BIAFRA: DID NDIGBO KILL JESUS? - S.K.C. OGBONNIA.

The early part of June 2017 saw Arewa Youths issue a “Quit Notice” to the Igbo living in Northern Nigeria. This followed the 50-year anniversary of the Biafran war where both friends and foes of Biafra took turn to tell their stories with objective emphasis on the Igbo. After a careful analysis, it has been easy to dismiss the entire anniversary exercise as orchestrated by the politicians as busy doing something very close to nothing. Thus, I am prompted to ask: Did the Igbo Kill Jesus? 

The Igbo people need no introduction. Though their population is unknown, the Igbo are everywhere. Definitely well-known are their ingenuity, resilience and, of course, overflowing technological and scientific acumen. This informs the famous quotation by the then United States of America Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, that the Igbo are as “the wandering Jews of West Africa—gifted, aggressive, westernized…” These attributes are more than enough to enable the Igbo to enjoy steady political power and development in Nigeria. Unfortunately, that has not been the case. 

Much of the blame at the anniversary was heaped on the loss of the Biafran war. Yes, the Igbo have endured all sorts of discrimination because of the war. But to continue to drum the linear excuse 50 years after the war only goes to fortify the rationale for the fetid question: Did the Igbo Kill Jesus? Did the Igbo kill Jesus not to even remember where the heaviest of the rain started and how it is beating them? 

Let me resist the temptation of harping on the missed opportunities before the war when Nnamdi Azikiwe and his Igbo intelligentsia had a commanding influence in national politics—both in prestige and ideology. Now in the post-war, it is not impolitic to suggest that the Igbo have seen a fair share of political positions throughout the post-war democratic dispensations beginning from the regime of Shehu Shagari to that of Goodluck Jonathan. The tragedy, regrettably, is that there is no tangible development in the East besides primitive accumulation of wealth by the individual politicians themselves. 

To sustain the unhindered looting of development projects in the zone, the Southeast leaders in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) perfected one of the most blatant political perfidies in recent memory. Though they were keenly aware that the PDP would rationally zone its presidency to the North in 2019, the Igbo leaders deceived their people with the false premise that uniting with the South-South zone to support President Jonathan in the 2015 election would guarantee a presidency of Southeast extraction in 2019. It was not surprising, therefore, that Muhammadu Buhari’s eventual triumph over Jonathan was generally seen as a rude coup d’état in East. 

This development, coupled with the abject lack of development in Igboland plus President Buhari’s infamous outburst to punish the Southeast and South-South zones for not voting for him in the 2015 elections, heightened the renewed call for Biafra by innocent youths. Notably, the agitators retained the natural map of Biafra and added parts of North Central zone to it. 

The more troubling, however, is the mind boggling hypocrisy being exhibited by the Igbo politicians ever since. Outwardly, they (particularly those in PDP) appear to fan the agitation. Inwardly, these political merchants know that the innocent youths are merely being exploited as usual. After all, the same politicians who are continuing to deploy the proceeds from looted development projects in Igbo land to acquire choice properties in Abuja and Lagos would resist any plan to leave Nigeria. 

This explains why the Igbo PDP leaders craftily deflated the agitation and its exigent cause. For instance, instead of capitalizing on the undeniable natural bond between Southeast and South-South or the seemingly sense of unity among the two zones following the 2015 elections to launch Eastern Caucus at the National Assembly or emulate the North to create Eastern Governors Forum, the “wise” men from the East succumbed to making the cause of Biafra solely an Igbo-Southeast affair. 

What the looters did was to simply embrace the age-long state bandwagon to distort the Biafran history to the Igbo disadvantage. The so-called Igbo leaders or any sensible elite for that matter cannot claim ignorance of the fact that natural Igbo territory is beyond the Southeast. Moreover, Biafra is not even an Igbo word to begin with. In fact, it was Frank Opigo, an Ijaw—not Igbo—who christened the new nation at time of its birth in May 1967. How soon can they forget that the last Head of State of Biafra, Phillip Effiong, is not from the Southeast? What does it take to remind them that the former Secretary-General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, a Biafran war commander,  Joe Achuzia, is not from the Southeast? 

What curse would make them to join to act as if though Chukwuma Nzeogwu, who led the coup commonly blamed for the civil war, was not an Igbo from the South-South? What does it take to acknowledge that a good number of influential figures from the South-South subscribes to the Biafran cause? Even if Biafra has suddenly become an exclusive Igbo agenda, how can any reasonable Igbo elite circumvent the knowledge of natural Igbo settlements in the South-South and North Central zones?

Obviously, there are crises of leadership in Igboland as there are excuses. As my father, Ilogebe Ogbonnia, the Ikeoha, would always say, “a habit of excuses is the best friend of failure.” The latest excuse is the term “restructuring”, whatever that means. The loudest perspective is that the Igbo will witness the desired development once the country is restructured along tribal lines—as if the local governments and states in Igboland are headed by the Hausas or Yorubas. The political racketeers now want us to believe that the over $100 billion in federal money that entered the Southeast zone since May 1999, for example, was looted by the non-Igbo. 

Make no mistake about it, the merits for restructuring or independent states can be profound. But could lack of restructuring suddenly be responsible for the failure of Ndigbo to use occasion of the 50-year anniversary of the Biafran war to chart a clear roadmap for the future? Is lack of restructuring truly to blame for the failure of Ndigbo and the South-South to emulate the North in creating concrete unifying agendas in the East 50 years after the war? Further, is lack of restructuring responsible for the perpetual failures of South East Governors Forum or Igbo umbrella groups, such as World Igbo Congress and Ohaneze Ndigbo towards unity of purpose?

Not long ago, 1991 to be exact, the Igbo people of Awka and Onitsha Divisions witnessed a form of restructuring in new Anambra State for rapid development. A purposeful visit to Awka, the state capital, is a painful testimony of what to make of the timbers and calibers of Igbo people that hail from such a richly endowed state. 

The dawn of 2017 was a cool breeze in the entire Nigerian polity with the emergence of John Nnia Nwodo, a dynamic figure, as the President-General of Ohaneze Ndigbo. But Nwodo’s reign is already trending as a fall before the rise. The apex Igbo organization already appears hijacked by faceless politicians. A day hardly passes without one manner of “Ohaneze Youths” fouling the media space, shamelessly posing as shields to politicians who have cases to answer with anti-corruption agency for looting funds earmarked for development projects in Igboland. 

The worst is that the folly does not stop with the Igbo politicians. A host of the Igbo people, including their business men, have not fared better in terms of common sense. It is a common knowledge that the leading cause of armed robbery, kidnapping and, of course, the Biafran agitation is attributed to lack of employment and development in the East. Yet, the Igbo prefer to invest massively in other regions rather than their native land that remains 75% underdeveloped.

