AMERICAN PRESIDENCY, NOT FOR THE 'TOO OLD' OR THE 'TOO TIMID'?

Icheoku says the vetting for the 2016 presidency of the United States of America has just begun, with the Republican Party marshaling ten of its wanna-be presidential candidates to audition for the right to fly the party's flag in the November 2016 presidential election against the Democratic Party. The debate was overall interesting but lacked the hyped fireworks generated by the anticipation of a bare-knuckle fight amongst these candidates, especially against the pre-debate leading candidate Donald Trump. Icheoku would rather the organizers of he debate at least had a woman-candidate among them, just like they had a black candidate for sensitivity reason. 

Icheoku says one of the finest things about America is its presidential democracy, particularly the manner and process that paves the road traveled to get to the White House. Like American Idol's auditioning, American presidential debates is always very fascinating, especially at this early intra-party stage watching all these men who want to fly their party's flag in the coming election and eventually become the CEO of the United States of America. A matter made more interesting because only one of these men would become the candidate, admitted it does not automatically guarantee the coveted seat. 

The election is not until November 2016 but the process has since begun and has now begun with every seriousness.  Icheoku will stay tuned as usual and hopefully until the conclusion of the process on the second Tuesday of November 2016. Watching the debate however, Icheoku will like the eventual Republican Party's ticket to include Ohio Governor John Richard Kasich, either as the candidate or the vice presidential candidate. He is from Ohio, a battle ground state that is always very determinative in who becomes the president of the United States of America. He is also a seasoned politician and seems to have a grasp of virtually all the issues that makes an American president, great and very presidential - apparently in charge and in control. So with such gravitas, such ticket will give any Democratic Party's ticket a fight for their money. So with that said, let the campaign now begin.

GWEN STEFANI PULLS OUT OF HER MARRIAGE, DIVORCING?

"While the two of us have come to the mutual decision that we will no longer be partners in marriage, we remain partners in parenthood and are committed to jointly raising our three sons in a happy and healthy environment. To this end, we respectfully request privacy from the media during this time." - Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale. 

"Icheoku says this thing called marriage, does it indeed really works or do some people just actually make it work? The other day it was Ben Afleck and Jennifer Garner calling it quits and before them were Nick Carter and Mariah Carey respectively saying "I do no more" and now Gwen Stefani and hubby Gavin Rossdale. Icheoku asks did all these people do an Usain Bolt for lack of trying or they did not try hard enough or simply just another evidence that the societal imposed and instituted yoke is imply too burdensome for anyone to bear without complaining and for so long? Icheoku does not know nor have an answer to any of these question, but if your own marital partnership is working out fine, kudos to you; admitted that a divorce is always a preferred option to a perpetual residence in a living hell or worse still, dispatching your spouse to the other side of life. To Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale, Icheoku says may you find happiness in your decision, all the best.

LIFE IN SAUDI ARABIA, BORING - THREE SAUDI ARABIAN WOMEN?

Icheoku says three Saudi Arabian women, on inquiry about life in Saudi Arabia, in one terse word, chorused BORING. There is nothing to do - you just cook, clean, eat, bear children, get fat and then die; and worse still your husband can also marry three additional wives, regardless of what you feel or think about it. As a young unmarried woman, you are not allowed to have boyfriends and must maintain your virginity as a marital gift to your eventual husband irrespective of the age you find a husband; who is permitted to kill you if he discovered he had married a non virgin. This is if your own parents did not kill you first for bringing shame of unchastity to the family. 

They are not allowed to socialize, go to night clubs, drink any alcoholic beverages or get involved in any "worldly vices" as according to their religious mullahs, their prophet frowns against such things. Icheoku wonders what they then do with all the abundant money in their kingdom - may be shop and shop and shop and little travel? But what type of life is that when no one can admire you or actually appreciate you, especially for the good work God made out of you by creating you? Needless to add that they are not allowed to drive, swim, wear skin-exposing outfits, vote or even read certain magazines or journals considered ungodly or not conforming to the Islamic code of morality. One of the women even quipped "garbage bags and Ninja turtles" when referring to the cover-it-all black outfit they are usually forced to wear. 

