OMBATSE CULT, FINALLY DECAPITATED?

Icheoku, in an article of June 11, 2013 titled "Ombatse, when a cult becomes more powerful than the government", queried why a cult was allowed to grow so strong and so powerful, in a functioning country, as to become capable of intimidating the same very government under which it is supposed to be subsumed? Icheoku queried further how the cult's teeth got so fanged up that the government of Nigeria was so scared stiff of it that it became impotent, in the face of the cult's continuing flagrant lawlessness, to take needful action to reign it in or stop its nefarious activities? This was following the incident when the Ombatse cult murdered over one hundred Nigeria state security personnel, who were sent to its enclave to quell some national security problems the cult create. 

According to the story then, the cult members waylaid and murdered hundreds of security agents sent by the government to quell its violent excesses. But instead of sending in reinforcement or even the military to stop their arrant madness, in Odi Bayelsa State style, the government said, through the director of the state security service Ita Ekpenyong, that they will leave the matter in the hands of God? Icheoku queried if a government established to secure the a country would so dismissively treat a major national security threat, what then is the use of such government? If Nigeria has become a temporal state, why then continue to have all these security agencies, instead of just leaving everything to God? 

This lack of decisive response by the government emboldened the Ombatse further and it became one mayhem after another, resulting in the continuing state of violence that has been ravaging Nasarawa State ever since.  Every security agent also became mortally afraid of the Ombatse cult and dared not get near their enclave in Alakyo Eggon and it became a wild wild west sort of affairs therein. Icheoku condemned the audacity of the cult and equally berated the government's cowardly inaction and  disposition, which according to them, was in order not to exacerbate an already bad situation? Icheoku concluded that the government's offhand attitude was synonymous to tacitly encouraging the lawlessness of this particular cult and portends grave danger to not only the community but the nation in general. 

However, ordinary nomads, mere Miyetti Allah cattle rearers, with just their machetes,  bows and arrows, have triumphed where the Federal Government with its armada of armed security agents failed or rather coyly shied away from confronting evil? Icheoku says the dreaded spiritual leader and chief medicine-man of Ombatse cult, the man who facilitates and empowers this continuing brigandage and lawlessness in Eggon Nasarawa State Nigeria, Allu Agu aka Baba Alayko, has been killed. According to the story, he was caught, decapitated and literary dismembered to prevent his ever coming back to life, which legend has it that his magical powers could make him resurrect from the dead if left intact? The Miyetti Allah Fulani cattle rearers struck in the wee hours of yesterday morning, in a surprised attack that caught members of the Ombatse cult napping and begging for their lives. 

Icheoku says however this Ombatse cult crisis ends or is forcibly resolved, with the now dispatch of their leader to the world beyond as a prelude, it does and should not matter. What is important is that the much dreaded and feared cult leader is no more. If by his death, a lasting peace inures in the warring communities of Nasarawa State, then a good riddance. If his blood washes away centuries of violence in Nasarawa State, then it is a blood well shed? If his exit will usher in reign of peace in Nasarawa State, then hurray to his decapitators? But Icheoku hopes and prays that his death will not snowball a lingering conflict into a major conflagration that would engulf Nasarawa State if not the entire country? 

Icheoku says let peace return to Nasarawa State and may the death of Baba Alakyo be the needed sacrifice that would bring back peace unto this violence ravaged Eggon community. May his blood also now atone for all those security agents that his followers murdered in cold blood. Icheoku says enough of all these ethnic militias and their madness, wasting innocent human blood in Nigeria; and may their leaders also understand that they could themselves, someday, meet similar fate as has now befallen the late  leader of Ombatse! What a cruel irony that a man this powerful could be so easily cut down, decapitated and dismembered? What a life we all humans choose to live for ourselves - playing God with other peoples' lives and forgetting that we all equally bleed and can be bled to death too. Lesson delivered and hopefully learnt. Adieu Allu.

OBASANJO DEFECTING TO APC?

