banking on now to come and MISSION ACCOMPLISH his presidential aspiration, by helping him secure the nomination of the Republican Party. 

Now GW is telling American people in South Carolina that Jeb Bush has the right judgment to be president and one wonders if George Bush is the most qualified person to make a call on anyone's judgment; not after his own judgment that marched troops into the quagmire that is the unnecessary egotistic Iraqi war. Anyway, American people know better and they know that George Bush's presidency left so much to be desired and they will have none of it, not anymore. What GW is trying to sell this time, his baby brother, as presidential candidate and possible president of America is not kosher. Icheoku says what JEB's more beloved mother Barbara could not do for him in New Hampshire, he wants his loathed brother George to do in South Carolina? 

But serving as a devil's advocate, who is JEB going to summon again, next time to his campaign trail, should South Carolinas also reject his brother's plea for mercy as New Hampshire rejected his mother's plea? May be it will be time to pull the kitchen sink by bringing his 94 year old wheel chair bound and dementia afflicted daddy Herbert to the campaign? But hey, desperate times calls for desperate measures; except that JEB is getting it all wrong thinking or believing that the problem is in his message and its delivery. Icheoku says nope, it is not a case of the message, rather it is the messenger.  

JEB's rejection is not because of what his message says or is not saying; no his rejection is a reaction of the American peoples fatigue with an impending political dynasty which they are not prepared to institutionalize. JEB's rejection is because of what he represents and American people are tired of same Bush same Bush all the time. It is the Bush/Clinton fatigue and so it does not matter if he resurrects Ronald Reagan to come and pound the trail for him, he will not be elected. But even if he   miraculously wins, will he be calling on his family to the rescue each time governing becomes  tough? If he cannot campaign and win his own election by himself, how can he then govern by himself? Anyway Donald Trump called it right that JEB is a LOW ENERGY mama's boy who cannot man-o-man-o tie his own shoe lace.  GO TRUMP, Trump all the way.

THE BED WHERE SCALIA DIED.

Icheoku says what is in a bed afterall? It looks like any other Joe bed anywhere, except that this is the bed on which United States Supreme Court Justice Antonio Scalia died. Icheoku's bed might even be in contention as to a better looking bed but this is the presidential bed in a presidential suite, El Presidente, in Cibolo Creek private Ranch in Shafter Texas where Supreme Court Justice Antonio Scalia gave up the ghost. 

Icheoku says who knows whether the Republican Party, especially their ultra conservative right wing, will convert it into another Lincoln Bedroom and sort of make it into a Mecca for conservative faithfuls to go earn their bragging right of having slept on the bed on which Justice Scalia breathed his last. What a money spinner it will be for their cause since the late justice identified mightily with their causes to somewhat become their light of beacon. But hey it is life and it is an empty air - here (today) this evening, gone (tomorrow) in the morning. Icheoku says may his conservative soul now rest. 

PUTIN'S RUSSIA ON THE CUFF - CROWLEY

Russia is facing economic disarray — and with that has come a spike in protests by workers and others. The Kremlin has reason to be worried.

What’s causing this Russian economic crisis? International economic sanctions because of the occupation of the Crimea; a decline in the ruble; and above all the collapse in oil prices are all to blame. With the pinch, the government will be forced to continue to raise taxes and cut benefits, which will almost invariably lead to more protest.

Russian workers — a group often seen as supportive of Putin and his regime — are already protesting wages that are shrinking and sometimes not being paid at all. Most recently, a nationwide protest by thousands of truck drivers caused panic when they descended on Moscow to protest a new tax. Russia’s liberal opposition hopes — and the Kremlin fears — that Russian workers from the heartland might join with middle class protesters from Moscow and St. Petersburg. In 2011-12, tens of thousands of those urban  liberals took to the streets in Russia’s two main cities, donning white ribbons to protest what they alleged were fraudulent elections that led to Putin’s return to the presidency.

Such a combination, across class and region, might lead to a “colored revolution” of the kind that drove corrupt leaders from power in post-Soviet countries like Ukraine and Georgia. Putin has sought to inoculate himself from such an event, in part by championing workers who denounced the Moscow protesters, and portraying himself as real Russian muzhik — a regular guy who hangs out with biker gangs.

