ISRAELI'S SETTLEMENTS, THIS NOSE THUMBING ON AMERICA MUST STOP!

Like any stubborn child who is used to always having only carrots, Israel will not have any of it - the American call for it to cease and desist from further settlement activities in the disputed territories otherwise the never coming-out stick? With this spare the rod and spoil the child approach to anything Israel by America, it is possible that Israel has now become too entitled as the spoilt-bratty child of America? Israel is used to having its way with every past United States of America Presidents on matters concerning its policy in the Middle East; and it would seem that it have now tacitly made a decision to add President Obama to one of the many, tried but failed American Presidents, to make a vain effort at finding a lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian problem.

This latest Israeli's decision not to heed President Barack Obama's call put a hold on new development projects on disputed territories; and instead choose to rebuff it and by extension, refused to defer to America's appeal to stop building these provocative new developments, is so telling that it hurts. It is an affront on America's credibility and clout in the Middle East that seem to suggests that it have no leverage on Israel and cannot reign in, its so called 51st State and stop it from continuing its unilateral anti-peace settlement building on lands in dispute? How can anybody in the White House after such Israeli antagonistic moves, expect the Arabs, especially the Palestines, to take America seriously when their "only child" in the Middle East, cannot heed their call and is throwing up dust on its face and frustrating their initiative with the peace process? This is a land being disputed by two parties and while a third party is trying to mediate in order to find a more meaningful way to equitably distribute the land amongst the two contesting parties, one of them is exacting full acts of ownership, regardless? How will the other party feel, moreso when the 'aggressive' party is known to be a "beloved child" of the arbiter with "no distance between them"; and the arbiter also has a member of the 'aggressive' party's clan as its chief of staff? Tough!

Icheoku's proffered solution, it is about time America called Israeli's bluff and say enough is enough! America must tell the Israelis that what they are doing is wrong and has the potential of diminishing America's influence in the Middle East and making America less influential on matters concerning the Israelis who no longer regard America's word any seriously? The necessary implication being that the Arabs might soon be fed up and no longer interested in what America says or wants as they plunge the entire Middle East into a preventable war of last man standing, to protest and fight off their perceived enemy Israel? Israel as of necessity must try and end this recalcitrant behavior where it ignores America or not interested in what Washington says or desires, which makes America look rather ineffective with their effort at securing a lasting solution to the Middle East's revolving-door crisis. Israel should understand that like a bride that finds sense of authority in her husband, that their pride of authority inures in their inalienable closeness to the United States of America with its military, economic and political might. That many in the Middle East would have venture but for what would the Americans do or say; which they do not want any of. So knowing when to stop pushing this envelope will be a good Middle East policy add-on for the Israelis so that both them and America can come out tops looking unblemished.

It is all about necessary sacrifices and trade-offs which both parties must make; and the least Israel can do in the circumstance is a good faith effort to try and appear to be genuinely interested in the peace process by showing cause - stop the settlements! But barring an immediate about-turn on the part currently being trailed by the Israelis, with these disputed developments; the pervading fragile peace might soon unravel, defaulting the situation to its status-quo of 'efforts in perpetuity without the desired result ever being achieved!'. Israel should put on hold these developments until a future time when conditions will be much better, tolerable and more conducive to carry on. Failing this work-stoppage on the new settlements, it makes no further sense for America to continue asking parties to negotiate over a realty, when one of the party is jeopardising the res, subject of the negotiation. But should Israel continue in defiance and choose instead to remain adamant, despite all American persuasions, then such obstinacy will leave America with limited to no choice.

So wield, the Americans must, the big stick! Put in another way, Icheoku says, it is about time America wielded the big stick on Israel, to jolt them into a reality that is both feasible and tenable; and not the euphoria of thinking that the Arabs will indulge them a 100% ownership of Jerusalem? Both people have historical and religious sentimental attachments to Jerusalem, which furnishes and burnishes their respective identities, so it will be a mere wishful thinking to day-dream of a some day wholesome Jerusalem capital devoid of the other party's claim. This is the only real road-map to anything meaningful out of the peace process! Admitted that everyone loves Israel and empathises with them in their very heart-wrenching Holocaust story, but the Israelis should not be allowed to continue to visit the sins of Hitler on poor Palestines. Let the two states-solution come to fruition and any side seen to be sabotaging the effort sanctioned! Conscience is an open wound which only truth can heal, so let the truth be told! Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should have delayed or post-poned the 1,600 units new settlement announcement until after Vice President Biden's visit; as it have succeeded in making a mince-meat of the reason for the visit, once again calling into question, Israeli's true intention with the peace process! Enough of the carrots, bring out the stick!

HAUSA-FULANI, THE WILD BEASTS OF NIGERIA ON A MURDEROUS RAMPAGE ?

Icheoku says, looking at the brains of this innocent child who was sleeping in his home with other family members, when the ravenous Hausa-Fulani nomadic terrorist-killers hacked him to death, sawing open his cranium and exposing its cranial contents, one is forced to ask, when will the last of this wanton madness in northern Nigeria ever be seen? Enough mallams, kajikwo! When you factor in that the picture above is just but one out of five hundred other similar cases of lives cut short within the last 24 hours, then it begins to sink in on all sane people, the magnitude of the anarchy that was let loose upon the hills of Jos, Plateau State Nigeria. And these were human-beings, fellow Nigerians - peoples wives, husbands and children and happening in 21st Nigeria, for crying out loud? Their only offense was being Christians in a region dominated by fundamental Wahhabi Islamic zealots who are bent on Islamising the entire country, starting with the northern region where Jos Plateau State is still holding out? Now to mask the ultra religious under-tone, their big-shots pushed some almajiris and nomadic Fulani herdsmen to lead the assault in order to color it tribal? But as already known to many Nigerians, this is purely a religious upheaval merely wearing a tribal toga of ethnic Hausa-Fulani against Berom Jos? But is there any way out of this conundrum or shall the spilling of the blood of the innocent, deep in their sleep, become a permanent fixture in Nigeria distressed?

Is there any meaningful solution or has it defiled every imaginable thing ever thrown at it, such that assuming the two warring ethnic groups, Hausa/Fulani and Beroms, were to be separated; along which lines will that be? How would a Hausa-Fulani settler whose fore-fathers have been in Jos for more than 400 years be separated from the indigenous Berom people, who claim Jos as their ancestral realty? What about a religious war to end all religious wars in Nigeria, especially in Jos Plateau northern Nigeria? Except that such a war will be very difficult to prosecute as their location, encircled in the heartland of the Islamic Sharia north will make that option very suicidal; and their past nefarious and vicious antecedental atrocity against the people of Biafra will make that option hopeless? They will easily be routed by an invading Janjaweed Islamic army from all corners of the north including northern Africa, and the Christian South East people will not come to their aid, being a proven hateful enemy who wanted them exterminated during Biafra. So what solutions are there, - the best of the bad situation? What will be a worst case scenario for the people of the hilly Plateau State, northern Nigeria? Solution one, unmask the faces behind the masks that is sponsoring and/or instigating this unending crisis, and punish them severely with executions if need be. Some very highly placed individuals are most likely behind these recurring mayhem and until they are fished out and punished, such gory sights as is being witnessed in today's Jos will but remain a recurring decimal in Nigeria societal evolution. Boko Haram's CEO was killed as well as a former commissioner who was fingered as being one of their sponsor, hence bringing to a rapid end of that unwholesome crisis. Could the Jos stigma be so dealt with, by openly, if there is a will by the authorities in Nigeria, sacrificing persons who may be as high up as Yakubu Gowon and other protagonists of the madness who are masquerading as leaders in Plateau State?

Peradventure, the national assembly will enact a law making every Nigerian citizen, a citizen and resident of wherever his abode is, hence putting an end to this anomaly of 'indigene and settler' prevalent throughout every Nigeria community. It is ridiculous that Nigerians from certain parts of the country are not allowed full and complete integration in other parts of Nigeria where their grandfathers had settled and called home for a very very long time ago; sometimes for over one century? Something is definitely not right with a situation where some peoples' forebears have maintained a continuing residence in a place for over 100 years and are still being treated as foreigners and strangers; and within the country's boarders?

