JOE BIDEN CHARTS A NEW DIRECTION IN HIS SPEECH AT THE UNITED NATIONS.

"Mr. President, Mr. Secretary General, my fellow delegates, to all those who dedicate themselves to this noble mission of this institution. It’s my honor to speak to you for the first time as president of the United States. We meet this year in a moment of intermingled with great pain and extraordinary possibility. We’ve lost so much to this devastating pandemic that continues to claim lives around the world and impact so much on our existence. We’re mourning more than 4.5 million people, people of every nation, from every background. Each death is an individual heartbreak, but our shared grief is a poignant reminder that our collective future will hinge on our ability to recognize our common humanity and to act together.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the clear and urgent choice that we face here at the dawning of what must be a decisive decade for our world. A decade that will quite literally determine our futures. As a global community, we’re challenged by urgent and looming crises, and where in lie enormous opportunities if we can summon the will and resolve to seize these opportunities. Will we work together to save lives, defeat COVID-19 everywhere and take the necessary steps to prepare ourselves for the next pandemic, for there will be another one? Or will we fail to harness the tools at our disposal as more virulent, dangerous variants take hold?

Will we meet the threat of the challenging climate we’re all feeling already ravaging every part of our world with extreme weather, or will we suffer the merciless march of ever worsening droughts and floods, more intense fires and hurricanes, longer heat waves and rising seas? Will we affirm and uphold the human dignity and human rights under which nations in common cause more than seven decades ago formed this institution? Will we apply and strengthen the core tenants of the international system, including the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as we seek to shape the emergence of new technologies and deter new threats. Or will we allow those universal principles to be trampled and twisted in the pursuit of naked political power?

In my view, how we answer these questions in this moment, whether we choose to fight for our shared future or not, will reverberate for generations yet to come. Simply put, we stand in my view at an inflection point in history. And I’m here today to share with you how the United States intends to work with partners and allies to answer these questions. And the commitment of my new administration helped lead the world toward a more peaceful, prosperous future for all people.

Instead of continuing to fight the wars of the past, we are fixing our eyes on devoting our resources of the challenges that hold the keys to our collective future. Ending this pandemic, addressing the climate crisis, managing the shifts in global power dynamics, shaping the rules of the world on vital issues like trade, cyber, and emerging technologies and facing the threat of terrorism as it stands today.

We’ve ended 20 years of conflict in Afghanistan. And as we close this period of relentless war, we’re opening a new era of relentless diplomacy, of using the power of our development aid to invest in new ways of lifting people up around the world, of renewing and defending democracy, proving that no matter how challenging or how complex the problems we’re going to face, government by and for the people is still the best way to deliver for all of our people.

And as the United States turns our focus to the priorities and the regions of the world, like the Indo-Pacific that are most consequential today and tomorrow, we’ll do so with our allies and partners through cooperation and multilateral institutions like the United Nations to amplify our collective strength and speed, our progress toward dealing with these global challenges. It is the fundamental truth of the 21st century within each of our countries and as a global community, that our own success is bound up in other succeeding as well. To deliver for our own people, we must also engage deeply with the rest of the world to ensure that our own future, we must work together with other partners, our partners toward a shared future. Our security, our prosperity, and our very freedoms are interconnected in my view as never before. And so, I believe we must work together as never before.

Over the last eight months, I prioritized rebuilding our alliances, revitalizing our partnerships, and recognizing they’re essential and central to America’s enduring security and prosperity. We have reaffirmed our sacred NATO Alliance to article five commitment. We’re working with our allies toward a new strategic concept that will help our alliance better take on the evolving threats of today and tomorrow. We renewed our engagement with the European Union, a fundamental partner in tackling the full range of significant issues facing our world today. We elevated the quad partnership among Australia, India, Japan, and the United States to take on challenges ranging from health security, to climate, to emerging technologies.

We’re engaging with regional institutions from [inaudible 00:07:10] to the African Union to the Organization of American States, to focus on people’s urgent needs for better health and better economic outcomes. We’re back at the table in international forums, especially the United Nations to focus attention and dispar global action on shared challenges.

We are reengaged at the World Health Organization and working in close partnership with Kovacs to deliver life-saving vaccines around the world. We rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement and we’re running to retake a seat in the Human Rights Council next year at the UN. And as the United States seeks to rally the world action, we will lead not just through the example of our power, but God willing with the power of our example. Make no mistake. The United States will continue to defend ourselves, our allies, and our interest against attack, including terrorist threats, as we prepare to use force, if any is necessary. But to defend our vital US national interest, including against ongoing and imminent threats. But the mission must be clear and achievable. Undertaken with informed consent of the American people. And whenever possible, in partnership with our allies. US military power must be our tool of last resort. Not our first. It should not be used as an answer to every problem we see around the world. Indeed, today, many of our greatest concerns cannot be solved or even addressed through the force of arms. 

Bombs and bullets cannot defend against COVID-19 or its future variants. To fight this pandemic, we need a collective act of science and political will. We need to act now to get shots and arms as fast as possible, and expand access to oxygen, tests, treatments to save lives around the world. And for the future, we need to create a new mechanism to finance global health security that builds on our existing development assistance and a global health threat council that is armed with the tools we need to monitor and identify emerging pandemics so that we can take immediate action.

Already the United States has put more than $15 billion toward the global COVID response. We’ve shipped more than 160 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to other countries. This includes 130 million doses from our own supply and the first tranches of the half a billion doses of Pfizer vaccine, we purchased to donate through COVAX. Planes carrying vaccines from the United States have already landed in 100 countries, bringing people all over the world, a little dose of hope as one American nurse termed it to me. A dose of hope direct from the American people and importantly, no strings attached.

And tomorrow at the US hosted Global COVID-19 Summit, I’ll be announcing additional commitments as we seek to advance the fight against COVID-19 and hold ourselves accountable around specific targets on three key challenges. Saving lives now, vaccinating the world, and building back better. This year has also brought widespread death and devastation from the borderless climate crisis. The extreme weather events that we have seen in every part of the world, and you all know it and feel it represent what the Secretary General has rightly called code red for humanity.

And the scientists and experts are telling us that we’re fast approaching a point of no return in a literal sense. To keep within our reach the vital goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, every nation needs to bring their highest possible ambitions to the table when we meet in Glasgow for COP26. And then to have to keep raising our collective ambition over time.

In April, I announced the United States ambitious new goal under the Paris Agreement. To reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the United States by 50 to 52% below 2005 levels by 2030, as we work toward achieving the clean energy economy with net zero emissions by 2050. And my administration’s working closely with our Congress to make critical investments in green infrastructure and electric vehicles will help us lock in progress at home toward our climate goals. And the best part is making these ambitious investments isn’t just good climate policy, it’s a chance for each of our countries to invest in ourselves and our own future.

It’s an enormous opportunity to create good paying jobs for workers in each of our countries and to spur long-term economic growth that will improve the quality of life for all of our people. We also have to support the countries and people that will be hit the hardest and that have the fewest resources to help them adapt. In April, I announced that United States will double our public international financing to help developing nations tackle the climate crisis. And today, I’m proud to announce that we’ll work with the Congress to double that number again, including for adaptation efforts.

This will make the United States leader in public climate finance, and with our added support together with increased private capital from other donors, we’ll be able to meet the goal of mobilizing $100 billion to support climate action in developing nations. As we deal with these crises, we’re also encountering a new era. An era of new technologies and possibilities that have potential to release and reshape every aspect of human existence. And it’s up to all of us to determine whether these technologies are forced to empower people or to deepen repression.

As new technologies continue to evolve, we’ll work together with our democratic partners to ensure that new advances in areas from biotechnology to quantum computing, 5G, artificial intelligence, and more are used to lift people up, to solve problems and advance human freedom, not to suppress dissent or target minority communities. And the United States tends to make a profound investment in research and innovation, working with countries at all stages of economic development to develop new tools and technologies to help us tackle the challenges of this second quarter of the 21st century and beyond.

We’re hardening our critical infrastructure against cyber attacks, disrupting ransomware networks and working to establish clear rules of the road for all nations, as it relates to cyberspace. We reserve the right to respond decisively to cyber attacks that threaten our people, our allies, or our interest. We will pursue new rules of global trade and economic growth to strive a level of playing field. So it’s not artificially tipped in favor of any one country at the expense of others. And every nation has the right and opportunity to compete fairly.

We will strive to ensure that basic labor rights, environmental safeguards, and intellectual property are protected, and that the benefits of globalization are shared broadly throughout all our societies. We’ll continue to uphold the long-standing rules and norms that have formed the guardrails of international engagement for decades that have been essential to the development of nations around the world. Bedrock commitments, like freedom of navigation, adherence to international laws and treaties, support for arms control measures to reduce the risk and enhance transparency.

Our approach is firmly around it and fully consistent with the United Nation’s mission and the values we’ve agreed to when we drafted this charter. These are commitments we all made, and that we’re all bound to uphold. And as we strive to deal with these urgent challenges, whether they’re long-standing or newly emerging, we must also deal with one another. All of the major powers of the world have a duty, in my view, to carefully manage their relationships. So they do not tip from responsible competition to conflict.