Icheoku has it on a strong authority that the man who ascribes himself with everything authority  in Nigeria, including being the spirit behind the existence of Nigeria, without whom Nigeria would have been a long gone history and the undeniable deity of Ota, Baba Iyabo, Olusegun Obasanjo, would be defecting to the APC and very soon? The source said that everything has been finalized and only waiting execution; and that the formal declaration of Aminu Tambuwal as the APC presidential candidate would be the occasion for Baba Iyabo to make it official as he plans to campaign vigorously to install Tam as the next president of Nigeria? This allegedly would be the trade for handing Tambuwal the APC presidential ticket as he demanded? 

Icheoku says that there is nothing wrong in dreaming; so dream on Baba Iyabo as Nigerians will resist you and the cabal behind the current operation foist Tambuwal on Nigeria. Not this time and not at any time soon in the future of Nigeria would the House of Fodio again be allowed to impose another president on Nigeria, not so soon.

Icheoku says Olusegun Obasanjo's plans not withstanding, the real question is whether the honchos of APC are ready to take second place to make room for the man who does not accept roles or ever agrees that anyone knows better than him; and who cannot now find himself taking any position below anyone including the owner of APC Bola Tinubu? So Icheoku asks, what then becomes the fate of APC should this rumored entrance of Olusegun Obasanjo pan out correctly? First, would Bola Tinubu accept to sep down from his epicurean heights as the man APC defers to, especially in the Yoruba Southwest where he is nearly a demigod to make way for the new sheriff?  Then, would an Abubakar Atiku, whom Baba Iyabo has been attacking all these years accept to share the same platform with his nemesis and hound dog in chief? Then, there is the question of Muhammadu Buhari, who is now getting desperate with trying to win the presidency of Nigeria, that would consider an Obasanjo entrance as an unwanted nuisance that should be immediately sidelined, if not completely vanquished? 

Icheoku does not know how Olusegun Obasanjo's membership of the APC will considerably affect its fortunes or anything else, except to say that if it does not cause the party to implode, it will probably cause it to explode. So either way, it is not going to be a win win situation for the party but an assured deficit. The beneficiary would of course be President Jonathan and the PDP,  as the same flurry of men now parading themselves as APC strongmen would be seen crawling back to the PDP with complaint that they could not and would not tolerate Baba Iyabo's undue influence in the party. Such outcome will be a gift that keeps on giving to the PDP and Jonathan; and 2015 will be better for that. Icheoku says Obasanjo, go, go, go, and to APC, go. What a character.

KIM KARDASHIAN GOES ALL NATURAL, PAPERMAG.COM?

Icheoku says not many husbands would permit, tolerate or be comfortable with the idea of their wife baring it all for the ogling world? But not when such a husband is Kanye West as Icheoku begins to wonder if any person is actually in charge or is it all system goes in the household of Kanye West and Kim Kardashian? Admitted that both are in the show business, but is there no longer limits to decency and what is acceptable public exposure and display? 

Icheoku must concede however that what the world is beholding in a naked KimKad is very palliative to the eyes; especially a mother, who once gained enormous weight while carrying the pregnancy of baby Northwest. A near perfect flawless body, with no blemish, birthmarks, baby stretch-marks or any other sundry junk hanging around her midriff. Icheoku says it is commendable also that she was able to push herself so hard into losing those fleshy excesses and now maintains such a killer body. Well-done KimKad.

It is also on record that Nick Carter, the soon to be ex-husband of Maria Carey, not too long ago, went public on Howard Stein's radio show, to admit that he had romps with Kim Kadashian? Reliable sources has it that a jealous Mariah Carey could not stand that her man would so publicly admit to having sexual relations with such a public figure as KimKad and their marriage never recovered ever since, leading to their recent filing of divorce. 

Anyway, it is KimKad and her product, her body, which she is doing a great job marketing and optimally well too, as  verifiable returns on investment shows. As for her husband Kanye West, Icheoku says bravo that you could take and put up with such a wild woman as a wife, who did not care nor give a damn about sharing your private possession, that is supposedly meant for your eyes only, with the entire world.  The romp with Nick Carter as well as several others, in her life including Chris Humphrey's, was before she married you, so would not necessarily count against her. Now, Icheoku as well as the rest of the world that have seen and looked at your wife's nakedness, would now leave the rest to the imagination. We hope that your marriage survives, lasts and thrives under such explosive exposes` and other unseen behind the door marital explosions incidental to marrying a Kim Kardashian. 