But is a “colored revolution” on the horizon in Russia? Despite some commentators‘ suggestions, that’s quite unlikely. But Putin is no doubt concerned. The economic crisis and the prospect of growing protests pose substantial challenges to his leadership. 

As global oil and gas prices plummet, the Russian government is in crisis. As recently as 2013, revenues from that sector accounted for 50 percent of the federal budget. The loss of that revenue not only puts a crimp in Russia’s economy; it changes the very relations between the Russian state and society.

When oil prices were high the Russian government could afford to use oil industry “rents” to help maintain the legitimacy of the regime. That’s what Nikolay Petrov, Maria Lipman and Henry E. Hale (among others) have termed a “non-intrusion pact”: The government offers economic growth and a certain level of social benefits and subsidies and otherwise leaves citizens alone, so long as they stay out of politics.

With oil income dropping, however, the Russian government can’t keep up its end of the bargain. Now it needs citizens to accept fewer benefits and to pay higher taxes just as their incomes are dwindling.

And Russians aren’t happy, turning out for a surge in economic protests throughout the country. Petr Bizyukov at the Center for Social and Labor Rights in Russia found 409 labor protests in Russia last year, the highest since the center began keeping records in 2008. That’s a 40 percent increase from 2014 and 76 percent higher than the average from 2008-2013 (which included Russia’s economic crisis of 2008-09).

Data: Petr Bizyukov, the Center for Social and Labor Rights. Figure: Petr Bizyukov and Stephen Crowley

Other databases are reporting a similar increase in labor protests. Many workers clearly weren’t going to follow the traditional Russian pattern of quietly supplementing lower wages with larger potato gardens and vodka binges, as Andrei Kolesnikov of Carnegie Moscow had suggested they might.

Then, last November, came a nationwide protest by Russia’s long-haul truck drivers, when the government moved to implement a new road tax on load-bearing tractor-trailers. The fee charged might seem small — four rubles per kilometer for trucks weighing over 12 tons —  but many truckers argued that they were barely breaking even before the new tax.

Drivers in 43 of Russia’s 85 regions and more than 70 cities took to the streets in various forms of protest. In some cases, they drove in “snail” convoys at less than 10 miles per hour. In other cases they blockaded highways altogether. The protests persisted through December, with truckers in some regions refusing to drive in January. Trade with neighboring countries was temporarily disrupted.

The truckers were especially furious that the fees would be collected by a private company owned by the son of Arkady Rotenberg, one of Putin’s longtime cronies. Last December, as truckers drove to Moscow with a threat to blockade the city’s ring road, some carried signs saying “Rotenberg is worse than ISIS.” Another proclaimed, referring to the earlier middle-class protesters in Moscow, “We are not like those white-ribboned dreamers in 2011. We have crowbars, and we won’t hesitate to use them when we are pushed to the wall.”

Although the protests were largely ignored by state-run media, opinion polls showed that almost two-thirds of the population supported the truckers.

But the truckers’ revolt did not portend a coming colored revolution. The authorities prevented most truckers from reaching central Moscow, intercepting several convoys along the way. Their protests have largely died out, even though the government offered only limited concessions, such as a reduction in the fine for noncompliance.

But what’s more significant is that, despite some angry slogans, the truckers mainly demanded changes in the tax system, not the political system. Rather than denouncing Putin, most truckers appealed to him. “President, help us!” was one of the most prominent slogans. Some of the opposition groups that had been behind the 2011/2012 protests — both on the left and the right — tried to unite with the truckers, in order to combine economic with political demands to bring about substantial change in Russia. But the truckers would have none of it.

There is still a wide gap in Russia between the growing economic concerns of many, on the one hand, and the strong levels of support for Putin as a leader, on the other. That suggests that most Russians are a long way from calling for regime change. Many still credit Putin with “raising Russia from its knees” after the disastrous 1990s. They remain convinced by state media that colored revolutions like the 2014 Maidan revolution in Ukraine lead to anarchy.

There is also the question of whether the truckers’ revolt counts as a labor protest. As owner-operators, most Russian truckers are small businessmen, surviving on very small margins. As Russian analyst Dmitrii Oreshkin has argued, the truckers protest can best be seen as a taxpayers’ revolt.

Labor hasn’t been especially powerful in Russia. Most of those hundreds of labor protests cataloged by the Center for Social and Labor Rights have been small and isolated, only affecting a particular city or company. Russian unions are generally weak, and in the past most strikes were spontaneous events in private firms in far-flung regions or in “monotowns” — one-industry towns left struggling after the Soviet collapse.