The United States will compete and we will compete vigorously and lead with our values and our strength. We’ll stand up for our allies and our friends and oppose attempts by stronger countries to dominate weaker ones, whether through changes to territory by force, economic coercion or technical exploitation or disinformation, but we’re not seeking, say it again, we are not seeking a new cold war or a world divided into rigid blocks. The United States is ready to work with any nation that steps up and pursues peaceful resolution to share challenges even if we have intense disagreement in other areas, because we’ll all suffer the consequences of our failure, if we do not come together to address the urgent threats like COVID-19 and climate change or enduring threats like nuclear proliferation. The United States remains committed for ready to preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. Where are working with the P5+1 to engage Iran diplomatically, and to seek a return to JCPOA. We’re prepared to return to full compliance if Iran does the same.

Similarly, we seek serious and sustained diplomacy to pursue the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. We seek concrete progress toward an available plan with tangible commitments that would increase stability on the peninsula and in the region, as well as improve the lives of the people in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

We must also remain vigilant to the threat of terror, that terrorism poses to all our nations. Whether emanating from distant regions of the world, or in our own backyard. We know the bitter string of terrorism. The bitter sting of terrorism is real. We’ve almost all experienced it.

Last month, we lost 13 American heroes and almost 200 innocent Afghan civilians in a heinous terrorist attack at Kabul airport. Those who commit acts of terrorism against us will continue to find a determined enemy in the United States. The world today is not the world of 2001 though, and the United States is not the same country we were when we were attacked on 9/11, 20 years ago. Today, we’re better equipped to detect, to prevent terrorist threats and we are more resilient in our ability to repel them and to respond. We know how to build effective partnerships to dismantle terrorist networks by targeting their financing and support systems, countering their propaganda, preventing their travel as well as disrupting imminent attacks. We’ll meet terrorist threats that arise today and the future with a full range of tools available to us, including working in cooperation with local partners so that we need not be so reliant on large scale military deployments.

One of the most important ways we can effectively enhance security and reduce violence is by seeking to improve the lives of the people all over the world, who see that their governments are not serving their needs. Corruption fuels inequality, siphons off a nation’s resources, spreads across borders and generates human suffering. It’s nothing less than a national security threat in the 21st century. Around the world, we’re increasingly seeing citizens demonstrate their discontent. Seeing the wealthy and well connected grow richer and richer, taking payoffs and bribes, operating above the law while the vast majority of the people struggle to find a job or put food on the table or to get their businesses off the ground, or simply send their children to school. People have taken to the streets in every region to demand that their governments address people’s basic needs, give everyone a fair shot to succeed and protect their God-given rights.

And in that chorus of voices, across languages and continents, we hear a common cry. A cry for dignity, simple dignity. As leaders, it’s our duty to answer that call, not to silence it. The United States has committed to using our resources and our international platform to support these voices, listen to them, partner with them, to find ways to respond that advance human dignity around the world. For example, there’s an enormous need for infrastructure in developing countries. With infrastructure that is low quality or that feeds corruption or exacerbates environmental degradation, may only end up contributing to greater challenges for countries over time. Done the right way, however, with transparent, sustainable investment in projects that respond to the country’s needs and engage their local workers to maintain high labor and environmental standards, infrastructure can be a strong foundation that allows societies in low and middle income countries to grow and to prosper. 

That’s the idea behind the Build Back Better world. And together with the private sector and our G7 partners, we aim to mobilize hundreds of billions of dollars in infrastructure investment. We will also continue to be the world’s largest contributor to humanitarian assistance, bringing food, water, shelter, emergency healthcare, and other vital life-saving aid to millions of people in need. When the earthquake strikes, the typhoon rages or disaster anywhere in the world, the United States shows up, we’ll be ready to help. And at a time when nearly one in three people globally do not have access to adequate food, adequate food just last year, the United States is committing to rallying our partners to address immediate malnutrition and to ensure that we can sustainably feed the world for the decades to come. To that end, the United States is making a $10 billion commitment to end hunger and invest in food systems at home and abroad.

Since 2000, the United States government has provided more than $140 billion to advance health and strengthen health systems. And we will continue our leadership to drive these vital investments to make people’s lives better every single day, just give them a little breathing room.

And as we strive to make lives better, we must work with renewed purpose to end the conflicts that are driving so much pain and hurt around the world. We must redouble our diplomacy and commit to political negotiations, not violence, as a tool of first resort, to manage tensions around the world. We must seek a future of greater peace and security for all people of the Middle East.

The commitment of the United States Digital Securities, without question, are our support for an independent Jewish state is unequivocal, but I continue to believe that a two-state solution is the best way to ensure Israel’s future as a Jewish democratic state, living in peace, alongside of viable sovereign and democratic Palestinian state. We’re a long way from that goal at this moment, but we must never allow ourselves to give up on the possibility of progress.

We cannot give up on solving raging civil conflicts, including in Ethiopia and Yemen, who are fighting between warring parties is driving famine, horrific violence, human rights violations against civilians, including an unconscionable use of rape, as a weapon of war. We’ll continue to work with the international community, to press for peace and bring an end to this suffering.

As we pursue diplomacy across the board, the United States will champion the democratic values that go to the very heart of who we are as a nation and a people. Freedom, equality, opportunity, and a belief in the universal rights of all people. It’s stamped into our DNA as a nation and critically it’s stamped into the DNA of this institution, the United States, we sometimes forget. To quote the opening words of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, quote, “The equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world. The founding ethos of the United Nations places the rights of individuals at the center of our system, and that clarity and vision must not be ignored or misinterpreted. 

The United States will do our part, but we’ll be more successful and more impactful if all of our nations are working toward the full mission to which we are called. That’s why more than 100 nations united around a shared statement, and the Security Council adopted a resolution outlining how we’ll support the people of Afghanistan moving forward, laying out the expectations to which we’ll hold the Taliban when it comes to respecting universal human rights. 

We all must advocate for the rights of women and girls to use their full talents, to contribute economically, politically, and socially, and pursue their dreams free of violence and intimidation, from Central America to the Middle East to Africa to Afghanistan, wherever it appears in the world. We all must call out and condemn the targeting and oppression of racial, ethnic, and religious minorities, whether it occurs in Xinjiang or northern Ethiopia or anywhere in the world. We all must defend the rights of LGBTQI individuals so they can live and love openly without fear, whether it’s Chechnya or Cameroon or anywhere. As we steer our nations toward this inflection point and work to meet today’s fast-moving, cross-cutting challenges, let me be clear. I am not agnostic about the future we want for the world. 

The future will belong to those who embrace human dignity, not trample it. The future will belong to those who unleash the potential of their people, not those who stifle it. The future will belong to those who give their people the ability to breathe free, not those who seek to suffocate their people with an iron hand. The authoritarians of the world may seek to proclaim the end of the age of democracy, but they’re wrong. The truth is, the democratic world is everywhere. It lives in anti-corruption activists, human rights defenders, the journalists, the peace protesters, on the front lines of this struggle in Belarus, Burma, Syria, Cuba, Venezuela, and everywhere in between. It lives in the brave women of Sudan who withstood violence and oppression to push a genocidal dictator from power and who keep working every day to defend their democratic progress. It lives in the proud Moldovans who helped deliver a landslide victory for the forces of democracy with a mandate to fight graft to build a more inclusive economy. It lives in the young people of Zambia who harnessed the power of their vote for the first time, turning out in record numbers to denounce corruption and chart a new path for their country.

And while no democracy is perfect, including the United States, we’ll continue to struggle to live up to the highest ideals to heal our divisions, and we face down violence and insurrection. Democracy remains the best tool we have to unleash our full human potential. My fellow leaders, this is the moment where we must prove ourselves the equals of those who come before us, who with vision and values and determined faith in our collective future built our United Nations, broke the cycle of war and destruction, and laid the foundations for more than seven decades of relative peace and growing global prosperity. Now we must again come together to affirm the inherent humanity that unites us is much greater than any outward divisions or disagreements. We must choose to do more than we think we can do alone, so that we accomplish what we must together.

Ending this pandemic and making sure we’re better prepared for the next one; staving off climactic climate change and increasing our resilience to the impacts we already are seeing; ensuring a future where technologies are the vital tool to solving human challenges and empowering human potential, not a source of greater strife and repression. These are the challenges that will determine what the world looks like for our children and our grandchildren and what they’ll inherit. We can only meet them by looking to the future. I stand here today, for the first time in 20 years, the United States is not at war. We’ve turned the page. All the unmatched strength, energy, and commitment, will and resources of our nation, are now fully and squarely focused on what’s ahead of us, not what was behind.

I know this; as we look ahead, we will lead. We will lead on all the greatest challenges of our time, from COVID to climate, peace and security, human dignity and human rights, but we will not go it alone. We will lead together, with our allies and partners, in cooperation with all those who believe as we do, that this is within our power to meet these challenges, to build a future that lifts all of our people and preserves this planet. But none of this is inevitable. It’s a choice. And I can tell you where America stands. We will choose to build a better future. We, you and I, we have the will and capacity to make it better. Ladies and gentlemen, we cannot afford to waste any more time. Let’s get to work. Let’s make our better future now. We can do this. It’s within our power and capacity. Thank you. God bless you all."