To KimKad, Icheoku says good luck with all these brazen and very audacious 'I double-dare you', in your face acts; and asks what will KimKad not do for money? Icheoku says may be the next big thing for KimKad, which will really explode the Internet like a neuron bomb, is to have sex in public or upload one of her sex tapes on the Internet for the world to partake in. Icheoku is emphatic that this will be the mother of all KimKad's stunts and it will actually, indeed, bring the Internet on its knees.  It will shatter every known records of view-times the Internet as we know it has ever had on any subject, matter or person. The translation, there will be more millions in the banks for KimKad! Icheoku urges KimKad to just give it some thought as millions if not billions will like to watch or see KimKad bring it really down and live. After all she is KimKad and nothing is too outlandish or outrageously beyond Kimkad's audacity? 

TINUBU'S DEMANDS, UNREASONABLE - BUHARI?

Icheoku says sources close to the APC tells Icheoku that the real reason behind the sudden u-turn of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in his earlier support for the candidacy of Muhammadu Buhari was due to grave irreconcilable differences between them?  According to the source, there were series of  demands presented to Buhari by Tinubu as conditions, mostly subsequent, which Buhari must accept and agree to satisfy upon becoming the president. After considering them, Buhari reached back to Tinubu to inform him that he cannot honestly and in his character agree to them all. Tinubu got back to Buhari to say it is all or nothing situation and when Buhari told him he is being unreasonable, Tinubu decided to take his support elsewhere, leading to his visit to Obasanjo where the candidate of Aminu Tambuwal was muted. 

Prior to this present fork on the road for Buhari over Tinubu's support, both men had severally negotiated  demands that must be met and somewhat guaranteed as precondition for Tinubu's support. Continuing, the source said that Bola Tinubu was initially very resistant to a Buhari presidency and that it took a lot of horse-trading before he could finally be swayed around and become somewhat comfortable with the idea of a Muhammadu Buhari presidency? However the trust was still tepid because of who Buhari is and represents, an anti-corruption crusader, so Tinubu demanded that their understanding be memorialized in writing and executed as a binding contract.  
Buhari said he needed time to think it through and came back to tell Tinubu that he is not comfortable signing away his leverage in such manner. That he would rather it was a gentleman's agreement to be binding on their honor only and nothing more. 

This led to Tinubu's initial flirtation with the idea of an Abubakar Atiku's candidacy and goaded Atiku in that direction, which made the later to part with generous amounts of money running into billions which some said totaled about five billion Naira as gifts to the APC? But Obasanjo would have none of that and summoned Bola Tinubu to scold him over his Atiku's romance. It was thereafter that both Obasanjo and Tinubu agreed to look elsewhere for an acceptable candidate and agreed to meet subsequently but not before reaching out to the House of Fodio through Babangida to feel them out on their preferred candidate. Now back to the deal Tinubu made or wanted to make with Buhari which later fell through.

Icheoku learnt that Bola Tinubu wanted an assurance from Buhari that he will be off Buhari's radar as he snoops on Nigerians who have corruptly enriched themselves from public coffers. To secure this, Bola Tinubu will choose the Speaker of the House of Representatives as well as the President of the Senate to serve as his joker and a sword of Damocles hanging on Buhari's neck, by way of impeachment, should he ever renege on this promise? Also Bola Tinubu wanted a promise from Buhari to revisit the issue of June 12 and at least officially recognize MKO Abiola as an elected president who was not sworn in nor allowed to rule; and honor him accordingly by designating June 12 as a national public holiday in his honor? Buhari was very receptive to this idea as that would help him win some affection in Yoruba Southwest while demonizing further his arch nemesis Ibrahim Babangida who annulled June 12. Both men also reached a preliminary understanding that the Ooni of Ife Oba Sijuade would be cut to size, if not dethroned? Further both men agreed in principle that  as a further way of getting at Babangida, the issue of Dele Giwa would be revisited and conclusively, somehow resolved? The last of this five understandings was that Bola Tinubu would also nominate ministers for both Petroleum and the Federal Capital Territory as well as Works.  

