PDP SENATORS 'EXPERIENCE AND CONTINUITY' ARGUMENT, BASELESS?

Icheoku says the argument by PDP senators, seeking automatic ticket back to the Senate, that 'experience and continuity' should override every other consideration and be the sole determinant in their next election, is as baseless as it is watery. Icheoku asks when would such a buffoonery of an argument end, assuming subsequent senators continue to tag along that line to secure subsequent terms unopposed? Icheoku regrets that whenever it suits these Nigerian politicians, they will readily reference the United States as the benchmark of how things are done in a democracy; but convolutedly will not abide by the very same tenets of a working democracy requiring open competition? 

Once again these "experienced" Nigerian PDP senators are invoking United States of America as their guide int he argument in support of continuity but fell shy of elaborating  the process that ensures it. They fail to mention that no United States senator gets decreed automatic ticket of his/her party except where unopposed by any challenger . They were coy at not mentioning that in the United States, no senator automatically wins his seat or even party's ticket without fighting for it based on justifiable account of what he accomplished for their constituents with their previous electoral mandate. They forget to mention that "democracy dividends" in the United States are visible unlike those in Nigeria which merely exist as splashed on newspapers and billboards but never on the grounds of their constituents. Icheoku says such high representation is usually earned and not bequeathed as a gift, so these PDP senators ought and should fight for return to the senate based on provable accomplishment and not on any entitlement as of right, 'experience and continuity' not withstanding. 

Icheoku says these PDP senators also failed to tell Nigerians that the United States, as many as they are - over three hundred million people, have only two senators per state each; while Nigeria with about less than half of the United States population has three senators per state each? Icheoku asks what then is the need for this many senators in a country with equally very high number of representatives, if not for avid profligacy? What then is the real use for this duplicity of peoples' representatives in both the upper and lower houses with these many people, each drawing on the government's coffers for supposed constituency projects, allowances, overheads, salaries and staff? What matter of state is that too onerous which after the House of Representatives finishes deliberating on, that fewer number of senators cannot vet? Icheoku says may be in the interest of saving the taxpayers some money, this PDP senators should instead fashion a way to prune down the number of senators in line with efficiency and existing practice to a more manageable number.

Icheoku asks instead of canvassing for automatic ticket to ensure "experience and continuity,' why not just stagger  elections to the senate through the states and in such a way that at any given time, some states would have some incumbent senators to help train and orientate the incoming freshmen newly-elected senators coming to join the hallowed chambers? But this is just playing the devil's advocate since there is no way in hell none of these senators would return to the senate in an open election.  Some would definitely return and some will not; but those more likely not to return are at the tip of this sword trying to derail the boat if they are not boarded. Icheoku queries, what if a cataclysmic event happens and all those "experienced" senators perish in one fell swoop, does it mean that Nigeria will not survive or stop existing because all their "experienced" senators are no more? So what if these "experienced" senators are defeated in an election by the "inexperienced" senate candidates of the opposition party? Are these PDP senators telling Nigerians that in such event, that they would not allow or refuse the victorious opposition senators from being sworn in or seating because they are green-horns? Better still, Icheoku asks are these PDP senators telling Nigerians that getting automatic tickets of their party is tantamount to winning the general election except of course they have already rigged the result and merely waiting for formalization of the process?

Icheoku laments that this latest twist by these PDP senators and their threat to impeach the president if he does not cede to their demand, amounts to hostage-taking of both the PDP and the president. This PDP senators'  shenanigan is akin to then President Obasanjo's third term tenure elongation bid on the ground that without his Messianic-presence, Nigeria will go to hell in a hands-basket.  Icheoku says these PDP senators are so full of it - complete bull crap; and their seat-tight gimmickry will not work as it does not in anyway do the country's democracy any good. Icheoku says if these PDP senators are not afraid of their performance, they should be the advocate number one of their expiring mandate and tell their electorates why they deserve to be sent back to Abuja and not try to muscle a timid president into granting them their wish through automatic tickets.

Icheoku says no senator is irreplaceable and in as much as experience is good, it should not be the only benchmark to hand these guys automatic tickets without more. Icheoku asks what if they die? What if they resign? What if they retire or are forced out of office? What if they stopped functioning as "experienced" senators due to the occurrence of any so preventing act? Are they telling Nigerians that Nigeria will come to a grinding halt because they are no longer there to steer the ship of state with their "experience?? Please give Icheoku a break as US Tom Daschel, former Democratic Party majority leader, was once defeated by a first time candidate and the business of the senate as well as the Democrats continued.  Likewise were so many other top United States of America senators from both parties, who have at one time or the other, lost both their party's tickets and/or general election without consequence to the American democracy. Even the recent US midterm election saw President Obama's party losing both houses to the republican party but it will not stop the wheel of democracy from turning. Icheoku says the argument of automatic ticket because of "experience and continuity" is stupid at best as its rejection will not cause any far reaching adverse effect to Nigeria's democracy. 

Anyway, like the wheel-dealing of politics, anything and everything is possible. But should the president naively accede to this unreasonable request, the PDP as a party will reap the whirlwind. The opposition APC will cash their windfall rain check as they would lure all those disenfranchised governors, who want to become senators, with offer of the very senatorial seats they are now being denied; and then lets see how the PDP will navigate the troubled waters thereafter. What a knee jerk presidency that is being  unseasonably inundated by senators with a very inordinate ambitious request. This makes Nigerians long for the days of Baba Iyabo's "do or die" politics when no senator dared open his mouth once Baba has decided, settled and literally decreed on an issue. But for Jonathan, every person is turning him into a pinata that they can beat anyhow and anyway they please? Icheoku says with the days of banana peels now over, senators have turned themselves into demigods and now have the effrontery to hold the president and the PDP hostage to their gluttonous greed. But hey, it is Nigeria, the land of everything and anything goes, especially when willed by a bully, which these PDP senators are now turning themselves into. Icheoku warns  that 2015 is heavily laden with a very difficult ectopic pregnancy and no one knows what it will deliver, "experienced" senators or not; and "continuity" or no continuity", for crying out loud.  May God help Nigerians IJN.

NIGERIANS MAKE YOUR VOTES COUNT, VOTE BUHARI?