Karl Marx once remarked that, “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.” 

The first Head of State of Biafra, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, never failed to wonder if in fact Mr. Marx had Ndigbo in mind for continuing to repeat the tragic mistakes of the pre-war era when they paid direly for investing in other regions at the cruel expense of their homeland. Ojukwu has been rolling in his grave learning that even Olusegun Obasanjo, a perceived Igbo enemy, has joined to admonish the Igbo to first demonstrate the ability to manage their meagre resources and the common sense to invest in their native land before the dream of an independent Biafra. It is no wonder, therefore, that the very economic boycott of Igboland by the Igbo made it convenient for the Arewa Youths to respond to the Biafran agitation by serving a Quit Notice to the Igbo living in the Northern Nigeria.

Given the Igbo predicament, and in view that the people are said to be of Jewish ancestry, it might then be roundly apt to ask: Did the Igbo kill Jesus Christ to appear so cursed to deserve the self-inflicted marginalization they are going through? That is, what other omen could warrant that the well-known “Igbo sense” would never be used for the collective interest of my people? What other immortal sin could subject the Igbo youths, for instance, to continue to extol the same corrupt politicians who have mortgaged their future?  What is behind the raging oddity that two pea-brained and notoriously corrupt Yoruba elements, Femi Fani-Kayode and Ayo Fayose, now appear to be the official spokesmen of Ndigbo? Biko, what excuses would cause that there are no more consequences for bad behaviour in Igbo land? 

The apparent dilemma is tipping the critical threshold for mass revolution. The alarming success of a recent Sit-at-Home Order by the Biafran agitators must alert the sit-tight Igbo politicians that the political logic of clinging on excuses to deceive the masses no longer favours them. Effective leadership is measured by results, not excuses. Therefore—for now—unless the answer to the central question of this piece is positive, instead of the mindless freebooting of project funds in the area, it is incumbent upon the Igbo politicians to capitalize on the widely-acclaimed ingenuity to maximize available resources to start implementing strategic action plans that mirror some of those critical development visions commonly graced along restructuring or under a sovereign republic. 

 HAPPY JUNE 12TH TO ODUDUWA NATION!

BIGHT OF BIAFRA: THE TRADITIONAL TERRITORY OF IGBO PEOPLE.

ICHEOKU says that the Fulani Janjaweed Muhammadu Buhari and little Hitler Nyesom Wike may be educated. Arochukwu Kingdom once stretched all the way to the waters edge of the Atlantic Ocean, then known as The Bight of Biafra and covered most of the present day Akwa Ibom and Cross River States. History does not lie and as Wole Soyinka once said, records are kept for two reasons: to instruct us on what once was and to also guide us in our future actions so that we do not repeat some mistakes of the past. So, long before Muhammadu Buhari's father from Maradi in present day Niger Republic brought his ducks to sell in Daura in present day Katsina State; and ever before the amalgamation of 1914, the Igbo nation existed and comprised of two distinctive kingdoms of Nri and Arochukwu as well as other independently ruled Igbo towns. 

In 1967, the Eastern Region of Nigeria seceded from the Nigerian State and adopted the name of its coastline, the adjoining Bight of Biafra, becoming the newly independent Republic of Biafra. This independence was short-lived as the new state lost the ensuing Nigerian Civil War. In 1975, by decree, the Nigerian government changed the name of the Bight of Biafra to the Bight of Bonny. So the only way the issue of who is and who is not Biafran can be conclusive resolved is by organizing a referendum so that anyone who wants to back out from Biafra can freely do so. But it is unacceptable for Muhammadu Buhari and/or Nyesom Wike to, by fiat, unilaterally force some people to renounce their Biafran heritage. Asaba people of Delta State Southsouth were massacred by Muritala Mohammed led Nigerian army during the Biafran war, yet Buhari wants them removed from Biafra. Really?

Now, a simple factoid of Igbo territorial abutment to the waters of the Atlantic Ocean via The Bight of Biafra. Portuguese slave merchants who traded in slaves through The Bight of Biafra vouched as much and the ownership story of the area is still available in so many historical records including Wikipedia. So, what exactly is Muhammadu Buhari and Nyesom Wike talking about and on exactly what historical foundation did they base their assertions. Also, Nyesom Wike has not told Nigerians from which tribe he came, unlike the Fulani irredentist who is the ambassador plenipotentiary and acclaimed big brother of Fulani United of Africa; the reason he is borrowing money from China at Nigeria's expenses and using it to develop railway infrastructure in Niger Republic. Even his latest Fulani appointee for NBC directorship, Bararabe Shehu-Ilelah, is like Buhari, originally from Niger Republic too. Anyway, happy trails:

"The Igbo, whose traditional territory is called the Bight of Biafra (also known as the Bight of Bonny), became one of the principal ethnic groups to be enslaved during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. An estimated 14.6% of all slaves were taken from the Bight of Biafra between 1650 and 1900. The Bight’s major slave trading ports were located in Bonny and Calabar. The majority of Igbo slaves were kidnapped during village raids. The journey for Igbo slaves often began in the ancient Cave Temple that was located in Arochukwu Kingdom. During this period, the three Igbo Kingdoms followed the same culture and religion, yet tended to operate very differently from each other. The Kingdom of Nri and the Independent Igbo States (confederation of independently ruled Igbo states) did not practice slavery, and slaves from neighbouring lands would often flee to these kingdoms in order to be set free. Arochukwu, on the other hand, practiced a system of indentured servitude that was remarkably different to chattel slavery in the Americas. 

Eventually, with Europeans beginning to encroach on Igbo territory, causing the kingdoms to desire weaponry to defend themselves. In order to obtain European goods and weaponry, Arochukwu began to raid villages of the other Igbo kingdoms - primarily those located in the Igbo hinterlands. People would be captured, regardless of gender, social status, or age. Slaves could have been originally farmers, nobility, or even people who had committed petty crimes. These captured slaves would be taken and sold to European slave traders on the coast. Another way people were enslaved was through the divine oracle who resided in the Cave Temple complex. All Igbos practiced divination called Afa, but the Kingdom of Arochukwu was different because it was headed by a divine oracle who was in charge of making decisions for the king. 

During this time, if someone committed a crime, was in debt, or did something considered an "abomination" (for example, the killing of certain kinds of animals was considered an abomination due to its association with certain deities), they would be taken to the cave complex to face the oracle for sentencing. The oracle, who was also influenced by the demands of European slave traders, would sentence these people to slavery, even for small crimes. The victim would be commanded to walk further into the cave so that the spirits could "devour" them, but, in reality, they were taken to an opening on the other side and loaded directly onto a waiting boat. This boat would take them to a slave ship en route to the Americas. 

