NASIR EL RUFAI ADMITS, "YES, I WAS OBASANJO'S 'YES MAN!'

He was a member of the kitchen cabinet of one of Nigeria's most-derisive former President Matthew Okikiolakan Olusegun Aremu Obasanjo. He was one of his man-Fridays and a very trusted aide. For his unabashed loyalty to Olusegun Obasanjo, he was handsomely rewarded with the post of minister of the Abuja Federal Capital Territory. He was one of the up and coming Fulani boys from northern Nigeria? But it would appear that this mallam has made a sudden 180 degrees turn and now confesses that Olusegun Obasanjo single-handedly cursed Nigeria with the Greek gift of a President Umaru Yar'Adua! This is a big development because contrary to what was popular then that he was very powerful and very influential, this mallam has now come out to debunk all the hype and myth about his influence on Obasanjo; publicly stating that he was just an Obasanjo's "YES MAN!"

According to Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, "It was Obasanjo who single-handedly selected Umaru and presented him to us as his choice-candidate to succeed him. Nobody dare say anything against Umaru because you could be seen to be having an antagonistic interest, which was why we all kept quiet and said, 'Yes sir,' we will support him." Icheoku says, it is always a thing of joy and a source of comic relief for Nigerians, whenever their former men of power bemoans their lose in the power struggle that is Nigerian politics and comes out pontificating on their holiness in the whole sordid affair of power struggle? The former lord of the manor in Nigeria, a minister of the Federal Capital Territory and member of former President Olusegun Obasanjo's kitchen cabinet, the 'almighty' El-Rufai, now left out in the cold, is crying out loud, complaining to anyone that would listen how bad things have suddenly become in Nigeria? But what he is not telling those his listeners is the contribution he made to bring about the bad situation. Icheoku asks, how could any of these guys been rendering good professional service to a government, when they lacked the back-bone and strong moral conviction to objectively advise their boss in the best way out of a given situation? Why serve when you cannot serve conscientiously and objectively?

Some of these former officials were the reason why the government they served did not survive or perform well, because they will not honestly and objectively profer advise but will always do it under color of political survival and not what is in the best interest of the country? These past leaders including Olusegun Obasanjo and the present Umaru Yar'Adua may have faired as bad because of the Nasir el-Rufai types, sycophants who surround them and who ususally do not give them the best advise possible? They only tell them what they wants to hear and that is it; irrespective of the wisdom of such counsel. Imagine, Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo desires to hire Umaru Yar'Adua as Nigeria's president and all these guys could do and did was just salute and bow out? A unison chorused, master is always right? Why were they hired in the first place if all they do or did was just chorus the president's desires without analysing or discussing its broad ramnifications? Was their job description not to critically analyse any given situation and hand in their best assessment of it as to the way forward; and strongly recommend options for the president? So, Icheoku asks Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, why didn't he and his fellow inner circle of Olusegun Obasanjo's government critically analyse the choice of Umaru Yar'Adua, forensically checking his suitability, ability, eligibility and qualification to be Nigeria's president? But he did not do what was expected of his office as a close adviser to the then president, only to now, join other leeches on power to pile up on Olusegun Obasanjo for being that arrogant despotic leader, whose wish must always be obeyed and without any question? Really? Icheoku asks, but was Nasir el-Rufai a zombie operating in a zombie-land Nigeria under a zombies' company comfortable man, President Olusegun Obasanjo?

Now everyone is blaming only Olusegun Obasanjo for the ineptitude of the sickly Umaru Yar'Adua while many of his advisers who alongside midwived Umaru Yar'Adua's presidency like Mallam Nasir El-Rufai is under the radar, staying blameless for the apology that is President Umaru Yar'Adua? Icheoku asks, could it be possible that when Olusegun Obasanjo nominated Umaru Yar'Adua as his preferred choice for the presidency of Nigeria that he was just looking up to his kitchen-cabinet to hold-out and give him a reason to ground such a nomination; and hoping honestly that one would be given him to enable him thrown aside the candidacy of Yar'Adua? Is it a plausible argument to make that this people, the Nasir el-Rufais of Nigeria, failed Obasanjo and by implication the Nigerian public for not candidly advising Obasanjo on the lack of merits of sickly Umaru Yar'Adua's candidacy? Is it possible that Olusegun Obasanjo is not solely responsible for the quagmire of President Umaru Yar'Adua's government that Nigeria is left to deal with now? It is Icheoku's position that Mallam El-Rufai is partly to blame for the nightmare Nigerians are being forced to live through since May 2007 with the unfortunate ridicule that is Umaru Yar'Adua's presidency?

Peradventure if Mallam El-Rufai had been candid with Olusegun Obasanjo and advised him honestly, maybe a different can-do man or woman would have been Nigeria's president and not the Mr Slow-man who spends most valuable time, battling a debilitating illness instead of governing. So what we are saying is that Nigerians should blame Nasir el-Rufai for some of the failures of Obasanjo's government, particularly the 'appointment' of Umaru Yar'Adua as president of Nigeria. President Umaru Yar'Adua was courtesy of the lack of advise from Obasanjo's supposed kitchen cabinet, which includes Mallam El-Rufai who failed and/or refused to give Obasanjo their honest take concerning his decision to impose Umaru Yar'Adua on Nigeria? Imagine Mr. El-Rufai now criticising President Umaru Yar’adua's government as a sleeping government; a government his silent sycophancy helped put in place? He is now blaming Olusegun Obsanjo for chosing Yar’adua to succeed him, when he could have but failed or refused to advise against it; or even resigned his appointment in protest if he felt so strongly against it? But instead, he chose to tag along just to get along; and his present warped logic is that "there was no how any of them could have opposed the choice of Yar’adua as president because nobody wanted to be seen to be opposing the president?" This guy is indeed a laughable specie of human evolution; so what if the president wanted to mortgage the entire Nigeria to say, Cameroon; Icheoku asks, would he have acquiesced just because 'no one want to be seen to oppose the president?' What is your value or worth then, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai?

Mallam Nasir el-Rufai is the stuff majority of Nigerian officials are made of and this is the single most agonising reason why Nigeria leaderships always fail to deliver. They lack competent advisers who would manage their objectives very well, honestly advising the president even at the pain of either being fired or forced to resign their office? Such people are the political jobbers "YES MEN" and are always recycled through various governments, so much so that one begins to wonder why the former government failed; and whether the new government wants to also fail since they also have the same faces on board? Mallam Gerry Gana is one example of a Nigerian that served over four governments and yet they all failed; with him being absolved? Icheoku asks, does it make any sense?