FEMI FANI KAYODE: THE MAN IN THE MIRROR AND HIS MOMENT OF TRUTH.

ICHEOKU says everything he accused others of, he is; and everything he condemned, he caused and cuddled. But all along, he was too cowardly to show his true self and was hiding under a mask of pretentiousness, while parading himself as the gold standard of what Nigerians should aspire to be. At last, the gods have outed him and exposed him for Nigerians to see who he truly is, a great pretender who has been hiding under his mask of Zorro to deceive Nigerians into believing that he was a righteous person and on the righteous path. What a moment of truth, the great reveal, as his mask finally fell off.

So, instead of his years of righteous indignations at Buhari and the North, he should have courageously owned up that he was merely seeking their attention and did not actually mean all his pretended outburst and stand on issues effecting Nigeria. If only he had looked in the mirror much earlier, he would have seen the real bogeyman of Nigeria in disarray and spared himself of the troubles of bombarding Nigerians with his avalanche of diatribes. But in his wise one complex, he wants Nigerians to believe that the same "god" who once told him to wage war against the North, the APC and President Muhammadu Buhari have now appeared again to order him to make peace and reconcile with the North and Buhari and also to join the All Peoples Congress. 

Suddenly, it is no longer Almajiri Peoples Congress but a newly minted Noah's ark of All Peoples Congress which every Nigerian, seeking salvation from their political doldrum, must enter for a political rebirth. Could it be that the hour has finally come? Could it be that "thy kingdom has come?" Could it be that Jesus Christ has finally returned on his second coming? What persuaded this about turn by Femi Fani Kayode and forced on him into an allegiance which he previously foreswore will only happen over his dead body? Why did he suddenly disregard his own preconditions and discard all the oath he took never to be on the same breathing space with Buhari? Why did he rejoin the APC or did he just not care about eating his own poop.

He said he had a divine calling to put Nigeria First and you ask yourself what country has he been putting first before the revelation. Was it the country of the disrespected and abused Southern wife and her vagrantly abusive, savagery and uncircumcised North husband? It is very shocking to see what some people are capable of doing and using the name of God to do it, despite the biblical injunction in Exodus 20:7 that "Thou shall not take the name of God in vain." He regularly swore with the name of God each time he lashed out at the North, called them infidels who will perish in the lake of fire. He called them filthy almajiris, who are not educated, poorly educated and blamed them for Nigeria not attaining greatness. 

Femi Fani Kayode effectively helped "divide" Nigeria between North and South with his polarizing, acerbic and incendiary hogwash of rhetorics. He called the North fat and ugly, callous and abusive husband who were lording it over the South weak wife. He charged the atmosphere which is now overheating and which has irreparably pitched Nigerians against one another, particularly the North against the South and vice versa. He represents to the North what Buhari represents to the South, two people who drew a knife on Nigeria's unity and it is bleeding heavily today as a result of their actions. He stirred the tension in Nigeria so much by pillorying the North that they believe that the whole South are waging a war against them.

But suddenly, he had an epiphany and it was revealed to him that he is the chosen and anointed one, sent on a mission to super glue Nigeria back together. A country which he actively preached, practiced and championed its disunity. A Nigeria which he also threatened and supported its disintegration that he palled with secessionists, but now is yearning for its unity. He lambasted the North but is now dinning with them and you wonder if he goes to dinners with them with the proverbial long spoon since he also called them the devil. What exactly does this fella see each time he looks in the mirror that he comes out attacking some Nigerians and Northerners instead of attacking himself as the real problem with Nigeria. How can any person be this convoluted. 

ICHEOKU says what struck Saul on his way to Damascus pales in comparison to the demonic encounter which Femi Fani Kayode had which forced such a sea change in him. Whatever hydra-headed spirit that accosted him and issued him with such a marching order to quickly scurry back to the North and Buhari and beg them for forgiveness must have added an unpalatable alternative such as a quick agonizing death. Things do not just happen and the Femi Fani Kayode's sudden change of heart could not have just happened out of his own free volition. He was either pushed or forced to jump following a hot pursuit by some evil forces which he froze upon sighting and floundered into the deep ravine to his fatal fall.

It is a sad commentary that so many Nigerians, particularly Nigerian politicians, lack conviction of their belief and that they can be so easily swayed by assuaging the yawning of their stomach. Recall that Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida once said, "except for Gani Fawehinmi, every Nigerian has a price." So, how much was the asking and purchase price of Femi Fani Kayode that the North and Buhari paid to finally take him into "slavery?" Did they make him an offer which he could not refuse to induce such a change of mind for him to join the same people he repeatedly derided and castigated as  odious and callous; and who he swore never to have anything to do with as long as he shall live. 

Could it be that they reeled him in to have him in closer proximity to serve him an Abiola tea or Tunde Idiagbo's soft drink; or better still, to later disgracefully throw him out as a repayment for all the insults he leveled against them. ICHEOKU says is just seeking answers to enable us understand what made the lion eat grass; and not that any Nigerian politician is above board. Former Vice President Abubakar Atiku abandoned the party which gave him eight years in office as Vice President and unconfirmed report also has it that former President Jonathan Goodluck is equally planning to abandon the party which made him president. FFK is not the only politician in a country of least trust. 

What will Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and Sunday Igboho be thinking about the man who lied to them and encouraged their secessionist agitation, assured them of his support all the way? Does FFK not know shame or have no regard for his character; or is he incapable of differentiating between reputation and notoriety? Does it matter to him that millions of people heard him gush about his freedom fighting and civil rights credentials and what the people will be thinking of him now, particularly how he lied to them. Is he this shameless that he does not care nor give a damn about how people perceive him? But should a man who is now on his fifth marriage, who kissed and told on two Igbo ladies, be any longer bothered by "ordinary" reputation damage?

ICHEOKU says what FFK did should not rattle any reasonable person who has been closely watching him because he has always manifested a lack of candor, principles, conviction and trustworthiness. He is the Nigerian Judas Iscariot whose befitting moniker should be "ONCE THE PRICE IS RIGHT". He turns more tricks than professional prostitutes. What he did touches a very sensitive thinking in Nigeria that certain people from a part of Nigeria are hardly trustworthy and that you can only deal with them at your own risk; and if you must, to first verify because they are likely to betray you. 

But for Goodluck Jonathan who rehabilitated him as his 2015 reelection campaign spokesman, when he was in a political wilderness after Bola Tinubu's threw him out of the AC, where would the chameleon be today? But he steadily ran his foul, filthy mouth against Jonathan's government forcing Jonathan to pacify him by bribing him with the position. It is also noteworthy that he failed to deliver and was unable to out-spin and out-speak Buhari's communications team and you wonder if he was similarly compromised then as well. To a large extent, Femi Fani Kayode contributed heavily to the loss which Project reelect Jonathan 2015 suffered. 

But of what political value and utility is he anyway that makes him a worthy catch for any political party when he cannot even win his ward in an election. All he is bringing is his rabidity and loquacity which has turned off so many and will be a deficit for the All Peoples Congress. No Nigeria will cross over to or join the APC or even decide to vote for APC because FFK joined the party. A man has never achieved anything meaningful in life and who but for his recognizable last surname, would not have been appointed by Olusegun Obasanjo as a minister, has nothing to contribute to the APC. Why the red carpet reception in Aso Rock as if he is a doyen of Nigerian politics.  

If only Bola Tinubu was not sick and smitten in London, battling debilitating arthritis of the lower extremities and other undisclosed diseases, he would have resisted the crossover of this vagabond back into the APC. The party knows that Tinubu does not like FFK and hates his penchant for treachery,  and would not have signed off on his rehabilitation back in the party, the reason they decided to act while the Jagaban is still indisposed. It is possible too that his readmission to the party is a part of the grand design to frustrate Jagaban's planned 2023 push for Aso Rock. 

FFK only reaffirmed that the only standard required of a Nigerian politician is to have no standard at all. That is why Nigeria is stalled politically since 1999 as the same people are just recycling themselves and repeatedly doing the same thing and excepting things to change which meets the definition of madness. The only way democracy can indeed grow and begin to mature  in Nigeria is for the two main political parties to outlaw this incessant criss crossing of politicians between parties, depending on who is in Aso Rock. Nigerian politicians are not ideologically forged, they are any party in power politicians, who are driven solely by where their bread will be buttered most. 

Therefore, the news that the loquacious fella went back to his vomit is not actually news worthy as it is normal in Nigeria politics. They ply the same trade and can go to any length to justify their action. Just listen to FFK that he spoke against Buhari from the outside and now knows him better from the inside. When did the "inside" knowledge begin exactly, since FFK did not just fall down from the skies of Nigeria last week but has been very much around since December 31st 1983 when Buhari first happened on the Nigerian stage. So after 38 years of knowing Buhari from the "outside", his few hours of meeting Buahri at Aso Rock changed everything and imputed to him special knowledge from the "inside", which supplanted everything he previously knew about Buhari.