It is estimated that a total of 1.4 million Igbo people were transported via European slave ships across the Atlantic during the era. Some recorded populations of people of African descent on Caribbean islands recorded 2,863 Igbo on Trinidad and Tobago in an 1813 census; 894 in Saint Lucia in an 1815 census; 440 on Saint Kitts and Nevis in an 1817 census; and 111 in Guyana in an 1819 census. Haiti had many Igbo slaves. There is still the Creole saying of Nou se Igbo (We are Igbos) Aspects of Haitian culture that exhibit this can be seen in the loa, a Haitian loa (or deity) created by the in the Vodun religion.

The Igbo were dispersed to Barbados in large numbers. Olaudah Equiano, a famous Igbo author, abolitionist and ex-slave, was dropped off there after being kidnapped from his hometown near the Bight of Biafra. After arriving in Barbados he was promptly shipped to Virginia.^[13] At his time, 44 percent of the 90,000 Africans disembarking on the island (between 1751 and 1775) were from the bight. These Africans were therefore mainly of Igbo origin. The links between Barbados and the Bight of Biafra had begun in the mid-seventeenth century, with half of the African captives arriving on the island originating from there. 

Bonny and Calabar emerged as major embarkation points of enslaved West Africans destined for Jamaica's slave markets in the 18th century. Dominated by Bristol and Liverpool slave ships, these ports were used primarily for the supply of slaves to British colonies in the Americas. In Jamaica, the bulk of Igbo slaves arrived relatively later than the rest of other arrivals of Africans on the Island in the period after the 1750s. There was a general rise in the number of enslaved people arriving to the Americas, particularly British colonies, from the Bight of Biafra in the 18th century; the heaviest of these forced migrations occurred between 1790 and 1807. The result of such slaving patterns made Jamaica, after Virginia, the second most common destination for slaves arriving from the Bight of Biafra; as the Igbo formed the majority from the Bight, they became largely represented in Jamaica in the 18th and 19th century.

The Igbo presence in United States goes back to the country's earliest days and remains in the hearts of African Americans who are their modern descendants. From the mid-1600s to 1830, the US imported a large amount of Igbo slaves to the states of Virginia and Maryland in order to provide labour for tobacco plantations. The presence of the Igbo in this region was so profound that the Frontier Culture Museum of Virginia decided to erect a full-scale traditional Igbo village in Staunton, Virginia. This is why the majority of African Americans, who have some ancestral connections to this region of the country, have a significant amount of genetically verifiable Nigerian ancestry. It has been hypothesized that, at least, 60% of all African Americans have at least one ancestor who originated from the Igbo kingdoms. 

Many African Americans are now tracing their Igbo heritage with the help of genetic testing and historical evidence. They are able to reconnect with their living relatives in Nigeria and reestablish links with their ancestral ethnic group. In the United States the Igbo slaves were known for being rebellious. In some states such as Georgia, the Igbo had a high suicide rate.

The Bight of Biafra, centered on the Niger Delta and the Cross River, became a significant exporter of slaves from the 1700s and dominated the Trans-Atlantic slave trade along with neighboring Bight of Benin until the mid-nineteenth century. A great numbers of slaves from this part of Africa were sold into North America. In Louisiana, slaves from this coast were listed as Edo, Ibo, Ibibio, and Calabar. They were also among the most frequent ethnicities listed on official documents. In Southwest Louisiana, “Ibo” has survived as a family name and transcribed “Ebow.”

(Sourced mostly from Wikipedia).

HAPPY JUNE 12TH: ABIOLA LIVES ON.

ICHEOKU says 

HAPPY JUNE 12TH TO ODUDUWA NATION. 

We share and celebrate in your struggle for a liberated Nigerian nationalities, completely freed from the vice-hold of the strange Fulani people. Long live the struggle. The memory of MKO Abiola lives on. May he continue to rest. Aluta continua!

YORUBA: THE WORST IGBO ENEMY IN NIGERIA.

ICHEOKU says the worst enemy anyone can ever have is that enemy who pretends to be a friend and so are the Yoruba people to Ndigbo. Yoruba people are the Brutus of Igbo people and they know how to cleverly mask their resentment of Ndigbo just because they are feeding fat from Igbo toils and sweat. Igbo people have helped them develop their Lagos into a booming mega city and are helping in developing other Yoruba towns and cities including Ibadan. But what have Ndigbo gotten from the Yoruba people for all their many years of hard work, developing the Yoruba region and building up their GDP? What has Ndigbo benefited from the Yoruba for all their bestowed love and affection and the never ending clamour for a brotherly handshake across the Niger? Rather it is constant backbiting and conspiracy with the Fulani to continue to visit unending havoc on Ndigbo. 

The current Igbo tribulation going on in the Southeast was as a result of advise given to Muhammadu Buhari by Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, who is now playing the unfortunate role which Obafemi Awolowo played with Yakubu Gowon that resulted in over 5 million Ndigbo being massacred during the Biafran civil war. But unlike Obafemi Awolowo whose own Igbo hatred was not hidden, Bola Tinubu is clandestine about his and dispenses his advise behind the curtains of Aso Rock with each visits. He assured Buharii of Yoruba support by tacit silence if and when Bhuari clamps down on Igbo Southeast. A man who is shamelessly running for president in 2023 despite the fact that Yoruba Southwest produced Olusegun Obasanjo 8 years in Aso Rock and now producing 8 years of Vice President Yomi Osibanjo. This is a man who during the #EndSARS protest and without any evidence, pointed his dirty accusatory finger at Ndigbo as being the ones who destroyed Lagos. 

But for the timely intervention of Iba Ganiyu Adams, the Aaree Ona Kakanfo of Yoruba land, who corrected him and said that it was not Ndigbo that caused the destruction in Lagos, there would have been a reprisal and even pogrom against Ndgibo Lagos in retaliation.  The same Asiwaju and Jagaban of Borguland during the election of 2019 threatened Ndigbo with seizure of their market stalls in Lagos unless they backed his candidate and voted for him. The threat worked as Ndigbo were cowered and voted as he instructed. It was the same Tinubu who made sure that no Igbo person was ever reappointed into Lagos State government cabinet again, not minding the fact that Ndigbo make up more than 40% of Lagos population and contributes billions of Naira in tax revenue into the State's coffer. Then add the pronouncement of their Oba Akiolu that he will drown Ndigbo in his Lagos lagoon and the list of other anti Igbo Yoruba disposition goes on. 

The Yoruba people are always very quick to point out that they are very accommodating and that Ndigbo literally owns nearly all the properties in Lagos at their behest. But they fail to add that all the properties were purchased and paid for in full; and that Ndigbo sustain Lagos economically and otherwise. Even their media seem to be incohoot with the anti Igbo disposition as they constantly report things to make Ndigbo look bad, while suppressing the atrocities and pervasions of the Fulani against Ndigbo and other peoples of Nigeria. Now their Sahara Reporters is beginning to "fact-check" even stork pictures used to illustrate terrorism, insisting that the picture was misleading because it was Malian Fulani terrorists and not Nigerian Fulani terrorists that were in the picture. Just ask yourself who doesn't use stork pictures to elucidate a point, but an Igbo person used it and therefore it must be discredited. 

