OLUSEGUN OBASANJO IS A HOMOPHOBE, CALLS HOMOSEXUALITY AN ABOMINATION!

"I believe that God who created man, male and female, is a wise God, is to me a God who doesn't make a mistake. If he wants sexual relationship between man and man, and between woman and woman, God will not have created them male and female. For me it is an abomination and if anybody practices it then he must be unbiblical, and anything that is unbiblical for me as a Christian is not right. What is the privacy of your home? Why don't you take an animal and say look, the privacy of your home, you want to make love to a horse? Bestiality. You say that is right? No. If the privacy of your home means a socially condemnable act, then you have no privacy. You have done what you should not do and if the law says you should be punished for it, whether you do it in public or the privacy of your home, you have breached the law and you must be punished, according to the law." - Olusegun Obasanjo. Icheoku says and this NIgerian man has no trouble sleeping with his son's wife and his daughter in-law. Icheoku adds, did anybody remember to ask Obasanjo if incestuous misbehavior is also an abomination?

'GOP RUNS ON THE BIG LIE' - REVEREND JESSE JACKSON!

As we head into the final weeks before the election, it is time for closing arguments. Democrats run largely as defenders of working and middle class families, fighting against the entrenched special interests that have stood in the way of the changes we need. They are pushing for jobs programs, for health care reform, for curbing Wall Street, for moving to renewable energy.

By contrast, Republicans are marching in virtual lockstep with banks and corporations in resisting reform. Republicans pushed to weaken the recovery plan, and now pledge to repeal what is left of it. They opposed extending unemployment insurance. They opposed curbing Wall Street. They opposed health care reforms that would stop insurance companies from cutting off your coverage if you get sick. Now, they are holding the extension of tax cuts to middle class families hostage unless the richest Americans get an additional tax cut, demanding that the government borrow another $700 billion over 10 years to pay for an extra tax cut for the wealthiest Americans.

So what do they run on? They run mostly against -- seeking to harvest votes cast in protest against the lousy economy. But former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has a different idea: He wants them to run on the big lie. In a memo to Republicans, he urges them to contrast Republicans as the party of "paychecks" against Democrats as the party of "food stamps." The only problem with this formulation is that it is simply a lie.

In reality, Republican presidents have a worse record on job creation going back to Herbert Hoover and the onset of the Great Depression. And the worst record since World War II was racked up by George Bush and the Republican Congress. Manufacturing lost one in four jobs under Bush as the president remained ignorant of the China challenge and his advisers claimed that off-shoring -- multinationals moving jobs abroad -- was good for America. Then came the worst downturn since the Great Depression, with the economy in freefall, losing 750,000 jobs a month by the time Barack Obama was sworn in.

Coming out of this collapse has been brutal, with Americans having lost about $10 trillion in savings or off the values of their homes. But as bad as it has been, and despite Republican obstruction, the recovery plan stanched the fall -- and Obama has created more jobs in the recession than Bush created in eight years in office. Republicans aren't the party of paychecks; they are the party of pink slips and red ink.

And Gingrich's intended slur on food stamps is simply ignorance. As Republican Sen. Richard Lugar noted, "People now see it's necessary to have a strong food stamp program." Among families with children, nearly half of all those on food stamps -- 47 percent -- are working. Food stamps ensure decent nutrition for children in low-wage families. When the economy collapsed under Bush and unemployment soared, more people became eligible for food stamps. These not only ensure that the unemployed don't starve; they also subsidize America's farmers and grocery store owners. Food stamps are one of the most efficient forms of economic stimulus. The stamps provide customers for stores and save jobs. The least-efficient stimulus? Exactly what Gingrich and Republicans are fighting for: tax cuts for the wealthy who don't need the money, tend not to spend it and these days often invest it abroad.

Gingrich isn't a policy analyst; he's a politician. His intention isn't to inform, but to deceive. But in this case the big lie is particularly perverse. If Republicans take control of Congress and carry through on their promise to roll back spending on jobs while cutting taxes for the wealthy, we'll see even more pink slips and fewer paychecks. Unless Republicans decide that the cost of offering $100,000 annual tax cuts to millionaires is not worth thousands more hungry children, more families will be eligible for food stamps.

Icheoku says Republicans is not the answer to the question, how do we move the country forward? What is needed in November are more Democrats voted for in both House of Representative and the Senate to help President Obama complete the job at hand. Please do not let them cash in on your assumed amnesia - that you have so soon forgotten what it is that almost brought the country to the edge of darkness, the eight years of their President GW Bush. Now the Republicans expect a miracle of a magic wand to wand off all the problems that took more than eight years to create, just under eighteen months. Icheoku says it is hard work and it will take some time and the President and his men are focused and directed! Do not allow them to brainwash you, this November 2nd, VOTE DEMOCRATS!

CHINUA ACHEBE, HAUNTED BY AN EVER ELUSIVE NOBEL PRIZE FOR LITERATURE!

At 80 plus years old and still counting, with several literary works of fiction, including one world-famous and globally read classics of all times, 'Things Fall Apart', to his credit, Professor Chinua Achebe of Nigeria is still hopeful; waiting anxiously for the ever elusive Nobel Prize for Literature award. Regrettably, Stockholm has not dialed his number just yet and the 2010 opportunity came but also eluded him and for the umpteenth time. Unfortunately, Professor Chinua Achebe is watching his dream of winning the coveted Nobel Prize for Literature gradually evaporate before his own eyes and in his lifetime; and this must surely make him one less of a happy and fulfilled man.

Year after year, it is with great expectation, excitement and anticipation laced with melancholy, of what have become a purposeful neglect of his literary prowess and accomplishment, that his family and friends world-over, had hoped that at last his moment had come. That finally the world through Stockholm will recognize his many works and accordingly honor him with that cherished Nobel Prize for Literature. But as each year passed by, with it went millions of dashed hopes of admirers waiting to see their literary hero rightfully honored.