But barring any foreseeable solution, maybe a Lebanese religious-war solution will be the only option starring Jos in the face down the road, where a truce will eventually be called; provided Saudi Arabia stays out and a Baghdad-kind of wall erected to separate and segregate these fanatics from each other? Icheoku says, such a child's brain picture as seen above is rather too disturbing to be a daily routine for the people of Jos Nigeria; and hence we call for an immediate and permanent solution thereto; admitted that Acting President Jonathan Goodluck's last assertion that Nigeria have seen the last/end of such carnage was laid waste by the current upheaval. But should Nigerians allow the situation to become too hopeless or lethargic about it that the security forces give up trying? Nigerians, please say no to such an Armageddon in Jos!

ACTING PRESIDENT GOODLUCK, FIRE THOSE 'MUTINOUS' MINISTERS NOW!

It is mind-boggling the arrogance being displayed by some of those ministers who have not only refused to recognise the authority of the duly constituted Nigeria's Acting President Jonathan Goodluck; but now seem to show a direct affront to him? One of the conspiring ministers, Rilwan Lukman, had previously flouted an order not to travel during the last Christmas holiday's Nigeria's petroleum crisis. Now he has raised an army of opposition ministers to constitute themselves an albatross, organised solely to resist being fired by Jonathan and to stay and make his job hellish?

Icheoku asks, who are these ministers to question the authority of the acting president? The acting president should therefore, as a matter of utmost national urgency, dissolve the cabinet immediately and reconstitute same with whoever he feels he could work with. How dare these ministers who are supposed to submit to the authority of the presidency (Yar'Adua and Goodluck), which lives-on with Jonathan's acting presidency, be displaying such a wanton of disrespect and disloyalty to the leader of Nigeria and commander in chief of its armed forces? This is absolutely, totally unacceptable and should not be condoned by any sane Nigerian.

The acting president should therefore dissolve the cabinet, dismiss those he cannot comfortably work with while reappointing those he can work with. He should also fill whatever existing vacancies that may result, and as he may seem and deem fit; and with whoever he pleases. Good enough, there are so many other well qualified and more disciplined Nigerian patriots who could run the machinery of the state much better, absent these champions of anarchy. Their impetuous outburst is a gross insubordination and disrespect to a duly constituted authority which no meaningful Nigeria should accept or tolerate. If, as these disgruntled ministers admit, Goodluck's acting presidency is a continuation of the "Yar'Adua+Goodluck presidency", Icheoku asks, does a presidency then not reserve the right to reconstitute its cabinet at any time of its choosing? Why must Jonathan be denied this right to reconstitute the cabinet if not for the strong-arming of his office by the cabal; but does this cabal not bleed blood and why should everybody tremble at their thought?

Jonathan, you have been put on notice by these rebellious and mutinous ministers of an impending insurrection against your government. You must therefore act fast and firm,; in order to take the wind out of their sail so that you can sprint to the final finish line before your traducers secure the upper hand in the on-going political tug-of-war in Nigeria. Those ministers for having made bold to directly register their displeasure will not rest until you are shoved off the way, so do not buy into any purported reconciliatory move that may be made; as that is a ploy to buy time to finally separate you from the presidency. If it means taking your head off your neck in order to succeed, they would; as a cabal that kept Nigeria's sick President Umaru Yar'Adua captive for over 100 days, away from his mother, family, friends and the Nigerian government officials is capable of just anything. Better be safe than sorry, fire those ministers immediately now and turn EFCC loose on them!

For the record, the culprit-ministers include Adamu Aliero, Ibrahim Lame, Demola Seriki, Rilwan Lukman, Shetimma Mustapha, Shamsideen Usman, Chief Ufot Ekaette, Godwin Abbe, Sam Egwu, Dr S. Abba Ruma, Babatunde Osotimehin and Taminu Kurfi.

NIGER DELTA MILITANTS, SHEATH YOUR SWORD!

Icheoku implores the Niger Delta militants not to goad Nigerians any further and also not to recklessly hand the north the dagger with which to pry open their soft under-belly, in their mad quest to avenge President Umaru Yar'Adua's loss of power? In case they have forgotten or are suffering from selective amnesia, their brother Jonathan recently dispatched the army to Jos and the rest, as they say, is now history.

Please do not cause Jonathan to shed the blood of his kinsmen and women as the Hausa-Fulani-Birom northern "axis of evil" will force his hands very soon, if you do not stop this your ungodly stupid criminality. This is not the time to continue on your previously noble but now turned 'misguided' path, fermenting trouble in the Niger Delta. Nigeria under the leadership of your son deserves some respite from you, at least as a mark of respect, courtesy and gratitude to Nigerians for making his elevation possible. When every Nigerian is trying to help Jonathan figure out what to do with Nigeria in distress, at least the Acting President could use one less distraction - your militancy! Please allow peace to reign and let Acting President Jonathan Goodluck concentrate on his many well cut-out job, working hard for the Nigerian people, including you - the Niger Deltans. Enough, militants!

STALEMATE OF ABSENT YAR'ADUA, BABANGIDA IS A CONSPIRATOR!

For the records, former military junta Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida and the current President of Nigeria Labor Congress Abdulwaheed Omar are the only two 'public officials' who have not offered their opinion on the possible way out from the current political hiatus in Nigeria. The silence of these two men in the face of the imbrioglio that is President Umaru Yar'Adua's total incapacitation and the failure and/or obstinate refusal of the cabal to yield power, is very telling.

The man in them died with their unnerving silence in the face of this present national adversity. Despite their positions of influence, they have continued to maintain a conspiratory silence over such a grave national matter that is threatening the body-fabric of Nigeria; which demands that all hands be put on deck to find a solution thereto? But why these two would care less, whether or not Nigeria goes to hell in a hand's basket is up to anybody's educated guess; admitted, Icheoku has its own theory, - the Northern-Islamic-Sharia-Solidarity-Agenda!

DANJUMA, A WRONG CHOICE!

Icheoku denounces the choice of Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma as chairman of the newly constituted presidential advisory board, as well as some of its membership - those recycled tired old 'hags'? The board composition is not forward-looking but merely reinforces the age-long statusquo which has left Nigeria despondent and stagnated all these years, since her independence in 1960.

It also does not reflect the current mood in the country which yearns for a new direction - to dispense with the old guards and make way for new ones, in order to shake Nigeria out of its lingering, suffocating and life-threatening dystopia.

TY has been around the block and for too long, starting from 1966 when he killed Nigeria's first military head of state General Aguiyi Ironsi and continuing through the many years of his 70 years plus life, including just few weeks ago when he confessed to how he and the late midget of Kano, Sani Abacha, stole a $1 billion dollars oil-well belonging to the people of Niger Delta Rivers State? Now he is being re-positioned once again to continue his looting of the Nigeria state and unfortunately, by a man who should know better?

When shall this 'merit' by gerontocracy ever end in Nigeria? Is there any hope for the millions of young and restless, ready-to-go Nigerian young? Will these well-traveled, well educated and blessed with abundance of fresh and better ideas on how to move Nigeria forward ever get the chance to prove their mettle? The composition of this board and Danjuma's headship thereof is very lamentable; and it is about time Nigerian politicians, especially Goodluck's PDP, know that non-partisans as well as the opposition can be appointed to offices too! Moreso retired military people, unlike other professionals in Nigeria, are unnecessarily placed on too high a pedestal which they sometimes do not always deserve or have earned; and this special treatment fuels the arrogance with which they approach everything, including their feeling of entitlement.

With this unending and systematic entrenchment of men and women who should have idly, lived-out their usefulness, Icheoku asks, when will a Nigerian Barack Obama ever rise in that country? This appointment is a very wrong move in the first baby-step of the Acting President Jonathan Goodluck, the much over-hyped and touted stature of TY not withstanding! Not in our name, Jonathan!

ACTING PRESIDENT GOODLUCK, IT IS TIME TO GET UP AND GO TO WORK!