With the preamble now set, Ndigbo were very active during the MKO Abiola June 12th struggle  and actively supported the effort. Many of Igbo people lost their lives during the resulting riot and have been in lock-step with the Yoruba over the injustice done to one of their own. But since the 1966 to 1970 Biafran war leading up to the current reignited struggle by Ndigbo against the Fulani lordship over Nigeria, Yoruba people have not deemed it fit to reciprocate the affection which Ndigbo have countlessly exhibited towards them. It is not in a vociferous condemnation of the injustice and acute marginalization against Ndigbo or the wanton killing of Igbo people in Nigeria have they weighed in heavily as a people. Rather they see the Igbo problem as an opportunity for them to curry favor from the same Fulani people who have been holding Nigerians hostage and for too long. 

Is it possible that they are comfortable with what the Fulani people are doing in Nigeria and that they see nothing wrong in the manner the Fulani are running Nigeria down, where nearly everything hat once made Nigeria a promising power have totally collapsed? Could Nigeria not have been better if managed more properly and why are Yoruba people comfortable with a Nigeria in total complete dysfunction, where there is no electricity, good roads, running water, security, developed infrastructure, health care, jobs, less corruption and where the younger generation dream for a better future have turned into their worst nightmare. 

Why have they, in their anti Igbo disposition, allowed the degradation and deprivation in Nigeria to continue to fester, thus making Ndigbo to always stand out alone and isolated as the seemingly "trouble makers" of Nigeria. An appellation which is not right because Ndigbo are only asking for a better and more functional Nigeria for everyone to thrive and aspire for their goals unhindered by parochialism, nepotism, tribalism and religionism. But without other nationalities in Nigeria, particularly the Yoruba people, joining forces with Ndigbo to highlight these problems, the rest of the world have come to the sad conclusion that it is only Ndigbo who are unnecessarily creating trouble in Nigeria. Their "logic" is that if things are as really bad as Ndigbo are making them out to be, why then are other nationalities in Nigeria especially the Yoruba people, not similarly fighting back. 

This indifferent attitude of the Yoruba people to the problems in Nigeria which Ndigbo is fighting so hard and making countless sacrifices to fix has made the task more daunting for Ndigbo as Ndigbo are being continually marginalized and isolated as the common enemy of Nigeria and that they must be vanquished in order for Nigeria to survive. But ICHEOKU says Nigeria cannot survive without Ndigbo and woe betide those other nationalities that will be left in a Nigeria without Ndigbo. Imagine the difference it would have made had Yoruba people been more considerate by not allowing their hatred for Ndigbo cloud the general malaise in Nigeria, which is also eating their ordinary population right from the inside. How any person would accept the situation in Nigeria and not seriously desire and work for a change in status-quo is simply unfathomably mind numbing. Where is the Yoruba outrage?

How could a few paltry handouts from the Fulani be so satisfying to the Yoruba people that they have sold their conscience and mortgaged their soul to the devil to accept such brazen complete takeover of Nigeria by a very tiny minority Fulani people. Their usual refrain is that they are a peace loving people and do not want war to come to their homeland as they do not want their region to be destroyed. But they forgot that things can always be replaced and that destroyed structures are mere steel, glass, timber, bricks and mortars and they can easily always be rebuilt. They sometimes see themselves as special royals, yet they willingly submit themselves  under the jackboot of the Fulani and suffering the same degradation like every other Nigerians. Somebody please tell ICHEOKU that the Yoruba people see this situation as being normal and that there is nothing wrong somewhere inside their faculty. 

As always, a lean freedom is better than a fat slavery, but when will the Yoruba people wake up from their slumber to realize that they have been foot dragging in the effort to salvage the ship of the Nigeria State; and that it is about time they wake up and stop playing this role of favors seekers from the Fulani oppressors. They should join hands with Ndigbo in fixing what is broken in Nigeria but in order to do this, they must first jointly chase the marauding Fulani people out of Nigeria and if they must remain, back to to their own region where they belong. But be that as it may, ICHEOKU appreciates the current effort by the much younger Yoruba generation led by Sunday Igboho and Ganiyu Adams as well as the able fearless Governor Akeredolu of Ondo State for finally doing what needs to be done to challenge the overbearing arrogance of the Fulani people. 

ICHEOKU prays they will someday very soon join forces with Ndigbo by creating an alliance with Ndigbo to forge a formidable force to push against the Fulani madness in Nigeria. A madness which the Fulani has sustained for far too long by putting wedges among other nationalities in Nigeria through their divide and conquer strategy of always isolating Ndigbo as the common enemy. May God grant the Yoruba people the strength to do what is right and the mental fortitude to realize that Ndigbo is not their enemy and that the common foe of Nigerians is the Fulani people. Fulani people who have usurped everything in Nigeria and for themselves alone such that even the Yoruba supposed Vice President Osibanjo is permanently sidelined in Aso Rock and not even when Muhammadu Buhari is indisposed is he allowed to wield and exercise the powers of the office. 

Julius Caesar would have still died without the added Brutus stab and he knew that other 60 Roman Senators were involved in the conspiracy to kill him that resulted in 23 stab wounds. But it was only the Brutus stab that affected him most because it came from someone he had considered a dear friend. This is why what the Yoruba people are doing in Nigeria affects Ndigbo mostly in a very special way because the Yoruba people are supposedly civilized, well educated, widely travelled and exposed to understand and appreciate what is possible in a Nigeria run well by competent heads. Yet they have so acquiesced in what very incompetent Fulani herders are doing in Nigeria, which have led to the very parlous state of affairs in Nigeria, that they could easily pass for collaborators and accomplices to the near death throes where Nigeria finds itself presently. It is sad.

PRESIDENT TRUMP'S SUPPORT OF TWITTER BAN IN NIGERIA: RASH AND HARSH.

ICHEOKU says President Donald John Trump just lost a lot of supporters with his endorsement of a very unpopular anti people's ban of Twitter in Nigeria. It shows that the president is ill advised and ill informed and often times does not necessary first do his homework very well before reacting on issues. What in the hell was he thinking when he made this pronouncement, regardless of how he feels personally about Twitter and for a good reason. How can the many Nigerian people who empathized with him and have been boycotting Twitter since he was banned by Twitter in solidarity with him, now feel, finding out that the president selfishly cares only about himself and not for what is good for other people. If he was not banned by Twitter, will his opinion on the ban of Twitter in Nigeria have been the same or would he not have said that it was a vagrant abuse and a censorship of the rights of Nigerians to freely use social media unimpeded. 