For inexplicable and unfathomable reasons/excuses, Professor Chinua Achebe is always red-flagged and denied the privilege of this award. In this fog of no-reason or lack of any meaningful one whatsoever, justifying the refusal and/or denial to honor Achebe with a Nobel Prize, Icheoku had figured out what the root cause might be - the associated politics of the selection process of the Nobel Prize Committee in Stockholm Denmark. Icheoku says, it is because Chinua Achebe's writing is considered politically too hot to handle and somewhat very radioactive that he has not been accorded that singular honor and time is no longer on his side. However, the army of Chinua Achebe's friends and family will take particular exception with the Nobel Prize Committee in the future event they ever posthumously award the honor to Achebe long after he passes away. Icheoku hereby call on the 'wise-men and women' of Stockholm Nobel Academy to stop forthwith the playing of politics with honoring Chinua Achebe with a Nobel Prize for Literature. Achebe has earned and rightfully merited to be so honored; his literary exploits speaks volume as to the preeminence qualification of this literally giant and son of Africa for this award and Icheoku calls on the Nobel Academy to make Chinua Achebe one happy recipient now while he is still alive. Enough of the politics, Nobel Prize Committee.

Icheoku is taking umbrage with the Nobel Prize committee for not recognizing Chinua Achebe so many years since his Nigeria contemporary Professor Wole Soyinka was rightly honored in 1986. Two decades plus later, it is still just hopes that someday Achebe's time will come and Icheoku asks when would the time of an 80 year old come if not now; except they would rather honor him posthumously? It is 2010 and a Peruvian writer Mario Varga Llosa is the year's winner and Icheoku asks the people of Stockholm Nobel Academy, when will Nigeria's Albert Chinualumogu Achebe receive his own Nobel Prize for Literature, especially for his 'Things Fall Apart?" Or is it a case of the Falcon which still is unable to hear the Falconer, that the Nobel Prize Committee is playing deaf to this great expectation and clarion call for them to honor a man whose time has since come to be so honored as a Nobel Laurette.

Icheoku is talking about Nigeria's Chinua Achebe and states that he has earned the privilege of becoming a Nobel Laurette for Literature for his works, particularly Things Fall Apart. Further, Icheoku says, except there are some other mundane and sentimental/subjective considerations other than pure meritocracy, which is beclouding the sense of judgment of the Nobel Academy selection committee, there is no reason why Chinua Achebe should not have been honored with a Nobel Prize for Literature. In his Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe wrote a parity about the colonial Europe and their religion, with which they forayed into Africa and caused so much friction; and drove a knife through the body-fabric of a society that was previously homogeneously water-tight. The question no one has attempted to answer is whether Europe liked this their being put on the spot and being held responsible for fractious Africa by Achebe's 'Things Fall Apart'. Icheoku does not think that Europeans are happy campers and we strongly believe this is one of the reasons why Chinua Achebe has not been recognized by the Nobel Academy. Like Nelson Mandela who refused to be silenced and suffered greatly for his people, Chinua Achebe is suffering because his work cast aspersion on the European colonial masters; the same people tele-guiding who received or does not receive the award.

Further it would appear also that Chinua Achebe does not have enough lobbyists working the Nobel Academy committee on his behalf; but hey if the Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo could win the Nobel Prize sitting in a prison, who then needs a lobbyist? But not when you are an African, whose works are perceived in certain quarters as somewhat "antagonistic" of the European colonial adventurism in Africa; and it is the same Europeans who decides who receives what prize. So the greatest lobbyist known to man could not have been able to make any difference in the matter of Chinua Achebe and the elusive Nobel Prize for Literature. Also does Chinua Achebe command a huge profile which the Nobel Prize Committee would want to tap into and harness; the jury is possibly still out on that issue but Icheoku strongly believes that he may need to do more to keep the media-light flashing either through interviews or press statements or even becoming somewhat more radicalized and outspoken or even controversial. Also his current affiliation with the David and Marianna Fisher University as Professor as well as Professor of African Studies at Brown University in Providence Rhode Island should be an added profile booster; assuming the Swedes are magnanimous enough to get-over the underlying militating political considerations and induct Chinua Achebe into the hall of Nobel Prize Laureates. So the Swedish Nobel Prize Academy that will like to know the mileage they can get out of an Achebe' Nobel Prize, now have it.

Like Peru's president Alan Garcia said of Vargas Llosa Nobel Prize, Icheoku says the same of Chinua Achebe, 'that the award of Nobel Prize for Literature to Chinua Achebe of Nigeria is long overdue' and hereby implore the Nobel Prize committee not to miss the next opportunity in 2011, since youth is no longer on the side of the Nigerian literary giant who is now 80 plus old. It will be a thing of great honor to right the wrong now of many years of neglect of a man whose work has been translated into over 158 languages and read throughout the world. It is a cry for remedy and Icheoku hopes the Nobel Prize Academy is not tone-deaf. Chinua Achebe is a story-teller of no mean repute and Icheoku challenges the Nobel Prize committee to tell the world how many other literary works ever, have taken man into the insides of humanity as did 'Things Fall Apart'? So what then is the grudge which they hold against Chinua Achebe not to bestow on him an honor and recognition which is since long due? Borrowing from the praise poured on Vargas Llosa by one of the committee members, Icheoku says of Chinua Achebe, "He has a number of masterpieces in narration because essentially he's a narrator, he's a storyteller. My goodness, what a storyteller Chinua Achebe is!"