Time for meditation is over! Time for second-guessing the job is over! Time for deliberation of the whys and the hows, as well as general churning of thoughts is also over. Now is time for Nigeria's Acting President Jonathan Goodluck to get up, off his arse, away from his deep thoughts, firm up his spine and go to work for the Nigerian people.

Jonathan should also stop worrying or unnecessarily being agitated at the thought of the military, as Nigerians and the world at large are now ready to hold them accountable should they again, deal any wrong card to Nigerians and make an unwarranted and unnecessary political adventurism. The Nigerian military's foray in politics has been widely discredited since Muritala, Buhari, Babangida and Abacha did not take Nigeria to the promise land; but proved to be Robin Hoods on steroids and without the benevolent giving hearts; but coded account numbers in Switzerland and the Cayman Islands.

Like Obafemi Awolowo once wished that he could be allowed to be Nigeria's president just for a 24 hour period; Jonathan, Icheoku says, one year is more than enough time for you to make some impression on Nigerians with your divine-sanctioned and approved mandate. Remember that your mandate is a continuum of the Yar'Adua-Goodluck mandate and that the four years of the Yar'Adua led presidency shall be judged by what you are able to accomplish within the remainder of the term. Also be mindful that President Umaru Yar'Adua could be excused for the failures of the administration on grounds of his ravaging ill health? And unlike the current leeway Obama administration enjoys periodically in the United States, where they can blame former President George Walker Bush for everything and anything that goes wrong; you will not enjoy such passing of buck to Yar'Adua because you are part of the ticket and therefore jointly responsible for whatever happened or did not happen within the period since may 2007 swearing in. Get it Goodluck, good-luck to you Goodluck!

AMERICA'S PUSH FOR IBB 2011, OBAMA THANKS BUT NO, THANKS!

It is a very wrong move and an anti-Nigerians' position by the Obama administration to back such a discredited military junta named Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (IBB) as Nigeria's next president, come 2011? It is with great surprise and a very rude shock that Icheoku learnt of the administration's desire and current subterranean moves in progress to foist IBB on Nigerians. We condemn both the thought and effort as being greatly detrimental and anti-Nigeria's best interest. It is an affront on the budding democracy in Nigeria that the world's bastion of democracy should be working with an ex-military dictator to truncate real democracy in Nigeria. This is unbelievable, an Obama administration headed by a constitutional law professor and himself a beneficiary of the open competitive presidential race system in America, now contemplating to smuggle a very wicked and mean bastard called Ibrahim Babangida back into Nigeria's seat of power at Aso Rock. say it ain't so Ameria!

His reputation for raw brutality not withstanding, but is it not about time Nigeria's democracy is allowed to freely evolve and eventually throw up a dynamic and ebullient leader, like America did with Barack Obama, instead of always playing the midwifery role on who becomes Nigeria's leader?Surprisingly, it does not matter to the administration that IBB was a "terrorist" head of state of Nigeria between 1985 to 1993; a coup plotter and truncator of democracy who twice stabbed democracy in the back through the heart respectively in 1983's coup against second republic Shehu Shagari democratic government and again in his 1993's annulment of the freest election ever recorded in Nigeria which made Abiola, the president-elect that was never sworn into office? It also does not matter to these Americans that IBB was once alleged to be a gun and cocaine runner and it was on account of the latter, the story of which Dele Giwa was pursuing on account of one Gloria Okon's disappearance, that he was brutally murdered by a parcel bomb on the orders of IBB? Is it possible that IBB's enormous wealth has bought him respite which saw him being allowed in UCLA cancer center where his millions was simply not enough to buy back his late wife, Maryam Babangida's health as succumbed to ovarian cancer attack last December 29, 2009? Has his looted billions of dollars now washed away his sins that America now finds him acceptable as their point-man in Nigeria's seat of power?What a fatal blow to the fight against corruption this will be, if a corruption-personified and corruption-Field Marshall, the man who reinvented corruption and flagrantly inserted it in Nigeria's lexicography in a manner never before seen or contemplated; and who made it a glorified and acceptable societal behavior is now being asked to provide an oversight function to the anti-corruption effort as president of Nigeria?

Instead of investigating his source of stupendous wealth, particularly what he did with Nigeria's first Iraq-war $12 billion dollars oil windfall and his alleged dabbling in drugs, America is now merely busy sending delegations to IBB to nudge and push him to run for Nigeria's president in 2011? Icheoku asks, is oil politics just enough for America to pretend or deny that IBB was too mean and vicious, and that he trampled on so many citizenship human-rights of Nigerians, including some Nigerians' right to life? Anyway with their antecedent prop of the unpopular Shah of Iran and the history of Latin America's nascent past, nothing is impossible with Washington; but Icheoku makes bold to say that Teheran's fallout which is still reverberating throughout the Middle East shall fade in comparison with what Nigerians will throw their way, should they persist to toy with the idea or experimentation of a very unpopular, anti-Nigerians' Babangida presidency come 2011. Admitted that to the United States, foreign policy means the protection of America's interest anywhere it exists in the world including the Niger Delta's Nigeria oil resources. Such a foreign policy trust initiative seems to imply that it does not matter if the host-country's people are being pummeled or trampled under the jackboots of their propped up dictator; provided the spigots are open and the sea route remains open? But not this time, America; IBB's candidacy is going to be a costly experiment and with Chinese advances in Africa, alliances might be forced to sway in their direction if the only and last hope for humanity and democracy defender is now seen not to be different than the rest of the others. Babangida is, simply put, unacceptable to Nigerians, period!

Icheoku therefore calls on the United States to retract its steps forthwith and not to support or bankroll an un-bankable person IBB; any attempt to foist him as Nigeria's president will create more disruptions to the oil-flow than is presently being imagined as the Nigerian people will rise in unison to say not in our name, never again and not this time! IBB is a forever politically damaged goods; and he who would annul the freest democratic election in Nigerian chequered history should not be the right and proper person to benefit from the same democratic setting, which he had earlier twice sabotaged. America should try not to replicate similar problem, which have made them 'unwanted and unwelcome' in the Middle East; and which is causing so much resentment and an otherwise avoidable tension over there, once again in Africa. Nigerians still love America so much and to the extent they see it as being open enough, to elect the first black American President Barack Obama; but this dalliance will go south the moment they realise that what was good for America goose is not good for African/Nigerian gander? Which country installed Obama at the White House one may ask, none but the generosity of the American electorates; so why must the chief protagonist of democracy in the world ever contemplate doctoring and truncating the same democracy elsewhere in Nigeria, to produce a strange outcome, which the citizens Nigeria does not want? Why IBB, one may ask?

Such a scandal of an American backed IBB Nigeria presidency, is capable of painting America with the wrong colors before the viewing prism of most Nigerians; many of who are still nursing the snub of the century handed to them when the same President Obama visited Ghana in disregard to the traditionally Nigeria 'ownership' claim to the first-visit right or privilege of any American president visiting sub-Saharan Africa. It is capable of a great backlash of resentment and shall be resisted with every demonstration imaginable and unimaginable; or better still, easily hand over to America what their national security assessment have since determined - a splintered Nigeria, instead of waiting for their 15 years projected time? In America, now is always better, hence the popular commercial " It is my money and I want it now"! Where were these foreign policy arrow-heads and their human rights mantra when the same Nigerian-reject, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida blew away journalist Dele Giwa with a parcel bomb? Where were these progenitors and apostles of an Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida's 2011 presidency when the same self-styled evil genius of Nigeria annulled the election of Chief MKO Abiola - the freest and fairest election ever conducted in Nigeria under the only good thing IBB ever formulated, Option A4? Where were the Americans when the same Nigerian-Maradona killed poet Mamman Vasta based on a phantom coup plot? Icheoku wants to know if these Americans think that the near-wiping out of all the soldiers of Middle Belt of Nigeria origin, during Gideon Orkar's failed coup against Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida was justified?