Femi Fani Kayode once said of Buhari, "when Buhari was in power he locked people up, he crated people, he killed people with retroactive legislation, he carried people on the streets of London illegally, turned Nigeria into a pariah nation; a man that looted PTF." 

When he made the statement he knew Buhari from the outside and possibly defamed Buhari then. But he has now slept with Buhari, seen his naked body and now knows that all he previously said or knew about Buhari were tissues of lies and made up stories; and that Buhari is innocent of all the charges which FFK leveled against him. Did he even apologize to Buhari for "wrongly" defaming him or did he capitalize on Buhari's Joe Biden situation, believing that he is hovering on the borders of senility to recall all the vituperations and invectives which he poured in full measure on Buhari, his fellow Northerners and their Fulani terrorists herdsmen. 

After visiting Buhari in Aso Rock, it was FFK conclusion that Buhari's tyrannical rule of 1983 to 1985 did not happen simply because FFK knew Buhari then from the outside. Now he can attest to Buhari's saintliness and angelic nature because he slept with him and saw his inside. He also only knew the APC from the outside when he called them Almajiris Peoples Congress just a few months ago, but now that he knows them from the inside, they have magically metamorphosed into All Peoples Congress. It is also instructive that everything happened with a lightening speed such that FFK must be one heck of mind reader to in fact have such a wonderful understanding from being inside. 

A political liability who is as unstable as mercury and who blows in the wind like a willow. Since he swore to rather die than join the dark, filthy and rats infested sinking ship APC, may be Nigerians should now get ready for his funeral. Since he swore to oppose the APC for the rest of his natural life and that he will never join the APC no matter what, it is time to prepare for his end of life. Since he swore the APC is nothing but darkness and that he stood for the light and that there can never be fellowship between light and dark, it is time to appreciate that FFK has been dark all along, only that he mistook his light complexion for light. He is a lesson in paradox who deserves pity than condemnation because he does not know what he does; his center of equilibrium has shifted. #JudasOfOduduwa.

THE WRONG WAR WAS FOUGHT IN AFGHANISTAN.

ICHEOKU says one thing with ideology is that you can kill the messenger but can never kill the message. Long after you think you have killed the promoters, some people who were already indoctrinated and who had survived the cleansing, will always emerge from their relative obscurity to continue propagating the ideology. They will become the new torch bearers of the message and will pass it on, in continuation of the mission, spreading it from where their inductors had been forced to stop. This is why it is often very difficult to kill an idea by simply killing those who manifestly possess it, because the idea might be incubating in some people who were similarly inculcated and other escapees and survivors of the earlier bloodletting. 

In the battle of ideas, conviction is the key; the reason it is always better to attack the mind than the body of those whose idea you want to supplant with yours. You have to convince them on why your idea is better than theirs, and why they should change their mindset and replace it with what you have brought along. The mindset is a deeply rooted place that once something takes root, it stays and is often difficult to upend it without some serious effort. It is mindset that make  believers and followers do what they do and sometimes even die for their cause. The Taliban is  convinced in the rightness of their position and that what they have is the best and superior to any other and that it is either it or nothing at all. So, no matter how many of them were killed, it would not have made any difference as many more will readily pop up to take the place of the killed. 

It happened in the Bible with early Christians where believers were willingly going to their deaths rather than change their conviction about heaven, Jesus Christ and God. The Bible is filled with such stories where believers were thrown into dens of lions, stakes driven into them, some burnt alive, tortured and beheaded, yet they refused to bulge or renounce their faith. They were simply convinced and they believed; and they would rather die and go to paradise than recant their faith. The Taliban is not an exception as they are equally convinced in the rightness of their cause and that what they believe in is pure; and therefore not amenable to change or subject to any other superior teachings out there. This is their driving force and it helped them stay the course until they retook Afghanistan. 

The policy wonks of America did not do their homework very well as they failed to appreciate  what exactly drives the Taliban that made them so committed and loyal to their cause that they would gladly die than accept what they consider philosophy of "invaders" in their country. They believe in their divine calling and that what they are doing is sanctioned by their Allah and no human being compares to Allah to make them change course. It is so deeply entrenched in them and they are convinced that if they die fighting, it will be an automatic ticket to paradise as martyrs. For them paradise is far much better than earth, hence the incentive to make it quickly over there; the reason they were not afraid nor intimidated by the all powerful American military and eventually drove them out of their Afghanistan.

It takes more than ordinary courage to stay the course and eventually achieve such a feat against what is considered the mightiest military on earth. This is why the Taliban is  over joyed and celebrating, alongside some other countries tacitly; that finally, the almighty America military which nobody has ever dared before now, were finally "defeated" and forced to beat it out of Afghanistan. They had the staying power and tenacity to go the long haul, unfazed by death and unperturbed by the military prowess of America; and it was only their conviction that propelled them to the finish line, securing a victory over America. As far as they were concerned, it did not matter that they lost 60,000 fighters against less than 10,000 "invaders", provided their ideology survived and lives on.

Instead of targeting and killing the physical Taliban, the mental Taliban should have been targeted and killed; and thereafter they can be reprogrammed with the new Western ideology that places women over men. The American people are like the Taliban in some ways, in that they are resolutely passionate about their country and maintains an abiding conviction that the American ideal is superior to every other. Americans also are convinced that their country is the best country on earth and that everything and anything America is better than any other. Americans also believe that homosexuality is good and they will not allow anyone to tell them otherwise and will sometimes go to war to defend their values and what they believe in. Similar drivers move the Taliban, the reason they will not allow anyone to tell or dictate to them otherwise. 

It comes with early indoctrination of so many years where American kids are taught that their country is exceptional, that they can be whatever they want to be and that their country is the greatest country on planet earth. Majority of Americans will rather die than submit to any other country's authority or bow to alien philosophy other than what they grew up enmeshed in. It is this nationalistic commitment in their country and ideals that they share with the Taliban in that the Taliban were also born that way. The Taliban were raised, believing in the superiority of the male over the female; and that women are  here in this world to just incubate babies put in their wombs by men and also to take care of the home. This cast in stone mindset is what was left un-attacked in the wrong war fought in Afghanistan which went for the body of the Taliban and not their mind.

It is embedded in their DNA and no Jupiter would have made them change their ways simply by killing them. This is why America lost the war. America went for their body instead of their mind. America should have aimed the battle at deconstructing the many years of unbroken indoctrination which forged them into battle tested and fearless soldiers of Allah. The Taliban should have been convinced on why their orientation is not the right one. We killed them for oppressing women when we should have convinced them on why it is wrong to oppress women. We killed them for being too harsh on their people when we should have reorientated them on better approach in meting out justice, law and order. Simply put, it was a clash of civilizations and one failed to defeat the other, period.

ICHEOKU says strongly believes that had America fought the right side of Taliban, gone for their minds and not their physical bodies, that the war would have been successful and ended much sooner than it lasted. Like Communism, if America had applied the same kinetic force against it, communism would have still been a thriving force today. But no, America attacked the mind of communism and was able to convince communists that capitalism is a better economic way of life and with it, the added democracy. We battled the wrong demon in Afghanistan by fighting the Taliban with bullets and bombs instead of literatures, kindness and the power of persuasion. 

The Taliban should have been approached like another "ism" (Taliban-ism), conquer their mind and they would have easily succumbed their body in addition. Deeply entrenched beliefs are very difficult to uproot any other way, short of completely erasing the mindset which drives them and repopulating it with a new memory. The early Christian missionaries, after watching Crusaders fail, changed course and adopted the war of the mind approach. Instead of swords, they used their bibles, kindness, gifts and power of persuasion; and once the local population took the bait, they were then able to convince them to drop their beliefs and such other practices that were disagreeable in order for the goodies to keep on coming. This was how many places were won and colonized and it lasted as long as it did; that even after independence, these former colonies are still largely tied to the apron string of their colonial masters. 

Slavery was pulled off in the same way as slave masters convinced African kings and chiefs that instead of going to battles and killing each other, they should capture war prisoners and exchange them for some goodies including gunpowders, which will in turn improve their odds in waging wars as they will be using guns instead of bows and arrows. They also convinced them on the economic viability of trading in slaves as there is much money to be made in the business and persuaded Africans to start kidnapping each other to be sold as commodities for the trans Atlantic human merchandize. They did not bomb Africans into trading slaves and not all the guns in the Western world would have made Africans to do so. They simply went for their minds and such approach would have worked in Afghanistan, although it is doubtful the military industrial complex would have allowed it as such is not as profitable. 

DEL RIO IMMIGRATION CRISIS HYPE: IT IS THE COLOR OF THEIR SKIN, STUPID.