With so many works to his credit including Things Fall Apart, No Longer at Ease, Arrow of God, A Man of the People, The Sacrificial Egg, Antihills of the Savannah and The Problem with Nigeria, Icheoku does not see why this writing genius has not been deemed a fit and proper person to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature; except the Swedes resent his political activism and anti-racism crusading. Icheoku remembers vividly the controversial lecture Chinua Achebe delivered in 1975 titled "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness" wherein he criticized Joseph Conrad as a bloody racist; and queries whether such outspokenness may be the albatross hounding his being considered for this recognition by the Conrads of this world at Stockholm's Nobel Prize Academy. Our plea, let Professor Albert Chinuanulumogu Achebe receive his Nobel Prize for Literature now, 2011 that is; so that he can celebrate while he is still alive since an 80 year old man does not have much time any longer but merely lives on borrowed times. It is the right thing to do, the correct thing to do and to deny him this award is wrong and unjust.

YAKUBU GOWON, A GENOCIDAL MANIAC, HIS HANDWORK!

Whether they survived the asphyxiating economic blockade of Biafra by the maniacal Yakubu Gowon, helped by Awolowo, no one knows; but Icheoku wish to keep their sacrifices in our minds - little children whom Yakubu Gowon starved to death and near death during his Biafra genocidal war against the Igbo people of Nigeria. Icheoku says, it shall not be well with Yakubu Gowon for using starvation as a weapon of mass destruction against Biafrans!

HELP THE ECONOMY REBOUND, BUY MADE IN AMERICA TODAY!

Contribute today to the economic revival effort, buy made in the USA. Icheoku says that is the only meaning and true way to get out of the economic woods. Simply put, buying American made and manufactured goods is the solution to reviving our staggering economy. So stop creating jobs overseas for foreign workers, do not patronize products manufactured by out-sourced labor and in such plants.

CECILIA IBRU, A CONVICT, JOINS BODE GEORGE IN THE BIG HOUSE!

Yes, it is real and it is happening in Nigeria as the matron of the Ibru previously untouchable family of Warri, Cecil Ibru, is now a convicted felon. She was found guilty of bank fraud and sentenced to prison for a paltry time of eighteen months. However Icheoku says kudos to the Madam Farida Waziri led EFCC that achieved this hitherto unimaginable feat, sending Nigeria's very well connected socialite to prison. Icheoku says Cecilia Ibru's guilty verdict, added to the former Bode George's, shows that the case of Nigeria is not completely hopeless as many of us tend to believe. If a Bode George and now an Ibru could be convicted in a Nigerian court by a Nigerian judge and sentenced to prison, then there is some flicker of hope that someday the country Nigeria will be a legal equalizing ground for everyone irrespective of his/her social standing.

It shall become Uhuru in Nigeria the day the legal tenet of equality under the law reigns supreme and Nigeria's prodigious 'big men and women' no longer simply get away with breaking the law just because they are rich and connected. That day, Nigeria's problems will become 3/4 solved and Icheoku looks forward to such a day with great excitement that at last Nigeria has truly come of age as a civilized society of laws and not men.

On a lighter side, Icheoku wonders if the Ibrus did not 'make the judge in this case 'an offer he cannot refuse' or was the judge simply one of a kind special person who is tired of the rot in Nigeria and choose to make a statement. Anyway, thank you Judge Abutu and we pray there will be more of your courageous and incorruptible types to emerge within the Nigerian judiciary and clean the Augean stable that is a Nigeria profusely corrupted. To Madam Convict Cecilia Ibru, Icheoku says, please say hi to the other convict Bode George when you get to prison to begin your term as a jail-bird. What a shame that you dipped your fatty hands into bank's money and brought public shame and odium to the once enviable Ibru family.

As managing Director of Oceanic Bank, Cecilia Ibru allegedly granted credit facilities totaling about 747 billion Naira half of which went to his family and friends. Lest Icheoku forgets, we will like to ask Cecilia Ibru what was she doing with all those properties seized from her valued at more than 190 billion Naira or did she not learn any moral lesson from the biblical teachings in Ecclesiastes 1:2 while nesting her greedy fat stomach? It is quite unfortunate that a woman and a mother should be such a grand-scale thief and robber/looter of the treasury of a bank under her care and administration. What a shame to womanhood, Cecilia Ibru!

INDEPENDENCE BOMBING, OKAH LIED ON HIS "BLAME NORTHERNERS" STORY?'

What a cheap get-even desperate ploy to create a treacherous rift between President Jonathan and the northern opposition; and thereby make a messy situation messier; and then in between the ensuing melee, find a way to get out of his asphyxiating legal choke-hold. It would have been very brilliant plot, the stuff excellent crime novels are made of, except that nobody seriously speaking, not even a dullard, buys into this crap of 'implicate the northerners' story as told by the Niger Delta terrorist in exile independence celebration bomber Henry Okah. This guy deserves no mercy and should be hanged!

Icheoku wonders earnestly what type of infighting people that populate the Niger Delta that they should beef with one another in this manner as to desire to incriminate the president of Nigeria? What hatred does this Niger Delta Henry Okah has in himself that will make him want to bring the government of another Niger Delta man, President Jonathan down with such a grave allegation capable of shaking Nigeria to its foundation? Why does Henry Okah want to set up one of his own and president of Nigeria Jonathan, against the North and in this cut-throat manner. Is it possible that some Niger Deltans, including this hellish Okah, are still smarting and internally protesting President Jonathan's mercurial rise to power and his present occupation of a Niger Delta throne which was not rightfully his by their warped calculations; being not part of the militancy which cuts through the length and breath of the entire watery region? Is it possible too that those financiers of the militancy movement are not happy with Jonathan and petty jealousy is fueling this their resentment that they are prepared to go to any length to sabotage his government.