Icheoku warns that the Obama administration will be making a huge foreign policy mistake in Black Africa if they try to impose Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida on Nigeria, come 2011. It is unpopular, unacceptable, not a good smart choice and will surely backfire! But peradventure, the Americans will not dare nor succeed with such a suicidal initiative, judging from the tsunami of resistance such a move will generate in Nigeria among civil society groupings and the general polity. If they think that they can pull this rabbit off the hat, then like they say in America, they have another thing coming. Peradventure they succeeded in the coronation of IBB as president, then it will be against a Nigeria boiling over like hell, and possibly the harbinger of the end of Nigeria as the Yoruba South West nation will not accept to be part of a Nigeria with an IBB president. The sons and daughters of Oduduwa will lead a vociferous resistance to both IBB's emergence and governing as president, using whatever gets the desired result including the highly potent Africa black juju magic to make it a road not worthy of travelling? How dare any man born of woman think that Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida would be tolerated by the Yoruba nation to benefit from the same democracy which he denied their 'son of the soil' Abiola, whose election he infamously annulled? June 12 is IBB's Achilles heels, his albatross, his fork on the road and has permanently damaged him politically. It has made him an unacceptable and unelectable president of Nigeria as is presently constituted with the Yoruba South West still a major component of the geographical entity. But a Nigeria without the South and the South West in particular, may be a possibility for such asinine contemplation of an IBB's presidency; but Icheoku is sure such a re-configured Nigeria is not what these Washingtonians have in mind, while nursing this wishful thinking?

It is President Barack Obama who while on a visit to Africa once said, 'what Africa needs are strong institutions and not strong men', so Icheoku asks, why the sudden u-turn and change of mind, in pursuing the same issue of a 'strong man' for Nigeria's future president? How would the espoused 'strong institutions' develop in Africa if America continues to interfere in local countries politics and engineering the imposition of a retired military junta as being contemplated, who do not have the peoples mandate to govern them? By encouraging the absurdity that is Babangida's second missionary journey to Aso Rock, America will be doing a great disservice to Nigerians and to all it stands and preaches of if it continues on this course of infamy. A country of more than 150 million people with so many well trained and highly qualified manpower including so many Ph.Ds, former diplomats. scholars, a Nobel Laurette, a former Commonwealth secretary general, a world bank managing director, a world acclaimed computer genius, very successful business men and women, lawyers, doctors, engineers, political scientists, some untainted retired military men and women and so many other potential presidential candidates; many of whom are rather too urbane and savvy to participate in the bawdily that is present Nigeria politics that they chose instead to remain aloof and silent in the bandits dominated jungle of Nigeria politics; should have and deserves a better option than IBB.

If America means well by their seeming current foray and interest into Nigeria's politics, let them do right for and by Nigerians - encourage a level playing field, push strongly for election reforms, constitutional amendment and help in building strong institutions. Such institutions as made it possible for a previously distant and improbable then presidential candidate to emerge as America's 44th president will be welcomed in Nigeria by well meaning Nigerians. Otherwise, were it in present day Nigeria that BO ran for president, may be hell would freeze over before he can ever achieve the feat of last November 24, 2008? Now instead of encouraging the emergence of Nigeria's own Obama, this administration is reaching into the cesspool of Nigeria's polity to pull up a discredited army man named Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida to put him in Aso Rock? Icheoku asks, if Obama administration could contemplate this disservice to Nigerians, does it mean that the hope and change mantra which propelled him to the White House was country-specific to the United States only; and that Nigerians should not dream and hope or at least reserve the right to hope for a change they can believe in, in their own country which has eluded them since 1960? Icheoku believes that Nigeria deserves a fresh beginning, a clean break from her despicable past leaderships, especially from Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, who twice truncated democracy in Nigeria and this should be the thrust of any political assistance of the Americans to Nigeria towards 2011.

If however the Obama administration pulls off this sacrilege and IBB is foist on Nigerians in 2011, Icheoku is hereby making a promise to get the American press to know what transpired; renounce membership of the Democratic Party and will work tirelessly to make this an issue in Obama's 2012 possible re-election campaign. We shall not only denounce what transpired in Nigeria but shall work hard to get the message out that the real Barack Obama needs to stand up; for being one of its body-double is a democracy hypocrite but not its formidable propagator. President Barack Obama will surely pay a huge political price as our support, our visitors', as well as our numerous friends and millions of other Nigerian/African community in the US will go elsewhere, for his not standing up and helping Africa get rid of their sit-tight leaders and past discredited military junta, one of whom his administration 'installed' in Aso Rock?

But whatever happens with this America's recent budding interest in IBB presidential candidacy, Nigerians will resist with every sinew in their body, the attempt to smuggle IBB back into the saddle of power in Aso Rock; and shall defend their right not to be ruled again by a retired army general and especially IBB. Never again and not after the traumatic experience of Nigerians under the other former army man, Olusegun Obasanjo; as no sane Nigerian ever wishes for a deja vu with the return of Ibrahim Babangida Babaginda to power. The United States therefore must back off this toxic-asset IBB, as they are stepping into a non-negotiable territory for most Nigerians with their alleged support of IBB, his candidacy is not acceptable to Nigerians, especially the people of Yoruba South Western Nigeria who are still haunted till this day by the tragedy that is Babangida's annulment of their son MKO Abiola's 1993 presidential election. Why stir an hornet nest that will hurt everybody, America? Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida as damaged goods cannot be sold or bought by Nigerians, so why try to market such a moribund dead on arrival candidacy to Nigerians? Moreso with the loss of his amiable wife Maryam 'Better-life' Babangida, his charm offensive asset is forever gone; and which sane Nigerian wants to see a 70 plus year old toothy ex-military junta as their president? Not anyone known to Icheoku, except of course some of those Nigerian political traders and harlots who like the masses in William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, will always mistake Cicero the poet for Cicero the conspirator; and regard any government as good government that looks the other way while they perpetrate and perpetuate their evil corruption, which has led to Nigeria's stagnation to till this date. Please America, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida is a wrong choice for your support for Nigeria's presidency in 2011 or at any other time whatsoever, so abort your effort now!

NIGERIA'S BANKRUPT LEADERSHIP, GOVERNOR PAYS FOR PRAYERS?

Report reaching Icheoku from Kastina Islamic Sharia state of Northern Nigeria has it that Governor Ibrahim Shehu Shema has voted N20 million Naira (about $20,000) for "special prayers" to enable his kinsman, the vegetative Nigeria President Umaru Yar'Adua to recover? When you think you have heard the last and enough of the stupidity and idiocy of these northerners, out of Kastina comes the mother of all wonderment - a state governor spending states money to engage some Islamic mullahs (prayer-warriors) to chant their incantations in order to heal a gravely ill kinsman? Assuming such possibility exist, was the amount negotiated, and what percentage of it will go to Allah?

Certainly a misplaced priority for a state with very high unemployment rate, little to no infrastructure and where the nuisance of almajiris is still an exploding reality. A situation brought about principally by the lack of education and joblessness of the youth, and a primitive retrogressive culture rooted in accepting ones destiny as is; and here is their governor engaging in a frivolity and foolery of the highest order. It makes every right thinking Nigerian to ask once again, why they still share one political enclave with these pedestrian and puerile human specimens inhabiting the Saharan desert of northern Nigeria? Icheoku remembers vividly that it was in Kastina's nearby Kano State, also an Islamic Sharia northern state, that the then Governor Barkin Zuwo converted his bedroom into a bank to bank state's money? His explanation was that he is the governor of the state and the money belonged to the state, therefore there is nothing wrong with a state governor keeping state's money in a state house which he happen to occupy; go figure!

Now the Governor Shema, so pandering and petty, has concluded that it is 'divinity to the rescue' of his kinsman, his predecessor in office and now comatose Nigeria President Umaru Yar'Adua. Medical science having given up and his Saudi Arabia hospital-landlord evicted him, the only recourse now is to pray until something happens and Yar'Adua is healed? His road-map, establish a direct telephone hot-line to his Allah through the voices of some 1700 innocent 'madrassa' almajiris-Muslim children to say prayer of intercession on behalf of Yar'Adua to help him recover? Icheoku says, if this does not bother on lunatic fringe, then the Christmas day diaper-bomber did not attempt to bomb an American plane over the skies of Detroit; and needless to say that the three actors here are all from Kastina Islamic Sharia state:- this impeachable governor pray for Yar'Adua, President sicko Umaru Yar'Adua and diaper terrorist Christmas bomber Umar Abdulmutallab. All of them, members of some axis of something? What an absurdity of thought and practice, representing majority of the unfortunate marauders Nigeria has been cursed with as leaders since independence in 1960. How can a person, so base and pedestrian as this man be a governor of a state, with responsibility of the lives and well-being of the citizens and residents entrusted to his ability? It simply explains the rudder-less-ness of the Nigeria ship of state which has since veered off course, having been piloted by men and women of very low intelligence, education and a sense of purpose.