ICHEOKU says suddenly the Joe Biden's administration has woken up from its slumber on the Southern border immigration crisis. It has decided to carry out its immigration responsibility with a ratcheted up deportation exercise; primarily targeted at Haitians, who merely followed the examples of Cubans, Mexicans and other light skinned South Americans and made it into America. Now, the government is sending hundreds of border agents to the southern border in Del Rio and fortifying the border defenses to ensure that these black Haitians don't enter into the country and that those who have already entered, are quickly deported back to Port-au-Prince, using as many charter flights as they could possibly find to effectively accomplish the task.  What's the rush to send back these black Haitians to the country from where they are escaping in search of a better life in America; or are Afghanis the only people who deserve a better life?

Entry point Del Rio is now the main and to some extent, the only focal point and staging ground of illegal immigration crisis hyperventilation on nightly news and newspapers editorials.  This is possibly because the color of the immigrants streaming across the Rio Grande river through Dell Rio into America is not the right skin color; they are black. But throughout last year and continuing for most part of this year when hundreds of thousands of light skinned Mexicans and other Southern Americans immigrants were "invading" the Southern border through El Paso, despite some media mention, the government looked the other way and when they looked, it was only to provide them with humanitarian assistance, busing them into American cities for rehabilitation and resettlement. 

But with those black skinned Haitians arriving through Del Rio, Americans don't want them in their country because they are too dark for the country, the reason the quick reaction and order to get them deported back to Haiti. Otherwise, how else does anyone explain the double standards in treatment of these two different immigrant groups from the two sides of the southern border, Del Rio and El Paso? What is going on with respect to the bias immigration enforcements typifies the general treatment which is meted to black people in America, where black lives don't truly matter nor really counts. How can anybody rationalize or meaningfully argue that the two treatments of the Haitian immigrants at Del Rio and those Mexicans and Southern Americans immigrants through  El Paso, meets fairness? 

It is not only not fair, but it is cruel; as Haitians need more help than even those Afghanis being brought into America in planeloads. Haiti is suffering untold economic hardship from years of deprivation, natural disasters and political turmoils, some of which were created through endless Washington DC's interference in their internal domestic affairs matter. Their president was recently assassinated and a desperate people are seeking shelter in America but are being denied it. Where is the humanity in America which they preach overseas and sometime go to wars to emphasis it, if already arrived Haitians are being removed and forcefully sent back to the same despondency where they escaped from. Cubans who manages to set their feet on American soil are allowed to stay, but not Haitians, why?

Must it only be only when America goes to war in another country and is later forced to pull out, like in Vietnam and Afghanistan, that the citizens of such country deserve to be airlifted and boat-loaded into America. Haiti is our neighbor and within the same geo-political influence of America and deserves some cordial and most favored status immigration treatment more than those Afghanis from thousands of miles away in South Central Asia being brought in planeloads. Must Haiti first become a terrorist hotbed or an enemy of America by joining forces with China and Russia, before America can begin to seriously take their needs and problems as America's responsibility. There is a lot of empty spaces in the heartland and these Haitians can be easily bused over there and encouraged to rebuild their lives back better there. 

Even the country Haiti itself deserves a sort of Marshal Plan to help rebuild and reposition it in order to discourage and dissuade these migrations. But they are black and blacks don't usually count nor matter in America's foreign policy decisions. An issue which is even more disheartening because Joe Biden's immigration tsar or tsarina, Kamala Harris, is herself a black Indian-Jamaican, yet black immigrants from Haiti are being summarily deported back to Haiti without even extending to them the same accommodations granted to their Mexican and Southern American immigrants from across the El Paso Southern border. It was not a crisis nor rose to the level demanding immediate intervention when only light skinned immigrants were crossing the southern border, but suddenly became such once dark skinned Haitians joined the exodus. It is sad.  

AUKUS SPARKS DIPLOMATIC RUCKUS AS FRANCE RECALLS AMBASSADORS.

ICHEOKU says Julius Caesar was stabbed severally but it was only Brutus stab that he felt most and complained about with his iconic line "Et tu Brute". It is against this background that France felt deeply betrayed by the United States in sidelining it from the newly established Indo-Pacific defense pact known as AUKUS with Britain and Australia. France strongly feels that, having helped America during the war of independence against Britain and continues to faithfully be their friend, that it has showed enough of abiding love for America to earn their full and unequivocal trust. But for America to now go behind their back and enter a defense pact with only Australia and Britain, the same country which France helped it defeat, is somewhat unfair; the reason it is lashing out. 

Now, that France has recalled its ambassadors from the United States and Australia, the first time in recorded history, in protest of what it considers an act of betrayal, a stab on the back; will America and Australia retaliate in kind by also recalling their own ambassadors from Paris. Or will they rather adopt a wait and see attitude to gauge the French and know whether Paris will take further steps in their protestation or will have sufficient time to cool off and calm down; and resume normal relations by sending back their recalled ambassadors. It is obviously too early to call as their hurt feeling is still raw and emotions still running high; their bruised ego is still heavily bleeding. More time will be needed to see what the overall ramifications will be, provided a tit for tat diplomatic recall of America's ambassador will not take place. 

It is rather ironical that President Emmanuel Macon, who lauded Joe Biden's coming to power because of Trump's go it alone policy, is now watching as Joe Biden did not carry France or Europe along as he entered this new military and defense pact with only Britain and Australia. Even America's northern neighbor and ally Canada was equally kept out in the cold as the woke liberalist tendencies of their Prime Minister Justin Trudeau does not meet Joe Biden's expectations of the seriousness required of the membership of the new military pact. Then add New Zealand which was also not invited to the new club, and France should have some consolation because not even all the 'Five Eyes' countries were considered worthy of membership of AUKUS.

But it is obvious that a ticked off France cannot be reacting so angrily as to recall their ambassador just because it was denied a place at the dinner table of AUKUS. Champs Elyse` is mad as hell because the new alliance took away its expected income from the $66 billion gas powered submarines contract which it entered with Australia. A contract which has now been canceled and replaced with nuclear powered submarines to be manufactured and supplied by America and Britain. The income and the jobs from this contract which have been taken away from France and French workers, and now going to America and Britain and their workers is what Paris is seething about and going into a tizzy as a result. It is about the economy of France and if France could go to war to revert to the status quo ante and keep the contract, it would. 

Unfortunately, the world is jungle and to the mightiest goes the topmost position in the pecking order. So, it does not matter whether France likes or not because what America wants America gets or takes it by force if need be. It is possible too that Washington DC calculated that had France been invited, there will be a need to also add Germany, Italy, Spain and some other countries in the European Union which might eventually make it the entire EU. So, it made a calculated decision not to bring the socialist politics of Europe Union into the AUKUS by leaving out every member of the bloc. It is a fact that the headaches of NATO is more than enough already for America and there is no need replicating NATO in the new AUKUS defense pact. The European Union is increasingly becoming too woke and too far leftist liberal to be taken seriously in matters of war any more. 

It shows that it is not just only President Donald John Trump that is tired of the mess created in the European Union, where everything is being clogged up and sacrificed on the alter of appeasement politics of meeting and satisfying everyone's feeling, no matter how petty, absurd  and idiotic. So, a France wishing to regain its glory must find a way of pulling out of the European Union and reestablish its independence, with its own thinking and decision making processes restored and not tele-guided from Brussels. European Union is not working, have never worked as too many hands always spoil the broth. America is getting very impatient with European Union and it is effecting its relationship with members of the bloc. This is the most plausible reason why France was shafted by America and kept out of AUKUS. 

Now that European Union Chief Madam Angela Merkel has finally left her high office, it will be a good time to revisit the relevance of the bloc, dilute it down or even scrap it all together. That done, the countries can once again regain their freedom as independent countries with power to make their own decisions. They can keep their Euro currency, they can keep their open border travel arrangement and they can also keep their duty free economy; but they must revert to their respective and independent freedoms of self determination, foreign policy, internal affairs matter and the ability to enter negotiations and make pacts as individual countries. They do not have the will to forge EU into one country akin to the United States of America by having their own United States of Europe that is fully integrated into one government.

But for them to want to deal as EU in some areas and want to go it as separate countries in some other areas, creates more confusion and problems than they set out to solve by forming the union. So, France must understand this imperative sufficiently so that, instead of throwing tantrums like a child whose candy was taken away, must decide how it wants to proceed or be treated going forward. Does it want to be treated as an independent country like United Kingdom or tolerated as a piece of the EU giant maze as just France. It is only when their President Emmanuel Macon can effectively answer this question that France can once again be meaningfully respected and enough to be brought along before the train leaves the station. 

Until then, they should prepare to only play assigned roles going forward, but not to be at the center table making decisions. Woke liberal politics is a cancer eating deep in the heart of Europe and it has almost grounded decision making process of so many countries therein. Joe Biden gets it and Joe Biden has the testicular fortitude to do what needs to be done to put everyone in their rightful place. In fact, with this AUKUS, he took Trump's America First policy to the next level and ran with it. Therefore, it is for Emmanuel Macon to decide what he wants to do, keep his ambassadors or send them back; and then begin to negotiate the way forward for France or better still form his own alliance with Russia and Germany. Although the disgraceful slap by a French guy still reverberates, but this AUKUS snub hurts badly and probably even more. It is sad.

PASSING THE BUCK ON AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL: SHAMEFUL AND COWARDLY.