Is Okah now a readily willing tool in these peoples hand or do they have a joker they want to pull at the Nigerian people, already traumatized by the unfolding drama that was a bomb on their country's independence day celebration, facilitating these barrage of accusations and counter-accusations? Does Okah have any smoking gun or is this all he got and was merely bluffing that the president's aide approached him to conspire against the northern people? Why was Al-Jazeera Television allowed unlimited access to an accused person in detention for terrorism that claimed the lives of so many innocent Nigerians? Why was terror master-mind Henry Okah not handed over to the Americans so that they can find him a suitable accommodation at the infamous Guantanamo (prison) Terrorist vacation home in Cuba? So many questions needing answers present themselves if only Nigeria still have some investigative journalists ready to dig deep and fish out the real story instead of their present trade of pay-to-play garbage and reportorial. Is it also possible that these Niger Delta terrorists with their front man Henry Okah still have the sympathy of James Ibori, DSP Alamaseigha and Sylva to whom they owe their loyalty and are merely trying to telegraph President Jonathan a message that some people outside his Aso Rock still call the shot; and that somehow he is not fully in control or in charge of affairs in Nigeria especially in the Niger Delta.

Icheoku says balderdash to the claim by Henry Okah that "an aide of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan called and asked him to "blame the Northern politicians" for the Independence anniversary bombing in Abuja." Anybody with even a simplistic juvenile knowledge about the workings of security agencies knows that they do not operate in this reckless manner as alleged by terrorist Henry Okah. If a mole or an aide of the president is to approach a person on behalf of the state, there is usually subtle pre-move feelers sent out to know if the target will bite. It is usually done with discreet caution and never as blatant as Henry Okah is trying to sell to gullible Nigerians. Such prospecting is never as direct and plain as Henry Okah described and even using a telephone to communicate such is near impossible, except it is scrambled and secure line. The approach would have been somewhat like, "what do you think if this thing that happened in Abuja on Friday was shifted elsewhere?" Then subsequent discussion will be predicated on the response got and if unfavorable, it trails off into the cold annals of secret agent 007. The enthusiasm of the prospective contact always determine the next steps to be taken while eliciting such a high consequence assistance. Moreso, if the government had any such plans to scapegoat anybody or group, they would have tidied up every loose end prior to the bomb setting off but definitely not after the train has left the station and everybody is in a panic mode.

What terrorist Henry Okah is alleging is akin to the school of conspiracy o 9/11 which claims that the government of the United States permitted the wanton provocation that was September 11, 2001 to find reason to march into Iraq and take out Saddam Hussein; and you wonder what lunatic government would allow 3000 of its citizens to so painfully die just to set up an attack. Any security operative that walks that part as Henry Okah volunteered ought to be fired and does not deserve to work for the good of any state including Nigeria. Further it was very puerile for the president's spokesman Ima Niboro to challenge Okah to name the implicated aide as nothing stops Okah from just reeling out a name from among all the aides working for the president. The proper rebuttal and best approach would have been to obtain the transcript of the alleged telephone conversation and see who called who and what they discussed. But regrettably, many Nigerian officials are like Nasir el-Rufai said of Babangida, still in the yesteryear of technology and assume that Blackberry is a type of fruit? Icheoku asks, what is the rocket-science in verifying this conspiracy claim since Henry Okah mentioned a telephone call and not that he was approached by an aide physically and personally. Just order the damn transcript and lay waste this allegation or timidly watch as it gathers momentum and turns int a whirlwind!

Just see the fluidity of Okah's statement that "they wanted to blame the attacks on northerners 'who are trying to fight against him' (Jonathan) to come back as president in 2011 and if this was done, I was not going to have problems with the South African government." Icheoku says, any person with some common sense or who has some rudimentary knowledge of law of evidence will know that this is a very watery allegation of fictitious nature. Why would President Jonathan's aide go to the rudimentary detail of re-informing Henry Okah that 'the northerners are trying to fight against him (Jonathan) to come back as president" when it is a worldly available information and the Nigeria polity had since been seized of that fact and for several months now that Jonathan is running and the north want to stop him? It is simply TMI (too much information) and portrays Okah in a very bad light as a lying scumbag and someone who was purposely and overtly embellishing a concocted story. Secondary, since when did the fledgling Nigerian government started dictating to the South African judiciary as to promise Okah that he was not going to have problems with the South African government once he cooperated? What a life of fantastical non-plause, this terrorist Henry Okah lives in and he thinks he can hold the entire 150 million Nigerians hostage?

Icheoku hereby calls the Nigerian government to seek the extradition of this terrorist from South Africa pronto and seek the death penalty for him for this offence. This guy is wickedly very callous and now has the blood of about 36 innocent Nigerians on his dirty filthy hands; and to add insult to injury, he is making allegation about the office of the Nigerian president. If any one criminal deserves the death penalty in Nigeria, this cockroach is a sure candidate; but if only President Jonathan got the balls to do what is demanded of this hour and time in Nigeria. How did Henry Okah know what was going through Jonathan's mind when he (Jonathan) absolved MEND or is he equally privy to Jonathan's inner workings too or was he working in tandem with the fired Col Areh and could this be the reason why he was abruptly retired? How did this terrorist secure knowledge about what he is alleging and/or how well-founded was his information. When the president said the bombing was carried out by some terrorists outside the country sponsored by unpatriotic elements within the country, was he referring to Okah and co-terrorists; and if, how did they gain access into the country, suggesting that they had some local collaborators and conspirators within Nigeria. Therefore it was an unverified faulty premise that President Jonathan spoke upon when he absolved MEND while blaming the anniversary bombing on some fantasy outside terrorists.