What is wrong with him or must he completely alienate the rest of black people of Nigerian decent who still supports him. It was the same Nigerian government of Muhammadu Buhari which slaughtered over two hundred and fifty Nigerians who were celebrating Trump's triumph over Hillary Clinton and his election as president in 2016. Their death sentence offense was simply because the Nigerian government had wanted Hilary Clinton to win and had donated heavily to the Hillary Clinton's campaign using all manners of proxy contributors including the Chaugori Lebanese Nigerian family. The Nigerian government also gave as one of their reason that Trump was an anti Muslims Christian fundamentalist who will not tolerate the Muslim Fulani quest for total and complete domination in Nigeria. 

It was the same Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari who allowed his Fulani ethnic group to continue their wanton slaughter of Christians in Nigeria, burning of churches and destruction of Christians properties which has so far claimed more than ten thousands lives in Nigeria as well as billions of Naira in lost properties. When Muhammadu Buhari was confronted by the same President Trump, he lied that it was just mere farmer and herder crisis and the Trump's government believed him without fully   investigating the wantonness and arbitrariness of the Buhari government in Nigeria. It was the same Nigerian Buhari government which forcefully dispersed joyful Nigerians who took to the street in Lagos to celebrate Trump's victory in 2016. Needless to add that Aso Rock celebrated on November 3rd 2020 and January 20th, 2021 when President Trump was finally shoved out of the White House. 

So this support for a very unpopular action by a man who hates President Donald John Trump shows a gross irrationality as majority of Twitter savvy Nigerians from Christian Southern Nigeria loves President Donald John Trump dearly as opposed to their Northern Islamic section, including thousands of them in the United States of America who constitute a large portion of blacks who voted for President Trump both in 2016 and 2020. ICHEOKU says will not mince words in condemning what the MAGA leader did by this endorsement of such a violative act of depriving millions of Nigerians access to Twitter. It conveys the message that the president is in it just for what is good for him alone and inconsiderate of other people, including millions of his Nigerian supporters. The expressed support for the Twitter ban in Nigeria was wrong and ill conceived of the president and therefore condemnable. 

So because Mark Zuckerberg was dinning with him, he did not ban Facebook assuming he could since the court would have reversed him anyway. So how about Twitter, why did he not ban them or was Mr Rasputin Jack Dorsey also being dinned at the White House secretly without our knowing about it. How about the millions of other people who use Twitter or should they, as far as Trump is concerned, be collectively punished just because the president is currently a persona non grata on the platform. It smacks of selfishness and at this rate, the president is bleeding his supporters and with it, their votes should he ever nurse an ambition of a second coming in the White House. Such utterances and active support for a maniacal Islamist fundamentalist dictator in Nigeria will work against the ambition. 

President Trump offended millions of people, the so many different nationalities battling for survival in Nigeria under the anvil and hammer of the Fulani government of Muhammadu Buhari. He has thus alienated them by this openly expressed support for their nemesis who cut them off from the world of Tweeting and they have thousands of fellow country men in the United States of America who vote in elections. It is a big disappointment that the President Donald John Trump who they love so much could be this callous over a matter which affects them severely. Nigerians could use an apology from President Donald John Trump for being anti Nigerians and siding with a dictator disguised as a democrat. A peoples president for Americans now turned anti people's personality for Nigerians or is it because Nigeria is a shitholey country and President Trump does not give a damn. It is sad.

INDIA MAN MARRIES SISTER OF DEAD BRIDE: WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH HIM?

ICHEOKU says an Indian man in Uttar Pradesh whose bride died during their marriage ceremony soon after placing a customary garland of flowers on his neck, immediately took her younger sister and wedded her right there. The bride had suffered a cardiac arrest, then slumped and died. But instead of suspending or even canceling the wedding all together due to the shocking sad loss or first evacuating her body to a mortuary, they simply put her body in one room and the dead bride's younger sister was called upon as a substitute bride and the wedding continued. If Indian people have done anything so outrageous before that dumbfounded the world, this one incident definitely tops them all. 

The groom who was supposed to be in utter shock and grieving, immediately married the dead bride's younger sister while her dead body was still sprawled out cold in an adjacent room from the wedding area. How dare this guy do such a heartless thing to a lady who he once professed love for and who was performing marital rites to him when she suddenly collapsed and died. What manner of a monster would do such a thing, not care about his beloved bride who suddenly collapsed and died on their wedding day at their wedding alter. Yet, he had the temerity to summarily take the dead bride's younger sister and wedded her right there on the same spot where her big sister, his former bride, had just died a few moments ago. There was no grieving and there was no hurt feeling by this fella that his bride had just died. How could somebody be this cold hearted. What is really going on in that land of Hindustan. 

ICHEOKU says is still in shock that marriage could be treated so cavalierly in that Modi's country. It is sad that women have not been fully liberated in India that they still suffer such disposable status and servile treatment that a ceremony is preferred to their life as human beings. So, it is all about the ceremony and not the marital union of two persons who fell in love with one another that matters to these people. Why are women in India still regarded as mere commodities that are disposable that they have no real value for the men of India. But must every woman in India marry for crying out loud? Why should they when their lives do not matter to the men who accept their dowries. This guy should be arrested because if he could be this mean to his dead bride, it is possible too that he might have done something sinister that caused the death of the bride. What a despicable heartless monster he is. Shame on him. 

NORTHERN ELDERS FORUM URGES BUHARI TO LET NDIGBO GO.

ICHEOKU says Nigeria's Northern Elders Forum has advised Muhammadu Buhari not to impede the Igbo people of Nigeria from seeking their own independent homeland. They arrived at this decision following an emergency summit which they held to address the intractable security challenges facing Nigeria. The group issued a statement through its spokesman Hakeem Baba-Ahmed as follows:- 

"The Forum has arrived at the difficult conclusion that if support for secession among the Igbo is as widely spread as it is being made to look, and Igbo leadership appears to be in support of it, then the country should be advised not to stand in their way. It will not be the best choice for the Igbo or any other Nigerians to leave a country which we have all toiled to build and to which we all have responsibility to fix. But it will not help a country already burdened with failures and on currently on its knees, to fight another war in an attempt to keep the Igbo people in Nigeria.” - Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, Spokesman, Northern Elders Forum.

But responding to the advise, the government of Muhammadu Buhari rejected the advise calling the organization irrelevant and its opinion on matters of Nigeria, a non issue. According to the government, Northern Elders Forum boasts of no credible membership and its leader Ango Abdullahi is a mere general without troops. The government also added that the group is waving a flag at half mast. It is also instructive that this is the second Northern group that has urged Muhammadu Buhari to avoid getting into another civil war which Nigeria cannot afford now. A group of Northern Women Association have previously made their position quite clear that Muhammadu Buhari should allow Biafra to secede peacefully and not plunge Nigeria into another civil war.