According to his game-plan of 'Operation Petition Allah for Yar'Adua,' Islamic clerics or Mullahs will commandeer 1,700 almajiris from a spread formation throughout the state and representative of Kastina state and force them to recite repetitive monologues special verses from their Quran; which Allah will hear immediately because almajiris so asked? These voices that speak directly into the ears of their Allah will then be paid a paltry sum of N10, 000 each for their spiritual services, while those summoning mullahs, who are divided into two camps to direct the competition for the ear of Allah will each earn N100,000; while their coordinators or the mullahs' mullahs, will be paid N500,000 each. The prayer will last for few weeks?

Ordinarily Icheoku would not bother with this profligacy and wasteful squander of state's funds that is a common practice in Nigeria with virtually every custodian of authority and who have power over the purse of a state. However, our antennas sprang up because of this governor's anticipated result - that almajiris or street urchins who have a direct telephone link to their Allah's private number on a speed dial would make it happen as whatever they supplicated to Allah, Allah he will always grant? Yet these are homeless and abandoned and sometimes driven away from home children, who congregate daily on the street corners from where they march in a musical procession through the neighborhoods, chorusing a melancholic tune, usually for some pittance of food left-overs or some few Naira? This Governor Shema believed in its efficacy and he is seemingly educated, otherwise why would he expense states' fund towards such fanatical, maniacal and fundamentalist engagement. It is good to put on record too that Kastina Islamic Sharia state of Northern Nigeria was the premier sharia state in Nigeria. If you are a Nigerian, especially from Kastina, how proud would you be, having such a fetish-minded governor presiding over the affairs of your state? Icheoku says, this is another example of a belief system founded on the absurdity, and Nigerian politicians' proven reckless wastage of the peoples' commonwealth funds; simply put, Goveror Ibrahim Shehu Shema is another testament to the rot of leadership afflicting the Nigerian society.

A FALSE IMPRISONMENT, AS TURAI TAKES UMARU HOSTAGE IN ASO ROCK?

Icheoku asks, what manner of a wife would be so mean and unfeeling to completely isolate her husband, son of another woman and wilfully deny a mother access to her dying sick son? And this her husband and son of the other woman is the president of a people, the people of Nigeria? Admitted he was not truly elected by the people of Nigeria, but was rather imposed on them by a cabal of very despicable Nigerians led by Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo. Only a Jezebel on steroids is capable of such a vicious mischievous behaviour; and Turai Yar'Adua is that deviant poster wife!

Turai has totally cut off her deathly sick husband from the people who really care for him, and who really have his true and best interest at heart. People who would rather ensure that first things mattered most and should usually count first; and who would have persuaded Yar'Adua to free himself of the presidency and rigors of the office and go seek first proper health-care so as to rediscover his life, which is fast ebbing away. But Turai is having none of that, which begs the question, does she really love and care for Umaru?

Call it 'Madness 101' if you like, that a mother was not allowed to see her ailing son, a son she carried for through a 9 months gestation period, laboured and gave birth to; weaned, raised and trained until he grew into an adult and married a 'wife' who is now proving to be a Nigerian Lady Macbeth. Ironically this unfeeling, callous Lady Macbeth Turai has some children of her own and would not pretend that she is oblivious of a mother's abiding love for her child? Icheoku only prays, that in the spirit of what goes around comes around, someday karma will keep its cruel date with this Turai so that she can personally feel the pain which she caused Umaru's mother; and may be forced to understand how painful it could be that a mother is prevented from seeing her own sick and dying biological child? And that mother is aged and travelled some 500 miles to rendezvous with her sick son but was denied, because a venomous wife ordered so. Which woman would so flagrantly pretend ignorance that another woman's love for her sick son is not deep or sincere enough and prevented her from visiting or seeing him, hooked up to series of life-sustaining contraptions and laying helplessly and hopelessly unconscious, like a cartoon character in an intensive care unit mobile medical trailer? The woman with so much bile in her and who does not have any milk of human sympathy flowing in her breast has a name, she is Lady Macbeth Turai Yar'Adua of Kastina, Islamic Sharia northern Nigeria; a soon to expire First Lady of Nigeria.

Also she did not allow the vice president and acting president of Nigeria to see his boss, the ailing president? The president's own ruling party's henchmen and governors could not see the president because Turai said so; and likewise were the president's 150 million country men and women who "elected" and "hired" him as president, but who till today have not heard or seen their president for almost 100 days now? Icheoku asks, who then can see, or is qualified and important enough to be allowed to see President Umaru Yar'Adua, when these very important people including his biological mother, his vice and his party's chairman were refused access to him? Put in another way, is Umaru Yar'Adua now, a completely transmuted ghostly apparition which no naked eye can behold any longer; or will the eye that see him black-out or weep blood in place of tears? No matter how bad his condition or how unsightly his cocktail ailments may have transformed or disfigured him, why does Turai think she is the only one courageous and brave enough of standing his horrible sight? Does Turai Yar'Adua not know that what Turai can stand, Alhaja Yar'Adua can stand better and with greater poise? Something is certainly not right with this picture, an extreme measure denying a mother access to her dying son. It also does not matter the subterfuge or is Turai saying that her love for Umaru far surpasses that of Umaru's own biological mother, who breast-fed him? It is only in Nigeria, the world acclaimed land of many outrageous possibilities, where such unreasonable madness could take place and be tolerated; and where the presidency is fused with the president and is an entirely family affair. What an aberration that Turai, isolated, sequestered, quarantined, and technically 'kidnapped' and 'imprisoned' Nigeria's president, and her action is condoned?

PRESIDENT UMARU YAR'ADUA, EVICTED FROM SAUDI HOSPITAL?

It would appear that all indicators now point, affirm and collaborate our earlier sidebar 'Latest F.Y.I.' posting that the suddenly-returned, incapacitated Nigeria President Umaru Yar'Adua was evicted from his hospital bed in Saudi Arabia? The authorities there in the Kingdom of Saud, on the prompting and instigation of the United States of America, unilaterally revoked their earlier 'open-ended' grant of hospital-stay to President Yar'Adua and shipped him back, still wired to his life-lines? If in doubt, ask yourself what is the urgency in bringing back to Nigeria an intubated and comatose president, in an air ambulance, fully sedated and unconscious and in the middle of the night, when his Aso Rock Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is still under construction, not fully up and running, or ready and operational to receive his greatly shrivelled skeletal body?

What suddenly so changed as to require such his hurried and secretive immediate return back to Nigeria; and which informed the sudden decision to rush back to Nigeria, a formerly missing president, who had been away from his duty post at Aso Rock for over 80 days, without any prior or required formal notification to necessary parties, before he absconded from Nigeria? To further buttress the story of his impromptu and sudden expulsion from Saudi Arabia, 72 hours after his alleged return, President Umaru Yar'Adua is still holed up in a mobile intensive care unit ambulance, where he will remain quarantined pending the completion of a permanent ICU on the grounds of Aso Rock; which Icheoku learnt from viable sources, is being unseasonably rushed through to completion. The pointer therefore is, if incapacitated President Umaru Yar'Adua freely came back on his own volition, Icheoku asks, why wasn't the arrangement for his return made in such a way as to conveniently coincide with the completion of his own private Aso Rock Intensive care Unit; so that he wouldn't have to remain isolated in a trailer-park of a mobile ambulance? We are talking about a president of a country and not just any other Joe Blow or Joe Six-Pack or Joe Plumber or Joe Terrorist out there in Nigeria! Why couldn't President Umaru Yar'Adua plead with the Saudi authorities to let him stay a little longer while work is completed on his own ICU? The reason was that the president had no choice or any input in the decision to deport him from Saudi Arabia and is not influential or important enough in ranking to influence anything or change any mind. The world powers, tired of the stone-walling of Nigerian high ups by his wife Turai, wanted him removed out of Saudi Arabia and the Kingdom saluted and complied.