The source confirmed that while all these negotiations were taking place, Tinubu never mentioned nor demanded what the core ACN as a party would get or what the Yoruba Southwest as a bloc would get under a Buhari presidency; but he was only interested in what comes to him, which the source said smacked of his very selfish personality. However Buhari accepted and agreed in principle to follow through with all these five demands but confided in some people close to him that what is imperative at this stage is to get the party's nomination. That if and when he eventually wins, as the president, he has the executive privilege to do as his conscience would permit him. That all the understanding not withstanding, when he wins, he would be at liberty to change his mind and not obligated to follow through with any of them. 

Unfortunately when Tinubu got wind of this, he confronted Buhari and demanded a formal documentation of their understanding which will help him blackmail a reneging President Buhari in case it comes to that. Buhari refused and that's where the cookie crumbled and Tambuwal is now Tinubu's man of the hour. Icheoku says now you know that the emergence of Aminu Tambuwal as the putative presidential candidate of the APC was not as sudden as many would like Nigerians to believe. Tam is a product of a deal fell through between Buhari and Tinubu; a settled choice upon or optioned choice, who emerged to reap where he did not practically sow? Icheoku warns that because of the so much wheeling and dealing that threw up Tambuwal, in the event he wins, it will be deja vu the old ways by the same old guards that has held Nigeria hostage for a long time since independence using Tambuwal as their frontman.

Anyway, Icheoku was not privy to any of this meetings nor is in anyway specially positioned to either authoritatively confirm or deny the report; but suffice it to say that from the fast-flowing developments within the APC, especially regarding the fortunes of Muhammadu Buhari as the hitherto inevitable presumptive nominee of the party, which has suddenly changed course for the worse, there may probably be some iota of truth in all these allegations? But like they say, it is not over until it is over; and until the battle for the APC presidential candidacy is won and lost, it will too early to count out Buhari or needlessly ascribe to Bola Tinubu some bloated kingmaker status, at this stage. Nigerians as well as Icheoku will have to wait until December 10, 2014 when the APC, hopefully, will choose their presidential candidate and then either revisit the issue  or stand it moot. Until then, the wheeling and dealing for the presidential candidate of the APC continues and may God save us all and see Nigeria through 2015 and beyond.

TAMBUWAL, THE MAN WHO WILL (NOT) BE PRESIDENT?

Icheoku says it is now official that the machinery put in place to crown yet another scion of the Uthman Dan Fodio dynasty, as another head of Nigerian government, has cranked full throttle. But unfortunately, Nigerians in unison are saying not this time and may be, never again; as the Northwestern Nigerians do not own Nigeria, neither do they have limitless right above and beyond every other people in Nigeria, nor do they have unfettered entitlement to the highest office of the land. Icheoku says their exuberant arrogance is beginning to weigh heavily on the rest of the country and resentment as well as resistance has somewhat set in. Speaker Tambuwal's collection of expression of interest form to vie for the presidency of Nigeria confirms rumors of this past years, that the House of Fodio are relentless in their scheme to take back "their" power? They groomed him, they prepared him and they sprung him on Nigerians as a speaker from the blues and now they want to also make him the president of Nigeria? 

Icheoku asks why must Nigerians feverishly, always defer to and accept the dictates of this people on who governs or rules them? Now using the arrowheads of Olusegun Obasanjo and Ibrahim Babangida, they want to once again impose their will of Tambuwal on the rest of the people as their president? Reliable sources informs Icheoku that Tambuwal was rather a compromise option as the two military men cum power brokers and power facilitators in Nigeria, Obasanjo and Babangida, would neither stand an Atiku's presidency nor tolerate a Buhari's coming back to power. Both men are deathly afraid that their past would be resurrected in a Buhari or Atiku's presidency and come back to hunt them and would rather not risk such a nightmare. 