ICHEOKU says although some wise words from a group of wise men with old age bequeathed wisdom, but will Muhammadu Buhari listen? It is apparent that Muhammadu Buhari has become deafened by the wickedness of his heart and like the Pharaoh of Egypt, does not listen to anymore any more and will not let the Igbo people go. Possibly, he is waiting until something very devastating happens to Nigeria, such as will make him beg for mercy before he will act responsibly by doing the needful. Marriages do collapse irretrievably and the clobbered nations of Nigeria are no longer comfortable staying the course as one entity. As with divorce, devolution is the best option now for Nigeria in order to avoid an assured coming bloody conflict to forcibly achieve the same outcome which a peaceful division would have ordinarily accomplished. 

The other troubling issue is the indifference of the United Nations Organizations and other major world powers to the unfolding tragic situation in Nigeria. They are pretending as if the dark cloud gathering over Nigeria has not accumulated enough to prod them into action. It is also possible that they are waiting for the real shooting conflict to assume a hellish proportion and then make as much money as they could make through weapons and logistics supplies before intervening. But they could easily step in now and solve the problem facing Nigeria now that it will cost less both in human and material resources and in so doing prevent an impending conflagration and the worse refugee crisis the world will ever know should push come to shove. #NigeriaFacingExistentialCrisis. 

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE IS A RIGHT: USE IT AGAINST THE TWITTER BAN NIGERIANS.

ICHEOKU says Nigerians are constantly behaving as if they are still yoked under a military regime, oblivious that there is a democracy and that citizens do not bow and tremble to the dictates of leadership in a democracy. There is something called civil disobedience which citizens in a democracy use as a matter of right to refuse obedience to arbitrary orders of the government. The recent Twitter ban by the Nigerian government is one such arbitrary order which Nigerians should disobey and defy by continuing to tweet however possible. 

But so many decades of military rule in Nigeria has foist the never lifting cloud of palpable fear on Nigerians' psyche that they are   always subconsciously thinking that the government has unquestionable control over their lives. Nigeria is a country of 220 million of people with a permanently damaged psyche and the government is using this general disability to their greatest advantage, commanding obedience as if it is a given right and the people sheepishly obey them. It is sad. 

THE FRENCH DIRTY SLAP: A FAILURE OF PRESIDENTIAL SECURITY.

ICHEOKU says it was an unpardonable failure of a presidential security that French President Emmanuel Macron was held and slapped by a bystander, without a timely reaction by his security details. What if the guy who held and slapped the president had a knife or any other weapon. Although such was not easily expected, but a presidential security details should anticipate every possibilities whatsoever which could endanger a president and should have guarded against it. Throwing something like an egg from a distance is understandable, but to hold and then slap a president, crosses the boundary of tolerable behavior and it must not be excused.

It was an unfortunate incident which calls for a total overhaul of the French presidential security detail and of course, whoever leads it should resign his appointment or be fired for such an egregious failure. It does not matter what excuse might be given because no excuse is acceptable, heads ought to and should role. The slap was on all the entire French people as well as on every world leader and should not be tolerated nor excused or pardoned. Imagine slapping someone like Nigeria's Muhammadu Buhari and what it would have meant for the person who slapped him. It might have resulted in the wiping out the guy, his family as well as his extended family, admitted the Nigerian president deserves more just a resounding slap. Some other country like North Korea would have fed the guy alive to a bunch of famished wild dogs for dinner. It is sad. 

KAMALA HARRIS TELLS IMMIGRANTS DO NOT COME: AN EPIPHANY AT LAST.

'I want to be clear to folks in the whole Latin American region who are thinking about making the perilous journey, trekking up North to the United States of America and Mexico border, do not come, do not come. If you come to our border, you will be turned back and sent back to where you come from. There are legal methods by which migration can and should occur. We discourage illegal migration. The United States will continue to enforce our immigration laws and also secure our border.' - Kamala Harris.

Reacting to the development, the fiery New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez angrily responded that it is disappointing to see. She claimed that seeking asylum at the border is 100% legal and that American should be held responsible for the malaise in Latin American countries because America contributed to so many regime changes and destabilization that wrecked the region. She analogized it to setting someone's house on fire and then blaming them for fleeing from the inferno. She concluded by saying that it will be helpful if America acknowledged its contribution to destabilizing the region. 

ICHEOKU says it is always better late than never; so it is good that Kamala Harris finally got it and now sees the genius in President Donald John Trump that illegal immigration is a wrecking ball which should not be allowed to swing uncontrollably because it will crush everything on its part. As President Donald John Trump has always rightly maintained, legal immigration is good but illegal immigration is bad. Now that both sides of the immigration divide have finally come to a meeting point, through this mutual understanding, it will be much easier to solve the lingering immigration problem. 

Although it is most likely that it was only her lips that mouthed the "do not come" and that her heart still remains resolute on her known stance for a total and complete border elimination. But it does not matter; what is imperative is that the man on top ordered her what to say and she complied and did exactly as was told. She had no choice about it. May be in the future if Joe Biden steps aside due to frailty and mental incapacity, she can reinstate her position; but at present, she can only execute and implement as she is told. ICHEOKU says is glad that she did not stammer nor mince words in delivering the message as instructed. She was succinctly heard as there was no other connotation that could be read into it. Now, let real immigration reform commence and with all the seriousness which it deserves. #DoNotCome.

NIGERIA SHOWS HOW TO HANDLE BIG TECH TYRANNY - NEBOJSA MALIC

Nigeria is a far more serious and “based” country than the US, at least if President Muhammadu Buhari’s response to Twitter censorship, compared to that of Donald Trump’s, is anything to go by.

The government in Abuja announced on Friday it had “indefinitely suspended” the US-based platform, following Twitter’s censorship of Buhari. The move was made because of “the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence,” said Information Minister Lai Mohammed. 

Nigeria’s TV and press regulator, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), will also start the process of “licensing” all social media platforms in the country, the government said. In a twist of irony, the decision was announced on Twitter. Also, the ban doesn’t appear to have gone into effect just yet, and Nigerians are reportedly flocking to virtual private networks to circumvent it.

The Nigerian government also missed an easy opportunity to clobber Twitter with its own wokeness cudgel and accuse CEO Jack Dorsey of being racist and Islamophobic – considering Buhari is both African and Muslim.

All that aside, however, Abuja’s response stands in stark contrast to that of official Washington from a year ago, when Twitter censored then-US President Donald Trump – and then the White House account, citing the same pretext of “glorifying violence” or “threatening harm” to individuals or groups. Trump responded by signing an executive order intended to crack down on social media censorship and nothing happened.