Icheoku does not know about these women but if Icheoku were to be similarly situated, it would have been an immediate Usain Bolt out of the kingdom or a total exit from this planet earth if earth's boundaries are as circumscribed by the drawn map of Saudi Arabia. Why begin the hell experience so early while still here on earth, since it is an assured destination for more than 99.9% of human beings anyway, one may ask? Icheoku surmises that it is a factor of these women being brain-washed and brain-dead  not to know that the ultimate goal of these religious mullahs is to keep them controllable and under control. An objective these mullahs readily achieve by meting the ultimate brutality on these women, including separating their heads from their shoulders as well as stoning or chopping off of body parts, just to make their statement and make it loud and clear. So with maximum fear instilled in these Saudi Arabia women, it becomes very easy for those domineering chauvinistic Saudi Arabian males to have their way. 

Icheoku says the worst of this this situation is that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with such high human rights violations and punishing brutality on their citizens, still enjoys a very cozy relationship with America and the rest of the West, leaving many critics pondering what manner of double standards this indeed really is. But hey, those women should wake up and smell the coffee that  lean freedom is better than fat slavery; and all those things they are festooned with are merely used to purchase their docility and do something to free themselves from this slavish bondage. How can any human being live like caged animals with no freedoms in this 21st century app-world?

FIRM UP THE NAIRA, TAX DOMICILIARY ACCOUNTS AT 50%.

Icheoku says the problem of Nigeria is not necessarily corruption because the c-word is a universally general application word and a phenomenon not peculiar to Nigeria. The problem of Nigeria is lack of love for country and country men and women; and as rightly articulated by President Muhammadu Buhari just recently, the country is everyone for him or herself and God for all. A kind of wild wild West of yore one would argue. Icheoku says that some level of corruption and even criminality are unavoidably tolerable in so many countries and would have similarly been okay in Nigeria. But the problem is that these Nigerian culprits, particularly those who are looting the country dry,  instead of investing their loot back in the country's economy towards creating jobs for the teeming jobless youths of Nigeria, take their loot and stash them overseas. 

They put their loot in foreign bank accounts where such provide cheap money for those host countries' economies; while their country of origin wallows in abject need and want. Icheoku recalls that back in historical times, Britain used to confer knighthood on their countrymen pirates who hijacked and brought home ships laden with goods and merchandise from the high seas. Ditto was America's wild wild West forged with sheer banditry and common valor. But with Nigerians, they think less about what they can do for their country or its men and women; hence all that they steal from the country, they embark on capital flight to nest for themselves and their families and generations yet unborn. Then their next move becomes to oppress their country men and women who fail to yield to their excesses or bow and tremble before them. Imagine a scenario where the over $150billion traceable deposits of Nigerians in foreign banks are reinvested in Nigeria, there could easily have been hundreds of Dangotes employing hundreds of thousands of Nigerians and who will still be calculating unemployment rate in Nigeria at over 57 percentile?

Now the trend of domiciliary accounts has caught fire in the country and with it a drain on scarce foreign currencies, leaving people who actually need these foreign currencies stranded with nothing or very little and definitely less than would satisfy their immediate needs. Foreign currencies stashed up in private domiciliary accounts with merchants needing them to pay for their imports and other foreign business transactions left holding the plate in their quest to meet their obligations to pay for their merchandise. Icheoku says how could a people hoard currencies they don't need to use immediately when the United States mint as well as other foreign countries' mints have not gone out of business of printing their currencies nor are they planning to shut down their operations? Why would a people just keep things for keeping sake and not realize that such primitive thinking is hurting the overall economy of their country; except that they do not of course see Nigeria as their country but merely the cash-cow that provides perpetual milk for them to milk till death, without any remorse or contrition whatsoever. 

The bad news is that regardless of the amount one has in his or her domiciliary account, a country like the United States of America lets you into their country with just up to $10,000 and nothing more. So why then will these hoarders not allow those who really need these foreign currencies to share in their pile by lifting their hold on them? Imagine a situation where over $1billion is currently held in private domiciliary accounts in Nigeria while the exchange rate of the dollar for example is going up through the roof with many merchants unable to fund or finance their overseas businesses. Pilgrimage-makers, students, holiday-makers as well as tourists are finding it difficult to source reasonably priced funds to pay their passage, while this amount of dollars (one billion) are stashed up in bank vaults and held over as domiciliary deposits. 

Icheoku says there is really no need for any individual hoarding foreign currencies in domiciliary accounts when they are needed to pay for imports and other foreign currency based transactions. There is no country in the world where such is tolerated except in Nigeria where people with primitive mentality like to hoard everything, including what they do not immediately need. Nigeria's currency is the Naira and all monetary deposits in Nigeria should therefore be in Naira. Anyone needing to travel or transact any foreign business requiring foreign currency should be able to just walk into a bank and purchase what he or she needs but never be allowed to hoard any excesses whatsoever. Icheoku says that hoarding foreign currencies in domiciliary accounts is not the way to go and should therefore be discouraged forthwith and seriously frowned at with drastic deterrents put in place.  