GOT AMNESIA, VOTE BUHARI. DECREE 4, VOTE BUHARI. DECREE 20, VOTE BUHARI. 53 SUITCASES, VOTE BUHARI. BARTHOLOMEW OWO, VOTE BUHARI. BERNARD OGEDENGBE, VOTE BUHARI. LAWAL OJULOPE, VOTE BUHARI.  LIVING IN BONDAGE, VOTE BUHARI. LOVE TYRANNY, VOTE BUHARI. AUSTERE LIFE, VOTE BUHARI. ISLAMIZATION OF NIGERIA, VOTE BUHARI. SHARIA FOR NIGERIA, VOTE BUHARI. HATE DEMOCRACY, VOTE BUHARI. COUP PLOTTING, VOTE BUHARI. HATE YOUR FREEDOM, VOTE BUHARI. BA SHIGA, VOTE BUHARI. LIFE IN PURDAH, VOTE BUHARI. HATE TO ENJOY YOUR BEER, VOTE BUHARI. SNUB OF OPUTA PANEL, VOTE BUHARI. BEING ORDERED AROUND LIKE CATTLE, VOTE BUHARI. OTHERWISE RUN HIM OUT IN 2015 IF APC DOES NOT BEAT YOU TO THAT BY REJECTING HIS CANDIDACY. WORST STILL, BUHARI HAS NOT EVEN APOLOGIZED TO NIGERIANS FOR ALL THE  SINS OF BUHARI WHICH HE COMMITTED AGAINST NIGERIANS AND THEY ARE LEGION. 

ICHEOKU SAYS NIGERIANS, BUHARI IS NOT GOOD FOR YOU. REMEMBER WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE WARNED NIGERIANS TO BEWARE OF 'A LEAN AND MEAN LOOKING BUHARI' BECAUSE SUCH A MAN IS DANGEROUS. SAY NO TO BUHARI, BA ABU BUHARI. NOT IN 2015 AND NOT AT ANY FUTURE TIME IN  NIGERIA AS IS PRESENTLY CONSTITUTED AND STILL EXISTING. WHO WANTS A LIFE UNDER IRON-CLAD SHARIA LAW, NOT ICHEOKU AND NO SANE NIGERIAN SHOULD. BUHARI'S NIGHTMARE WAS TOO NIGHTMARISH TO BE RELIVED AGAIN AND ITS ENCORE, UNDESERVING. ICHEOKU SAYS IF APC GIVES NIGERIANS A BETTER OPTION, MAY BE THEY WOULD CONSIDER SUCH; BUT ANYBODY, INCLUDING THE TIMID JONATHAN, IS BETTER THAN BUHARI. SO IN 2015 PLEASE DO THE NEEDFUL NIGERIANS AND VOTE YOUR CONSCIENCE AS ANY WISE PERSON WOULD, PROVIDED BUHARI IS NOT IT.

NIGERIA IS OUR PROPERTY - BUHARI'S COUSIN, ALIYU GWARZO?

”When I say that the Presidency must come to the north next year I am referring to the Hausa-Fulani core north and not any northern Christian or Muslim minority tribe. The Christians in the north are nothing and the Muslim minorities in the north know that when we are talking about leadership in the north and in Nigeria, Allah has given it to us, the Hausa-Fulani. They can grumble, moan and groan as much as they want but each time they go into their bedrooms to meet their wives and each time they get on their prayer mats to begin their prayers, it is we the Fulani that they think of, that they fear, that they bow to and that they pray for. Some of them are even ready to give us their wives and daughters for one nights sport and pleasure. They owe us everything. This is because we gave them Islam through the great Jihad waged by Sheik Uthman Dan Fodio.

We also captured Ilorin, killed their local King and installed our Fulani Emir. We took that ancient town away from the barbarian Yoruba and their filthy pagan gods. We liberated all these places and all these people by imposing Islam on them by force. It was either the Koran or the sword and most of them chose the Koran. In return for the good works of our forefathers Allah, through the British, gave us Nigeria to rule and to do with as we please. Since 1960 we have been doing that and we intend to continue. The Igbo tried to stop us in 1966 and between 1967 and 1969 they paid a terrible price. They were brought to heel and since then they have been broken. No Goodluck or anyone else will stop us from taking back our power next year. We will kill, maim, destroy and turn this country into Africa’s biggest war zone and refugee camp if they try it.

Many say we are behind Boko Haram. My answer is what do you expect? We do not have economic power or intellectual power. All we have is political power and they want to take even that from us. We must fight and we will fight back in order to keep it. They have brought in the infidels from America and the pigs from Israel to help them but they will fail. The war has just begun, the Mujaheddin are more than ready and by Allah we shall win. If they don’t want an ISIS in Nigeria then they must give us back the Presidency and our political power. Their soldiers are killing our warriors and our people every day but mark this: even if it takes one hundred years we will have our revenge. Every Fulani man that they kill is a debt that will be repaid even if it takes 100 years. The Fulani have very long memories”. - Aliyu Gwarzo, Muhammadu Buhari's cousin from Kano State.

Icheoku says you have heard it; call it the rantings of a demented mind and a Boko Haram sympathizer if you like, but know it is at your own risk. It is apparent from the way these Hausa/Fulani people are acting and parading themselves that Aliyu Gwarzo surely spoke their mind,  admitted he might have prematurely leaked what they had up their sleeves all these while. That they are waiting to someday avenge a supposed sidelining is quite obvious but Icheoku cautions Nigerians to remain eternally vigilant. Icheoku says if you do not believe Aliyu Gwarzo, Icheoku does and says sooner or later the South-south Niger Delta as well as some Southeast Igbo people would hear from these marauders soon and as soon as they get "their" back power. 

icheoku says instead of waiting for this Armageddon prophesy to come true, why not simply solve the problem by dividing the country so that they can have their own Islamic caliphate to rule before they plunge the country into eternal darkness. They do not care about human lives and violence is their choice stock of trade and they would not mind maiming and killing everyone to achieve their objective or destroy the country in the process or its attempt? Icheoku says it does not matter also whether or not Aliyu Gwarzo's views represents the thinking of the  entire Hausa-Fulani people, but he sure do rehash a well known and recurrent decimal of a pattern of behavior common to this people. 