What a shame that Nigeria, the clay-foot giant of Africa, had its president treated so shabbily, just because the said president and his predecessors negligently failed and refused to develop health-care facilities in Nigeria and have instead become objects of laughing stock in so many foreign hospital wards, corridors and consulting rooms. Now, is there any sympathy from us for such a monumental disgrace of Nigeria's sick President Yar'Adua being kicked out of his hospital bed in a foreign land, not yet recovered and still too sick to either walk or even feed himself? None, Nope, Nada as Nigerian leaders deserve such a disgraceful wake-up call, to force them to do some introspection and enable them become more patriotic and nationalistic to start looking inwards! Saudi Arabia as a country does not and did not manufacture any of the equipment or infrastructure in their Jeddah King Faisal hospital; but their leadership was patriotic and reasonable enough to expense their oil wealth in a good way, developing vital and needed infrastructures; rather than squirreling them away in unmarked band vaults in Switzerland and Cayman Islands like their Nigerian counterparts! Icheoku prays that this disgraceful and forcible eviction of Nigeria's President Umaru Yar'Adua from Saudi Arabia's hospital will be a positive lesson for all those charlatans, parading themselves as leaders of Nigeria, to look inward and start developing much needed medical facilities as well as other infrastructures in Nigeria, and henceforth put an end to their being unwanted but merely tolerated medical tourists in foreign hospitals, the world over.

Now pivoting to the issue of the madman, Commander of Brigade of Guards, Brigadier General Abdul Mustapha, who unlawfully and illegally deployed 300 Nigerian soldiers in and around the airport and Presidential villa, on the night Yar’Adua was smuggled into Abuja; Icheoku says, he should be fired immediately or retired forthwith for not only breaching protocol but for also unnecessarily escalating tension in the land? General Mustapha abused his command by parochially and arbitrarily engaging in acts considered very threatening to the Nigeria state structure, he pitched Nigerian soldiers against their commander-in-chief, the duly constituted Acting President of Nigeria. His order deploying these 300 Nigerian soldiers constituted attempted mayhem and anarchical disobedience, capable of causing a total breakdown of law and order in Nigeria. Simply put, such an anarchist is not stable and patriotic enough to dispassionately lead any military formation or command same without the discoloration of religious and tribal sentiments, unbecoming of a since commissioned officer and general of the Nigerian army. What if Acting President Jonathan Goodluck's loyalists have engaged them in a shoot-out thinking that a coup was in the offing, afterall the time and manner of their deployment have similar semblance with a military coup? What if Nigeria have become insufferably and completely enmeshed in a hellish conflagration as a resulting consequence of his brash action? To make matters worse, he took matters into his own hand and acted without any authorisation from any of his superiors and he did not have the military decency to inform them prior; and did not even consider seeking and obtaining the consent of the Acting commander in chief himself. The last time we checked, the Chief of Army Staff and the Chief of Service staff are still his military superiors and military operational procedures demands that such orders to deploy troops drips from top down. This unstable general even attempted to sabotage the 'chief' in commander-in-chief by arrogating that title to himself, thereby committed a treasonable felony against the Nigerian state when he implicitly challenged the authority of the lawful holder of that title? He should be tried for attempted coup or insurrection against the Nigeria government, period!

However, Icheoku is not easily buying the story that this General acted alone and on his own accord, and we therefore call for a full investigation into this wilful disobedience and snub of constituted authority, to unravel all those northern 'almajiris-in-uniforms' who do not mean well for the continued corporate existence of Nigeria. What these bunch of people do not however know and which Icheoku takes the pleasure to remind them and once again reiterate to them and their fellow desert-dwellers, is that "nothing must happen to Jonathan Goodluck!" Nigerians, especially southern Nigerians, are so tired and fed up to the neck with these mallams, that some of them who stayed out during Biafra-Nigeria civil war are now regretting and questioning why the northern Nigeria problem was not solved and finished then when that golden opportunity presented itself? This section of the country, should another opportunity come, will not hesitate one moment to show these selfish northern usurpers how much their arrogance is hated and loathed by other more meaningful and much civilized Nigerians. The arrogant idiocy of these mallams in uniform, robs Icheoku on the wrong side and these people forgot that the world at large has finally come to understand who they really are, and that any hostilities today will have a different outcome from the 1967-1970 Biafran war. Should anything ever break out, Nigeria as presently yoked together, will become history as bottled-up tension and simmering resentful animosity will surely boil over. So, Acting President Jonathan Goodluck should walk with swagger and act with audacity, knowing fully well that he is the bait which the northern mallams must not bite! Simply put, Acting President Jonathan Goodluck is a poisoned pill, filled with cyanide; and anybody planning or plotting to swallow it must be prepared to meet his makers. Enough!

Lastly Icheoku asks, does the Yar'Adua people have the president's best interest at heart in insisting and forcing him to continue in office? Is the Yar'Adua's presidency also his family's trophy to keep or did Nigerians 'vote' for Umaru alone and not jointly with his family? Why would anyone in that family then ever contemplate making one of his inlaws, the vice president? Available information filtering out of the presidential quarters in Aso Rock has it that the Yar'Aduas have given up on their patriarch's making it back to office, and are already scheming and making arrangement to nominate one of their inlaws as Jonathan's vice president when he is finally confirmed the substantive president? Icheoku questions whether this maddening power-grab by the president's family is not so inhuman and inconsiderate; coming so soon after the arrival of a president in life-support, suffering from Chrug-struass syndrome, failed kidney, skin-cancer, lung-emphysema, cirrhosis of the liver, a heart condition and likely, a broken heart? Why is he being so rushed out of this world by his greatest beneficiaries, his family, including his wife, Turai? Where is the love or is it simply a love for power!

Finally, that no one in Nigeria has seen the president since his purported arrival in Nigeria is a good omen as it speaks volume as to the president's finished state. Not the vice president and acting president Jonathan have been allowed to see him? Not the ruling party PDP chieftain and chairman Ogbulafor? Not the Governors Forum's chairman Saraki? Not other leaders of thought and well meaning Nigerians? Something does not sure smell right here, except if the whole story of his arrival back in Nigeria was just a ruse, a bone thrown to the dogs to divert attention from Acting President Jonathan Goodluck rising profile? You never know with these northerners, whose 'almajiri-culture' make them into a one-way thinking and herded fanatical zombies, who believe that their allah ordains destinies and must always fall in toe with their perceived leaders? A people incapable of thinking for themselves and have also proved incapable of providing the required leadership which Nigeria so much needed. In summation, President Umaru Yar'Adua left his body in Saudi Arabia and no one can see an invisible man except you are specially gifted with the vision of Turai Yar'Adua and co. So it is not even beyond doubt that he is back in the country; but good enough, Nigerians did not 'vote' for an invisible president and hence must demand of her national assembly to show courage and give them a president they can see and believe in! If Turai likes, and for all Icheoku cares, let her continue to shield the vegetative president away from Nigerians, including the governors and the governed; the result can only go one way - it will be to her detriment and to the benefit of 'a president-deprived' Nigerians. What a fast-track it would be to the relevant sections 144 and 145 of the constitution on incapacity of the president!

PRESIDENT UMARU YAR'ADUA RETURNS, WITH HIS GHOST BUT NOT BODY?

The missing absentee-President of Nigeria, Umaru Yar'Adua, allegedly was returned to Abuja after a very long sojourn, hibernating in a hospital intensive care unit in faraway foreign-land in Saudi Arabia? Forty-eight hours later after his arrival, no one in Nigeria has sighted him or seen his body, not even his vice president and Nigeria's acting president Jonathan Goodluck? Or could he have left his body in Saudi Arabia and a make belief Umaru purportedly in Abuja? This 'the more you look the less you see' magical return of the intubated president on a stretcher, forced one commentator to declare that 'Nigeria releaved of desperately searching for her missing president is now saddled with a phantom president?' A mirage president of Nigeria Umaru Yar'Adua - a fiction?