Borrowing from the Northern Group, Icheoku reiterates that the bombing was a callous and barbaric act of cowardice perpetrated by terrorist Henry Okah and group that are steeped in the culture of terrorism and unbridled violence and it is about time they are completely wiped out, exterminated just like the pestilence they have now transformed themselves into. Icheoku had a recurring sympathy for the Niger Delta struggle until Jonathan was sworn in as president and unrepentantly, they continued their mayhem assault on Nigerians; and you ask yourself, what else do these people want again having won the most coveted trophy in Nigeria, the Nigeria's presidency! Icheoku also agrees that terrorist Henry Okah and group are petty common criminals masquerading as militants and that they should be executed if found guilty for their insurrection against the Nigerian State. Also imagine the stupidity of this MEND, claiming that they never intended their bomb to kill anybody; yet they threw a live grenade into a crowded theatre and expected no casualty? Insanity redefined is the best way to describe Henry Okah and his MEND non-remorse remorse. Icheoku also agrees that terrorist Henry Okah and group are a notoriously violent terrorist group that must be hunted down, apprehended and punished dearly for their dastardly act of causing so many deaths and mayhem of kidnappings for ransom, rape, torture, arson etc.

However Icheoku does not think that President Jonathan is a closet member of MEND but reiterates that his statement absolving MEND in the face of their warning and admission of complicity in the anniversary bombing suggested that the president has a predetermined course of travel and that he should have been more creative with his position statement. Icheoku hereby categorically dismisses Henry Okah's story as unfounded based on positions canvassed above; similar to the same manner we wrote off the Nigerian government supposed evidence of complicity of Raymond Dokpesi/Babangida as a mere cheap forgery. Icheoku however strongly believes that somewhere in the middle of all these dusty, combatant, explosive talking over each others head, lies the gist of what went down on October 1st 2010 at Abuja's eagle Square. Icheoku is emphatic that only the good old meticulous investigative work will eventually unravel what was hidden so far regarding the anniversary bombings. Until then, Icheoku calls on all Nigerians to please sheath their swords of recriminations and await the final findings of the agency tasked with solving the subject matter bombings. In the interim, Nigerians should refocus themselves to and prepare for the 2011 elections; and stop and desist from further heating up the polity. President Jonathan should address the nation and explain what happened, steps taken by his government to prevent future occurrence and give further assurance that things are now under his full control.

PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN, MORPHING INTO A PETTY DICTATOR?

The traits are there and recent developments suggest that the Nigerian president by providence, President Goodluck Jonathan, has been bitten by the bug which afflicts most African leadership and transform them into sit-tight, never leaving dictators. First he is running for president in 2011 against the odds of his party's zoning system which currently places that office in the north; next he declared Raymond Dokpesi a persona non grata in the Niger Delta just for pitching his tent with Babangida; then he would not allow some Igbo elders to peacefully meet and deliberate at an Igbo hotel in an Igbo city of an Igbo State simply because his security details erroneously informed him that the meeting was to benefit Babangida's candidacy.

Now, the latest of his dictatorial shenanigan is the putting of his cross-hairs on the back of Babangida through the proxy of his campaign director, Raymond Dokpesi; whom he has just arrested based on a phantom allegation of some bomb blast in Abuja. Icheoku says, President Goodluck, show Nigerians the evidence; otherwise back-off from the present course of political intimidation of the opposition as Nigeria is now democratic and no longer under the jackboot of a petty military dictator.

Icheoku could care less if Babangida is served his cold strange dish, being the bomber numero uno of Nigeria and the man to first introduce bombing in Nigerian lexicography - Dele Giwa. But justice and fairness demands that Babangida should be allowed to contest the forthcoming election without unnecessary and unusual road-blocks being thrown his way, such as the present arrest and detention of his campaign director. Icheoku says, President Jonathan should have nothing to fear about Babangida's chances in the forthcoming election as Nigerians know better and will vote wisely; hence he must desist from his present approach of trying to hound Babangida out of contesting simply because he can, using the enormous powers of incumbency. President Goodluck, Icheoku implores you to please back off your oppositions or present Nigerians with the incontrovertible evidence as to Dokpesi's and by extension, Babangida's complicity in the Independence day celebration bombing at Abuja.

As far as Icheoku is concerned, the text message "Have you collected the balance from Dokpesi" is fantastical and the work of an amateur; as in typical Nigerian parlance and the tense situation considered it would have read "Have you collected the balance from Oga?" To mention Dokpesi in such a way is simply fishing the evidence that is desired. Also the other alleged text message "Lets meet at IBB campaign office" is just a rude joke as no reasonable conspirator would so blatantly give itself up in this manner. The ideal text should have read "Lets meet at the place or the office or even the campaign office; but excluding IBB." Such unintelligent forgery smells of the phantom coups with which Babangida killed Mamman Vasta etc and should not find a place in today's Nigeria. Icheoku says if this is the only evidence the Jonathan government has, then they have not found the real culprits as they may, like the president asserted, be still somewhere outside the country! What a pitiful cheap forgery and we hope that the telephone operators whose phones were used would with the help of transcripts, throw more light on whose phone sent what message. Icheoku is not buying into this two text messages as being the smoking gun for Babangida's involvement in the bomb blast, nope!

NIGERIA'S MOST WANTED TERRORISTS, BOMBED INDEPENDENCE CELEBRATION!

Messrs Chima Orlu and Ben Jessy, pictured above, are wanted in connection with the bombing of Nigeria's golden jubilee independence anniversary celebration; which have so far claimed the lives of 36 innocent Nigerians. This is Icheoku's public service announcement and our contribution to the global fight against terrorism. Icheoku says, MEND which have claimed responsibility for the bombing should be held accountable for it and it baffles Icheoku why President Jonathan hurriedly absolved these his Niger Delta terrorist-brothers of any responsibility thereto. The only plausible reason will be that he possibly has some political rivals he wants to rein in for the bombing and thereby stop their competition for Aso Rock. But hey, political gladiators know best how to checkmate each other and remember that Babangida had to kill rival Mamman Vasta using a phantom coup plot just to be done with him. Please if you see any of this two armed and dangerous Niger Deltan terrorist, contact the FBI, Interpol, the Police, SSS or any other security agency immediately. Chima Orlu and Ben Jessy are Nigeria Most Wanted!