According to one commentator, Aliyu Gwarzo's views do "represent a tendency which is, more often than not, kept as hidden and as secret as possible until its execution. Then it will be too late to prevent and what follows is a river of blood flowing from hapless and defenseless innocent victims who would have been wondering why these people cannot move on from their past stone-age behavior and become a civilized behaving part of humanity. Seriously, Icheoku is ashamed to  share the same humanity with people who pride themselves in shedding innocent human blood and for the slightest provocation and/or trifle reason, some bothering from the insane to the mundane, and all especially in the name of religion. Icheoku queries, why can't Allah or God or Yahweh or Buddha or even Baal fight their own wars by themselves, instead of allowing or permitting or tolerating these murderers, fighting and killing and maiming people, on their behalves? 

It is not a civilized behavior and should not be tolerated in any civilized society. What a pitiful wretch, this son of a Fulani bitch is, that uttered such foul statements. Nigerians should be prepared to face down these mongrels whenever they are ready to put their money where their mouth is. Enough of all these bomb throwing threats. Imagine their jihad which was fought centuries ago, using horse-back mounted jihadists with machetes, bows and arrows; against modern day technological warfare of drones and tomahawks, yet this guy is grandstanding on an Uthman dan Fodio's escapade, which levied untoward carnage and mayhem on defenseless people? Anyway may God and Allah save Nigerians from these marauders and jointly prevent the foreboding from ever coming to pass IJN or IMN.

THE CRIMES OF BUHARI (MAKE HIM UNELECTABLE) - SOYINKA

"This intervention has been provoked, not so much by the ambitions of General Buhari to return to power at the head of a democratic Nigeria, as by declarations of support from directions that leave one totally dumbfounded. It would appear that some, myself among them, had been over complacent about the magnitude of an ambition that seemed as preposterous as the late effort of General Ibrahim Babangida to aspire yet again to the honour of presiding over a society that truly seeks a democratic future.  What one had dismissed was a rash of illusions, brought about by other political improbabilities that surround us, however, is being given an air of plausibility by individuals and groupings to which one had earlier attributed a sense of relevance of historic actualities. 

Recently, I published an article in the media, invoking the possible recourse to psychiatric explanation for some of the incongruities in conduct within national leadership. Now, to tell the truth, I have begun to seriously address the issue of which section of society requires the services of a psychiatrist. The contest for a seizure of rationality is now so polarized that I am quite reconciled to the fact it could be those of us on this side, not the opposing school of thought that ought to declare ourselves candidates for a lunatic asylum. So be it. While that decision hangs in the balance however, the forum is open. Let both sides continue to address our cases to the electorate, but also prepare to submit ourselves for psychiatric examination. The time being so close to electoral decision, we can understand the haste of some to resort to shortcuts. In the process however, we should not commit the error of opening the political space to any alternative whose curative touch to national afflictions have proven  more deadly than the disease. 

Now to a far graver, looming danger, personified in the history of General Buhari. The grounds on which General Buhari is being promoted as the alternative choice (to Jonathan) are not only shaky, but pitifully naive.  History matters. Records are not kept simply to assist the weakness of memory, but to operate as guides to the future. Of course, we know that human beings change. What the claims of personality change or transformation impose on us is a rigorous inspection of the evidence, not wishful speculation or behind-the-scenes assurances. Public offence, crimes against a polity, must be answered in the public space, not in caucuses of bargaining. In Buhari, we have been offered no evidence of the sheerest prospect of change. On the contrary, all evident suggests that this is one individual who remains convinced that this is one ex-ruler that the nation cannot call to order. 

Buhari – need one remind anyone - was one of the generals who treated a Commission of Enquiry, the Oputa Panel, with unconcealed disdain. Like Babangida and Abdusalami, he refused to put in appearance even though complaints that were tabled against him involved a career of gross abuses of power and blatant assault on the fundamental human rights of the Nigerian citizenry. Prominent against these charges was an act that amounted to nothing less than judicial murder, the execution of a citizen under a retroactive decree. Does Decree 20 ring a bell? If not, then, perhaps the names of three youths - Lawal  Ojuolape (30), Bernard Ogedengbe (29) and Bartholomew Owoh (26) do. To put it quite plainly, one of those three – Ogedengbe - was executed for a crime that did not carry a capital forfeit at the time it was committed. 

This was an unconscionable crime, carried out in defiance of the pleas and protests of nearly every sector of the Nigerian and international community – religious, civil rights, political, trade unions etc. Buhari and his sidekick and his partner-in-crime, Tunde Idiagbon persisted in this inhuman act for one reason and one reason only: to place Nigerians on notice that they were now under an iron, inflexible rule, under governance by fear. The execution of that youthful innocent – for so he was, since the punishment did not exist at the time of commission - was nothing short of premeditated murder, for which the perpetrators should normally stand trial upon their loss of immunity. 

Are we truly expected to forget this violation of our entitlement to security as provided under existing laws? And even if our sensibilities have become blunted by succeeding seasons of cruelty and brutality, if power itself had so coarsened the sensibilities also of rulers and corrupted their judgment, what should one rightly expect after they have been rescued from the snare of power” At the very least, a revaluation, leading hopefully to remorse, and its expression to a wronged society. At the very least, such a revaluation should engender reticence, silence.  In the case of Buhari, it was the opposite. Since leaving office he has declared in the most categorical terms that he had no regrets over this murder and would do so again.  Human life is inviolate. The right to life is the uniquely fundamental right on which all other rights are based. 

The crime that General Buhari committed against the entire nation went further however, inconceivable as it might first appear. That crime is one of the most profound negations of civic being.  Not content with hammering down the freedom of expression in general terms, Buhari specifically forbade all public discussion of a return to civilian, democratic rule. Let us constantly applaud our media – those battle scarred professionals did not completely knuckle down. They resorted to cartoons and oblique, elliptical references to sustain the people’s campaign for a time-table to democratic rule. Overt agitation for a democratic time table however remained rigorously suppressed – military dictatorship, and a specifically incorporated in Buhari and Idiagbon was here to stay. To deprive a people of volition in their own political direction is to turn a nation into a colony of slaves. Buhari enslaved the nation. He gloated and gloried in a master-slave relation to the millions of its inhabitants. It is astonishing to find that the same former slaves, now free of their chains, should clamour to be ruled by one who not only turned their nation into a slave plantation, but forbade them any discussion of their condition. 