Remember the 'Invisible Man' movie; henceforth anyone in Nigeria wishing to see the president or have any meaningful interaction with him must have a third eye which makes ghostly apparitions visible, otherwise you are out of luck excpet you are of course clairvoyant! Imagine a head of government aka president of a country, who has been away without leave or any other reasonable authorisation for so long, in essence who had abandoned his duty post in Aso Rock, coming back after such a long absence - about 83 days, and yet did not deem it fit, as his first order of business, to address the nation or at least have a briefing with and say thank you to his vice president who has been holding forth for him in his extended absence. Now Icheoku asks, who is pulling a wool over the eyes of Nigerians on the state of health of President Umaru Yar'Adua if not the north east cabal who are now holding President Yar'Adua hostage to the seat of power, so that they can continue milking the honey pot of Nigeria? If Nigeria is a country worthy its sovereignty, the national assembly would have proactively preempted these group of selfish and self-serving Nigerians who are dangerously tasking the glue which have held Nigeria together for this long. Enough Nigerians and let everyone try to put the country above themselves; otherwise soon and pretty very soon, there may be no Nigeria for anyone to want to be in charge of?

But who elected Turai Yar'Adua to office or better still whose mandate empowers her to act as the de-facto president of Nigeria; that she should be this assertive in the presidency? When William Shakespeare penned 'Macbeth', little did this writer knew that he contemplated a Nigeria with Lady Turai Yar'Adua; who is now playing chicken with her husbands health just to cling to power. Icheoku calls on Lady Turai to remember that before her was Stella Obasanjo, Mariam Abacha, Maryam Babangida and the least goes on; such that after her, there will still be other First Ladies of Nigeria assuming Nigeria survives the present unnecessary pressure and stress she is being put to by the actions of Lady Turai and crew? A rural woman of inordinate ambition from Katsina, who never in her wildest dream, ever thought that she will someday become a first lady, now sees the office as a do or die position? The Igbos of south east Nigeria have a proverb which says, 'that those who never knew that they will ever attain the 'ozo-ship' title, when putting the ceremonial anklets, extends them all the way to their knees'; and so it is with Lady Turai Yar'Adua and her husband's presidency of Nigeria.

Once again, the entire blame of a Nigeria on a political-fork-on-the-road goes to the Otta deity, Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo for infesting Nigeria with a malignant and contageous 'Yar'Adua-isis!' Obasanjo brought this malady about when he truncated democracy and imposed a sick dying man and his power-drunk whore of a wife Turai, on Nigeria, as President and First Lady respectively! Icheoku says, Nigerians should hold Olusegun Obasanjo responsible should the nemesis called the Yar'Adau's, finally ever send the country to an abysimal point of no return where no country has ever gone and survived as one. Enough, Nigerians!

Further, what is unfolding in Nigeria at the moment has all the trappings of the deposed and disgraced former Attorney General of Nigeria Michael Kasse Aondonkaa; that on a hindsight may be allowing him to travel to Saudi Arabia through Senegal and Brazil was a political grave mistake, which has now come to haunt the acting presidency of Jonathan Goodluck? May be he should have been kept under survillance and not allowed to travel outside Nigeria, just like Olusegun Obasanjo once did with Augustus Aikhoumu, Babangida's fromer deputy? Aondonkaa surreptitiously left Nigeria after his humiliating demotion to Minister of Special Duties under the guise of a much needed vacation, through Senegal; then unto Brazil from where he jetted to his ultimate destination, Saudi Arabia? There he met with other 'co-conspirators' to force the political jack-knife of a situation, now playing itself out with President Yar'Adua being brought against his will and that of his medical doctors, back to Nigeria. The homecoming was unannounced and without any hint to the acting president Jonathan Goodluck; which begs the question, who is in really in charge in Nigeria?

It also does not help matters and cannot be easily explained away as a mere coincidence that the former governor of Delta State, James Onanefe Ibori was similarly located within that geographical belt, in Dubai, during this period Aondonkaa was making his circuitous transit to Saudi Arabia. Also, that three hundred well armed soldiers led by a Lieutenant Colonel orchestrated and managed the arrival of the 'phantom president' in the middle of the night and in a coverteous manner, without the landing lights or any other lights around the airport being turned on; and the cargo transferred into a waiting mobile intensive care unit ambulance immediately upon touchdown, and without the acting president having any wind of the whole operation tells a lot. An acting president and surrogate commander in chief of the armed forces, did not know or authorise or approve the use or deployment of the country's armed men, yet someone within Nigeria hierarchy of authority gave them the green-light and they obeyed, questions the loyalty of the command structure of the Nigerian military and calls for full investigation. Acting President Jonathan Goodluck, if ever he recovers from this frontal assault on his authority, should change all the military chiefs and deploy commanding officers throughout the country military formations since the present crop has now proved that they owe their loyalty elsewher and not to the country and her acting president! it is a national security question. Enough, Nigerians!

Icheoku has nothing against President Umaru Yar'Adua returning back to Nigeria and even resuming his duties immediately, assuming his body and soul will acquiesce him; but very resentful of the rubbishing of Nigerians by a few brash rascals who would rather the cricket mound is decimated rather than not catch the cricket? Like one of the two women before biblical King Solomon, they demand that the baby be cut into two halves! It would have been much easier for the polity if the north could serve out its arranged eight years term and yield way, without all these heart-racing. But humanity does not control nature including its right to make anyone sick and indisposed; but can't the north defer its eight years or whatever is left of the almost now over, four years of their presidency to another time in the future? Or is Nigeria going to hell in a hand's basket that they just want to get all they can get before the Titanic takes further water or the African clay-foot giant assumes room temperature?

Icheoku seriously believes that majority of Nigerians do not want to remain Nigerians and in the same country, otherwise necessary sacrifices and accommodations would have been made by all the sectional tribes especially the northern Fulani-Hausas in order to allow the country move forward without the unintended Umaru Yar'Adua's speed-bumps. But no, everyone is at each other's throat, demanding the first shot at Aso Rock and forgetting that there is only one presidential chair therein and that two captains cannot be on the same one ship. Nigeria can only either have a fully recovered and viable President Umaru Yar'Adua or an acting President Jonathan Goodluck at this time; but nothing less or more in order to ensure that the elastic band holding Nigeria together does not to violently snap with its unintended consequences. The military should also understand that no matter how tempting it may sound to emulate their neighbors up north in Niger Republic, that coups are no longer so cool and that Nigerians experiences under Babangida and Abacha makes that option a sour unpalatable grape. Admitted that the same bunch of human excrement and scumbags that queued up to offer Jonathan Goodluck their congratulations will be falling over one another to be the first to tell the military 'good to see you!'

The possible resolution is for the national Assembly to endeavor to have audience with the returned physical body and sound-mind of President Umaru Yar'Adua; and confirm for themselves that he is still cognitive and has enough vitality to finish his term in office. If not, they must courageously confirm Acting President Jonathan Goodluck immediately to a full president and let the chips fall where they may. Icheoku says, it is their wish-washy pandering tendencies that have left Nigerians in the lurch regarding the political authority in today's Nigeria. Just impeach the president on grounds of ill health induced inability to continue in office and close that sorry chapter of Nigeria's political pupillage. However, the best and most desirable option would be to peacefully let the country unravel and yield to its pre-independent status or better still pre-1914 amalgamation; barring a national soverign conference to decide its continued existential terms and conditions. Sorry, if we sounded despondent, it is just that Nigeria has a lot of potentials which is not being properly harnessed for the greater good and the south is death-tired of the arrogant north, continually and without ceasing, arrogating to themselves the right to perpetual ruler-ship of the Nigeria state and bestowing power over Niger Delta oil to whomever it choses, including Theophilus Danjuma. Enough, Nigerians! Please Turai cabal, let Nigerians see or hear from their 'lost but found' President Umaru Yar'Adua!