Mallam El-Rufai gave his ten-cents opinion in a recent Hausa service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) interview, wherein he also indicated that he will be returning to Nigeria at the end of this year but before Christmas, to in his own words, continue to carry on the fight from inside the belly of the beast, that is Nigeria. Icheoku only wishes to remind this now crusading former minister that his then served government of Olusegun Obasanjo killed Attorney General Bola Ige and nothing happened as a consequence thereof? So what is the guarantee that if he suddenly disappears upon his return to Nigeria that the heavens will cave in? A word is enough for this 'repentant' mallam, there is no bravery in the grave; and only a fool goes to court of reasoning with obtrusive and obstinate touts who parade themselves as leaders of Nigeria and expect a decent discuss. As he knows, those Nigeria leaders so called are not rational and will get him as soon as his feet touches Nigerian soil. This stage has now been set with the court ruling that he, Nasir el-Rufai has a case to answer! So upon his return, he will be arrested, no, abducted, tried or extra-judiciary killed and nothing will come out of it as he already knows, himeslf having been part of the problem of Nigeria; a member of government of power.

Icheoku advises Nasir el-Rufai to please wait a little longer to return to Nigeria, if he must; as the authorities there cannot wait to lay their hands on you and make a mince-meat example of you, after the recent embarrassing cat and mouse game which they lost to Nuhu Ribadu; during his condolence visit to the Gani Fawehinmi's family. The Nigerian security organisations are still smarting at the ridicule that was made of them by Nuhu Ribadu's breach of their porous security blanket and cannot wait for an opportunity to redeem their besmirched ego. Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, please do not be the sacrificial offal as you will surely pay for Nuhu Ribadu's insult should you venture into Nigeria under the present inclement political climate. Icheoku says, we do not think that the former minister is so naive to commit suicide by his visit and is rather being just vociferous because he lost out in the power struggle in Nigeria? Otherwise what spectacular thing did his Olusegun Obasanjo government do for Nigerians that they could be remembered for? The answer is nothing, nada, zilch! So, mallam please stay under the radar and stay out of Nigeria in order not to become a statistics among the many whose death has met an unyielding brickwall in their investigation. Ask yourself, is it worth it? Until we see him return to Nigeria to face his hound dogs, Icheoku says, Mallam EL-Rufai is just running-off his mouth and in any other event, we cannot wait to report his arrest, torture and possible murder once he steps his aboki-feet back in Nigeria. So, good-luck mallam!

THE SIMMERING ISLAMIC THREAT, CONFRONT IT NOW AMERICA!

Not too long ago in Nigeria they swore to dip their Koran into the Atlantic ocean and till today, that effort is still full steam! Simply stated, they plan to overrun the entire country from their base in the Sahara desert northern Nigeria to the South and into the Niger Delta's Atlantic ocean? This was one of the underlying reasons why the Nigeria-Biafra war was fought from 1967 through 1970?

Today, Africa has virtually fallen under their crusading jackboots, thanks mainly to the intrusive support of Riyadh in form of money and aids? Same goes with parts of Asia and Europe with some of the biggest Mosques in the world now bestriding Europe like a colossus? With majority of Africa, some parts of Asia and Europe now completely Islamized, their focus has shifted to the United States of America, which is their covet prize. But is the United States fully aware of this Islamic agenda forcefully being propagated across the land like a tornado; and through the proxy of some fanatically crazed-out Muslims like the murderer of Fort Hood, Major Nidal Malik Hasan? Icheoku says we do not think that America gets the danger we are all in; and that someday we might wake up a little too late only to regret our persisting pacifist attitude towards these preachers of hate and a religion which seems to support violence or appear indifferent to it? It is our conclusion and firm belief that Islam is on a mission here to conquer America and not just to thrive side by side with other religions as envisaged under the First Amendment!

The western world or civilization, however you chose to address it, must rise up together and confront head-on and now, the cancer that is Islamism; especially its rabid expansion westward, masked as fanaticism of a few! These people are being financed and managed by their various Islamic home governments which is bent on humbling the west by imposing their Islamic religious theocracy on America. Anybody in doubt, should ask him or herself a simple question, who is financing all the multi-million dollar mosques sprouting throughout the western world including in Rome, the homestead of Catholicism? Who is picking the tab for all those turrets and marbled floors of the encased open spaces where faithfuls congregate to answer the call for prayers? They are not those expatriate Arabs with low paying jobs? Icheoku asks, how many western type of religion has any feasible presence in the Middle East, which have all made their countries, Islamic republics? But will hell boil over if the United States of America morphs into United Christian States of America? If there becomes a United Christians Kingdom in place of UK, will the sky fall? A France Christian state doesn't sound bad either and the assumed conversion goes on ad infinitum; but would the political correctness and tolerance of an accommodating west allow such a compromised position to see the light of the day? Doubtful! But while the west is playing the good neighbor who is usually taken advantage of and sometimes used and abused; the Islamists are busy pushing their agenda with ceaseless unwavering zeal. Ordinarily, this will not constitute a subject for discussion on Icheoku.com, but watching the effrontery of these fanatical lunatics publicly displaying banners with inscriptions such as "Islam will rule the world"; "Our objective is to convert everybody to Islam" and such other unspoken unprintable but sure true intentions of these jackals, makes many sane westerners to shudder! The possibility that someday and at the rate these killers are going, that the west might also fall under their spell makes the hairs on the body to stand up in trepidation? But may God Almighty forbid such a day of infamy from ever coming to fruition, in Jesus name, Amen!

Like investigators use to say, follow the money trail and you will land the culprits? Icheoku advises that the unseen deep-pockets behind the scene of this Islamic crusade, those in many capital cities in the Islamic world, who are financing all these grandiose mosques and Islamic insurgency throughout the western world should be traced and held accountable. They are ruthless; they are vicious; they are mean; they are very calculating and are prepared to lay down in wait, however long it takes, until their planned Islamization of the western world comes 360 degrees. It is a mission they have sworn to their Allah to undertake, and accomplish it they will; except the west rises up to meet the challenge before it is too late!

The surprising thing is that the western world is rather pretending that it is no big deal and/or that these Muslims do not constitute any imminent danger? But how does one explain a PhD holder in Psychology and an army major, opening fire on unarmed American soldiers in their homeland base at Fort Hood Texas, killing thirteen in the process? The necessary concomitant question therefrom is that if an educated Muslim could be that wickedly explosive, then how about the Muslim Joe Blow, the man on the street Muslim with little or no capacity for reasoning? If a well educated man could literally desire to be martyred to be with his proverbial fifty virgins; imagine then the speed to cause violence of an illiterate zealot?

The gist of the matter is that there is a rife competition between both religions; and just as communism yielded way for capitalism during the cold war; one of these religion must conclusively make way for the other; in order for there to be any lasting peace on earth. It is either one of them physically destroy the other through the instrumentality of their government and armed forces or better still through a superior logical evangelisation. But would the Muslims allow christian missionaries in their neck of the wood without saying, they are being unmindful of their religious sensibilities? Anyone in doubt about the boding war of superiority between these faiths should acquaint himself with history or better still, ask yourself about childhood rivalry and how such is usually resolved? One must give way to make a way, period!