So Tai Solarin is already forgotten? Tai who stood at street corners, fearlessly distributing leaflets that took up the gauntlet where the media had dropped it. Tai who was incarcerated by that regime and denied even the medication for his asthmatic condition? Tai did not ask to be sent for treatment overseas; all he asked was his traditional medicine that had proved so effective after years of struggle with asthma! Nor must we omit the manner of Buhari coming to power and the pattern of his ‘corrective’ rule. Shagari’s NPN had already run out of steam and was near universally detested – except of course by the handful that still benefited from that regime of profligacy and rabid fascism. Responsibility for the national condition lay squarely at the door of the ruling party, obviously, but against whom was Buhari’s coup staged? Judging by the conduct of that regime, it was not against Shagari’s government but against the opposition. The head of government, on whom primary responsibility lay, was Shehu Shagari. Yet that individual was kept in cozy-house detention in Ikoyi while his powerless deputy, Alex Ekwueme, was locked up in Kiri-kiri prisons. 

Such was the Buhari notion of equitable apportionment of guilt and/or responsibility. And then the cascade of escapes of the wanted, and culpable politicians. Manhunts across the length and breadth of the nation, roadblocks everywhere and borders tight as steel zip locks. Lo and behold, the chairman of the party, Chief Akinloye, strolled out coolly across the border. Richard Akinjide, Legal Protector of the ruling party, slipped out with equal ease. The Rice Minister, Umaru Dikko, who declared that Nigerians were yet to eat from dustbins - escaped through the same airtight dragnet. The clumsy attempt to crate him home was punishment for his ingratitude, since he went berserk when, after waiting in vain, he concluded that the coup had not been staged, after all, for the immediate consolidation of the party of extreme right-wing vultures, but for the military hyenas. 

The case of the overbearing Secretary-General of the party, Uba Ahmed, was even more noxious. Uba Ahmed was out of the country at the time. Despite the closure of the Nigerian airspace, he compelled the pilot of his plane to demand special landing permission, since his passenger load included the almighty Uba Ahmed. Of course, he had not known of the change in his status since he was airborne.  The delighted airport commandant, realizing that he had a much valued fish swimming willingly into a waiting net, approved the request. Uba Ahmed disembarked into the arms of a military guard and was promptly clamped in detention.  Incredibly, he vanished a few days after and reappeared in safety overseas. 

Those whose memories have become calcified should explore the media coverage of that saga. Buhari was asked to explain the vanished act of this much prized quarry and his response was one of the most arrogant levity. Coming from one who had shot his way into power on the slogan of ‘dis’pline’, it was nothing short of impudent. 

Shall we revisit the tragicomic series of trials that landed several politicians several lifetimes in prison? Recall, if you please, the ‘judicial’ processes undergone by the septuagenarian Chief Adekunle Ajasin.  He was arraigned and tried before Buhari’s punitive tribunal but acquitted. Dissatisfied, Buhari ordered his re-trial. Again, the Tribunal could not find this man guilty of a single crime, so once again he was returned for trial, only to be acquitted of all charges of corruption or abuse of office. Was Chief Ajasin thereby released? No! He was ordered detained indefinitely, simply for the crime of winning an election and refusing to knuckle under Shagari’s reign of terror.  

The conduct of the Buhari regime after his coup was not merely one of double, triple, multiple standards but a cynical travesty of justice. Audu Ogbeh, currently 'member of Buhari's APC' was one of the few figures of rectitude within the NPN. Just as he has done in recent times with the PDP, he played the role of an internal critic and reformer, warning, dissenting, and setting an example of probity within his ministry. For that crime he spent months in unjust incarceration. Guilty by association? Well, if that was the motivating yardstick of the administration of the Buhari justice, then it was most selectively applied. The utmost severity of the Buhari-Idiagbon justice was especially reserved either for the opposition in general, or for those within the ruling party who had showed the sheerest sense of responsibility and patriotism. 

Shall I remind this nation of Buhari’s deliberate humiliating treatment of the Emir of Kano and the Oni of Ife over their visit to the state of Israel? I hold no brief for traditional rulers and their relationship with governments, but insist on regarding them as entitled to all the rights, privileges and responsibilities of any Nigerian citizen. This royal duo went to Israel on their private steam and private business. Simply because the Buhari regime was pursuing some antagonistic foreign policy towards Israel, a policy of which these traditional rulers were not a part, they were subjected on their return to a treatment that could only be described as a head masterly chastisement of errant pupils. Since when, may one ask, did a free citizen of the Nigerian nation require the permission  of a head of state to visit a foreign nation that was willing to offer that tourist a visa? 

One is only too aware that some Nigerians love to point to Buhari’s agenda of discipline as the shining jewel in his scrap-iron crown. To inculcate discipline however, one must lead by example, obeying laws set down as guides to public probity. Example speaks louder than declarations, and rulers cannot exempt themselves from the disciplinary strictures imposed on the overall polity, especially on any issue that seeks to establish a policy for public well-being.  The story of the thirty something suitcases – it would appear that they were even closer to fifty - found unavoidable mention in my recent memoirs, YOU MUST SET FORTH AT DOWN, written long before Buhari became spoken of as a credible candidate.  

For the exercise of a changeover of the national currency, the Nigerian borders – air, sea and land – had been shut tight. Nothing was supposed to move in or out, not even cattle egrets.Yet a prominent camel was allowed through that needle’s eye. Not only did Buhari dispatch his aide-de-camp, Jokolo – later to become an emir -  to facilitate the entry of those cases, he ordered the redeployment – as I later discovered - of the Customs Officer who stood firmly against the entry of the contravening baggage. That officer, the 'former' Vice-president is now a rival candidate to Buhari, but has somehow, in the meantime, earned a reputation that totally contradicts his conduct at the time.  Wherever the truth lies, it does not redound to the credibility of the dictator of that time, General Buhari whose word was law, but whose allegiances were clearly negotiable." - Wole Soyinka. 