Icheoku says the solution is for the government to dis-incentivize this hoarding by making it unprofitable to hold dollars or any other foreign currency when one doesn't really need them. The government should henceforth tax such deposits at 50% to discourage people who just like to hold unto stuff just because they can and wants to; and not necessarily because they have a need for their immediate use. That way, anyone needing foreign currency can simply walk into the bank and purchase what he needs while the excess is left for those other Nigerians who need some too. Alternatively, the government should establish a maximum deposit ceiling of $20,000 for each individual, regardless of means and anything else above that should be taxed at 75% or declared illegal. 

Icheoku says it is only in Nigeria that such dual currency accounts deposits are largely tolerated even to the detriment of the overall economy of the country. Icheoku therefore calls on President Muhammadu Buhari to tear down those domiciliary accounts and flush out funds held therein into the open market to help boost foreign exchange supply needs of the country and peradventure, also help firm up the Naira. Such a move will generally be in the overall interest of the economic well-being of the country. It will also greatly help in bringing down the ever skyrocketing value of the dollar to a more tolerable rate against the Naira and thus make the Naira more valuable once again. Icheoku says to Nigerians to say no to foreign currency hoarding, say no to domiciliary accounts.

'BRING BACK THEIR GIRLS', WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

Icheoku says it appears that the ugly Oby Ezekwesili had made a calculated decision to rein in her motley crew and stop them from marching again as a trade off for her expected slot in the September unveiling of President Muhammadu Buhari cabinet ministers? If this is the case, does it then mean that she never had conviction with her protestation since the Chibok girls are still missing and that she merely carried out her activities just to sabotage the erstwhile President Jonathan's chances at a reelection? Hence, once they succeeded in achieving their objective, mission accomplished President Jonathan's ouster, suddenly the Chibok girls are no longer missing nor kidnapped and/or their cause is no longer of any paramount importance to continue to keep them in the fore-burners? So, where is the ugly duckling Oby Ezekwesili now and what has become of her rabble rousing, menopausal, wild-eyed feminists, who were previously pounding the pavements in Nigeria, protesting the failure to rescue some kidnapped school girls from Chibok? 

Although they paid a courtesy visit to Aso Rock early in July, following so much lull and public outcry, but it seems they have once again simply melted away. Icheoku asks what has become of these anarchists and why have they stopped marching since the Chibok girls have not yet been rescued or was there no Chibok girls to be rescued in the first place? Icheoku has always maintained that the Chibok girls drama was a mere calculated ruse used as part of the script in flushing out the man from Otuoke from Aso Rock. Now with a new president Muhammadu Buhari in Aso Rock and three months down the road, no one is seriously talking any longer about some kidnapped Chibok girls; including Oby Ezekwesili and her band of rabid females who have equally since stopped marching in this regard? Icheoku asks what is going on and happening with the Chibok girls saga and who is fooling who in Nigeria; a matter not help because the level of gullibility usually exhibited by Nigerians in issues of this nature is indeed very high. 

With the visit to Aso Rock, the 'Bring Back Their Girls' motley crew seems to have adopted a different approach to "Bringing Back their girls?" Instead of their usual rowdy protestations, these hired guns have now chosen to dialogue with the government instead, a courtesy they never extended to the former President Jonathan of Otuoke and if they did, was never in this respectful manner with which they approached the new sheriff in town, the man from Daura. A sort of change of modus operandi in their operational tactic, one would say. It was no longer business as usual with their usual streets-creed themed rowdy protestations. Instead they made a more dignified b-line to Aso Rock where they were warmly received in audience by one of their mentors and the beneficiary-in-chief of their crass activism, President Muhammadu Buhari. Although Icheoku has nothing against their latest change in strategic thinking, to dialogue with the president instead of raising hell on the streets of Nigeria, but says if only they extended the same courtesy to the former President Goodluck Jonathan, whom they helped hound out of office. Anyway, what is done is done as the man from Otuoke has since scurried back to his native Bayelsa State, but let us hope that Ms Oby Ezekwesili will keep faith and continue her marching until those Chibok Girls regain their freedom; assuming there were any Chibok Girls that were kidnapped in the first place to begin with. 