ICHEOKU says it is a shame that Secretary of State Anthony Blinken decided to blame President Donald John Trump's administration's agreement with the Taliban for botching the Afghanistan withdrawal mission. Funny enough the Secretary failed to correctly articulate the real bone of contention which was the manner in which the mission was carried out and not the mission itself. So, it does not matter who initiated the withdrawal process or who entered the agreement with the Taliban to withdraw from Afghanistan, the withdrawal should have been carried out in a manner that meets the expectation of the world as well as the American people. 

But even if we accept, for the purposes of advancing this argument, that the hands of the Joe Biden government were constrained by the agreement, was their hands also constrained in the manner they implemented it? Did the agreement stipulate that they withdrew the military first before evacuating the civilians, both diplomatic and non diplomatic, including those Afghanis who assisted America during their 20 years sojourn there. So, what exactly was Secretary Blinken saying or trying so hard to convince American people that happened in Afghanistan, why the show they put up was below par and somewhat bothering on a humiliating mediocrity. Who does he think he was trying to make a fool of, a matter made worse because they acknowledged the withdrawal as a resoundingly spectacular success. 

Are there now two desks that there should be any confusion as on whose desk the buck stopped? Even the fact that Joe Biden had already taken full responsibility for what happened in Afghanistan was not persuasive enough for Secretary Blinken to finally come around in telling the truth about what really happened. It is purely crass incompetence; and the fact that neither him nor his counterpart in the defense department have resigned as a result, shows the one thing common with the Joe Biden administration officials and appointees. They cling to their offices as if their lives depended on them, instead of the required accountability, integrity and display of competence which public offices demand of their holders. Afghanistan was hugely botched, yet nobody has fallen on their sword. It is a terrible precedent to set that performance  no longer determines who holds public offices in America. 

They had eight months between January to August to get the withdrawal right; or in the alternative to reform, amend, vary or even outrightly cancel whatever Taliban agreement that was inherited from the Trump's administration. As is the practice everywhere, until full performance, any agreement can be changed  or completely voided; and the agreement between President Donald John Trump's administration and the Taliban was not any different nor an exception. So, why didn't Joe Biden's administration act in a manner that would have vitiated the agreement and renege on its implementation. A course which he had started on when he varied the date of full implementation from May 1st to August 31st or was  it September 1st? Why did he pass up the opportunity to dishonor the contract since it was Trump who entered into it as has been his pattern, practice and attitude to everything Trump. 

Nothing from the Trump's era has survived Joe Biden's vengeance so far; so why did the Taliban withdrawal agreement? Withdrawing from Afghanistan was a campaign promise he made and therefore he decided to fulfill it, and should own it up and stop blaming Trump for tying his hands up with the Taliban agreement. The Paris Climate accord was reversed by Trump but Biden restored it. The Iranian nuclear deal was abandoned by Trump but Biden reinstated it. Missile defense shields were placed in Saudi Arabia by Trump  but Biden have since removed them. Stay in Mexico immigration policy put in place by Trump has since been reversed by Biden. Construction of the southern border wall being implemented by Trump was equally stopped and abandoned by Biden. Ditto the Keystone XL pipeline which has been stopped by Biden.

The litany of such reversals of Trump's actions by Biden is quite long, so why did Joe Biden not also renege on the contract with the Taliban, and now making a straw man's argument through his Secretary of State that his hands were tied by it and adducing that as he reason the Afghanistan withdrawal suffered such a major humiliating snafu. The withdrawal was a good decision but those involved with seeing it through failed to meet up with what was required of the United States of America. They placed the cart before the horse by first withdrawing the military before the civilians and therefore compounded the whole exercise and made into the boondoggle it turned into. So, Mr Secretary of State should understand what the cry is about and not that American troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan or that an agreement with the Taliban precipitated it.

It was a mission acutely bungled by the people put in charge to carry it out, the Secretary of States and theSecretary of defense, and they did not put America's best foot forward in doing it. But so far, none of them has resigned or forced to fall on their sword for poorly carrying out the mission and in such a very humiliating way. Instead, Secretary Blinken is busy looking for the fall guy to pin the blame on and trying to shift the focus away from the Biden's administration and projecting it on the Trump administration. It is a contrived strategy which has failed as American people knew the facts of the withdrawal and who implemented it, rather abysmally and it wasn't the Trump administration. The Secretary also failed to understand that the crux of the matter was not the mission but how it was carried out and should be ashamed for trying to conflate and confuse the narrative. If only he has the candor to tender his resignation.

GENERAL MILEY'S PHONE CALLS TO CHINA: UNDERSCORES THE LEVEL OF SABOTAGE TRUMP FACED IN OFFICE.

ICHEOKU says put partisan politics aside, what the Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staffs did was indeed condemnable and tantamount to taking side with the enemy. He has lost his honor and no longer possess the dignity and integrity to continue in office. If Marine Commander Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Scheller was relieved of his duties and thrown out from the Marine for questioning the Afghanistan inept withdrawal, why is General Mark A. Milley still holding his position as Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staffs. Why has he not yet been shown the way out after such a betrayal and outright undermine of his then Commander in Chief. Is it because it was President Donald John Trump and that everybody in Washington DC was incohoot in sabotaging his administration? It should be about the office and as commander in chief of the armed forces and the subordinate position of the Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff; and every effort should be made to sustain this hierarchy of authority.

Joe Biden should relieve him of his duties immediately as any military chief who is capable of undermining his commander in chief is not worthy of holding the office which he occupies. It is an office which demands absolute loyalty, from a trustworthy and patriotic Chief who would carry out the orders of his commander in chief without question and with total professionalism. But for a Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staffs to conspire with an apparent potential enemy of the United States of America and assure them that he will tip them off any time there was an order to strike, is not only treasonous but he put the men and women in uniform in more dangerous position. Not once, but twice and probably on more occasions than he admitted and you wonder what China's read of America's military readiness is when America's Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff is the one directly cooperating with them, the enemy, to sabotage America.

It is a bad precedent to allow him to continue to stay in the office as a similar thing could happen in the future with a democrat president and a chief of army staff who despises him so much to the extent that he is will to sabotage his duties as commander in chief. If it was a lowly ranked officer that did this, may be he or she would have since been dismissed and thrown out of the service. But for a Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staffs, it makes it absolutely intolerable and unpardonable that a military court martial should be appropriate. It should not be treated with levity just because it was President Donald John Trump, we should weigh the gravity of what was done based on acceptable and tolerable practice; and what message it sent to America's adversaries all over the world that an American highest military chief could actively undermine the president and commander in chief. 

If he admitted to this much, imagine what other things he is not saying or probably might have done which jeopardized America's defense and fighting capabilities, leading to the high casualties suffered in the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan. It is a very serious charge that an American Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staffs confided in his Chinese counterpart that he was going to tip off the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army any time the president and commander in chief of America's armed forces orders a strike on China or any of its regional strategic interest. What other thing did he promise or gave to them and what did he receive in exchange; or may be a promise of very lucrative post-service retainer as consultant in one of many Chinese front companies. It simply does not look good and in fact it defeats any logical explanation why General Milley has not resigned his office or fired for doing what he did.

So, regardless of whatever altruistic motive as he might have explained which made him do what he did, it still does not make it alright nor forgivable. It was a purely partisan and anti Trump driven sentiment that fired him on as he has not assured Chinese General Li Zuocheng that "the American government is "stable and everything is going to be okay" since Joe Biden assumed office despite his apparent mental disequilibrium? He has not called the Chinese PLA to give them assurances that "we are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against them" since January 20th, despite the obvious discordance and disquiet about who is truly in charge in the White House? Has General Mark A Milley even called General Li Zuocheng to affirm their friendship and inform him that "if we are going to attack, I am going to call you ahead of time and it is not going to be a surprise" in the past eight months now? 

ICHEOKU says is "everything fine" now in America since Joe Biden was installed in the White House? Is America "100% steady" when nearly half the country still believes that Joe Biden was not duly elected? If "democracy can be sloppy", is the rogue general advocating that America  abandon it and go the Chinese way or follow their model? So, why has he not called General Li Zuocheng since Joe Biden took office if it was not his hateful partisanship that made him undercut President Trump? He undermined his commander in chief and in fact contemplated a treasonous leak of information to the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army which would have been highly detrimental to our men and women in uniform, who are regularly called up to make the supreme sacrifice. How are these men and women feeling now, knowing that their Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staffs' action would have caused them their lives and limbs had war broken out with China. 

Is this revelation suddenly throwing some insight in the bungled Afghanistan withdrawal? Were the Taliban also called during the negotiations with the Trump administration and asked to remain headstrong, just like John Kerry did with the Iranians over the Iran nuclear deal? Was it what led to the Taliban being stubbornly insistent that America fully withdraw their troops from their country? Was the plan that their adamancy will lead to a stalemate where America is forced to resume hostilities and not withdraw? What else did the Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staffs do or say that probably have cost some service members their lives and limbs? If he secretly confided in the Chinese, which other country possibly benefited from such his undermining activities? it is indeed bad and even worse that he is still in office, despite what his men and women will be thinking of him now. He tasked their general cohesiveness and trust; and the near fatal wound should not be allowed to turn into ulcer.