"IF I'M GIVEN 1000 LIVES, I WILL SACRIFICE THEM ALL" - TIMES SQUARE BOMBER FAISAL SHAHZAD

Icheoku says what a sadistic preview into the soul of the Islamic crisis America is facing down, that a naturalized American citizen of Pakistani origin, who is of a fairly decent background and upbringing; and an aspiring middle class family-man American living the proverbial American dream would have such a conceited soul as to attempt to detonate a car bomb on a busy Saturday night in Times Square New York. By his sentence, the Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad will spend the rest of his natural life behind bars in a near solitary confinement where according to the judge, he will have enough time to do some reflections, introspections and possibly come to terms with himself on his nefarious and misguided action.

But defiant Shahzad did not go quietly to prison as he tongue-lashed Americans for the final last time saying, "Brace yourselves, because the war with Muslims has just begun, consider me the first droplet of the blood that will follow. We are only Muslims trying to defend our religion, people, homes and land, but if you call us terrorists, then we are proud terrorists and we will keep on terrorizing you until you leave our lands and people at peace." Icheoku says this son of a gun is one stray cannon and if he didn't mean to take the oath of allegiance seriously, why did he take it.

The good news however is that America's drones are keeping watchful eagle-eyes over the Afghanistan/Pakistan terrorists breeding grounds and does not hesitate to incinerate them whenever they are spotted. So in essence our drones are making us safer from these murderous thugs who are not amendable to reason or capable of any rationalized thinking. Icheoku hopes Faisal Shahzad will be sent to the underground Colorado Maximum Security Federal prison where he can join his other evil confederate-jihadists as they ponder the gravity of their actions and whether they upturned the teachings of the Koran and in the process took their zealotry too far!

TENNESSEE FIRE DEPARTMENT SINGS, LET THE HOUSE BURN, BURN, BURN M'FUCKER, BURN!

Only in America, the land of every possibilities and all things imaginable. A fire department in South Fulton Tennessee stood hands akimbo and watched as a man's house burnt to the ground because he has not yet paid an annual fire fighting and protection fee of $75, a somewhat fire-fighting insurance policy payable in the county. All his pleas to pay a premium fell on deaf ears as he was told to learn the hard lesson that had everyone behaved like him and waitied for their house to be on fire before making their payment, there would have been no money to buy fire trucks and train for such fire emergency. Icheoku says, what a bitter pill trailer-parker Gene Cranick was forced to swallow just to prove a point and put it on record that if you don't pay you won't be allowed to play. Tough love, nay, tough hate, Tennessee style!

Rural dweller Gene Cranick did not pay the annual fire-fighting subscription fees, a policy in place since 1990 and when fire struck his house, the county fire service refused him from drawing on the benefit of the covered policy. He lost his house and everything therein to the fire. However when the fire threatened to spread to his neighbors properties, the fire fighters standing nearby and watching his home consumed by fire, fought off the threatening fire, his neighbors having paid their protection fees accordingly.

Icheoku says this ordinance is simply ruthless, callous and has no heart in it; it also makes nonsense of the term emergency and ridicules "be your brother's keeper and America the beautiful." What if the Cranick has no money to pay? What if the man forgot to pay or the check was lost in the mail? What if Mr. Cranick dies of a broken heart or even commits suicide having lost everything to the fire and after watching his beloved America allow such a misfortune to befall him. Who takes the blame but America and southern Tennessee which accommodated such "Benjamines-only America?" Or is this no longer America where we help our brothers in need? Icheoku says the only way this absurdity could be properly recompensed is for the county or the state of Tennessee to immediately rebuild Mr. Cranicks house and do everything possible to restore him to his status-quo ante. There is no rational mind that will accept the basis for the disproportionate loss of property over a non payment of ordinary $75.

If one fails to comply with a law, and provided it is not a criminal violation; he is usually assessed a penalty and this is what would have applied to Mr. Cranicks provided his home is saved. Until this inhumanity to an American is fully redressed and his home restored, Icheokusays there is really no point carrying on with all these nation building Washington does in far away countries and far-flung territories when one of its own is treated in this shabby manner. It is simply pretentious that tax-payers money will be deployed to develop dessert Iraq and Afghanistan while an Americans home in South Fulton Obion County Tennessee is lost deliberately in this manner just because of the owner's inability to come up with $75. It is callous; it is wicked and it is un-American!

MEXICO, THE NEW 'TALIBAN' COUNTRY OF THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE?

Icheoku says, looking for a Taliban-horror, look no further; and you no longer need to travel to faraway Afghanistan or Iraq or even Pakistan to understand what real horror feels and looks like. Just cross the boarder to the south and you are in a 'Taliban' country of Mexico where drug lords have deployed every imaginable instrument of horror in their terrorism-arsenal to drive home their message and keep ordinary Mexicans guessing as to what comes next.

They have publicly beheaded innocent Mexicans, mass-executed hundreds of Mexicans, lynched many Mexicans, kidnapped and shot several Mexicans including government officials; now the mother of all terrors - death by stoning and one is reminded of the adulterous woman awaiting execution by stoning in Iran. The question that boggles Icheoku is why the western media is not treating the deteriorating situation in Mexico with the seriousness and heightened attention it deserves; but are rather busy pillorying the Middle East, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and at the same time keeping a blind eye in what is going on in our neighborhood , the western hemisphere country of Mexico. What are they waiting for or are they waiting for President Calderon himself to be kidnapped and possibly publicly executed or beheaded for them to focus their attention or beam their searchlight on the atrocities going on in Mexico on its knees and under the jackboot of vicious drug lords. When shall enough really become enough, the world?