It is also noteworthy that over sixty days have passed since the "Bring Back their Girls" supported party, APC, won the presidency and were sworn into office; yet those Chibok girls which they are "bringing back" have not been brought back? Those Chibokans are still in their kidnappers' mercy and custody, neither located nor rescued, thus leaving Icheoku and millions of other thinking Nigerians wondering, what's going on really? Why has Oby Ezekwesili and her band of agitators lowered the heat of their agitation with those Chibok girls still out there and yet to be rescued? Why have they tempered their protestations and bomb-throwing fiery speeches or is the rescue of those girls from Chibok no longer as important today as they were during the dying days of President Jonathan's presidency? Is this another vindication of former maximum ruler Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, who once asserted that every Nigeria but the late Gani Fawehimni has a price and once you make them an offer they cannot refuse, they will bite?  So could the information that Oby Ezekwesili has been wooed with a promise of a ministerial appointment in President Muhammadu Buhari's coming September cabinet and thus compromised her agitation for the rescue of those Chibok girls, indeed be true? 

Anyway, in the affairs of man, it is always what profits them most that usually counts and comes first; so Icheoku fully understands if and why the wind has suddenly been taken out of the sail of the 'Bring Back Their Girls' activism. This is a clear indication that Oby Ezekwesili desperately wants to secure a slot in President Muhammadu Buhari's cabinet and would bury her conscience in order to achieve that. Oby Ezekwesili also knows that the man from Daura, unlike the one from Otuoke,  does not care a hoot about what Oby Ezekwesili thinks; neither would he be moved by an Oby Ezekwesili organized and led bunch of meno-pausal feminists walking the streets of Nigeria, protesting the none rescue of some kidnapped Chibok school girls. On a hindsight, Icheoku says if only Jonathan of Otuoke had deployed the Okadigbo tear-gas on this 'Bring Back Their Girls' activists when it would have mattered most, possibly he would be enjoying his second term now. But hey, what is done is done and in some cases cannot be undone as was the Jonathan's planned second term which suffered a miscarriage and was aborted. So from Icheoku to Oby Ezekwesili and crew, until the Chibok girls are rescued, Nigerians will not accept anything less from you. So start marching again and start shouting more loudly until those girls from Chibok regain their freedom. Just make sure to pressure President Muhammadu Buhari to 'Bring Back those Your Girls' the same way you pressured Jonathan of Otuoke, as anything short of their release will be unacceptable to Nigerians.  

CHRISTOPHER DUNTSCH'S SURGICAL HANDS, A DEALY WEAPON - PROSECUTOR?

"His hands amounted to a "deadly weapon" because he used them to improperly insert medical devices and screws into patients meant to alleviate nerve and other pain. He operated on the wrong part of a patient's spine, damaged nerves and left one woman with chronic pain and dependent on a wheelchair. He also left a sponge in another patient following surgery." He is therefore guilty of using 'deadly weapons' in the commission of the offense of murder of his two patients - Prosecutor. 

Icheoku says a very creative charge indeed that the hands  of neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch now amount to  deadly weapons? Lets hope too that they will be equally introduced in evidence as exhibits during trial. Indeed a very interesting development in criminal prosecution.

APC, EQUALLY AS CORRUPT.

Icheoku says the inability of President Muhammadu Buhari to find 36 upright and honest men and women in Nigeria to lead his ministries is a straight-laced indictment of his party, the APC. It shows that corruption and dishonesty is not the exclusive preserve of the ousted Peoples Democratic Party members but a scourge afflicting the entire body fabric of Nigeria to which members of the All Progressive Congress constitute a significant part thereof. A possible pharisaic disposition of the APC ignoring the log in their own eyes while sanctimoniously pointing at the spec in the PDP's eye, one would argue?

Icheoku says so the PDP membership should stop hiding their faces in shame and instead forcefully stand up to the APC and challenge them to show Nigerians their incorruptible and non corrupt members. Otherwise how else can the APC explain that with their membership in excess of more than thirty six individuals, yet the president cannot find thirty six honest individuals to make ministers? It is a stunning verdict on the APC that they cannot hand the president mere thirty six decent members of their party to make ministers. It shows that they are not practicing what they preach; but are as horrible if not more horrendous than the PDP they are haranguing for being inept and corrupt. The logic is pure and simple; except that no one seems to be in charge of messaging in the now moribund PDP. But hey, it is their cross so let them bear it as the now cornered and being pummeled under-dogs of Nigerian politics. What a fate; what a shame; and how is the mighty fallen, face-down to the dust. Icheoku says to APC, please show the president your thirty six honest members so that he can name them ministers, Nigerians are waiting.

ORO FESTIVAL ILE IFE, A SALUTE TO TRADITION.

"Oro is a deity worshipped across Yoruba land which forbids the women folk from going outdoors in the night during the week long festival celebrating the god." 