Who is sponsoring the restiveness throughout the Muslim world if not Muslim countries eager to keep America and the rest of the western world on its toes, quelling and trying to appease the warring parties while the Islamic governments take the back seat, staying under the radar and discreetly pursuing their warped agenda. Also such infighting enables the government there to stay despotic in perpetuity with their citizens at each other's neck and not having enough time to ask tough questions concerning their governance or lack of basic essentials in their countries? How does the Talibans finance its insurgency and who procures the weaponry being used to main and kill both Americans and their indigenous population? Who bankrolls Hezbollah's madness and its intermittent wars with Israel? Who pays for the Gaza occupying forces of Hamas? And whose idea is it that a Palestine divided is a stronger Palestine for purposes of wresting from Israel their own state? What about the lunatics blowing people and things up in Pakistan? What about Abu Sayaf in Philippines? Yemen is boiling over and so also is Somalia which is now a completely failed state. All Muslims? So tell Icheoku, who pays for the bullets, bombs and artillery being expended in all these Islamic war theaters principally aimed at slowly bleeding the west to death through peace keeping? But why are Muslim countries not participating or leading this effort to keep peace in their Muslim brother countries? They are simply not serious but uses Islam just as a rallying war cry for their selfish objectives of remaining and maintaining their strangle hold on power and in perpetuity!

The Islamic governments in Riyadh, Tehran, Cairo, Damascus, Tripoli and Jakarta cannot be completely absolved from the insanity going on in the Muslim world? Who sponsored 9/11; London bombing; Madrid train bombing etc? Who supplied the logistics and the several hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars in cost and expenses for the execution of all these terrorists acts? Like the West's CIA, MI5 etc, the Islamic world with a fused government and religion, have similar agencies which propagate their Islamic ideological agenda in the same token? But because they are no march for a direct confrontation, with the west's deathly military might, they decided to go rogue and surreptitiously, through the agencies of surrogates, in the form of Islamic religious fanatics, decide to fight a hit and run slow proxy war against the west.

It is against this background that Icheoku welcomes the recent move against Alavi Foundation by the United States authorities seeking the forfeiture of more than $500 million in their 'so called foundation's assets? It is our primary position that Alavi Foundation is a front for Islamic propagation in the west particularly the United States of America; and may as well also be sponsoring terrorist acts? But should America be forced to ask the question, how does China contain their own Islamic dissidents? Just kill them off! It is probably about time a line is drawn on the sand where these militant religion must not cross at the pain of a vicious counter-offensive. How far are we going to take it, with our backs on the wall, before we can return their 'favor' in their own coins? Enough!

How did this foundation source its funds to acquire all the properties it has, including bank accounts; Islamic centers consisting of schools and four mosques in New York City, Maryland, California and Houston; more than 100 acres of land in Virginia; and a 36-story Fifth Avenue glass skyscraper Piaget Building office tower in Manhattan, New York? Who endowed this foundation and for how much? What are their objectives and where and what do they spend their endowment fund on? So many pertinent questions needing another answer other than what Icheoku agrees, is a front and forwarding operating base for the planned Muslim overrun of the United States of America!

Why should the west continue to tolerate these munchkins spreading their hateful religion in the west whereas in some Islamic countries, it is heretical to preach of practice any other 'strange' religion? In northern Nigeria for example, so many Christians including pastors and reverend fathers have been killed over the years in religious riots, just for being in the Muslims own words, "non-believers?" In Pakistan the Muslim lunatics there are blowing fellow Muslims up simply because there have no Christians, their usual suspects, there to suffer their daggers' pointed edges? In Somalia two different sects are slaughtering themselves? In Afghanistan, the story is not different? In Iraq, it is an internecine war between Sunnis and Shiites, and they are both Muslims? By the last check, there are more wars, crisis and blowing up of people and properties going on in the Islamic world than in all the Christian west put together; and yet Islam is a religion of 'peace?' Anyone in doubt about the peacefulness of this religion should wait until the living nightmare of an Iran with an atomic bomb becomes a reality; and watch them use it. Fanatical suicides are what these people are and anything to the contrary is merely a wishful thinking of a pacifist minded westerner.

Icheoku says, what the First Amendment right to freedom of religion provides is a co-existence of peaceful religions; and not a religion that will kill us all off? Also when our founding fathers were crafting the constitution, they never contemplated an Islamic religion as being part of the protected religions within the envisaged freedom. Therefore it does not make sense that overwhelmed by the intolerance of the Islamic religion that the United States of America should continue to treat it on par with other more peaceful tolerant religions. The solution is to either ban it or they should be forced to moderate; but the present extremism should not be tolerated any longer. ENOUGH!

Tired of political religious correctness, Icheoku says, let the backlash begin that a clear demarcation be made between true religions and sects of death masquerading as a religion. Let these Muslim nations know that if there religion must be allowed to flourish here in the United States of America, that they should reciprocate by allowing western missionaries to flourish in their countries and freely propagate their own religion. It is quid pro quo. But a situation where such Christian missionaries are arrested, harassed, persecuted, tortured, imprisoned, and sometimes even killed while on their missionary journeys to these Muslim nations leaves much to be desired. If we must accommodate them in the west, they should also reciprocate our kind gesture of tolerance; but it is illogical for them to say that the West ignores the sensibilities of their religion while they stand in our Times Square or Trafalgar Square yelling curses to our way of life or intimidatingly telling the Western Christianity how Islam will conquer and rule their world? Icheoku says, if this is not an affront to our belief, then nothing fits that definition or must there be a total breakdown of order before these mallams know that freedom of speech does not include shouting fire in a crowded theater? What an irony of relationship between the west and the Muslim world that what is good for the goose is not good for the gander? The pope will say something and they will gang up and riot until a mel culpa is made? An artist will paint something and a Fatwa is placed on him and so also is a writer, Salman Rushdie? A film maker was stabbed to death in the middle of his country's city by a crazed-out Muslim fanatic, yet we are still accommodating these madness in the spirit of 70x70? When shall enough be ENOUGH?

If the Muslim excesses is not checked now, one day the western world will wake up not to have a Christian faith they can profess anymore? With a base in the entire Middle East, Asia is being bombarded, Africa is almost three quarters completely Islamized, Europe is under a barrage of their affliction, South America is also suffering the blunt, inclusive Canada. Now their major offensive is against the United States of America and let no one be deluded as to this peoples tenacity and resilience. A people who are not afraid to die or have any scruples to kill, just to make a stupid statement? It has happened before in so many other countries where Christians were entirely wiped out and/or those of them left behind, so isolated and marginalized that they are merely living dead politically? The solution is simple, - a firm resolve by the west to take a position that our magnanimity should no longer be flagrantly abused by these Muslims; whether their fanatical arrow-heads or their sponsoring home governments. Enough should be enough and let all the Nidal Malik Hasans of the US army call it quit with their service or be dismissed therefrom but to continue to kill us or our soldiers in our homeland is completely unacceptable. Icheoku says, now is the time to checkmate these excesses.

IBRAHIM BADAMOSI BABANGIDA'S WIFE, CRITICALLY ILL?

Reports reaching Icheoku.com has it that the wife of former Nigerian military dictator, the notorious self-acclaimed evil-genius, the Maradoner, the toothy so called Prince of Minna, the man who through parcel bomb killed Dele Giwa, the man who murdered democracy in Nigeria by annulling the freest and fairest election ever held in Nigeria, although his Option A4 was a model; Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida's wife Maryam, is deathly sick! Maryam Ndidiamaka Babangida is dying of ovarian cancer!