Was what he did not tantamount to "boxing in an American president" by making sure that no war is declared and if, the America will suffer a great loss by a tipped off, prepared and lying in wait China? Did he give a president of the United States a "decision space" to make up his mind whether or not to attack China before he went on to peremptorily promise to tip the PLA off of any order to attack them? In doing so, he inadvertently told China that there could be an attack by America on them and you wonder why the need of surprise as an element in warfare was lost on the Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staffs? But he is a political woke general who suddenly realized that Joe Biden is "a seasoned politician who has been in Washington DC for 50 years" and will not be easily manipulated or harassed, as he did with novice stranger to Washington DC, President Donald John Trump. 

Then thrown in Gina Haspel with her comment " I agree with you on everything" and "We are going to lash out for his ego" and you understand that the level of resistance and sabotage of the Trump's presidency was system wide and deeper than the Grand Canyon. That he even survived as long as he did and was able to make it out alive is on its own a miracle, as everyone in Washington DC establishment including the people he appointed to various positions were resolved to make his government ungovernable. They constantly leaked information, repeated so much untruths about him and with every expected investigations not launched or stalled and frustrated. Even his attorney generals slow walked everything just to put him in a bad light, as an incompetent and mumbling fool who doesn't know how to govern, simply because he does not belong to the Washington DC establishment. 

ICHEOKU says is convinced that they will not allow him to come back in 2024 and they will move whatever mountain possible to frustrate it. But if he runs again and in the unlikely event he manages to pull off another berth at the White House, he should make it a cardinal point not to ever appoint anyone in Washington DC into any position whatsoever. Those people have proved that they cannot be trusted nor are they reliable, especially when dealing with an outsider. There are 50 States and other territories in America outside of Washington DC and he should look in them to find more trustworthy individuals to help him preside. 

There were other people who betrayed and sabotaged Trump's presidency, but for a Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staffs to be part of it is exactly what a Brutus stab really looks like. No wonder China is always pushing back and frequently thumbing its nose at America because they always have America's plans and intentions ahead of time. It is sad that Washington DC is indeed a swamp but nobody knew it was also this stinky a place. For a whole Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff to do what he did shows that the rot has metastasized to incurability.

GAVIN NEWSOM BEATS BACK RECALL: CALIFORNIA IS TOO BLUE TO GO RED.

ICHEOKU says no serious pundit or follower of California politics especially of the recent decade, which saw the Democratic Party take over every state office in California, added to the activism on overdrive of the homosexual community, Black Lives Matter, MoveOn.Org, ANTIFA and the far left liberal wing of the party with headquarters in California and New York, had expected any different outcome in the recall election. Also a lot of time has passed since the said transgressions of the governor which triggered the recall. So, with the state already fully opened and the coronavirus pandemic no longer as devastating as it once was during last year's peak, many people have moved on with their lives and are no longer interested about recalling the governor. 

Governor Gavin Newsom is still very much liked in the far left liberal wing of the Democratic Party which make up a large number of California democrats. His photogenic image is also in tune with the Hollywood and California projection of the ideal personality for a leadership position, and overall he still commands large favorability rating among the homosexual community which has a lot of membership in California. They never forgets and will forever owe him for going to the mats for them by ordaining same sex marriage when he was the Mayor of San Francisco. And of course, all the major social media platforms Google, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsUp, InstantGram etc are all based in California and the governor still enjoys their unalloyed support. 

So, all the factors were favorably on his side to survive the recall election, especially because none of the alternatives, the replacement candidates has the it factor or required star power to radiate through to Californians to convince them to change their minds. Larry Elder and his co-traveling governors wanna-be look too grand-daddyish for California, which does not necessarily favor such image in their state governorship mansion. Also the fact that Californians dislike President Donald John Trump just like a bull detests a red cloth, made it extremely difficult for anyone identified or closely associated to Trump to succeed in such a Californian recall election; which the democrats successfully nationalized and branded Larry Elder as a Trump's clone and the rest, as they say, is now history.

Getting 65% of NO votes on the recall is high, admitted, for a very deep blue state like California, it is still not that high margin. It send a strong message that many Californians, at lest 35%, are dissatisfied with so many things about the way the state is being ran. Governor Gavin Newsom must therefore adjust his governance accordingly and begin to address the issues which forced the recall election as it was not just because he went for a dinner in Napa or had acute coronavirus lockdown. Homelessness is a big problem in California and he must try and find solution to problem which has now become a metastasized cancer eating into quality of life throughout California. Yes, homeless people have rights, but their rights stopped where the rights of the homed and housed began, because people must be allowed to enjoy their homes and dwellings free of inhibition and being incommoded by blithe. 

The economy must also continue to grow and he should explore ways of making the state conducive for businesses to innovate and continue to create livable-wage jobs in California. The Californian workforce must not become monolithic skill based as not every Californian is a techie or a geek; and those jobs which are hands-on jobs should be retained in California for balance. He should talk with businesses to find ways he can make their operating experience in California favorable enough for them not to be forced to uproot their factories and relocate to China or Texas. If he needs to replace his communication staff, then let him do so to ensure that his messaging comes across better and to reach more Californians, especially those who feel that he is not talking to them whenever he speaks on issues.

But the biggest mistake he will make is to take the outcome of this recall election as a certificate of approval to go buck wild on the same trajectory which he is currently on; or think that everything he is currently doing meets the expectations and satisfaction of Californians, hence there is no need to have a rethink and/or do some adjustments. If he does that, either the Democratic Party might not be as comfortable to field him as their candidate in 2023 or he might have some serious internal challengers to the party's ticket during the 2023 primaries. He should, going forward, let those Californians that championed the recall and voted to recall him know that he got their message and that their grievances have been noted and that he will work tirelessly to once again become a governor for all Californians, irrespective of party affiliations. 

Anyway, the result was as expected and thankfully the status-quo remains; and no time will be wasted trying to put in place a new administration with its attendant headaches. ICHEOKU says congratulations to Governor Gavin Newsom for starving off the hounds that came for his governorship seat and now he will live to fight another day, come 2023. It was the outcome which most Californians expected and they are glad that they were not disappointed. Larry Elder has a black exterior but a white interior, and really has no solid base in California's diverse voting blocks. He ran just for the heck of it, the bragging right; and not because he stood any chance or had plans to fix anything. It is good that Californians outrightly rejected his gimmickry. Now that the distraction of the recall has been put to rest, may California begin its full and complete recovery from the coronavirus disruption. Carry on Governor Gavin Newsom; God's speed.

KEEP CALIFORNIA NEWSOM: VOTE NO ON RECALL.

ICHEOKU says Californians must rise up and reject a hysteria generated assault on the institution of democracy by saying no to the attempt to remove a duly elected Governor Gavin Newsom of California from office through a recall election. Anyone who wants to be governor of California must wait until the next governorship election and then go to the electorates and test their likability and popularity. 

But to use an orchestrated demonizing of the governor to try and get into the office is akin to using the back door and this must not be allowed. What happened last year at the height of the coronavirus pandemic took everyone by surprise and in the confusion, a lot of things were done that would not have been with clear heads and in a calm environment. Nobody, including the governor, should therefor be punished for some honest mistakes. 

Whatever the governor did, he did thinking that they were in the best interest of Californians. He was not out to intentionally punish or hurt Californians and should therefore not be punished for them, by taking away his fairly won governorship. Nobody died because he ate dinner at Napa or took his children to school. So, yes he was caught in Napa dinning without mask when the rest of the state was under his shutdown. But is it not using a sledge hammer where an ordinary scalpel would have been enough to reprimand him and tell him that Californians did not appreciate the apparent double standards. So, yes he took his children to private in person school when the rest of Californian children were studying online, but is such a mistake sufficient to yank away his governorship? 

ICHEOKU says sincerely believes that the message has been delivered and he has gotten it, never again to mess with Californians' intelligence. But unlike Texans who come out firing on all barrels from across the waist, Californians would rather intelligently assess the charges and apportion commensurate punishment as is necessary to register their displeasure but not to throw the baby away with the bath water. At most, let the California legislature censure him for the two conducts if they feel he needs to get some punishment as a result. But they are not egregious enough to take away his governorship. 

If what he did bothered on incompetence that California economy was on a free fall, may be recalling him would be a proper remedy. If what he is accused of bothered on criminality, of course, recalling him from office will be the right action. But what he did is more of a feeling  bothering on how Californians felt by his doing what he counseled Californians against. That is understandable, since we all are supposed to be equal; but sincerely speaking, are we all in fact really equal? All the fingers are not equal despite that they are all fingers. George Orwell in his Animal Farm also buttressed this point with some animals being more equal than others. 

So, we get it and we must therefore temper our anger and make necessary accommodations and move on. We must not allow our feeling to becloud our judgment, especially on matters as crucially important as running a State as huge as California, a state whose economy is the sixth largest in the world. To suddenly trust a radio talking head with such an onerous task as running California will be a very risky and reckless action and Californians are smarter than that with making risk assessments. Californians will not do it and Californians will vote NO to the recall. 