Icheoku says it is a good thing that some parts of Nigeria, the Yoruba Southwest, are still smart enough to know that not all the white man brought or told black Africans is true. At least before their advent in the continent, the African ancestors survived and thrived; forcing the question why must Africans always swallow everything Oyibo, line, hook and sinker. It is always theirs is good and African's is evil which led to the destruction of so  many very important African ways of life and worship. But hey, how long will this  their skewed distortion of facts continue as more and more smart people are beginning to raise serious question about the colonialists' bullcrap baloney that everything Africa was heathen. Icheoku is however afraid that very soon all those wild-eyed feminist liberation theologists of Nigeria will start agitating that the festival is discriminatory by barring women from coming out at night. Icheoku wonders whether leading the protest is something the 'Bring Back Their Girls' ugly duckling Oby Ezekwesili will also like to add to her resume`and thereafter grant her first anti-Oro festival activist's interview to CNN Christine Amampour. 

Icheoku says happy Oro festival celebration to all the sons and daughters of Oduduwa. May you continue to be the prideful custodians of black African's traditions and may you never tire upholding same. Icheoku laments that the white man told Africans so many lies and Africans lost so much to these lies including very rich traditions. Thankfully Oro Festival survived and is still being celebrated and this period is its time. Way to go Yorubas and more grease to your elbow.

MULLAH OMAR, THE ONE-EYED LEADER OF TALIBAN IS DEAD.

Icheoku says hopefully Osama Bin Laden who predeceased him will have him welcomed in whatever "paradise with seventy virgins" they might have wherever they are now; and also accord him the hospitality which the now dead leader extended to Osama while he held sway as then henchman in Afghanistan. It is the way of everything alive, there is always time to live and then time to die and now the one-eyed former leader of the Taliban has made his exit from this world.  

The consolation for his followers however seems to be that their leader died of his own accord and was not bombed to smithereens or captured alive or hunted down and executed like Osama Bin Laden followed with a sea burial. But whatever happens, it is one good riddance of a very nauseating pain in the neck for the Western countries being hounded by terrorism as well as the Afghanistan government; except that his successor Mullah Akhtar Mansoor has now vowed to continue their jihad until their brash brand of Islam is imposed on everyone. The implication being that the rest of the world is still mired in a very long haul in the battle against Islamic terrorism and only a staying power will see us all through. Anyway, may the restless soul of the late Taliban leader now rest or continue with his jihad wherever he finds himself in the land of the dead and buried. 

CECIL THE LION WHACKED BY ANIMAL-HATING DENTIST, WALTER PALMER.

Icheoku says what a bloody dentist this man is that would spend $55,000 just to take the life of a beloved African lion named Cecil. Meanwhile people are dying of starvation everywhere including in America, but he is simply too selfish and mean to care!!!

WALTER PALMER DDS, THE AMERICAN REPROBATE WHO KILLED CECIL THE LION.

Icheoku says the Minnesota dentist, Walter Palmer, who would rather pay to take life than to save life, paid a whopping $55,000.00 just to snuff the life out of a world famous and adorable lion with the black mane named Cecil in the African country of Zimbabwe. Icheoku queries how sadistic is this man who would do this bloodletting and paid for the right to carry out the gory orgy. Only a wacko drives joy in seeing any life taken, regardless whether a protected human life or in this case, the life of a majestic king of the jungle, whose pride has now been left without a head. Worse still, he and his gang of despicable trio, laid in wait, lured the lion out from its sanctuary and killed it just to satisfy their penchant for gaming wild animals. 

Icheoku asks why would this dentist prefer animals dead than alive if not that he is a bloody jackal and you wonder how many unnecessary root canals he had recommended and performed just to continue to be able to afford his weird habit of gunning down wild animals just for the fun of it. Icheoku says regardless, if this man is my dentist, Icheoku will walk in protest and could not imagine what drives this kind of ruthless fascination to just kill such majestic animals for fun instead of paying for their conservation. This man could have done a whole lot of good with the $55,000.00 helping the needy and helpless of society, but he did not. His selfishness confined him into just satiating his bloody past-time and for a hefty amount that would have bettered the lives of so many needy Americans, many of whom will be sleeping under the overpass tonight and some on empty stomachs too. Icheoku hereby calls for the boycott of and a continued protest at his dental practice until he makes a full mea culpa with an amount in excess of what he paid to kill Cecil also paid by him into some conservation efforts or to some Wild Life protection Fund. Walter Palmer DDS, Icheoku says stop killing wild animals so that posterity would have something for the children and the unborn to someday look at.