So with both Buhari and Atiku now technically disqualified, an option was found in Tambuwal. It was also this bickering between the two army men over the choices which Buhari and Atiku presented, that stalled and delayed Tambuwal's defection until the very last minute. According to sources in the know, Tambuwal wanted an assured commitment of securing the APC presidential ticket first, before jumping off the PDP ship. Continuing the insider posited that Tambuwal could not see himself toying with the number four position in the country as a PDP's elected speaker without a safe and secured landing at APC as their presidential candidate. The same source also confirmed to Icheoku that Obasanjo is but a mole in the PDP, gathering strategic insights and would soon formally defect to APC and publicly throw his support for Tambuwal?

Icheoku had written sometime ago around July 2014 an article titled: "Tambuwal, the man who will be president.' This was following Ibrahim Babangida's urge of the then speaker to "try something higher  by aspiring for a higher office."  Icheoku thereafter reasoned that nothing else, including senate president or governor would meet and qualify or fit Babangida's understanding of a higher office, than the president of the country? Icheoku then so titled the article thinking that Speaker Tambuwal was rather being groomed for a post-Jonathan presidency, when the presidency would have naturally shifted back to the North. 

But unbeknownst to Icheoku, the Hausa/Fulani power bloc was already in overdrive, again trying to upset the applecart  and peradventure make other Nigerians mad by hurriedly plotting to force one of its own back in power. Icheoku says whatever impetus that drives this people is rather too audacious and completely and totally detached and disinterested in the feelings of other Nigerians. Icheoku heretofore calls on Nigerians to resist this born to rule mentality, a selfish aggrandizement of the few and their feeling of entitlement to everything belonging to the North if not the entire Nigeria as a whole? Query, assuming the North is deserving of a shot at power this 2015, why must it be the same Northwestern Nigeria that produced Shagari, Buhari, Babangida, Abacha, Abudulsalam that now wants to also secure power in 2015? What about the other Northerners from Northeast and North-central; and what is wrong in fielding a Christian Northerner after all Abiola, a Southern Muslim got power? But that is for the North to sort themselves out on when their time comes post 2019; so now back to the forensic examination of the merits of a Tambuwal's run.

Icheoku must as a prelude say that we admire and even love Tambuwal a lot and have also written extensively in the past about him and favorably too. At least he comes very well educated, young and vibrant, some experience, good public and presidential personality/image and has no known baggage, at least not any that is putrefying? But then why did he not wait for his turn and the right time to jump in, since the office or ticket would have been rightfully his when the North's time to comes? Icheoku says this is the cruel fate which will haunt Tambuwal presidential aspiration and for a long time if not forever as Nigerians, given the chance, do not take kindly to green snakes in green grass.  Icheoku says Nigerians will remember for Tambuwal that while he was speaker, he schemed and planned and connived and contrived with opposition forces to sabotage and undercut a government and a party that he was part of and supposedly represents as their elected speaker just for his selfish goal. 

Icheoku reiterates that treachery of any kind, including political one, is abominable. Speaker Aminu Tambuwal, by his action, is now a treacherous person and cannot and should never ever be trusted again. Icheoku says any person in the speaker's exalted position, who could so shamelessly and surreptitiously conspire with the opposition against his own party and president, while simultaneously guised and pretending fake loyalty and allegiance to both his party and president, lacks requisite candor and is therefore not a fit and proper person for the presidency of Nigeria. For this reason therefore, Icheoku have reframed the title of this article to read "Tambuwal, the man who will not be president;" and we stand corrected or ready to be proved wrong by developments. 

It also does not matter whether Muslim Fulani Tambuwal runs with Christian Edo State Governor Oshiomhole as his vice presidential candidate, as the Southsouth cannot pawn their presidency for the glorified office of vice presidency. Icheoku maintains that Speaker Aminu Tambuwal by so scheming, has just become another self-destruct politician in the garb of Lagos State Governor  Fashola, who similarly self-inflicted irrecoverable political wound on himself with his ill-advised deportation of fellow citizens from their own country. But hey, blame the constellations which dictate the affairs of men as Tambuwal has now also fallen victim to their unforgiving mockery of men by disemboweling on their political  sword. Fie with Tambuwal, away with political treachery; and such a Brutus stab as Tambuwal's is making Icheoku wonder if Nigerians ever ask themselves soul searching questions and make informed decisions accordingly? 