Icheoku says the man who the man in him did not die because he always speaks up in the face of tyranny has once again spoken to alert Nigerians that Muhammadu Buhari must be avoided like a plague if not like EBOLA virus disease. Icheoku says the Nobel Laurette knows what he is talking about and so Nigerians should listen and do the needful by rejecting Muhammadu Buhari. Say no to Buhari, not in 2015 and not in any future time of Nigeria as still existing and constituted. Icheoku says thank you Wole for once again coming through and pointing the way forward at this dark times in Nigeria, when some misguided and disgruntled people are, because of their selfish politics of bitterness, hellbent  on their attempt to force the poison that is Buhari down the throat of unwilling Nigerians. But their will cannot and will never come to pass IJN.

OBASANJO DOES NOT OWN NIGERIA - ABIMBOLA JONES

When Senator Iyabo Obasanjo, daughter of the former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, wrote a vitriolic letter to her father some time ago reminding him that he does not own Nigeria, many of us thought she was a bit too harsh on the old man. Iyabo had, in very strong words, dismissed the former president as an irresponsible father, megalomaniac, liar and hypocrite. It is not that Iyabo said anything new that the public does not know about her father. Even then, some of us thought that coming from a daughter – estranged or beloved – that was way too harsh. But in recent times, Obasanjo himself is beginning to justify his daughter’s public expression of her opinion of her father.

Just a few days ago, Obasanjo continued in what has become his favourite pastime, the public bashing of one of his political sons, Goodluck Jonathan, the Nigerian president while addressing participants in Abeokuta at a programme “First Green Legacy Moments with Chief Olusegun Obasanjo on Leadership and human Security in Africa”. This programme, which we understand was put together by the former president’s shop, Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, in conjunction with the University of Ibadan, had in attendance undergraduate students of Nigeria’s premier university of Ibadan, Obasanjo’s own private university, the Bells University of Technology, Crawford University as well as their vice chancellors, and students from select secondary schools in Ogun State. This was the forum that Obasanjo chose to obfuscate facts and wrongly accuse President Jonathan and his government of failing over power supply.

The former President, according to newspaper reports, had blamed the governments after his, specifically, the Yar’Adua government and the Jonathan government, for failing to implement his administration’s initiative of the National Independent Power Project (NIPP). As always the former president went on and on regaling the young impressionable students and, of course, some of the adult audience who should know how he alone has built up the country right from his military presidency and to his second coming as a civilian. That was typical of Obasanjo who believes that he alone knows Nigeria and he alone can save Nigeria. Wel, there is nothing wrong if the former president derives joy by telling his audience and whoever cares to listen of his unrivalled patriotism and missionary zeal in the service of the fatherland.

Yet what is unacceptable especially from Obasanjo, an elder statesman, iconic personality and former president, is the passing of barefaced lies to younger people looking up to him, as facts. The former President knows full well that he was lying when he repeatedly stated that the present administration has abandoned the NIPP projects. He was equally not telling the whole truth when he is aware that the country is generating more power now than any other time in the nation’s history. It is undeniable that the late President Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua probably hesitated on the NIPP projects. Those who knew him readily agree that it was in the character of the late president, to be sure about probity, accountability and due process in anything he was involved in. He inherited the NIPP project from Obasanjo and all kinds of fuzzy stories of corruption were flying around and Yar’ Adua was never the kind of person who would compromise accountability for speed. He wanted to make sure that Nigerians were not fleeced all in the name of tackling the power challenge through the NIPP projects.

But it is really intriguing that Obasanjo forgot to tell the young ones listening to him that after the initial lull under Yar’ Adua, the Jonathan administration more than his own era has achieved milestones in the power sector. It is equally unfortunate that Obasanjo failed the younger generation listening to him (although the vice chancellors and Professor Akin Mabogunje know the truth) that his NIPP project is defective in design and execution by failing to take into account, the supply of gas to the newly-built power stations across the land. How to get gas to power those plants is one of the challenges that the Jonathan government is dealing with today but Obasanjo would rather obfuscate that fact in his self-praise.

It is understandable anyway that an Obasanjo who still believes that he is the best thing that has happened to our country will never give credit to anyone who has out-performed him in any sector. That is why former President Obasanjo failed to tell the young people around him that President Jonathan by liberalizing the power sector with the privatisation of the power generations and distribution and the consequent unbundling of the former PHCN, took the decision he and previous leaders were afraid to take. Instead, the former president is insinuating corruption and nepotism in the privatisation in the power sector. Maybe Obasanjo has forgotten that he carried out the massive liberalisation that took place in the communications industry, the downstream sector of the oil industry, the ports sector and the Nigerian economy as a whole and Nigerians are aware, how cronies of the former president bought up Nigeria. Nigerians equally know who the real owners of the port terminals in Apapa concessioned by Obasanjo are. The same Obasanjo who, while granting licenses for ownership of private universities, found it convenient to sign one for himself is now accusing Jonathan of selling the power sector to his friends.

It is time Obasanjo came to terms with the fact that a new Sherriff is in town. There is no doubt that the former president has given his best to this country but he must also realise that he does not own Nigeria – just as Iyabo had rightly noted.

Mr Jones, a public affairs analyst, sent this piece from Ikorodu, Lagos.

BUHARI CAN NEVER RULE NIGERIA AGAIN - ARIBISALA

On Friday, 23rd August, 1985, the military government of Major-General Mohammadu Buhari decided to place me under arrest. My crime was that I wrote, among others, an article entitled: “Counter-trading Nigeria’s Future” in the National Concord, exposing the government’s scam of diverting public funds into private coffers through barter-trade with Brazil. A man by the name of Benson Norman was sent from the State Security Services (SSS) to my office to get me. Not finding me, he left a note that I must present myself unfailingly at the SSS office at 15 Awolowo Road, Ikoyi Lagos the next Monday morning. However, on Sunday, 25th August, 1985, Lateef Aminu came first thing in the morning to my house to inform me that the government of Buhari/Idiagbon had been overthrown. For this reason, I am fond of telling people that God brought about a change of government in Nigeria just because of me.

Coup-plotter

Under the Buhari/Idiagbon regime, once you ended up at 15 Awolowo Road, you may never be heard of again. Decree Number 2 of 1984 empowered Tunde Idiagbon to arrest and detain anybody indefinitely without trial and without legal reprieve. After Buhari was overthrown, Mohammadu Gambo opened the prison doors of 15 Awolowo Road on public television, revealing people in various stages of undress and malnutrition that had been kept in the dungeons without trial by Buhari’s hound-dogs.