POLLARD THE AMERICAN TRAITOR AND ISRAELI SPY, WALKS A FREE MAN.

Icheoku says Mumia Abu-Jamal and Leonard Peltier are still languishing in prison while a traitor who took up arms against his own country, compromising its national security, is let go; released to pacify and appease an irate Israel still smacking their mouth over the reached Iranian nuclear deal. A capitulation or appeasement or sucking up to make up for the Iranian deal of some sort, one might argue? Icheoku says in the same vein, the Obama administration should similarly release Mumia as well as Peltier as what is good for the goose is equally good for the gander. 

Icheoku has nothing against the release of Jonathan Pollard as a lot of wheeling and dealing goes into international diplomacy and politics; but takes umbrage in the continued detention of Mumia Abu-Jamal who has been behind bars since his 1982 conviction for the murder of a Philadelphia policeman Faulkner as well as Leonard Peltier who is serving two consecutive life sentences for the 1977 Pine Ridge Indian Reservation murders of two FBI agents. Icheoku maintains that both of these men have served enough time for their alleged crimes and should therefore be similarly granted clemency too. So as the family of Jonathan Pollard celebrates this year's Thanksgiving for a real Thanksgiving gift of his release, Icheoku hopes that someday the families of Mumia and Leonard will similarly celebrate following their own release. Icheoku is hopeful too that just like the government did not oppose Jonathan Pollard's parole this time, they will similarly not be on the way when similar parole hearing is due and granted the duo here mentioned. Let freedom ring and it now rings for Jonathan Pollard.

BILL COSBY SHOULD BE SMART ABOUT IT, KEN LAY HIMSELF NOW.

Icheoku says there is no need waiting for the inevitable, the impending wiping out of his fortune, which hefty jury awards to the hordes of women bringing law suits against him, will bring about. A smart and calculating Bill Cosby will save himself and family that added misfortune by seizing the bull by its horn and making an audacious exit now. He has lived and enjoyed life well and long enough that exiting now will not be too much of an asking. He should seriously consider this option in order to leave a benevolent purse behind for his ever supportive wife and family; and in order not to let those who have succeeded in destroying him also get an upper hand over his fortune. 

Like late Enron's Ken Lay, Bill Cosby can put an end to all his current lingering women-troubles by quickly inducing himself to sleep from which he never wakes up again. Icheoku therefore urges Bill Cosby to man up, be of great courage or cowardice as some will term it, save whatever face is left of him and take the exit ramp off this world and do it now. Icheoku says lingering around any further can only spell doom to him, his family and fortune; as many more women, embolden by the current development in his past perverted sexual dalliances drama, will show up with law suits to try and collect their own share of whatever remains of his fortune as damages. Icheoku further opines that it is most likely that a sympathetic jury will graciously indulge these women and bountifully too. These potential jurors are part of the greater society which is appalled at what have so far dripped out from the Bill Cosby sexual perversion saga and which society have concluded that Bill Cosby has to pay a price for his unlawful indiscretions. Icheoku says, Bill Cosby, end this your problem now, just do it. 

50 CENTS NOW 10 CENTS, NEEDS PROTECTION FROM PREDATORS?

Icheoku says the world has not heard the last of the lifestyle of the "rich and famous" as Curtis Jackson aka 50 Cents, told an astonished bankruptcy court that his bling bling lifestyle is a mere optical illusion, a complete fantasy. During his bankruptcy proceeding, Fif-tie testified that he makes only ten cents on each record sold and that all the jewels and flashy cars he flashes go back to their dealers once the promotional event is over. That in actuality, he is not worth anything near the projections being made about his riches. According to Fif-tie, 'one gets a bullseye painted on one's back once one becomes rich and successful, as so many people wants a slice off the cake. But unfortunately, he is not that rich and therefore needs protection of the court in order to survive. 

50 Cents is worth a mere 4.4 million dollars, including 380 million cents he made from record sales; a total far cry from the estimated 155 million dollars net-worth ascribed to him by Forbes Magazine. Icheoku says this is mostly true in life, as many people who people envy and wish they are or could be like, often have it tougher than could be imagined. Ditto with people supposedly having a marital bliss but who behind closed doors, are in a living hell. Most times is all about putting up appearance of the Jones and nothing more. So today, learn to curb your enthusiasm and also how to make do with what you have. Learn to be happily fulfilled within you ways and means as contentment is the key. To 50 Cents, Icheoku says then please tone it down and live within your means; learn to live a life of moderation and stop all these flashy, flashy, bam, bam, unsupported lifestyle if you cannot afford to pay claims and damages against you. Keep it real and say no to fakery.