Their latest mayhem, the stoning to death of Tancitaro city Mayor Gustavo Sanchez and city adviser Rafael Equihua, whose crushed bodies were found dumped in the back of a pickup truck abandoned on a dirt road near the city of Uruapan; bringing to five the number of government officials that have been slain by these drug cartels within the past one month. Icheoku asks, is the government of Mexico winning this war or are they just engaged in an endless war with vicious murderers who use terror to drive home their message that they are not going away, not anytime soon. The question therefore is how long can the people of Mexico watch their sons and daughters being slaughtered in this manner with a nearly hapless government promising to rein the situation in but to no avail? How long shall the blood-letting last and when is the band-aid coming to stem the bleeding?

It will be recalled that in 2009 the city council chief, Gonzalo Paz, was kidnapped, tortured and eventually murdered; which led to the mass resignation in December of the mayor and seven other town officials following a threat to their lives by drug traffickers. The city police equally stopped coming to work due to fear for their lives as well as that of their families and were all later fired for dereliction of duty and abandonment. The now stoned to death mayor was appointed in January this year to take over from the one that resigned and it would appear that the former's resignation was for a good reason. Icheoku asks, can the government of President Calderon declare these drug infested regions of Mexico ungovernable lawless areas like Western Waziristan and let American marines come in and do the job that needed to be done. Also drones could be deployed to incinerate any armed and dangerous groups not wearing the Mexican armed forces uniform spotted parading there.

With police stations being raided and guards overpowered by armed gangs, stealing automatic rifles and handguns, bombs going off, hospitals invaded and patients tossed from top floors, tens and tens of people bound and massacred, government officials being so brazenly kidnapped and murdered and now Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, becoming one of the most dangerous cities in the world; Icheoku asks, what is the world and the United States in particular waiting before they declare a state of emergency in Mexico's lawless areas and send in the marines to take back those lost territories. It is a national security imperative that we do not harbor or tolerate criminal elements settling down so close our southern boarders as they might after consolidation, start negotiating with Al-Queida terrorists and in partnership, threaten our country. Icheoku says that the drug cartels of Mexico should be treated as the terrorists they are and fought with the same seriousness with which the Talibans and Al-Queida terrorists are being hunted in Western Waziristan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen and throughout the world.

With 28,000 Mexican citizens so far killed since 2006 when military crackdown against drug cartels begun, Icheoku says it is time President Felipe Calderon manned up and owned up that his Mexican security forces are not meeting up with the challenges of the present time; and about time, he asked for some help from the big brother to the north. United States marines could use some of their training in Mexico and help arrest the fast deteriorating situation down the boarder where thousands of people are being killed, maimed and kidnapped for ransom on a near-daily basis. What if the mayhem spreads up north across the boarder or should American rather go down now to fight those drug lords in their home turf just as they are fighting the Taliban and Al-Queida in their native turfs of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq. Icheoku says, let us take the war on drugs down to them in Mexico now before we are forced to fight them here at home on our own soil. It is a common sensical thing to do and those drug lords are no better than those terrorists we are fighting in various foreign countries since 2001.

INDIAN AYODHYA RESOLUTION, GOOD FOR MIDDLE EAST JERUSALEM CONFLICT?

It was biblical King Solomon who refused to divide something in disputation, a child, because to do so would be very unwise and King Solomon was a very wise man. Had he yielded to the agitation of the woman who did not own the child and divided the child between the two women, the child would have died and both women lost out in their claims of ownership of the child or their motherhood. While the adverse claimant-mother insisted that the child be divided into two, the mother who went through the pangs of child-labor decided otherwise and instead implored King Solomon to give the child to the other woman and when the child grows up he will discover who the real mother is.

Icheoku says, whereas King Solomon's case appertained to a human life, other things especially chattels and lands that are easily divisible should be so divided if that is the only equitable manner to deliver redress to parties claiming ownership interest therein. It is on this note that Icheoku gives hi-five to the Allahabad High Court India which gave verdict on September 30, 2010 on the 60 year old Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi case which had pitied Hindu and Muslims over the disputed Ayodhya prayer grounds. The court ruled that the 2.77 acres of Ayodhya land in question should be divided into three parts, one third for the construction of Ram temple, another one third for the Islamic Sunni Waqf Board and the remaining one third for the Hindu religious denomination Nirmohi Akhara. Icheoku applauds this ruling as the 'only tenable and meaningful solution to an otherwise incendiary matter touching on peoples' faith, mythology and politics; and in India, such people are plentiful.

The Ayodhya piece of land in controversy is located in the city of Ayodhya in Faizabad district of Uttar Pradesh India. It is traditionally regarded by Hindus as the birthplace of the Hindu God, Rama; while Muslims' revered Babri Mosque was built thereon. However, the mosque was destroyed by hard-line Hindu activists in December 6, 1992; claiming that a previous Hindu temple was demolished or modified to build the mosque. A land title case as to who owns the land or have the right of use thereof was lodged in the Allahabad High Court resulting in the verdict. But an archaeological evidence upon which the court partly relied its ruling found that a ruined temple existed beneath the mosque but did not find any evidence of its destruction or by the Muslims who merely used its ruins to build their mosque.