The career bureaucrats in DC simply ignored the president’s orders and stood by while Twitter, Facebook and YouTube helped ‘fortify’ the 2020 elections in favor of Democrat Joe Biden, who revoked Trump’s order last month, without bothering to offer an explanation. 

Trump’s toothless response to censorship eventually led to Twitter banning his account after the January 6 Capitol riot – while he was still the sitting president – and the other Big Tech platforms following suit. Not only is he banned from having an account, but others interviewing him will get censored for daring to broadcast his “voice.” 

Yet most of the US media and civil libertarian groups see nothing wrong with this, and are even arguing that such censorship, using corporations as proxies for the government, isn’t violating the First Amendment. 

By contrast, it took Nigeria two days to respond to Twitter’s censorship of its president with a ban on the platform. It may only amount to a symbolic gesture, but it sends a clear message to San Francisco that this kind of behavior by Big Tech will not be tolerated.

Buhari’s critics have argued that the ban is “not in keeping with democracy, the rule of law, and the independence of the media.” But Twitter’s censorship is? Who’s in charge here, an elected government of a sovereign country, or a corporation on the other side of the world? That’s really the question here.

Because the American civil war ended in 1865, and long passed out of living memory, Biden may be able to get away with pseudo-historical narratives comparing the Capitol riot to it. Nigeria’s civil war against the Biafran separatists ended in 1970, and claimed more lives. So when Buhari warns those currently “misbehaving” that its veterans will treat them “in the language they understand,” that is indeed a threat – to separatists

When it censored Trump on the same grounds a year ago, Twitter had posted messages in support of Black Lives Matter, making its politics abundantly clear. The Nigerian government looked at the company banning Buhari but not the current Biafran leader, and concluded that Twitter supported separatists. No government can tolerate that and survive for long, any more than having corporations dictate the terms of their politics – as Trump’s own experience clearly showed. 

FLOYD MAYWEATHER AND LOGAN PAUL FIGHT: NOT BUYING THE DRAW GIMMICKRY.

ICHEOKU says did anyone buy the snake oil which was sold to the world by the fight between Floyd Mayweather and Logan Paul which ended in a draw. ICHEOKU says does not know about you but it is hard to believe that with all the experiences of world champion Floyd Mayweather that Logan Paul could last through the eight rounds and come out even. 

Anyway, it was a money tree shaking event for them and we will wait to see how much it grossed. But as far as Floyd Mayweather was concerned, he had fun boxing Logan Paul and was surprised that Logan Paul was as good as he was, a tough and rough competitor. ICHEOKU wishes both of them well and hope that public outcry of them possibly fixing the fight, will force a rematch where a decisive winner will emerge. It is a hard sell and very difficult to believe that Floyd Mayweather who demolished the Irish bad boy Conor McGregor during their encounter did not and could not put away Logan Paul very much early in the fight. But hey,..

IF ONLY CHINA COULD BAN KNIVES: MANY CHINESE LIVES WILL BE SAVED?

ICHEOKU says speaking of "the readily availability of guns in America" as the cause of mass murders in the United States of America, as some anti second amendment agitators adduce and would like us to believe in their quest to ban guns in America. To them, but for guns, people will not be killing other people in America and you wonder whether China and the United Kingdom should also ban knives, since that is the weapon of choice for their own mass killers. 

So, should China ban knives since Chinese killers now repeatedly deploy them in inflicting maximum damage in their own mass casualty killings. Just a few days ago, an unemployed and angry 25 year old Chinese man wielding a knife murdered 6 Chinese people in the Eastern Chinese city of Anqing in Anhui Province, 270 miles west of Shanghai. Before this, were more than 20 other knives and various sharp instruments weapons, including meat cleaver, that has been used by Chinese killers in killing their Chinese victims. 

Now, please tell ICHEOKU whether knives should be banned in China just because some demented Chinese people use knives in perpetrating their hideous acts. If they ban knives, how then does their society continue to thrive and carry on; and if you ban guns in America, how does American hunters continue to harvest games and provide meat on dinner tables. Then add those who hunt for trophy. Also, when an armed intruder invades your home, what do you do or just lay there supine at his mercy and hope that his better angels will take control and that he will not cause you any harm, instead of fighting back, fire for fire.

ICHEOKU says should we forward this "recommendation" to Xi Jinping as a way to curb or even completely wipe out mass killings in China, because as those American nut jobs would say, just get rid of the guns and the killings will end. But they forgot that people who are bent on doing other people harm and hurt, will always find other even more creative means to effectuate their dark desires. Please feel free to share your thoughts on this debate as this piece is meant to demonstrate that weapons do not kill people, people do. If you ban guns or as in this case, if President Xi Jinping bans knives in China, those Chinese killers will still find another ways to take Chinese peoples lives. May God protect his own IJN. 

TRUMP'S FACEBOOK TWO YEAR BAN: NOT SURPRISING AS IT WAS PREDICTABLE.

ICHEOKU says had predicted as much and it turned out as much that they want President Donald John Trump permanently silenced and completely shut out from social media sphere. Every other thing they have done since last January 6th and even during the period preceding it, were all geared towards mission accomplishing this their objective and not that any other outcome would have resulted. 

President Donald John Trump was a skillful master of social media and he aptly deployed it to his maximum political advantage and benefit; and to the detriment of his detractors. They were humiliated by the feat which he pulled off beating them to their game using their self acclaimed social media. Incensed that he out maneuvered them on their own social media space, they sought a pound of flesh to even the score. They figured that the best way to drive a maximum vengeance is to neuter him by killing off his presence on social media and they struck. 

First they accused him of instigating the January 6th 2021 Capitol melee through the speech which he delivered at the Save America Rally. But following mountains of evidence to the contrary which showed that the speech did not contain any inciting words and that the riot was planned ahead of the January 6th speech, they decided to expand their liability dragnet to include any action or speech which the president ever took or made which has any connotation whatsoever of incitement or which could be interpreted as such, regardless of the subjectiveness of the interpreter. Of course one can always find something to hang on someone once the searching is generally over-broad and with bad intentions.

But their initial suspension of the president, as they claimed, was because the president "incited" the crowd with his January 6th speech. The premise fell flat as it was non existent but rather than lift the suspension, apologize to the president and reinstate his privileges on their social media platform, they decided to appoint their handpicked speech police committee to review the matter. The committee came back a few months later, deadlocked, unable to reach a decision on the president's continued suspension because the suspension had no basis both in law and in fact.  They punted the matter back to Mark Zuckerberg to make the final decision on whether or not to reinstate the president's privileges on his Facebook. It was just like the biblical Pontus Pilate washing off his hand on the Jesus matter and turning it back to the Jews.