'I WILL LIGHT YOU UP' AND SANDRA BLAND IS DEAD, BLACK LIVES DON'T MATTER?

Icheoku says apparently tired of killing brothers, it is now time to face down sisters and put them down too; in their unspoken word, exemplified by their actions, that black lives don't matter. White police officers of America killing black people and now in Texas, the official capital punishment headquarters of America, where their Huntsville death chambers never stops churning, with smell of death by lethal injection ever hanging in the air. Admitted, the saying "don't mess with Texan" should normally put everyone and anyone coming in contact with any Texan on notice, but unfortunately Sandra Bland, a transplant from Illinois, seemingly was not informed ahead of time of this standing rule and she paid dearly with her life. Icheoku does not care whether it was suicide as they claimed (was it voluntary); but was she suicidal before the officer bundled her into detention or did she suddenly develop the flavor to take her own life while in the custody of Texas Sheriff? 

Icheoku is not here to solve the death mystery of Ms Sandra Bland but only to add voice to the cries of the continuing death in the hands of white police officers of black people in America. A beautiful lady who was stopped for not signaling a lane change, was handed a written warning and instead for the officer to walk back to his patrol car and end of story, observed that Ms Bland seemed irritated? The very intrusive officer, who apparently is engrossed in his power and feeling on top of the world, then went further to ask a person within her own space, right inside her own car, smoking a cigarette, to put out her cigarette? Icheoku says if the officer was not comfortable with second-hand smoking, inhaling her cigarette smoke, why did he not space out from her and just move away and back to his patrol vehicle afterall he has already finished the reason for pulling her over and should have left her to be and alone. But of course nope, she was black and the white officer felt he can have his way with her, however he chooses. He ordered her out of her vehicle with threat to light her up, she complied. He ordered her to move to the curbside, she complied. He ordered her to put down her phone, she compiled. Yet he still went ahead to put handcuffs on her and succeeded in provoking her enough and to the extent that made her to lose her minds and allegedly "kicked and punched the officer?" So query, since when did smoking in one's own vehicle become an offense? As far as Icheoku is concerned, the officer escalated the situation by not walking away and back to his patrol vehicle after the reason for initially stopping her was completed with the written warning which he issued her, period. 

Icheoku says any person in that lady's position, especially a black person, with the racial prejudicial records of white police officers against black people in America, including needlessly often stopping them in traffic, will be equally horn-mad angry, thus eliciting the altercation which took place. A clear case of a white police man feeling all powerful and out to confirm their race's usual stereotyping of the black person as very angry. What was his business inquiring if someone he just stopped and issued a written warning was irritated or did he expect her to be joyous? What was his business asking someone, who was minding her own business trying to contain her emotion with smoking a cigarette and in her own vehicle, her own very space, to put the cigarette out?  Why did the officer linger on after his duty was discharged and not move back to his patrol vehicle if not to goad her into additional trouble? Why did the officer not let her remain in her vehicle until a backup arrives? Icheoku is emphatic that the white police officer unduly overreached himself by continuing to irritate the lady with his nonsensical questions long after completing his reason for her stop and therefore forced the issue leading to the subsequent arrest. Icheoku is curious whether this officer expected her not to blow her fuse under the circumstance or who wouldn't?  It simply does not make sense but adds to the ongoing cat and mouse game that is white police officers and black people's relationship in America. 

Now she is dead and someone says she killed herself by hanging right inside the police cell? Icheoku is not buying this story neither is Icheoku stating the obvious; but warns that everyone and anyone messes with a Texan at his or her own peril. Icheoku says Texas scares the shitload out of many including Icheoku and is one of those flyover states for Icheoku as there is no need tempting faith being there. It was in the same Texas that two white men, sometime ago, hog-tied a black man behind their pickup hitch and dragged him through rural roads until he completely disintegrated. Yes, Texas is a scary place to be a blackman and now a black woman who was threatened with being lighted up ends up being lighted out, her lights permanently put out. White police officer Brian Encina, a rookie, eager to throw his weight around and over a black person, arrested a black lady for alleged "assault on a public servant". An assault which he personally provoked and now the lady is dead; committed suicide in a police holding cell after three days of being held without charging her to court? Icheoku says who is fooling who and whose version of the story should America believe; except that there is now only one version as the lady is dead and gone forever? RIP Sandra Bland.

PRESIDENT BUHARI'S WASHINGTON VISIT, ECLIPSED BY OTHER WORLD EVENTS.