Maryam Ndidiamaka Babangida from Asaba, Delta State, eloped with the then army Lieutenant during the Nigeria-Biafra civil war and later became Nigeria's First Lady when her husband hijacked Nigerian government through a coup de tat. She was also accredited with empowering the formerly redundant office of the First Lady and established the Better Life for Rural Women programme. Together with her husband they looted Nigeria so much that even a $12 billion dollars Gulf war oil windfall was allegedly cornered by them for their private beneficial use? According to reports, the family owns properties in Monaco France and several other countries of he world as well as a private jet? But like all mortals, they forgot that there are certain things money cannot buy or bribe, including the cancer currently draining the life out of this once affable and elegant ebony-black lady. Maryam is laying on a hospital 'death' bed at Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California Los Angeles, United States of America and now beseeching God to trade all that they stole from Nigeria and give her back her health in return? But regrettably cancer has no price tag and Icheoku can only wish her the courage to fight till the end.

Unconfirmed reports has it that her husband, IBB, who is a pariah in the United States of America has been granted a compassionate visa to travel to United States to be by Maryam's bedside as the countdown of her final days on earth runs? Her ovarian cancer appears to have metastasized and all hope are fast dwindling that she might not make it through the end of this year, if not this November? Icheoku wishes Maryam Babangida, God's forgiveness of sin and may her condition be a teachable moment for all those African despots, especially those Nigerians tyrants who have no fear of God in their despotism, that there are things money cannot buy. All the world need is love and if you love your country, you cannot steal so much from it as to make the rest of the masses hopelessly needy and in dire want?

NIDAL MALIK HASAN, DOCTOR TURNED MASS-MURDERER OF FORT HOOD!

'No faith justifies the killing of the innocent' and with those words, President Barack Obama led Americans as they mourn the 12 soldiers and one civilian police officer killed; and commiserate with the 31 wounded, in a senseless act of violence in the homeland, in Fort Hood, Killeen, Texas, United States of America! In President Barack Obama's own words, "It's difficult enough when we lose these brave Americans in battles overseas. It is horrifying that they should come under fire at an Army base on American soil." Icheoku mourns alongside and blames this act of cowardice on the political correctness of our society which tries to accommodate every faith, including those which in their traditional native lands, persecutes and even kill people who profess other faiths? But should the Muslim faith be prohibited or banned in America; no, not when we have freedom of worship enshrined in our constitution; but if only these other countries will be held to reciprocate our magnanimity in allowing freedom of religious worship?

But as is being suggested, this murderous extremist army major, prior to his dastardly massacre, manifested series of anti-American sentiments while simulteanouesly benefiting from America? Icheoku says, he should have long ago been put under surveillance and peradventure his terrorist-act would have never come to fruition; but rather nipped in the bud. But his was not the first as we have had occasions in the past where crazed-out soldiers opened fire on their colleagues in uniform? In April 2005, Sgt. Hasan Akbar, another Muslim, of the 101st Airborne Division, was sentenced to death for a grenade attack on his comrades in March 2003 in Kuwait, at the beginning of the Iraq war. Sergeant Akbar was convicted of premeditated murder and attempted premeditated murder after he threw grenades into tents and then fired on soldiers, killing two officers and wounding 14 at Camp Pennsylvania in Kuwait. Akbar was a Muslim fanatic, rogue member of the United States Army deployed in a forward operating base inside Kuwait. In June 2009 another Muslim convert targeted a US military recruitment center in Arkansas killing a US soldier. Icheoku asks, what else does anyone out there need to see, to understand that these Muslims are on a mission to infiltrate and harm America from within. Their hatred of our ways and means of life is so deeply entrenched that neither good education nor life's exposure could change their mindset for the better? The killings at Fort Hood, by an army psychiatrist, who also is a Muslim, seriously begs the question:- why are these guys so hateful and violent towards anything and everything America? While agreeing that 'suicide bombing is an Islamic version of Japanese kamikaze', since both involves someone sacrificing his/her own life to take others' life/lives, fuelled by whatever they believed in which motivated such self condemnation; we make strong exception that unlike the Japanese Kamikaze, Islamist suicide bombers are surreptitious and are not easily clearly identifiable through the apparatus of uniforms or a state, for the purposes of activating any and/or all available defenses which may be available for the attacked victim, to checkmate such attack.

Eight years down the road since Operation Swift began and inside a United States military base in Fort Hood Texas, another fringed out Muslim, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, once again acted out his 'vengeance' against the United States by violating the sanctity of their military base. Armed with two handguns, he strolled casually inside a unit where unarmed soldiers were getting their final briefing preparatory to deployment to Afghanistan and unleashed another Islamic violence against their fabled 'SATAN?' Icheoku says, and these people still live here among us and tormenting us, instead of moving back to wherever their brand of lunacy called religion holds sway; maybe somewhere in the Middle East?

Regrettably, indoctrination of any kind is such a mind-altering hallucinogenous drugs, which when taken, fanatically, and despite the taker being a medical doctor/psychiatrist, turns loose the animal in that person and converting him into a ravaging beast. This was what Major Nidal Malik Hasan transformed into last Thursday November 5, 2009, a murderous dog, who himself was a victim of Islamic brain-washing? How could such a highly educated man methodically and coldly execute his fellow comrades in arms who are getting ready to ship out to a battle theater in Afghanistan? What went wrong and caused a psychiatrist who ordinarily should be helping soldiers through their traumatic conditions and now himself sick beyond repairs, that he chose to let off his fatal steam on his colleagues? Icheoku asks, why didn't this guy commit suicide or just go AWOL? Why didn't this murderer pretend or act to be insane and be excused from deployment by reason of insanity; rather than the abominable approach he took? The many whys are just too numerous to enumerate here, but permit Icheoku to say that this rabid-dog, fully weighed his available options but the boiling anger and hatred of a country that gave him the most breaks out of life, made him do it. Simply put, Major Nidal Malik Hasan was blinded by a misplaced rage which his psychotic mind holds against America!

What could make a highly educated PhD holder become so convinced that his Allah wants him to take these innocent lives that armed with two short guns, he started blasting away is fellow soldiers? Except of course he buys into the notion espoused by the Islamist terrorists which sees America as the problem, hence anything and everything America is a fair target. Army psychiatrist, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, whose duty is to treat mentally depraved soldiers, found himself afflicted with such a great mental disease and a breakdown which he cannot and could not treat himself of. But unlike other similarly situated mental patients, he did not or refused to seek counselling, treatment or sought the desired help that would have possibly prevented the oddity of what was witnessed at Fort Hood, Texas!

That Major Hassan was chanting some invocations of "Allahu Akbar," during his mayhem in Fort Hood, as he opened fire with two handguns on clusters of soldiers who were waiting for medical examinations and other processes in the base's Soldier Readiness Processing Center; preparatory to their deployment to Afghanistan, translates the tragedy into a religious one! Icheoku says, it is the pig Hasan who introduced religious element into this incident and if any Muslim suffers any backlash as a result, he is the only responsible party to take the blame. The good news however is that Muslims make up less than 0.3 percent of America's 548,000 active duty military forces, with 2,500 Muslims, 1,500 of them on active duty. Compared to 105,000 Roman Catholics, 99,000 Baptists, 1,800 Jewish, 2,500 atheists and more than 101,000 without any religious affiliation.