That was on May 5th and now one month later, instead of Mark Zuckerberg being honorable enough by doing the right thing, which is to restore the president's access to Facebook, he decided to punish the president further by extending his suspension from the platform until the end of 2022. A case of punishing somebody for no other reason but personal animosity, sheer vindictiveness and crass vendetta. Mark Zuckerberg definitely had the 2022 mid term election in his mind as he made the decision to keep the president off Facebook until after the election. He does not want President Donald John Trump's mega MAGA presence back on social media because it will be too consequential in the mid term election. But Mark Zuckerberg is wasting his time because with or without his Facebook, the 2022 mid term election will swing in a way that will be very pleasing to real patriotic conservative Americans. 

ICHEOKU says it is not because of what the president did that he is facing the general black outs on social media. No, it is because of what he will do in the future, a futuristic "crime" which he will commit against liberals by preventing their attempted makeover of America in their utopian image which make America unrecognizable. They are punishing him now ahead of time in order to prevent him from committing the anticipated crime against acute liberal wokeism. They are afraid that he will completely annihilate leftist nut jobs woke liberals' thinking in America, to which most of social media platforms' operators, owners and employees belong. They are afraid of him because they are incapable of mounting an effective challenge to him and they cannot withstand the heat of his opposition, so they have to go the cowardly way by proactively silencing him. This is the truth of the matter, the reason for the decision; the gist of  what happened and any other attempt at explaining otherwise is mere balderdash. 

ICHEOKU says the president must now do the right thing by walking away from all social media and never look back and never come back even when his suspension expires. This is imperative so that the president will laugh last and not be twice humiliated because in the unfortunate event the president, foolishly and stupidly, take Facebook up on its two year suspension and later rejoins the platform on January 2023, they will still find something else to ban him for, soon following his first post. So, a smart President Donald John Trump should use this opportunity to courageously walk away for good and put social media permanently behind him and never return. He should henceforth treat social media as a dead, non existent and non important serious life issue. He should understand that so many people have been living their lives without dabbling into social media and being absence has not killed them all off. 

In the interim, the president should continue to explore other ways to continue putting out his messages across to his millions of supporters, fans and followers. He should also explore the possibility of establishing a Trump Television Station, a Trump Radio and a Trump Social Media platform. He has already cultivated a large audience worldwide, 73 million of them in America, and with a good management team and staff, any outfit which he decides to float will have a resounding success. Enough of the beggarly disposition towards social media as if his life is dependent on it because it doesn't. Enough also of arrogating too much powers to Mack Zuckerberg and his fellow co-travelers of social media power train, linguine spin mongrels who now see themselves as Demi gods who must be genuflected for and whose toes and rings must first be kissed before they can admit someone into their social media temple. 

It is not worth such stooping so low to these inferiority complexed individuals who are wielding powers which they ordinarily never dreamt was possible, in a rather very obnoxious manner. So many people on this planet earth, more than 75% of the world population, don't even care enough about these platforms to be participants and.or allow themselves to be held hostage and in bondage of first seeking the approval, goodwill, mercy and forgiveness of Mack Zuckerberg and co in order to be approved to come on board. Even a well managed and run Trump Website will do the magic better than these platforms who nobody goes to because of their founders, people who should otherwise be grateful that people like President Donald John Trump was an invaluable asset to them and made their meteoric growth possible. Trump is a world wide established name and a phenom which does not require much introduction nor publicity for his platform to succeed. 

But whatever happens, President Donald John Trump should abandon his hope of ever being welcomed back on these liberals owned and controlled social media platforms because their owners and operators are beholden to so many anti Trump powerful forces and very influential blocs such as Barack Obama, Black Lives Matter as well as the homosexuals community of America. These people's hatred for President Donald John Trump is acidic and they will do whatever it takes as is within their powers, including the threat of boycotting Facebook to ensure that Mark Zuckerberg never reconsiders his decision to allow Trump back on the platform and will eventually force him to permanently ban the president from Facebook. It was exactly the route Mr Rasputin Jack Dorsey traveled before eventually permanently banning the president from his Twitter.

President Donald John Trump was somebody before the advent of social media. He is still somebody now that they have frozen him out of their platforms and he will always remain somebody whether or not he is ever allowed back on social media. Nigeria's Muhammadu Buhari has just banned Twitter from operating in his country, which shows that social media is not all that indispensable and it shows that people can still live their life without being on social media. President Donald John Trump should understand this incontrovertible fact, that there is  life outside social media and then use the knowledge to deal with his latest Facebook ordeal. The president should accept his fate with the equanimity of a warrior, suck it up and move on; never look back nor ever return at the expiration of their ban. He should let go of Facebook and treat it as if it never existed. 

MAGA nation will understand and any forum which he eventually establishes or chooses to stay in contact with them, they will gladly oblige him by surging over there to stay connected with him. So, enough of the whining about and hyperventilating that social media treatment was unfair to him because he should have expected nothing less. The surprise would have been if they had allowed him back on to continue to carry on freely on their platforms. But they hate him with such a venomous angst that nothing will make them to ever love him enough to forgive him and allow him back on their platforms. It will not happen, not in this life and not as long as Barack Obama is alive, pulling all the counter strings to keep President Donald John Trump out and in the cold doldrum of social media dog house. So, it time definite for the president to move on and let go. #TimeToWalkAwayMrPresident.

DID COVID-19 KILL T B JOSHUA OF THE SYNAGOGUE, CHURCH OF ALL NATIONS?

ICHEOKU says a case of the healer who could not heal himself and he was standing in the way of Biafra too, having once seen a "vision" of Biafra rising only to later recant and swore that Nigeria will never break up. Possibly he added "over his dead body" and like everyone who is opposed to Umu Chineke, he has now moved on to make way for the rising sun to take its rightful place of preeminence. The man of God was allegedly stricken with COVID-19 but delayed seeking medical attention timely because he believed that he could heal himself through prayers. 

Recall that sometime last March 2020 at the onset of the Chinese gory gift to the world that Prophet Temitope Balogun had said that the scourge will be washed way with the first rain. But his "vision" apparently was clouded by fog as several "first" rains later, the pandemic is still with mankind more than one year following his "prediction'. So, understandably, it is obvious why he hesitated to seek medical intervention believing that "prayers" and "miracle" will take care of business. It is also noteworthy that he did not see his demise coming and did not predict it.

Our condolences to his family and church, The Synagogue, Church of all Nations Nigeria. Hopefully he put his house in order and that there is a succession plan in place for his church, otherwise what happened to Jesus of Oyingbo's "church" might also befall his establishment as it might fall victim to ferocious power tussle among his senior pastors. ICHEOKU does not know if he was married and had a wife who is actively involved in the running of affairs at the synagogue who would step in and continue steering its rudder. Anyway, may the Almighty God reward him according to his stewardship and hopefully the good Lord approved of all the "abracadabra" which he performed here on earth while it lasted. Rest on Joshua.