Icheoku says on a day that would have been his to shine, the constellations conspired to simultaneously throw up so many other world events, more important than just a visiting black African president. That was the fate of President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria on a private visit to President Barack Obama of the United States of America. Except for the photo-ups and passive mention of it in the media, nobody outside the Nigerian community knew that a President of Nigeria named Muhammadu Buhari is in America visiting the White House. 

Icheoku states that despite what his management team would like for Nigerians back home to believe was an historic visit to the White House, it passed as a none event overall; as a near total media blackout of the event made many Americans ignorant of the visit, not that they cared anyway nor would care, regardless. Icheoku monitored the three major Networks - NBC Nightly News, CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley, ABC World Evening News with David Muir as well as Cables CNN, FOX and MSNBC to gauge the Americans interest in the President Muhammadu Buhari's visit to President Barack Obama and it was close to zilch. It did not make any headline, nor any extended coverage nor narrative either. 

But it is understandable as the visit is not a state visit but a private visit to President Barack Obama. Moreso, Nigeria is such a gravely damaged country which nobody is interested in, that it is going to take a miracle worker to burnish its image to the point that these heavily prejudiced White people with their crass racism, will start paying attention to it and what is happening therein. One Buhari personal visit to Barack ain't gonna cut it as the country's image is in the deep sewer and will need more than a mere laundry to make it shine again. Icheoku agrees that it is not President Muhammadu Buhari's fault, admitted the onus is now on him to try and repair the broken humpty-dumpty to whatever extent possible. But a very daunting task it is really indeed and one Buhari cannot and will not get it accomplished. It took a long time to get where it is and it will take a longer time to get it out. 

Icheoku says the PMB visit to Washington could not have happened at a worse time than when so many events, more attention-grabbing and of historical nature, are taking place simultaneously both in Washington DC and around the world. First, Cuba just flag-mounted in Washington DC, an American soil; re-opening their embassy for the first time since the 1961 diplomatic freeze between the two countries. Second, Islamic terrorists ISIS inspired and organized bombing attack in Turkey killed so many Turkish people and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed a punishing reiteration. Third, Iranian Nuclear Deal with the West was approved by the United Nations Security Council and Fourth, the economically-challenged and comatose Greece just reopened their banks.  All these left the whole watching world giddy with expectation on how all these unravelling events will eventually pan out. 

Now, this is the time President Muhammadu Buhari is visiting the White House and somebody please tell Icheoku that any serious news editor will assign more coverage to it or additional correspondents to the White House to cover such a visit in lieu of all these other developing wild-fire stories. Then add the racist pig Donald Trump's thumping of Senator John McCain's war hero status plus the Highway 10 viaduct linking Arizona and California that collapsed and you have a perfect storm against PMB's visit to Washington. 

But regardless, it was good that President Muhammadu Buhari was invited to visit like every other newly elected president of Nigeria usually is. The usual unspoken purpose, to read the riot act of his dos and don'ts and the expectations of the American government of his administration. Icheoku says to that extent of conforming to this somewhat established tradition of the American government inviting newly elected Nigerian leaders to the White House, the visit was mission accomplished; but there is nothing more to gloat about with President Muhammadu Buhari being invited to the White House. It is normal and to an extent routine and ordinary; so Nigerians, especially those Buharists and APC rabble rousers should not needlessly disturb the peace of Nigerians that PMB went to America, invited by President Barack Hussein Obama.  

Icheoku says the only two things that stood out from their Oval Office meeting were President Obama assuring that America is ready to discuss "how we can be helpful in addressing the issues that have held Nigeria down"; and President Muhammadu Buhari's saying that "we (Nigeria) will forever be grateful" for America's meddling in Nigeria's election. Anyway, Icheoku wishes President Muhammadu Buhari and his delegation a peaceful stay while their visit lasts and a safe flight back home to go start the heavy lifting that governance is and without any further delay or more ado. Goodluck and all the best to Team Buhari.

CHIBOK GIRLS, HAVE THEY BEEN BROUGHT BACK YET?

Icheoku says in the world of wheeling and dealing political shifting chairs, once an objective is realized, it is move on to the next agenda. Their whole objective, the Bring Back 'Their' Girls motley crew, is to get rid of President Goodluck Jonathan. Now that their wish have come through, their placards are all down and securely tucked away, out of sight and out of mind likewise the fate of those allegedly kidnapped school girls. Icheoku queries, are these placards and all the protestations down because the Chibok School Girls been found and brought back to their parents?