President Obama succintly summarized the mood of many Americans when he said, "It's difficult enough when we lose these brave Americans in battles overseas; It is horrifying that they should come under fire at an Army base on American soil." It is instructive to note that soldiers at Fort Hood don't carry weapons unless they are doing training exercises, otherwise killer Hasan would not have easily had his way to kill as many as he succeeded in killing. Also it is the same neck of the wood where on Octeober 16, 1991, George Hennard smashed his pickup truck through a Luby's Cafeteria window in Killeen, Texas, and opened fired on the lunchtime crowd with a high-powered pistol, killing 22 people and wounding at least 20 others; before taking his own life. No other shooting at a military base in the U.S. has been anywhere near as deadly as It is also the most deadly shooting in any recorded history. In 1993, a gunman at Fort Knox shot five civilian co-workers, killing three, and then fatally shot himself. Located half-way between Austin and Waco Texas on a 339 square miles space, with 52,000 stationed troops, Fort Hood is the largest active duty armored post in the United States. Fort Hood, opened in September 1942 as America geared up for World War II, was named for Gen. John Bell Hood of the Confederacy. It has been used continuously for armor training and is charged with maintaining readiness for combat missions.

Major Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, a 1997 biochemistry graduate of Virginia Tech University and a PhD in psychiatry lived at 11300 block of Connecticut Avenue in Kensington, Maryland. He is an orphan, single and had no children; he has two brothers and is admittedly straight not gay. But he is also a fanatical Muslim who got his brainwashing at the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring, Maryland. Hopefully this is not evident that Al-Queida has finally and successfully infiltrated the US army through these Muslim-soldiers in the US army! Should they be fired or re-assigned to merely office duties, Icheoku does not know the answer, but a far-reaching action need to be taken to forestall such dastardly act from ever happening in the future; not on America soil or any other place. Also talk-radio show hosts should reduce their rhetoric of hate so that these non-American Americans can feel fully Americanised enough, with vested interest herein, not to hate Americans with so much passion as to motivate this type of daring high scale violence. And if according to stories making the rounds that Major Nidal Hasan "was making outlandish comments condemning our foreign policy and claimed Muslims had the right to rise up and attack Americans;" Icheoku asks why didn't the authorities do something drastic about him before this tragedy which would have since taken care of this emblematic Major Murderer? Why have Muslims not risen up against all those tyrants in the Middle East whose despotism forced the likes of Nidal Malik Hassan and/or their parents to escape to America for safety and freedom? Why didn't they rise up and overthrow their despotic leaders and stay back there in their native countries, instead of violently abusing our hospitality in this way? How so deranged this killer is, that he forgot that the Iraq war is now almost over and that US troops have since withdrawn from the cities of Iraq? Where was his sorry arse when Saddam Hussein was grinding his fellow Muslims in Iraq in meat grinders for daring to open their dirty mouth to complain about his regime's atrocities? Where was Nidal Malik Hasan and his spirit of uprising?

Like the popular aphorism goes, this doctor could not heal himself, and hence the carnage at Fort Hood, Killen Texas! His name even remind us of the notorious hijacker, Abu Nidal of the PLO. Major Nidal Malik Hassan was simply put, an enemy within, a green snake in a green grass who was lying in wait for the right opportunity and moment to exact a vengeance; which he saw and took on Thursday, jumping with joy at the opportunity to get at America by shedding the blood of her defenders?

If we buy into his warped, twisted logic that America should not have been involved in the war in Iraq in the first place and that was his primary beef; Icheoku queries since when did Major Nidal Malik Hasan transmutate from being an army-man who robotically carry out the wishes and orders of the Commander-In-Chief, to now, a policy wonk formulating policies and deciding which wars America should fight? Nobody forced Nidal Hasan into our all-volunteer United States military; so why the complaints about America? That such a wacko who had openly contemplated strapping bomb on himself and detonating same in Times Square was allowed to still remain in the military, after such remarks and demonstrative antagonism towards the United States, was a serious case and cause for concern, typifying where the oversight supervisory function of the military authorities failed the military! Why did Hasan dread going to Iraq so much that he would rather kill his fellow soldiers as a diversion to stop his ship-off? Why was going into the real thing for which he freely enrolled into the military, accepted their scholarships through college and the university, and post-graduate PhD, trained for now such a nightmarish experience for this uncircumcised mallam? Was it out of cowardice or his delusion that the war was against Muslims and not terrorists? Icheoku asks this murderer, are those people being blown up in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan not all Muslims and who is doing the blowing up? Muslims nay, terrorists Muslim brothers aka Mujahadeens? May be Major Nidal Malik Hasan is just a lilly-livered girlie man, who could not man-up at about the hour his training and the investment made on him was called upon for service aka pay-back time? Since Major Hasan was born in the state of Virginia, a U.S. citizen, of Palestine-Jordanian descent and having never lived outside the United States, one wonders how, where and why the legs of his anti-American fanaticism sprouted from? What founded his fanatiscism? The answer is simple, Islamic brain-washing.

It is rather an aberration for a sick demented mind, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, to equate suicide bombing with the heroic example of a US soldier who used his body to shield his comrades from a lobbed grenade. While in the later, the soldier sacrificed to save lives; in the case of suicide/homicide bomber, the bomber selfishly used his body as a weapon of mass destruction to take lives. Icheoku strongly disagrees that the war against terror is tantamount to war against Islam. Admitted the 19 terrorists that brought down the world trade centers' twin towers as well as part of the Pentagon are all Muslims from the citadel of Islam Saudi Arabia; yet Saudi Arabi was not attacked? So where is the war against Islam being waged without first striking at the heart of Islam? The United States found out that there was no official approval from the house of Saud, custodians of the Muslim faith, hence removed 9/11 from Muslim agenda hence the decision to just isolate and destroy only the terrorist master-minds. So America is just going after the bad guys who are also slaughtering their same faith brothers and sisters in Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan and God knows where; but definietly not waging any war against a religion. It is as ridiculous as it is laughable for a man with so much knowledge like Major Nidal Malik Hasan to try to equate or link the war against terror to a war against Islam. But permeating the mind of a killer is such a difficult task that Icheoku surmises, 'when a supposed healer turns into a rabid-killer, who then shall save mankind from itself and his environment? In the words of one commentator, 'the 39-year-old Army psychiatrist emerged as a study in contradictions: a polite man who stewed with discontent, a counselor who needed to be counseled himself, a professional healer now suspected of cutting down the fellow soldiers he was sworn to help.' Icheoku says, halla!