When wider protests do happen, it’s because government actions hurt disparate workers as a single category, as happened with the truckers. Coordinated, cross-regional labor protests are indeed increasing, led not by industrial workers but most often by “budget sector” employees such as teachers and medical workers who are being hit by money-saving reform plans, cuts in state budgets, or sometimes the nonpayment of their wages.

Citizens protest, too, when the Kremlin tries to cut benefits and raise revenue. In 2005 the government attempted to replace Soviet-era benefits like free public transportation and energy subsidies for the elderly with cash handouts that many felt didn’t make up for the loss.

After spontaneous protests among the elderly in several Russian regions, the government quickly backed down, in the end spending more than the reforms would have saved.

Similarly, in 2008, a government attempt to tax imported cars brought protesters out in the streets in dozens of cities. The protests were eventually dispersed, and the tax remained, but costly compensation was provided to the cities with the greatest protest.

As with the truckers, the Putin regime survived these protests with some combination of concessions and repression. But the protests revealed that the state can only demand so much from the population.

And now labor protests in Russia’s industrial regions are on the rise, becoming less isolated, as protesters from one firm clump together with strikers from another.

These new protestors come from Putin’s base of support

When Putin survived the protests in 2011 and won the March 2012 presidential election, some speculated that he did so by pitting “rural and Rust Belt Russia against urban and modernizing Russia.”

Yet the very presence of worker protests challenges Putin’s claim to be the guarantor of stability. Russia’s working class is said to be Putin’s electoral base, and parliamentary elections loom in September. While workers may not be ready to join anti-Putin protests, economic discontent will certainly impact support for United Russia, the Kremlin-backed party long dominating parliament.

So what can the Russian government do? The government has been subsidizing many factory towns that are teetering on bankruptcy — but that money is going away. With the steep drop in oil revenues, the Russian government will be compelled to raise taxes and cut spending. And that will almost inevitably lead to more protests.

In short, barring a sudden jump in oil prices, the Putin regime must renegotiate its relationship with Russian society, and the results may not be pretty.

A VALENTINE MESSAGE YOU CAN USE.

Icheoku says February 14th is today. The day the world of romantics celebrate Saint Valentine, the priest who one folklore said defrocked in order to marry his sweetheart. Another tradition has it that a priest facing execution, as a last act, wrote a 'Goodbye my love" letter to a girl he was smitten by, signing it off as "Your Valentine?" But  however you interpret it and possibly if you are among the many of the world who see it as a day for lovers to recommit themselves to one another, just be minded that love is a two way traffic lane. It goes both ways. 

You should never accept a situation of being merely tolerated and not fully accepted in any relationship as that is not love. Loving relationships should be on equal footing of desires, regardless. Therefore the only way to optimally, truly live a life of love and in love, is to be wanted and desired; but never to be merely accommodated or tolerated as a disposable means to achieving an end or objective. Like MKO Abiola once said, you cannot shave one's head in his absence; so before Cupid strikes, be mindful that it takes a haired head and a barbing hand to achieve a haircut. Happy Valentine's fellas and may you live to love and love to live.

ANGER IS PAIN MASKED, GET IT RESOLVED.

Pain is usually the underneath of anger issues. People, while reacting to bottled up pain, always come across as angry and ready to tip over at the slightest provocation. Anger is a reaction and not necessary an action; it is simply a reaction to an already festering pain which has refused to go away. It is akin to an angry dog, which is reacting to abuse and torture or even hunger by barking and trying to bite anyone who comes its way. Such dog sees every person as an extension and continuation of the human-being who abused it and is ready to protect and defend itself from any further abuse. 

An angry person is a protective person, who made a conscience decision not to ever take any chances again by giving allowance to any possible relive of the horrible past experience of hurt which was suffered in the past. The solution, try to speak to the underlying pain and have it resolved; and then draw out the real person hiding and taking a protective shield behind the defensive anger. Such angry person does not want to be hurt again and reminded what he or she went through in the past or forced to live it all over again. In doing this, you will successfully bring out the compassion in the person and peradventure bring back the person; failing which he or she will continue to manifest an imbedded pain as anger and will be loathed by many as that angry bitch or dog.