FALKLAND OIL DRILL, THE BRITISH SHOULD BACK OFF AND HANDS OFF!

It is incomprehensible and inconceivable that the British continues till this day, to lay claim to an Island 7000 miles away from its shores in the British Isles and only 300 nautical miles off the coast of Argentina. This glaring proximity of Falklands Islands to the mainland of Argentina speaks volume as to the true ownership of the Island; and British claim therefore becomes more pathetic when seen from the prism of Honk Kong which the same British hurriedly handed back to threatening China in 1997.

The Brits were fully aware that they are not and cannot be a match to a China made mad, and in their cunning manner decided to quietly concede their Honk Kong trophy to China, turned tail and scurried back to England. However they sized up Argentina and decided they can beat them in a war, hence refused to hand over the Malvinas or "their" Falkland Island to them; and even went to war in 1982 to protect and defend their ownership claim of that piece of real estate, which is apparently within Argentina's territorial waters or regional enclave? The meaty, nitty-gritty details of that war, the minutia details of how American intelligence helped turn the war around for the British, after the thumb-in-the-nose sinking of their HMS Sheffield by the Argentina navy, using French made and supplied Exocet missile, is not up for discussion here; but just a little excursion into and a rehearse of the history of the Falkland Island war.

Since 1982, Argentina has nursed their injurious and humiliating loss of a territory just within 300 miles of its shores to the British navy which sailed 7000 miles from the north sea; but they never stopped mouthing their claim of the island which continues till today. The British has however remained in a continuous occupation of the Island ever since and has since invested much into rebuilding dilapidated infrastructure and exacting their presence there. To further assert their ownership claim or rather right, they have now set sail to begin oil exploration and exploitation in the Argentinian Malvinas aka British Falkland Islands? Icheoku says, what an added insult to injury, prospecting for oil in another country's territorial backyard and daring them to show cause? Or is the British North Sea oil now exhausted or the ever-monstrous tidal waves up there in the north sea now too turbulent for a continuous exploration and exploitation that they turn to South America?

What are we saying, except that a British oil company, Desire Petroleum PLC, has set sail its oil rig 'The Ocean Guardian' to begin drilling for oil just 100km (62 miles) north off Falkland Islands, on Liz 14/19-A exploration well. A provocation of no mean magnitude which must stop henceforth and without any pre-conditions whatsoever; or be stopped by all the forces of all South American and Caribbean military resources if need be! So, Argentina President Cristina Kirchner must seize this opportunity and with President Barack Obama in the White House, demand forcefully that the British provocation stop immediately with a threat to send in her military. Nobody in the world wants a theatre of war opening up in Latina America so the world through the United States of America will hurriedly do whatever it takes to put out the fire of any ensuing barrage of artillery?

Icheoku also hopes that Latin American and Caribbean leaders who recently reached an agreement supporting Argentina over the sovereignty of the Malvinas (Falkland) Islands, will when push comes to shove, back up their rhetoric with action and send in their troops to sweat and die for the cause. If the Europeans can fight jointly through the auspices of NATO, Icheoku says, there is nothing wrong if Latin America and the Caribbean unite and jointly defend Argentina's ownership claim of the Malvinas. The creed should be, be your brother's keeper and defend South America territorial hemisphere since Islas Malvinas is South Atlantic America and not European. Moreover, the days of colonial acquisitions is since over and in the words of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, "Britain was being irrational and had to realise the time for empires was over". Every country in South America and Caribbean should therefore, like Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, pledge "to send their armed forces to Argentina's defense if British attacks".

Further, Icheoku says, the north sea does not extend to South Atlantic and therefore the British Defence Minister Bill Rammell was so full of it, when he said that his government had a "legitimate right to build an oil industry in its' waters" off the Falkland Island? Whose waters is it anyway; but definitely not Her Majesty's! What a balderdash, nonsensical and undiplomatic statement by the British; why didn't they argue similar position with the 800 pounds gorilla Chinese when they demanded and was given back Honk Kong in 1987? It is just an oppressive intimidation by the British, which the Argentinians should be brave enough to resist and if it means sacrificing for it, so be it. Icheoku is certain that the United Nations and United States of America will not standby and idly watch any unfolding escalation, but will call for a truce and possible negotiated settlement soon after the commencement of hostilities; wherein Argentina can offer to pay Britain compensation for their investments so far in the Islands and case over.

The military world over, does not chose its wars based on the superiority or inferiority of the opposing force, but in answer to a call to duty by its political leaders and in defence of its' country's territorial integrity. So if it means some thousands or even hundreds of thousands of Argentinians soldiers laying down their lives in and for Falkland Island, so be it; but never again Argentina shall you retreat and surrender! Icheoku says, the assertion by Mr Rammell that Britain "would take whatever steps necessary to protect the islands" is a tacit declaration of war and it is now up to Argentina to take him up on the threat and prove that Argentinians also have some balls too. Do not let another man intimidate you into a cowering submission and conceding what naturally belongs to you; let the hostilities begin and let the world watch Britain defeat the entire South America with Iran, China and Russia ready to play some roles in the ensuing melee. The defence minister adding that "they (British) have made Argentina aware of it" is also rather very cocky and arrogant a snub which Argentina must not fail to answer otherwise they will forever retreat and be humiliated by the loss of their Islas Malvinas.

Icheoku says that Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega call for "Britain to return the territory of the Malvinas to its real owners - to return it to Argentina" is rather naivete as nobody, not a country hands back freely what they toiled and shed some blood of its countrymen and women to take and retain. Like everything else on earth, if you want it, just have to take it by whatever means necessary - either you surreptitiously steal it or you simply take it by force. So Argentina and Latina American countries, Icheoku asks you, are you ready to pay a real prize for your Islas Malvinas? The now over 18 years old, 1982 seven-week 'picnic', which claimed the lives of 'only' 649 Argentine servicemen and women, will but be a child's play should another shooting conflict result; so you guys down there in Argentina must be prepared to bleed until the waters of Islas Malvinas turns red, if you sure want that Island back? The British loss of 255 men and women factors in to a 1:3 ratio average and so they will be calculating their next strategy based on that number, a position of strength; so go figure it out!

The third time is always a charm, so Argentina having lost the Island to the British first in the 19th century and again in 1982, who knows what their next bloody-attempt at asserting their sovereignty thereto will look like, and whether they will become victorious this time around? But hey, you cannot win if you do not play, so why not try, in order to find out Argentines? Icheoku however, decries the naivete of Argentina President Kirchner in calling for the British to come to a negotiation table over Falklands/Malvinas Island; since unbeknownst to her, only the weak negotiates and Britain has no need or any inducement whatsoever to come to any table with the Argentines. The British position which should by now be crystal clear to everyone in Buena Aires is, "if you want it, come and get it', period! If Argentina want to partake of the spoils, the 60 billion barrels of oil underneath the Island, then they must be desperately prepared to get it and at all cost possible, including dying for it. It is American rap artist, 50 Cent, who once sang, 'get rich or die trying'; as no Robin Hood or pirate of any kind, will freely give away what he deems his for the keeps.

So Argentina, if you want 'your' Islas Malvinas, start a war to win it back; and call for help from your Latin Americas neighbours. This is not a time for any charm-offensive by your fairly good-looking President Cristina Kirchner; let her not be timid since Gordon Brown will not swallow her with the world watching. What Lady Margaret Thatcher did in 1982, she can replicate and pull off in 2010, so she must be brave and bold going forward; if Argentina must force a settlement over the issue of Falkland Island. Until then, Icheoku denounces this British constiquadors' tendencies and expedition in the waters off the coast of Argentina and several thousands of miles away from the British Isles as provocative, bullish and an epitome of intimidating maritime adventure. If China could get back Honk Kong without much ado, why not Argentina with regards to Falkland Island or better still may be with some compensation paid to the British for their pain and suffering of losing an invested piece of real estate? Equity demands that, fairness calls for that and justices sanctions and approves that Falkland Islands or Islas Malvinas reverts to Argentina; so Gordon Brown and Cristina Kirchner, over to you!