Whether Major Hasan was harassed, teased or taunted for who he is, is just not sufficient enough reason for his taking of so many lives in revenge as he did? Icheoku does not buy either that a 39 year old man, a PhD in psychiatry will so easily fall and become so bewitched to a crass brainwashing of Islam; to the extent that he will commit such heinous murders as was witnessed in Fort Hood. But you never know with these fanatics; and now Nidal's action has been praised by one of them - the radical American imam of Yemen origin, Anwar al Awlaki. In his words of praise for Nidal, Awlaki said, "Nidal Hassan is a hero. He is a man of conscience who could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people." Icheoku says, what a stark lunacy in display, calling a bloody murderer a hero? That shows how messed up the brains of these people really are! The fallacy of the Islamic religion, a religion of hate that approves and supports such tragic, bloody and horrific outburst of violence that killed 13 and wounded 31 of our finest and bravest friends of freedom. May God help us all get through this madness that was the massacre at Fort Hood.

Among the killed were pregnant Francheska Velez, 21, of Chicago Illinois; Captain John Gaffaney, 56, of California; Pfc. Aaron Thomas Nemelka, 19, of Salt Lake City Utah; Pfc. Michael Pearson, 21, of Bolingbrook, Illinois; Spc. Jason Dean Hunt, 22, of Frederick Oklahoma; Michael Grant Cahill, 62, of Cameron, Texas; Sgt. Amy Krueger, 29, of Kiel, Wisconsin; Pfc. Kham Xiong 23, of St. Paul, Minnesota; and Juanita Warman, 55.

KEN SARO WIWA, HIS LESSON WAS LOST IN THE NIGER DELTA STRUGGLE?

When on November 10, 1995 the then Foreign Minister Tom Ikimi was confronted by a journalist in far away Asia, demanding to know why his government hurried the execution of Ken Saro Wiwa, his mouth dropped in awe as he was totally sidelined and left in the lurch over the execution? But did he resign in protest for the embarrassment of being informed of such a high profile execution in far away Asia? No; such an idea is an aberration and a very strange option for Nigerians and anyone who shares in their DNA!

It was the midget of Kano, Sani Abacha who ordered Ken Saro Wiwa hanged for daring to raise his voice against the oppressive Hausa-Fulani controlled central government of Nigeria which has been pillaging resources from his people of the Niger Delta ever since 1958 when oil was discovered at Oloibiri Rivers State? A trumped up charges of murder were levelled against him and eight others, tried before a kangaroo military tribunal, convicted as scripted and summarily executed in the middle of the night; without regard to his right to appeals or overall fair trial in deference to due process? However those are but historical facts and nothing can bring him back to life; the world that remembers him can only have him immortalized in their memory. Ken Saro Wiwa is long dead, his body allegedly dissolved in sulphuric acid and dumped in an unmarked grave; but on this occasion of the 14 anniversary of his gruesome state murder, Icheoku joins the millions world over in remembering a man who stood up for what he believed in and in defence of his peoples' right to their resources and paid the supreme price for it! Today, November 10, 2009 marks the 14th anniversary of that November 10, 1995 ugly incident.

Should Icheoku be mad at this guy for his atrocities against the Igbo people of Biafra during the civil war and continuing immediately thereafter, when he championed with a fury from hell, the abandoned property saga on behalf of the Nigerian federal government to get at the Igbo nation? No, because it is a waste of time fighting with a dead man who cannot rebut or defend himself. Moreso his pettiness then and supposed romance with the feudalistic north did not pay him any meaningful dividend, as he who rode tigers over the whole place against the Igbo was eventually, himself eaten up by the tiger. Ken Saro Wiwa, for instigating and taking sides with the Nigerian government during the Biafra struggle, against his rightful people have earned him a not too favorable place in the hearts and minds of so many Nigerians of the South East as well as the South South. He was a renegade and a traitor whose sins against Biafra is now forgiven since a dead man should be left alone? In this tribute to his memory, we shall try to foray into his trials and tribulations, examine his life and times; querying if the present lacklustre, disjointed and uncoordinated activism in the Niger Delta as presently championed by the motley of militants, truly represents what a living Ken Saro Wiwa would have identified himself with? Would Ken have approached the struggle differently or accepted amnesty and turned tail against his people?

Are they doing the memory of Ken Saro-Wiwa, Adaka Baro any good with the way they are bargaining with the Hausa-Fulanis over the resources underneath their land? Icheoku says, no; and reiterates that it is a sign of weakness to negotiate with a stranger over what belongs to you. It was an American general who once said, give me liberty or give me death but this guys chose to mortgage their freedom and they still are visited with deaths. In other words, their cowardice emboldens their oppressors who have now denied them a say on how their resource would be allocated and appropriated. So on this day, November 10, 2009 we urge the people of the Niger Delta to unite and be more organised for the future of the Niger Delta and for the sake of their children and children's children. It is for the future and no amount of militants camps and fractious militias without a central political authority will be able to bring about the type of change desired in that neck of the wood in Nigeria. Should Ken Saro Wiwa be allowed to die in vein by not continuing his fight for equitable participation by his people of the Niger Delta in the distribution of what belongs to Niger Delta?

He founded the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) in 1990 which brought the Shell’s destruction of the Niger Delta environment to international audience. A year later the Ogoni nine were arrested on what were widely regarded to have been trumped-up charges. The men were tortured, beaten and then put on trial in front of a military tribunal and without recourse to regular courts or legal representation. They were sentenced to death and executed in the middle of the night. Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others were hanged for what is generally agreed to be trumped-up murder charges by the military dictatorship of General Sani Abacha. His real crime was leading a group that was protesting the devastation of the Ogoni people's lands by Shell Oil and the oppression and marginalization of the Ogoni people themselves by the military government who profited from Shell's oil business. Peradventure, Ken Saro Wiwa lives on , taller in death than the midget of Kano who killed him and whose own death, no one remembers now. But is there no one to hold accountable for the sins of that ignominious government? Icheoku says, Jeremaih 'Jerry-Boy' Useni is still alive, the governor of Rivers State then, Oladipo Diya as well as Abdulsalam Abubakar, are all alive and these are people who served and partook of the evil that was Sani Abacha! They should all be taken in for questioning and purposes of holding accountable for the madness of November 10, 1995? May Nigerians hold these guys accountable on behalf of their master, Sani Abacha for their sins of omission to stop the extra-judicial murder of Ken Saro Wiwa and the Ogoni 8!

With over 90 oil fields across the country, Shell which have been in Nigeria since 1958 impacts the local environment adversely through their unfair oil exploration and exploitation practices which is decimating a people who depend on fishing and farming for sustenance. Also affected by their activities is the world's third-largest mangrove forest which they clear indiscriminately just to make way for their pipelines without regard to the suffering of the indigenous wildlife and a gravely endangered ecosystem as a result? There were frequent oil spills and oil flares which devastated the countryside and made it barren? But conversely Icheoku does not entirely blame Dutch oil company, Shell, for their role in precipitating the hanging of Ken Saro Wiwa and co? The culprit here is the Nigerian gestapo military junta regime of Sani Abacha who had to kill his people just because a foreign oil company said so. How can a sane head of a people kill his citizens because it fits the desire of foreign oil mercenaries who have no interest of the country at heart and would rather kill off the citizens just for what lies beneath their lands? It is as absurd as it is abominable and should be condemned by all men of good conscience. The problem with African leaders is that they do not care about the people they govern as they do not love them, otherwise why not tell the instigating oil company to take a hike or go to hell or even revoke their license for musing that idea?