LET FREEDOM RING, LET FREEDOM REIGN IN NIGERIA - PRESIDENT JONATHAN

"While serving our people, I will always ensure the rule of law. I do not intimidate. I expand the democratic space. I give voice to the voiceless and I uphold the weak for the nation belongs to us all. There is no political prisoner in Nigeria today and no one has been driven into exile and no one will under my watch. Under my presidency, views no matter how freely expressed, will not send any Nigerian to prison or exile or grave." - President Jonathan, Declaration speech.

Icheoku says during the government of President Yar'Adua many of us could not and did not visit motherland because of an existing list of critics deemed to be "undesirable elements, keep an eye on them" Nigerians. A then former contributor to Icheoku was so terrified with his arrest, detention and treatment on arrival at Muritala Mohammed airport, that upon his release and subsequent return, demanded that he be removed from Icheoku's affairs and that even the articles he co-authored in the past be disclaimed. We complied. There were phone calls and other subliminal threats too. So Icheoku understands what it means to work a very tight rope of lean or no freedom, with your eyes always at your back and maintaining eternal vigilance. So when President Jonathan makes such a commitment and promise not to inhibit thinking Nigerians from freely expressing their views on issues of state and related matters, Icheoku knows first hand the goodness of a heart that so pledges. 

The other time it was APC Ogun State Governor Amosun that ordered the arrest of one Wasiu Ogunnoiki because of what he posted on his FB page which the governor deemed "as acts capable of denting the image of Ogun State" and not flattering enough of his person and office? Ditto in then Ekiti State and some other places in control of the APC? Lagos State Governor Fashola also impeded some Nigerians liberty and freedom and earned himself a not so flattering epithet as that governor who deported fellow citizens from their own country? The dare not criticize whatever I force down your throat idiosyncrasy of Bola Tinubu is equally legendary. Muhammadu Buhari even went too far down this perfidious road of emasculation of Nigerians when he promulgated Decrees 4 and 20 to totally make it off limit, any discussing, talk less of criticizing, of his regime when he held forth. 

So when freedom loving and craving Nigerians listen to their president pledge not to trample upon anyone's liberty, freedom and pursuit of happiness, they get it. They also hear a person they could live with and thrive under; and they plan to respond accordingly by handing him the needed mandate to protect their enshrined rights.  Icheoku says this 2015, leg-chain is on the ballot and in case you have so soon forgotten the infamous Awolowo Road gulag that operated with impunity during Buhari's regime, majority of right-thinking Nigerians have not. 

Going back to the old ways is not an option and should not be. It is simply anathema to a Nigeria that desires and aspires to belong to the comity of decent nations, whose citizens are not in constant fear of the state. In a true democracy, it is the government that fears the citizens and not the other way round; so if Nigeria is practicing true democracy, then the guy who would guarantee this principle tenet of democracy is the right guy to man the tiller of the state. So in 2015, say no to Buhari; reject his latest attempt to muscle opinions of Nigerians or like Baba Iyabo, force some Nigerians, including governors, those lucky enough not to be kidnapped, into self exile. Please be rational, do not hand those other guys the keys to lock you up and away from civilization. Do not vote for Buhari.

LIKE MARTIN LUTHER KING, JONATHAN HAS A DREAM?

"I see a Nigeria where the children of Mustapha and Christopher, Ade and Ada, Timi and Bunmi, Nnamdi and Namadi, do not go hungry. I see a Nigeria, where all, no matter their believe, live in harmony." - President Goodluck Jonathan, declaration speech.

Icheoku says whether it is a "vision" correctly labelled or a prophesy or whatever nomenclature that is comfortably suitable as an apt description of what he said, the gist of the matter is that President Jonathan of Nigeria now gets it on what the future of Nigeria should be. A country with abundance where no Nigerian should go to bed at night hungry on an empty stomach. Icheoku commends this mission statement as a good step in the right direction, as nothing is fun or amusing to anyone with a rumbling empty stomach, especially if the hunger lasts so long as to cause stomach ulcer. Call it "stomach infrastructure" if you like and for crying out loud, but whoever puts bread on the table of the hungry always wins, as a commandeered heart seldom falters. 