Icheoku says the Ayodhya verdict was a big relief for the Indian Congress-Party led government which is Hindu dominated as a completely pro-Hindu verdict would have put a question mark on the government's secular credentials or its non-interference; while a wholly pro-Muslim judgment would have alienated the government from their Hindu majority. This is an apparent case where wisdom came to judgment as the judges of Allahabad high court took all reasonable considerations in arriving at this fair and equitable decision. Icheoku says may be the Middle East conflict which has its primary roots on the status of Jerusalem should take a cue from this decision and use it as a precedent. It should consider bringing the wisdom of Ahodhya decision to bear on Jerusalem and divide it into two or even three parts - one side for Jews and their Judaism, another for Arabs (Muslims) and their Islam and the other for the Christians and their Christianity. This way, the century long and solution-defying problem of how to go about with Jerusalem or how to proceed therefrom would have been equitably solved and the three religions with their umbilical cords attached to Jerusalem would have given a portion thereof and the world would live happily ever after. What an Indian solution to the Jerusalem question; with a Daniel come to judgment! Thank you India, especially the learned gentlemen of Allahabad high court for seasoned judicial decision.

Indians were glued to their televisions Thursday afternoon as a team of three judges at the Allahabad High Court ruled that one-third of the site would be held by a Muslim organization, with the remainder divided between two Hindu groups. For more than a century members of the two faiths have fought over the site in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. In 1992 a Hindu mob tore down the 16th century Babri Mosque there with pickaxes and their bare hands. Ensuing riots killed more than 2,000 people, mostly Muslim.

MID TERM ELECTION 2010, VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS!

VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!

VOTE YOUR HEAD NOT YOUR HEART, VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS! THE COUNTRY MUST MOVE FORWARD AND NOT BACKWARDS, VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS!

Now go vote, VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS!

ON TUESDAY VOTE FOR MODERATION AND RATIONALITY, VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS!

Do not let extremism run over America; show that you care for a progressive America and not America rewound and retrogressed. Vote for the future, vote for reasonable ideology, VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS!

ON TUESDAY, VOTE TO CONTINUE TO MOVE THE COUNTRY FORWARD!

"We are not there yet, but we are on course and headed there:- full economic recovery and a better future for all Americans." - Democrats! This November 2, 2010 VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS!

ICHEOKU ENDORSES JERRY BROWN FOR GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA!

That Arnold Schwarzenegger comparison advert finally did it for Icheoku. How could this $150 million governorship woman, Meg Whitman, not attempt to even paraphrase a copyrighted material to make it sound and appear somewhat original? This November 2, vote for Democrats; VOTE JERRY BROWN governor of California!

THIS NOVEMBER 2, VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS!

Republicans, they have already sold our economy to China, India, Russia etc through out-sourcing and there are no more jobs in America. Now they want to also sell our democracy to foreign interests through undisclosed foreign sources of election funding and we shall then also lose our freedom to chose our leaders. Would you let them? This November 2, 2010, VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS!

GOT AMNESIA, VOTE REPUBLICANS!

If you have amnesia, vote for Republicans; otherwise, this November 2, 2010, vote for Democrats! Remember, Bush messed it up so bad it gonna take awhile to fix. But thankfully enough the people in charge right now know what they are doing and are on the right course to fix the broken and should remain in office. They will get it right and only needs your support and additional time. Just empower the Democrats more with your votes this November and watch them sizzle. Democrats gets it and gets it done!

'IBRAHIM BABANGIDA THINKS BLACKBERRY IS A FRUIT' - NASIR EL RUFAI

“President Babangida and General Buhari should just disappear. They should give way to a new set of people with new ideas. Young people preferably. Obama is 48 and Cameron is 43 for God’s sake. So, why are we recycling leaders that ruled this country very well or very badly 25 years ago? I was 25 years old when Buhari and Babangida were Heads of State and I am now 50 and they still want to be Head of State. I don’t understand that. I don’t understand that at all and I call on the young people of Nigeria to take their future into their hands and ensure that in the next election, they vote for a new generation of leaders. I think that we will not make progress until we break the link from the past and just move on. 70 per cent of Nigerians are below the age of 40. Many of these young people, the next generation, as they are called, are on internet services such as Facebook and twitter, using Blackberry and if you ask any of these people running for presidency, they will think that Blackberry is a fruit. So, we have to move away from there and stop thinking that this leadership thing is all about us or all about individuals. We must put the future of the country at heart and give way to a new generation of leadership.” - Nasir el-Rufai. Icheoku says, this particular mallam is different and quite impressive.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NIGERIA!

Today, October 1st 2010, Nigeria turned 50years old, post independence colonial Britain. Nigerians are celebrating their one half century of co-existence and for good/different reasons. Icheoku is despondent at a paradise lost and billions of dollars which was fretted away by successive highly corrupt leadership which took their turns in raping Nigeria into comatose. Regrettably many of these decrepitude personalities are still walking the Nigerian landscape with bold cockiness instead of cooling off in some central prison somewhere in Kuje or Abakiliki. Some of them even have the effrontery to again solicit Nigerians to allow them another entrance to Aso Rock, to which Icheoku screams lung-heavy, NEVER AGAIN.

Fifty years later, there is still no electricity, security, good motor-able roads and navigable water-ways, jobs, there is tension in the land with disparate people asking when shall the contraption called Nigeria finally yield itself for a new birth of the different nationalities forcibly clustered therein to move away to pursue their respective destinies. Icheoku on the other hand is however glad that finally in Nigeria and for the second time since her independence in 1960, a highly educated person (PhD Zology) is presiding over the affairs of the land. The first leader of letters being the Great Zik of Africa and Owelle Onitsha, Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe, Nigerian's post independence first president; admitted his presidency was ceremonial. As for all others before President Jonathan, especially those military coup-plotters, they are all semi illiterates and you wonder how a blind man could have lead people with sight. Anyway, congratulation Nigeria and happy birthday to you; we hope Nigerians will get the upcoming elections 2011 right.