Finally as we end this tribute to a freedom fighter and a man who died defending his peoples right to a meaningful existence in Nigeria; a people wallowing in poverty amidst their God-given natural resources which is denied them by the feudalistic cabals up north, may we share with you two of his statements. One was made in pursuit of his fight to stop the ecological disaster which is Niger Delta of Nigeria and the other as closing statement before a dead-set tribunal which formalized his conviction and eventual hanging. According to Ken Saro-Wiwa, "Whether I live or die is immaterial. It is enough to know that there are people who commit time, money and energy to fight this one evil among so many others predominating worldwide. If they do not succeed today, they will succeed tomorrow. We must keep on striving to make the world a better place for all of mankind - each one contributing his bit, in his or her own way."

Before the tribunal that sent him to the gallows, thus read his closing statement:- "We all stand before history. Appalled by the denigrating poverty of my people who live on a richly endowed land, distressed by their political marginalization and economic strangulation, angered by the devastation of their land, their ultimate heritage, anxious to preserve their right to life and to a decent living, and determined to usher to this country as a whole a fair and just democratic system which protects everyone and every ethnic group and gives us all a valid claim to human civilization, I have devoted my intellectual and material resources, my very life, to a cause in which I have total belief and from which I cannot be blackmailed or intimidated. I have no doubt at all about the ultimate success of my cause, no matter the trials and tribulations which I and those who believe with me may encounter on our journey. Nor imprisonment nor death can stop our ultimate victory. With the preceding Ken Saro Wiwa registered as a man of letters, brave even to the point of death, and ridiculing his traducers in the process. Icheoku therefore says, sleep on brave one and may what you lived and died for not be in vain; hopefully the Niger Delta activism will take on a new lease of life someday with a clearly defined set of uniform objective, direction and means of achieving same, under one unified central political authority. So long KSW!

THE TWO GLADIATORS ARE AT IT AGAIN, OJUKWU AND GOWON SPIT FIRE!

The unfinished business that is the Nigeria-Biafra civil war got a new lease of life recently, as the two protagonists in chief of the war stoked embers of violence once again? Such personal antgonism forces the question, has the Biafran war actually ended or have this two personalities now so personalized their animosity that an ordinary harmless statement by one will attract a rabid response from the other rival? Animosity which started since their days together in the Nigerian army and which technicaly led to the Biafran war, now seems to be continuing and subsisting in their golden years; which begs the question, does old wound really heal?

Icheoku says, the answer appears to be no; and that has been buttressed by the recent exchange of fiery rhetorics between these two old foes, who have since personalised more what it was between them that first led to the Biafran war? Their bitter exchange shows that the long gone but still smothering civil war has the propensity to rekindle anytime, someday and possibly not in too distant future. Icheoku says, the only way this war could conclusively come to an end is for the issues that led to the war to be fully addressed or for the principal protagonists thereto to make their transitions out of this world and leave Nigeria alone. But until then and as long as they live, so shall little flashes like the recent war of words continue and possibly someday, it might spark off another confrontation. As always, war of words usually precedes war of fire-fight?

Icheoku asks once again, did the Biafran civil war ever conclusively end? This question has become more imperative with the spitting of fire by two old Nigerians, nay a Nigerian against his Biafran old nemesis; men who are now jostling and repositioning themselves for yet another opportunity to go at it, and somehow finish an unfinished business? A final showdown, the mother of all confrontations, may be? Ikemba Nnewi Odumegwu Chukwukwuemeka Ojukwu and Birom-man Yakubu Gowon who squared off during the last Nigeria/Biafra civil war, are once again, barking and threatening another showdown! But will Nigeria allow them? Icheoku does not think so, more-so since both men are nearing their graves and are even too old now to lift AK-47 rifle? But why are they personalising a struggle that encompassed so many millions of people including non Igbo Biafrans and none Northern Nigeria, then Nigeria? Our theory is a bloated ego run amok; which suffers both men greatly as to make them completely delusional as to their followerships and abilities?

The genesis of the spitfire was Odumegwu Ojukwu figuratively expressing the resistance that will follow, should the Nigerian cabal through the aegis of the Court of Appeal, try to forcibly foist Andy Uba as governor of Anambra State; a state in which he has so much vested interest and wherein he comes from. Ojukwu said, such action will force a civil war in Anambra State and which he will gladly lead as a commander in chief? But as dumb as Yakubu Gowon is, despite holding a supposed doctorate degree, he jumped into the affray, boisterously beating his chest on how he starved Biafrans into a scripted surrender in 1970? A genocidal maniac who sent several millions of Biafran children to their untimely graves through an earth-scorching blockade of the area then known as Biafra and who refused even very essential goods including medicine and infant formulae from reaching milions of malnutritioned mouths in Biafra? The famed Kwashiokor set in and the rest is now history.

The enveloping hardship and deaths forced the hands of leaders of Biafra to decide to end such a vicious, atrocious and heartless Yakubu Gowon's vengeful prosecution of his war against unarmed men, women and children of Biafra. For this particular ignoble line of action, Icheoku has not forgiven and will never forgive Yakubu Gowon as well as his then economic adviser and later finance minister Obafemi Awolowo, who prescribed 'starvation as the best instrument of warfare' which the scoundrel Gowon bought and gleefully implemented to a crushing bitter end? But Biafra survived and Niger Delta part thereof, is today once again proving to Nigeria that they did not actually win that war and that nobody is afraid of the north! Not then, not now and not in the future. But does Icheoku support another civil war in Nigeria; not this time as the polity has become so much fragmented that the regional bonds holding entities together no longer exists or are too distended to form any meaningful cohesive platform to achieve a given objective like secession? So why start what you cannot finish and why a war when the objective is almost non-realistic or cannot be easily realisable?

But Chief Odumegwu Chukwuemeka Ojukwu was only being figurative with his referenced 'civil war' and here lies our beef with Yakubu Gowon for flying the kite of animosity once again? Icheoku expected all intelligent observers and watchers, including a PhD-holder like Yakubu Gowon to see it for what it is - a mere figure of speech called hyperbole; but he chose instead to play to the gallery of hatred! What did Ojukwu say to trigger such a response from this known bully of Birom, Yakubu Gowon? A man who perpetually reminds Icheoku of that everybody's most hated high school bully, who usually will not hesitate at any given opportunity to remind one how he is the head honcho here and how you are subject to his taunting and many a times, smacking? Gowon has a dog-catcher mentality and he has been short-changed for it in today's Nigeria where the real northerners, the Hausa-Fulanis are riding the rest of the minorities of the north, including Yakubu Gowon like donkeys. They have not fully forgiven him for his role in the coup that killed their Muritala Mohammed? Also the other good news however is that Yakubu Gowon is even hated more in his native Birom Jos chiefdom, which made him lose woefully to an ordinary high school teacher during Babangida's Option A4 presidential primaries? Yes, what did Ojukwu say to deserve Gowon's uncalled for acerbic response?