Icheoku says it thus appear that finally, the man with no shoes as a growing young school kid, now, after wearing the best crafted leather shoes money can buy out of Italy, now knows how comfortable it is not to pound the pavement on ten toes and would like to share this his newly found experience? President Jonathan now wants to provide the proverbial shoes to all those "shoeless" Nigerians, to help them cushion the effect of being without soles beneath their soles? Icheoku says God bless his heart for at least remembering that a time it was, when he had none; unlike so many Nigerians who readily forget where they started or are coming from once fortune smiles at them and in the madness of their new found riches. Dreaming it and mouthing this intention to put butter on every Nigerians' bread is a darn good thing that is worthy of commendation.  

Icheoku maintains that it is a magnanimous spirit that so thinks about others that are out and down on their luck,  the downtrodden and nearly forgotten. At least if it pans out that he is not so bountiful in purse to see the promise through, he has shown his magnanimous spirit by declaring his intention to try. Nigerians should applaud their president for thinking and worrying about them. Icheoku remembers the Ota deity, during his reign of infamy, when he visited Ikeja bomb victims and scolded them for being ingrates not to appreciate that he even visited them at all; and this was while these victims were merely complaining their lack of water to drink? 

Icheoku says it is only a demented Nigerian, who after living through the first Muhammadu Buhari's nihilistic rule and further surviving last Baba Iyabo's 'do or die' governance and fully aware that both men are products of the boot-camp mentality of their profession, and so they being so uncouth and knowing no better, would wish an encore through a Buhari reemergence. Anyway this 2015, say no to Buhari because not only would he not give or buy you shoes, he might cut off your feet under his impending "Project spread SHARIA throughout Nigeria". Icheoku says even if President Jonathan could not "mission accomplish" shoes for Nigerians, at least they would still have their feet to 'waka' about in; but how far can an amputated stump trudge? You decide Nigerians. 

The good thing about having a vision is that the visionary at least has a clue of where he wants to get to or land.  President Jonathan appreciates that some Nigerians are hungry and in need of some helping hand to be able to fend for themselves. Nigerians are not asking for handouts, they are only craving enabling environment and opportunities to be able to find what they are looking for. The president understands this imperative and has accordingly addressed his intention to provide same. The president also sees a united and indivisible 'one-wombed' Nigerians. Unlike the other guy who only sees Nigerians in two prisms of those who are "real Nigerians" and those "stranger-Nigerians," the dogs and baboons, who ought to and should be killed.  

Icheoku says it is a very sad commentary for any leader and in this case,  Muhammadu Buhari, to so start compartmentalizing and dividing citizens of a country in this mad-dog manner - those "true-blood" Nigerians who deserve to live and those "bastard and inferior Nigerians" to be killed and even before securing the power to put his plans into fruition. As for  Icheoku and other sane Nigerians, we have chosen life; so you decide what works for you. Icheoku says in 2015, staying alive, whether or not you belong to the class of  "dogs and baboons," is on the ballot, so cast your vote according to your preferred outcome. Laying six feet under or standing on your two un-amputated feet still struggling, just in case Jonathan left you holding the plate or entirely forgot his promise to you, should be the ONLY two things that accompany you into that voting booth and minister to your conscience as you cast your ballot. ENOUGH of these military men who think that they are the only good thing that ever happened to Nigeria! Just say no to Buhari!

PRESIDENT JONATHAN DECLARES, RUNNING IN 2015!

"Therefore after after seeking the face of God, in quiet reflection with my family and having listened to the call of our people nationwide to run, I Goodluck Ebele Azikwe Jonathan have accepted to re-present myself, on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party for reelection as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2015 general election. If you believe that we must build a country that works for everyone, where the strong lift the weak and not trample upon them, where the vote of every citizens counts and determines who governs or represents them, where the democratic space is open to all to fulfill their aspiration irrespective of the circumstance of their birth, your brother Goodluck Ebele Azikwe Jonathan stands ready to continue in service as president of the federal republic of Nigeria." - President Jonathan. 