As self-imposed Head of State, Buhari had no regard for human rights. Immediately he seized power, he announced that he would “tamper with” the press. Soon, the infamous Decree Number 4 was promulgated which made even the publication of the truth a punishable offence. Under this cover, Buhari jailed innocent journalists, including Tunde Thompson and Nduka Irabo. He abolished civil liberties, promulgated retroactive decrees enabling him to kill Nigerians through jungle justice, proscribed civil society organizations and professional groups and exercised “absolute” power.

This same Buhari would now have us believe that he has gone through some metamorphosis and has become a democrat. I am sure you will forgive me if people like me don’t believe him. Buhari is not, has never been, and will never be, a democrat. Only in Nigeria would a man with his track record, who came to power through a military coup that illegally overthrew a democratic government, now be acclaimed as a democrat. It is on record that Buhari’s military regime is the only one in Nigeria’s history that failed to promulgate a programme for return to civilian rule.

Facts and fiction

So what exactly qualifies Buhari as a democrat today? Precious little! There is nothing democratic about forming and joining political parties just in order to be the presidential candidate. Little wonder then that Buhari’s parties have a short shelf-life. Buhari would like to be Nigeria’s head of state once again. He can no longer achieve this through the barrel of a gun. The only route now open to him is through the democratic process. That is the reason he now conveniently fashions himself as a democrat. It is merely a means to an end; no more, no less.

Buhari’s reputation as an anti-corruption crusader is also a myth. As head of state, he did not make any dent in Nigerian corruption. All we got was a cosmetic “war against indiscipline.” The counter-trade scam happened under his watch. Rather than deal with it, he sent his hound-dogs after nonentities like me who dared to expose it. That scam was no different, in scope and scale, from the petroleum subsidy and other corruption scandals that have since plagued Nigeria. The Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) that Buhari headed under Abacha was also a citadel of corruption. While Buhari himself might not have enriched himself, his cronies and those who worked under him did so handsomely. And he did nothing to correct such looters. So how come he is called a good leader?

On three different occasions, Buhari has run for the presidency. On three different occasions he has failed. That should really be enough. Now he is running again for the presidency a fourth time in 2015, there is no question that he would fail yet again. Try as he might again and again, Mohammadu Buhari can never be President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Buhari’s sectarianism

There is a fundamental reason behind this. Buhari is a bad politician. He is an unbending former military dictator and not a democratic consensus-builder. Like his new ally, Bola Tinubu, Buhari is a regional, sectional politician. Such politicians are practically impossible to package and market nationally in the ethnically-delicate Nigeria of today.

Former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Malam Nasir El’Rufai, one of those Northerners who deserve to be serious contenders for the presidency of Nigeria, observed that Buhari remains “perpetually unelectable” as a result of his “insensitivity to Nigeria’s diversity and his parochial focus.” This is an elegant way of saying that politically, Buhari has an uncanny tendency to put his foot in his mouth. He talks before thinking of the political implications of his words. He shoots from the hip.

The strength of Obasanjo, which enabled him to capture the presidency on two different occasions, was that he was perceived as a broadminded politician, not overly partial to his people in the South-West. As a matter of fact, in his first election, his people did not want him. The strength of Goodluck Jonathan, which propelled him to win the presidency, was that he was able to string together a coalition that stretched both north and south of the Niger. The weakness of Buhari is that he is totally unacceptable to people outside his region.

Buhari is a Northern regional champion. As head of state in the 1980s, his government was unapologetically Northern. No attempt was made to balance the ticket at the top. It was the only regime in Nigeria’s history headed by two Northerners. When he seized power, Buhari put Shagari, the Northern head of state he overthrew, under house arrest. But then he jailed Alex Ekwueme, the Southern vice-president. You may well ask what makes Shagari less culpable for the misdeeds of the Second Republic than his number-two man. The simple fact was that Buhari was Fulani as was Shagari; but Ekwueme was Igbo.

Impolitic words

At the height of the Sharia debate during the Obasanjo administration, Buhari declared that Muslims should vote only for fellow Muslims. This was politically suicidal for a man seeking national office. He became an advocate for implementation of Sharia all over Nigeria. He protested to the Oyo State governor, in the context of a dispute between Fulani herdsmen and indigenous farmers in the state, that “your people are killing my people.” This turned out to be unfounded and perhaps the reverse.

His threats during the campaign for the 2011 elections incited widespread violence in the North after he lost. His supporters went on a rampage; looting and killing; in spite of the fact that, by all accounts, the elections were adjudged the most free and fair in the history of Nigeria’s current democratic experiment. By the time the mayhem had subsided, over 1000 people had been slaughtered in cold blood and some 65,000 displaced.

Forgetting that a statement made in Hausa would readily be translated into English, Buhari later declared unapologetically in a BBC interview: “If what happened in 2011 should again happen in 2015, by the grace of God, the dog and the baboon would all be soaked in blood.” These are the tokens of an irresponsible politician, whose ambitions for power supersede the national interest. Who then are the dogs and baboons that Buhari has in mind to soak in blood if and when he losses yet again coms 2015?

Are they his children or are they those of others?

With the Boko Haram insurgency in the north, Buhari played to the Northern gallery yet again, calling the Jonathan government “the biggest Boko Haram.” Wole Olaniyi was a fly in the wall at a meeting in Kano Government House designed to persuade PDP rebel governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, to decamp to the APC. Assuming that only Northerners were present, Buhari declared the Boko Haram was a “strategic plan” by the government of Goodluck Jonathan to “destroy the North.” When Jonathan declared a state of emergency in Yobe, Borno and Adamawa states, Buhari still saw this with Northern goggles, insinuating that the President is waging war on the North.

President of the North

Without a doubt, Buhari has massive support in the North. Indeed, he is the most popular Northern politician in the North today. But that precisely remains his undoing at the centre. The more he has been identified as a Northern champion, the less attractive he has become as a national choice. Even in the North, his support base is limited to the Muslim population. He does not appeal to Northern Christians. Then there is the added factor of the opposition of his implacable opponents among the Northern elite. Men like Babangida and Atiku would rather die than allow Buhari get to Aso Rock.