Yakubu Gowon, like a bird of prey waiting to strike, lost his deranged head again, (the first was during Biafra) stating that 'he was ready to rise up and defend the unity of the country if any body or group of persons threatens to cause disunity or another round of civil war in the country.' Icheoku says, shame on you Gowon as your hurtful wish can never again come to pass in today's Nigeria where your Birom people are part of the latest new minorities in Nigeria, with your Solomon Lar recently declaring that you guys might start your own version of a civil war or secession; and you wonder along which lines of geography? The configurations are so fundamentally changed now that should another unfortunate war erupt, it will surely not be the same result as was in 1967 as so many Biafrans are now in Diaspora ready to breach whatever economic or political blockade your ilks might contemplate imposing once again. But there will not be another war, no more wars Nigeria! Nigerians have too many yokes holding them together now and the Igbo of Biafra have also grown too smart now to let another group in Nigeria reap where they did not sow, as was the case with abandoned property saga of yore! All Nigerians shall tough it out together as one nation state, undivided and still hating each other with passion!

Icheoku takes strong exception to Yakubu Gowon, not because he fought against Biafran secession, no, but for the starvation of millions of Biafran women and children through a forced blockade of the region called Biafra during the civil war. This blogger was a victim and was flown to Gabon as a refugee; so he knows for a fact and first hand, what went down in a blockaded Biafra; all courtesy of the evil machination of Yakubu Gowon, who technically started the war by assuming a position which he was not rightfully entitled to being a very junior officer and could not but encouraged the genocide against the Igbo ethnicity? It was very callous of him to starve millions of unarmed and hapless women and children to death, and may God remember this for him when finally he takes his last breath on earth. Now hear this Jos man speaking, "I am ready to fight him as I did in 1967," adding that Ojukwu's statement was an empty threat from an old man. Icheoku says, look at a pot calling kettle black, a Yakubu Gowon who also is also being priced by Mr. Death, here calling Biafran war-lord and Igbo hero, Ikemba Nnewi, old? Gowon, it shall not be well with you! Also remember that your promised 3Rs of reconciliation, rehabilitation and reconstruction has not yet been fully implemented forty years down the road since armed hostilities ended. Nigeria since 1970 has not witnessed any reconciliation but mere tolerance of and by the different tribal ethnicities therein; no rehabilitation as the people of then and still Biafra are still being treated as strangers in their supposedly native country Nigeria; and there is no meaningful reconstruction as infrastructures, especially roads and bridges, are at their most dilapidated condition in Nigeria's south east, the area formerly known as BIAFRA.

Now share with Icheoku, a very intelligent piece on the ongoing maelstrom, generated by the lack of understanding of what Ojukwu actually said. According to the piece, "War is not only when you carry arms. War comes in different forms. Ojukwu was only speaking in hyperbole. How can these dullards and buffoons think that Ojukwu can engage in lethal war with the federal government when he does not command any battalion of armed soldiers? These so called PDP members should examine their knowledge of English. I deeply sympathize with them for their ignorance. What is wrong on what Ojukwu said? Anambra people will never change. The bad name we the Igbos have today is because of the people of Anambra. Anambra people don't have conscience. They don't have respect for any authority except worshipping ill-gotten money. Andy Uba is going nowhere. This man and his brother made Anambra ungovernable for eight years, now he wants to be the governor of the state. Yet people are supporting him. I wonder the kind of children you people have and their future. (Armed robbers, Kidnappers, drug barons, assassins, etc.). Ojukwu seems to be misunderstood by ex Biafran warlords and PDP. He didn't call for a civil war. He was only envisioning the implication of a court of appeal ruling against the highest court of the land- Supreme Court. What Ojukwu saw 40 years ago is what is being addressed today. Ojukwu is a visionary. We should stop castigating our very best. We should not equate the issues of the civil war with that of the Niger delta. Finally, let us pray that the Enugu appeal court will deliver good judgement". Icheoku doffs our heart to men and women who know how to correctly and properly string the words of the English language together; and this writer wrote well.

Finally Icheoku advises all those pontificating in Nigeria, who are now playing the devil's advocate, being both umpire and judge over the statement credited to Biafran warlord and Igbo hero, Dim Odumegwu Chukwuemeka Ojukwu and Ikemba Nnewi, 'to just back off!' If they have nothing else to do, they should go back to school to get more conversant with the English language; and get used to the art of nuanced contextual speaking, which literature still accommodates. They should also be aware that they are differing rules of interpretation and that literally rule is not the only one; and that figures of speech include hyperbole. For example, that someone said he/she saw hell does that mean that the person paid a visit to Lucifer and came back to earth? If someone said he/she will kill you, it does not mean that the person have suddenly metamorphosed into a serial killer like the nidget of Kano, Sani Abacha? It is just a figure of speech and it would appear that this Eton College scholar, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu has again fooled his arch enemy, Yakubu Gowon, into making a fool of himself once more. Gowon literally assumed what was not contemplated and prematuredly challenged his old nemesis to another duel, based on his erroneous understanding of the purport and intent of what Ojukwu really meant with his statement. Icheoku will like to assure Gowon that Ojukwu is not the enemy and the earleir he gets out of his head this phobia, the better his sanity will be. Ojukwu has since moved on with his life, away from the distractions of a Yakubu Gowon that Gowon should look for something to dot or hate but definitely not a Ojukwu!

Now to the vampire, Yakubu Gowon, Icheoku advises you to take a course in the English language literature so that you may be better and more properly grounded in the art of a more nuanced speaking. It will help you appreciate communications better and not take everything literally on its surface. Look for another foe to pick your fight with but please know that the Ojukwu of 1967 has for long accepted his membership of Nigeria when he vowed to fight the next time only to keep Nigeria as one. If you remember correctly, no one from Biafra wanted the war then which was forcibly trust upon them by your misteps as juvenile head of state and they only defended what was dealth to them?

Be that as it may, Icheoku posits that Nigeria will not fight another civil war because circumstances are now completely different than it was in 1967 when regional bases existed; also that Nigeria will never break up because there is no clearly defined fault-lines along which it could properly break and achieve its objectives? Imagine even your Plateau State now contemplating the idea of a civil war and secession and you wonder what was Solomon Lar thinking? Admitted, Nigeria will not forever remain as it is now, something must be done to address the apparent inequities and injustices militating against a more cohesive Nigeria where all the tribal ethnicities will feel wanted and very desirous of its membership! But until that el-dorado comes to fruition, Icheoku says, Yakubu Gowon should just hush or die off; but must stop reminding Biafrans of the millions of their women and children he starved to death! What a callous blood-sucking beast of burden he is, one not deserving of any meaningful high place in today's Nigeria! This is a man who maitained studied silence when the war of foreigners and natives between the Fulanis and his Birom people broke out and was raging in Plateau State not too long ago? He was probably too afraid to speak lest the lords of the manor, Fulani/Hausa, will revoke his pardon for his alleged role in the coup against Muritala Mohammed; all of a sudden this mogrel now jumped at an innocent speak of Ojukwu? What a bastard son of a desolate mother and despondent father!