With those words, President Jonathan formally threw his hat in the ring to defend his honor as president and to seek reelection to continue as president of Nigeria in 2015 against all the Buharis and Atikus of the opposition APC. Icheoku, satisfied that the president means well and as between Buhari and Atiku, is the best hand on the tiller of a shifty Nigeria at this challenging time, and the purport of the well crafted and well delivered unity declaration speech being compelling enough, coupled with some meaningful achievement of his government this past years, do hereby endorse his candidacy for the presidency of Nigeria in 2015. Icheoku says God's speed, Jonathan! 

MIDTERM ELECTION, WHY OBAMA VOTERS STAYED OUT?

Icheoku says millions of Obama voters sat out last Tuesday's midterm election largely in part as protest against the shabby treatment being continually meted out to the president because he has the "wrong" skin type and color for an occupant of "their" White House? They also boycotted the election due to lack of interest because they have literally no dog in the fight since their dear President Obama was not on the ballot, hence no compelling reason to show up and show him some loving solidarity. Lastly, Obama voters are disillusioned that nothing hugely beneficial to them has occurred since the last time they twice, trooped out enmass to vote the democrat into office, alongside his many co-tails. 

But unfortunately and laughably too, election pundits have been glossing over this very fact that there are millions of committed Obama loyalists and voters, who only care to vote in an election when the president is on the ballot. Instead they have been piling up on the president as if he was ran for office again and blamed him for the loss recorded by the Democrats. Icheoku says these pin-head analysts failed to acknowledge that the president was not on the ballot nor did he ask for anyone's vote and was also not even allowed to campaign for and by any of those democratic party losers, who Icheoku strongly believe would have fared better had Obama campaigned for them. So why now blame a person who was not in anyway connected or engaged in the election except that it must be pinned on him and they albeit tried, but failed. 

Icheoku categorically maintains that were President Obama to have ran for a third term, he would have still have won; and any naysayer or doubter should rejig the constitution making it permissible for him to run for a third term and Americans would see him reelected and sworn in for the third term. Icheoku says democrats did not lose because of Obama or his policies, but their incompetence and because they distanced themselves from the president and many of his laudable landmark achievements? Imagine in Kentucky where Obama care has helped hundreds of thousands of indigent citizens get health care coverage and yet the democrat running against Mitch McConnel failed and refused to campaign on this president's achievement which was very popular in that Appalachian country, even among hillbillies hill dwellers and their hicks. 

As an Obama voter, Icheoku was particularly ticked off by the avoidance-treatment those democrats running for offices gave to the president and forbade his appearance in their campaigns. Some of these candidates even went to the sorry extent of denying their closeness to the president and/or that they even ever voted for any of the president's policies? Icheoku says these people deserved what befell them as they should not be representing anyone for lack of  backbones and for not having a strong constitution befitting of a representative. Icheoku says it was very disrespectful of these democrats to so distance and sideline the president during their campaign, due to what noisier far right wingers would like Americans to believe, that they have a non performing president?  Icheoku says history matters and records are not kept just to refresh memory but as evidence of what was in order to make fair judgment as to what would be. President Obama's records of achievements are there for Americans to see and judge, except no one in the democrat party was pushing or promoting them. 

So what really happened was that while voting democrats especially Obama's voters were being turned off and out from the election, the republicans were busy massively mobilizing their zealotry voters to vote and the result is now better left for history to judge. This also affected the overall turnout for the election which stood at 31% in some areas with some voting groups registered far less than 13% turnout. If not, why would a second term president, presiding over the best economic recovery in recent years, with jobs being created and the stock market doing so well, with two wars ended, is still being held responsible for the democrat losing the midterm election. 

Icheoku says President Obama did not lose any election nor did he cause any democrat to lose int he election, it was those spineless  democrats who rebuffed him, who lost the election. Their  ill-treatment of the president incensed Obama-voters, who in turn, hit back at them by boycotting the election, in protest. They wanted to send a message and in fact did send a message that they matter and that the president they care for, should not be so constantly under appreciated  and harangued just because his skin color is different from the acceptable standard color. What an election that was needlessly thrown out by the democrats due to fear and lack of courage to man up and stand with their president and that was how their cookie crumbled. 

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.