One thing is certain, the South-South and the South-East will not vote for Buhari in 2015. Not only that; there are no buyers for Buhari’s sectarian politics in the South-West. No matter what Tinubu might be telling him, the people of the South-West will not vote for Buhari in 2015. We already had the template in 2011, when Buhari tried to sell himself, first by balancing his ticket with a Yoruba man; and then by making sure the Yoruba man is a Christian; a pastor no less. But it just did not wash. It will not work in 2015.

The worst thing that can happen to Northern presidential aspirations in 2015 is for Buhari to be on the APC ballot. That is a sure guarantee that the North will not be providing the next president. Buhari would be a shoo-in in an election for president of Northern Nigeria. But in an election encompassing the entire country, the best he can envisage is to be a kingmaker. He cannot be king. The nearest Buhari will get to Aso Rock in 2015 is by attending the Council of State meetings.

WE WILL DEEP THE KORAN IN THE ATLANTIC OCEAN - BUHARI.

"I will continue to show openly and inside me the total commitment to the Sharia movement that is sweeping all over Nigeria. God willing, we will not stop the agitation for the total implementation of the Sharia in the country. Muslims should only vote those who will promote Islam. We are more than the Christians if you add our Muslim brothers in the West."- Chief Imam/Caliph Muhammadu Buhari. 

Icheoku says now you know where the heart of Muhammadu Buhari truly is. Records are kept for a reason, admitted Buhari would rather wish that such his past fiery Islamic rhetorics and propagation statements simply disappeared. But hey, Nigerians will decide if such a zealot is deserving of the highest office in the land in 2015. Say no to Buhari, 'baa abu' Buhari. Not this time and not in the future of Nigeria as is presently constituted and still existing.

BUHARI'S STYLE OF GOVERNANCE, NO ENCORE PLEASE - EL RUFAI

"It makes sense to ask those who have been recurring decimals in our country’s sorry history to leave the stage. These men who think that their failure to do their best for Nigeria when they had the opportunity automatically qualifies them for a return to office. Nigerian people surely deserve better. Buhari has remained perpetually unelectable because his record as military head of state, and afterwards, is a warning that many Nigerians have wisely heeded. His insensitivity to Nigeria’s diversity and his parochial focus are already well-known. 

In 1984, Buhari allowed 53 suitcases belonging to his ADC’s father to enter Nigeria unchecked at a time the country was exchanging old currency for new.  Against all canons of legal decency, he used retroactive laws to execute three young men for drug-peddling after they were convicted by a military tribunal and not regular courts of law. Buhari was so high handed that he gave himself and his officials immunity even from truthful reporting. That obnoxious Decree 4, against which truth was no defense  was used to jail journalists and attempt to cow the media as a whole. That tyrannical legislation shows the essence of his intolerance. The story of counter-trade and import licensing, the cornerstone of Buhari’s stone-age economic strategy. 

These are facts of recent history. It is time for a new generation of leaders with new thinking and wholesome democratic attitude and credentials to move our nation forward. The vicious response by the Buhari camp to a simple statement that their 70 year plus old principal should retire is proof enough that a Buhari, the new Democrat, tolerant of views different from his own, is yet to evolve. Having tasted his style of governance, Nigerians are not craving an encore."  - El Rufai.

Icheoku says who else would know the chief caliph of their fundamentalist brand of Islam better than a fellow adherent? Nigerians, you have heard from an insider mullah describing their mullah-in-chief, so please listen to El Rufai when he says that Muhammadu Buhari is perpetually unelectable, practices stone age economic policies and left a sore taste in the mouth of Nigerians for them to desire his repeat governance. Icheoku urges Nigerians to please not break the curse of Buhari, the unelectable Buhari, by electing him this time. Say no to Buhari, Baa abu Buhari, not this time and not in the future of Nigeria as is presently constituted and still existing. 

BUHARI HATES KILLING PEOPLE EXCEPT THEY ARE 'DOGS AND BABOONS?'

Icheoku says the man from Daura is a certified fraud, admitted he is cleverly applying his artful deceit in manipulating his mostly illiterate, unsuspecting and unwary followers; as well as few other less literate Nigerians, who are incapable of self thinking. Every day, Buhari flip-flops on issues he once held a different position on,  acts and says things as though  records of his past suddenly melted away and are no longer available nor exist anywhere? His latest fable is that he does not like shedding human blood? Icheoku counters that this hyena of the human specie did not see those millions of Biafrans war dead, including their women and children who were starved to death, as humans? Also it is possible that he did not see those politicians who died in his detention as well as those three innocent drug peddlers he illegally killed as humans too, using his warped "standard" definition? 

Imam Muhammadu Buhari on the sinful act of killing people: - "I have seen enough of death and I know what God means by human life. Any human person, God values their life. And anybody who  hopes to meet God, he should be careful about killing people." (Cable News Interview.)

Icheoku says except that those his referenced "dogs and baboons that would be soaked in their blood" when he loses yet again in 2015 are not human beings or persons for purposes of his being barred from seeing God? Query, a man who consistently threatens mayhem and sees them through by proxy of his fanatical nihilists, with attendant loss of so many innocent human lives, cannot be said to be living by his creed of shed no blood? Icheoku says a person like Muhammadu Buhari, saying what he says and doing what he does to the contrary, can only be motivated by one thing and one thing only - the seeing of those victims killed as not real human beings but merely "dogs and baboons?"

So Nigerians, now you know what the austere, mean and lean marabout from Daura really thinks of those of you who are not his followers. They are expendable "dogs and baboons" whose lives does not have meaning and which could be so easily wasted without any consequence, including not seeing God? Icheoku says it is obvious from Muhammadu Buhari's rantings that he is seriously desirous of making heaven and as a result would not "kill anyone nor has he killed anyone" yet; except those he could successfully distinguish as "dogs and baboons?" In that way shedding their blood would not amount to anything nor matter at all nor deter him from making a triumphant entry into heaven? 

So sin-free, with only thousands of "dogs and baboons" killed to his credit, Muhammadu Buhari hopes to someday join his compatriot Sani Abacha, alongside Olusegun Obasanjo and Ibrahim Babangida in heaven? Icheoku here now puts the entire Christendom-world on notice that on the last day, any heaven Icheoku enters and finds any of these three munchkins in it, Icheoku would treat it as the wrong heaven and would make a b-line out of it. Icheoku would thereafter, robotically proceed to the opposite dwelling even if it means hell, as no good heaven would give accommodation to these three nemesis of Nigeria. 