Haste makes waste and actions taken under the stress of events usually turn out not being the best to be taken had cooling time been allowed to elapse and heads cleared out. Let us not make a decision which we will later live to regret by pushing away a Governor Gavin Newsom who is doing his utmost best to keep California rolling. 

The Jews regretted their hasty action killing Jesus Christ. Americans are beginning to regret their hysteric offload of President Donald John Trump as the Joe Biden, who was pushed on them during the cacophony of last years coronavirus pandemic, is showing his hands on why he was not the best decision ever. Californians must therefore learn a lesson from this examples to avoid any future regret from axing Governor Gavin Newsom. The recall effort came about from a generated hysteria and like all such reactions, they always leave the people rueful and regretful later. Californians shall not fall for it and so, must vote to reject the recall with a resounding NO. 

There is problem of homelessness in California which the governor must begin got address seriously and he most likely got the message that his Napa dining out and his taking his children to school were just reactions to pent up frustrations about some things that are not going well in California, top among which is the deteriorating quality of life in California induced by out of control homelessness. He must begin to tackle this problem head-on and must not relax his oars or think that because voters rejected the recall means that they gave him license to carry on and not address this issue. 

If you haven't voted yet, go out there and vote NO on the recall and let California stay in the safe hands of Governor Gavin Newsom because Larry Elder or Caitlyn Jenner have no agenda for California. They are there just for the heck of it, for the bragging right that yes, a black talking radio head and a transgendered man ran in a governorship recall election of California. But they have no clue on how governance works and they have never ran anything outside their homesteads and toying with California by handing it to them will be too grave a mistake to make. 

Even the governor's giving Kamala Harris black senate seat to a Hispanic male, although painful, should not cause blacks boycott of the recall as a payback to him. The females of California have also probably forgiven him for taking that female senate away, thus reducing the number of women in the United States senate. But at last, what is in the best interest of majority of Californians should weigh more than some groups' respective interests and for this, Californians must band together to reject the attempt at a hostile takeover of Sacramento governor's mansion. California is too blue to go red, vote NO on the recall. #KeepCaliforniaNewsom. 

SHEIKH GUMI DENIES THE OBVIOUS: REJECTS BRANDING OF A BANDIT LOVER.

ICHEOKU says he gives them money, he frequently meets with them, he speaks on their behalf, he regularly defends their actions, he acts as a middle man between them and the government, he accuses security agents of using excessive force against them, he butts head with the government for not being fair to them, for not granting them general amnesty and for not creating a ministry of Nomadic Affairs to cater for their needs. Yet he wants everyone to believe that he is not a bandit lover? 

May be he delineates love to strictly "sexual" and because he has not slept with any of the bandits, convinced himself that it is a misnomer for anyone to identify or refer to him as a bandit lover. This, no matter how remotely rational, possibly explains why he is protesting the appellation, having not slept with them and because all the acts which he has been doing on their behalf do not qualify as exemplary acts of love which only a lover would carry out. As far as he is concerned, he was only being their advocate and only using his voice to make known their plight and such a "humanitarian" service which he is providing for them should not be interpreted as a bandit lover's action or the reason to brand him their lover. 

Shiekh Ahmad Gumi wants Nigerians and the rest of world who tunes in to believe that all he is doing for the bandits is devoid of love and are purely without any bias whatsoever, and you wonder why he did not extend the same services or his voice to other Nigerians, including the victims of his Fulani bandits. What more does he need to see or hear before accepting the undeniable fact that it is only his love for bandits that propels him into rendezvousing with them in the forests, negotiate with them, hand them supplies and money, counsel them, pray for them and encourage them to stay strong in their quest to get a better treatment by the Nigeria authorities. 

His actions have rightly earned him the befitting moniker bandit lover as it is quite appropriate to denote his peculiar circumstances of palling with bandits. He should instead of protesting it, accept it as another earned status and find a way of exploiting it further in his dealings with the bandits. He could possibly use it in leveraging them to mend their ways, renounce violence, stop killing and maiming Nigerians and revert to being good citizens of the country. But no, he felt disparaged by being so branded and therefore came out swinging on all cylinders, to remind Nigerians of his steeped pedigree as a neurosurgeon and an intellectual who got his Ph.D from abroad. 

ICHEOKU says is there any Ph.D awarding institution called "abroad" and where is it located? Possibly too, he has this prevailing complex in Nigeria and Africa in general that anything and everything from outside the shores of Nigeria and the continent of Africa is usually superior. May be he got his Ph.D in Islamic studies from a religious institution in Sudan where the disgraced former Emir of Kano Sanusi Lamido Sanusi also studied; and now Nigerians will not rest because he got his "Ph.D from abroad." Why did he need to reiterate that he got his PhD from abroad or are Nigerian institutions awarded PhD no longer acceptable as good PhDs? 

ICHEOKU says while not begrudging him of his academic and intellectual accomplishments or needlessly denigrating his PhD, but that is not the issue triggered by his extensively demonstrated acts of love for bandits. This is what he has not convinced Nigerians on and in the alternative, he should accept the honor proudly and wear it like a badge or crown. But if he is serious that he is not a bandit lover or wants to shake off the tag of a bandit-lover which has stuck on him like a velcro, he must renounce all his previous pronouncements on their behalf and start behaving like someone who is not taking side with the common enemy of Nigerians, the Fulani bandits. 

Sheikh Gumi must not because he shares a common heritage and lineage with Fulani bandits, being a fellow Fulani man, begin to underplay the murderous activities of those Fulani marauding herdsmen who have been terrorizing Nigerians for quite a long time now. Fulani herdsmen have been killing and maiming Nigerians; they have been burning and destroying farmers farmlands and products; they have been destroying people's properties including vehicles, homes, dwellings, businesses and worship centers. In some places, they have completely wiped out natives and replaced them with Fulani. 

So for Sheikh Gumi to deny these terrors of his Fulani bandits or feign ignorance of them or simply try to explain them away is simply an intolerable act of a jaundiced and unrepentant lover of bandits who sees nothing wrong in the mayhem they are visiting on Nigerians almost daily. Any person doing what Gumi is doing is in absolute fellowship with bandits and should not be heard to deny that he, in fact, is a bandit lover. 

He said that he is not a bandit lover yet cuddles bandits. He said that he is his country's lover but "his country" as envisaged by his Fulani people is a Nigeria absolutely owned by Fulani. Fulani people who have repeatedly publicly asserted their ownership of the entire Nigeria landscape from the Niger Republic border all the way to the Atlantic coast, which according to their warped mindset was bequeathed to them by their Allah. He said he is his region's lover and that region is Northern Nigeria, to the exclusion of Southern Nigeria. The reason he is trying so hard to denigrate IPOB and Oduduwa, while carrying aloft the mantra of Fulani bandits. 

He said that he loves his state, Kaduna State, the epicenter of bandits killing and kidnapping in Nigeria but he has not made them to stop terrorizing the State he supposedly loves. His said that he loves people, the Fulani people, and no one else; and then for effect, he added that he is a humanity lover. ICHEOKU says his thinking and precedent serving a guide, it is safe to conclude  that the humanity he mentioned is strictly the Fulani stock and no one else. Where was his "humanity lover" when he was advocating for the complete annihilation of IPOB saying that they are more dangerous than killer Fulani herdsmen, who according him, are "only" kidnapping school children for ransom. 

He also made a point about his Fulani people being marginalized and having misgivings against the Nigeria State, but purposefully ignored the marginalization against other people in Nigeria particularly the Igbo people of Southeast Nigeria. May be in his own understanding, their own marginalization is as egregious to also make them bandits and force them to pick up arms and start kidnapping, killing and maiming Nigerians just like his people the Fulani bandits.

For him, IPOB are worse than his Fulani bandits because they are attacking government officials and burning government properties and therefore deserves to be completely wiped out. Why did he not acknowledge the misgivings which IPOB have against the same Nigeria government, which if weighted against his logic, should also excuse their actions. The same fella did not condemn the wanton killings of Christians in Northern Nigeria particularly in his beloved State of Kaduna, yet he loves humanity. How about hundreds of churches that have been burnt and destroyed in Nigeria by his Fulani bandits? How about the genocidal killings being carried out by his Fulani herdsmen bandits in various parts of Nigeria particularly in Benue State and Southern Nigeria? 

For someone who claims that he loves humanity to have kept quiet all these years of unmitigated murders and mayhem being perpetrated by his Fulani herdsmen and bandits, says a lot about his strict construct of humanity. His bias is glaring obvious and therefore it does not matter that he denied being a bandit lover, his actions tell a different story all together about his unflinching and undiluted love for his Fulani people and his Fulani people are the bandits terrorizing Nigeria. He cannot eat his cake and have it; it is either he condemn the evil of full bandits or be grouped together with them. So, until he renounces them and distances himself from them by condemning their actions, it is safe to say that Sheikh Ahmad Gumi loves bandits and therefore is a bandit lover.