In Election 2015, say no to Buhari, reject his candidacy if APC does not beat you to that much earlier. 'Baa abu' Buhari. Icheoku is emphatic that Buhari is a wholesale misfit and is not good for a futuristic looking and geared Nigeria that is finally beginning to take baby-steps after such a long hibernation in rehab. Nigerians, please do not let the train to progress be derailed once again by Muhammadu Buhari and his band of marauders. Enough of his interruptions. This cannot be deja vu December 31 1983; this is 2015, a completely different millennium and Buhari belongs to the ancient past. Muhammadu Buhari is both stale and spent, his sinews drained of their energy and his brain has gone into a rest mode. What good is such an empty shell to Nigeria? None, Nada, Zilch, so reject him and reject what he stands for if any and if you still makes any sense of it.

ORJI KALU SOMERSAULTS ON KESHI?

Icheoku says it is eerily strange that many a Nigerian do not have a core nor do they have any established ideological philosophy that serve as their guiding beacon. As a result they sway and swing on issues depending on what is popular and politically germane and expedient at the moment. Simply put, their decisions and positions on issues are usually prostitution(al) and you wonder the genuineness and sincerity of such circumstanced, fair-weather posturing. They lack forthrightness and they lack convictions; and their actions are not often good-purpose driven but derivatives therefrom. This is of the reason the country has remained in the vice hold of despicable persons, whose real intentions are usually masked and murky, and whose only real interest is the maximization of their exploitation of the comatose country and its people. Otherwise how does anyone make a head or tail of this dual opposites of Orji Kalu on the issue of then sacked and now reinstated Nigeria's Eagles Coach Stephen Keshi?

Just a few weeks ago precisely on October 23, 2014, Orji Kalu was lampooning Stephen Keshi for deservedly bringing about his ouster because of his stubbornness and failure to be a get-along team-player and all inclusive, listening coach? According to Orji Kalu, 

“We need to go to East European countries like Serbia or a good football nation like France to get a foreign coach. He will be a Technical Adviser and then we have a Nigerian as the chief coach; I thought Keshi would have been extra ordinary and learn from others but it is unfortunate that he ended up like this. He was stubborn, and you cannot be stubborn in the national team because a tree does not make a forest. You must listen to other people’s opinions, that is very important. You cannot win if you are not a team. Shaibu Amodu is a very good coach who is a straight forward person and he always have a good rapport with his players. And most importantly he listens to people.” 

Today, November 2, 2014, barely ten days after, the same Orji Kalu is now singing praises and  kumbaya in adoration and admiration of Keshi and effusively thanking President Jonathan for bringing "HIS" Keshi back as coach of the national team Eagles? In his statement today, Orji Kalu said 

"I salute Mr. President and NFF’s decision to return Keshi. It is timely considering the on go­ing African Nations Cup qualifying matches.” The return of Ike Uche by Keshi shows that the national team is set for business. Keshi has been able to forget the past and he is now focusing on the future. I am indeed glad that Ike Uche is back on the field.” 

Icheoku says may the real Orji Kalu please stand up so that Stephen Keshi and other Nigerians will know which one was indeed speaking and who to listen to? But unfortunately, Orji Kalu has no avatar or body-double, but is one and the same person who was merely speaking on both sides of his mouth, in the trait common to many a Nigerian. What a shame!

'MUDASHIRU, I DON'T CARE' - BUHARI

Icheoku says who knows what Buhari told Tinubu was the reason why he cancelled the Lagos Metro Rail project or did Bola Tinubu not demand an explanation before his current Buharimania? Imagine Buhari, so meanly and without any care for its attendant benefit to Lagosians whatsoever, dismissing a futuristic, palliative project that would have drastically reduced if not resolved the ever traffic logjams on Lagos roads. Even when Buhari was reminded of the hefty cost-implication of over sixty million dollars in interests and charges alone for arbitrarily canceling the project,  which project cost was not even being borne by his then Federal Government, the wicked, lean and mean Cassius still ordered its cancellation anyway. 

Now could somebody please tell Icheoku that this Buhari is the same Buhari whom Bola Tinubu is supporting after what he did to his Lagos State? Late Gbolahon Mudashiru, a Lagosian, then Lagos State military administrator, tried to do good by and for Lagosians by persuading Buhari to see reason on why the project should not be cancelled. But Bola Tinubu, a claimed Lagosian and former civilian governor of the same Lagos State is now cavorting with the enemy of Lagos State instead, and is not asking Buhari the tough questions? Icheoku asks why not? Why the sellout Bola Tinubu and the ghost of Mudashiru cries out from the grave, please Lagosians and Nigerians STOP BUHARI.

Icheoku concludes that this Bola Tinubu must have sold his soul to the devil with his support for Muhammadu Buhari, despite Buhari's lack of democracy credentials and a fact of general knowledge that Buhari parades a litany of very anti-peoples antecedents. Icheoku asks why would any thinking person cancel such a laudable project that would have placed Lagos State on a solid footing by helping alleviate its chronic transportation problem as well as attendant traffic jams. Icheoku urges Nigerians to be both wary and vigilant of this unholy alliance between Muhammadu Buhari and Bola Tinubu and guard their democracy as mother hen would her chicks. The two ideologically polar-opposites banding together, can only be for one thing and one thing only, a mischievous gang up that portends evil for Nigeria as we know it. This two men are wolves masquerading as sheep and while Tinubu would loot Nigeria dry, Buhari will finish what he started in December 31st 1983 - a complete emasculation of Nigerians. 

Please Nigerians do not let this apocalyptic nightmare descend and cover the country's rising sun; do the NEEDFUL to stop these men cold before they irreversibly turn things upside down on their heads in Nigeria. This 2015, remember the Lagos Metro Rail project when you cast your ballot. Say no to Buhari, 'baa abu' Buhari. Say to Buhari, not this time and not in any future time of a Nigeria as is presently constituted and still existing, even if on a life support. What a heartless conniving and contriving serpent this mullah from Daura is whose zealotry for spreading Islam throughout Nigeria is feverish and he confessed as much.