ATIKU: LEST WE FORGET.

ICHEOKU says were Nigeria a society that is destined to survive and thrive, the crooked and corrupt polygamist Abubakar Atiku will not stand a chance at running for an office, not even a dog catcher's, talkless of the presidency of the country. His records are there for any unbiased, discerning mind, to peruse and reach the same conclusion. 

But Nigerians are a very special breed of human beings, whose righteous indignation is often selectively predicated. Most times, they like to play the possum rather than confront an issue; and selectively choose to forget what they want to forget and to remember what they want to remember, depending on their mood. For them, the end always justifies the means; as they do not care nor give a damn about how the end was reached, once it suits their narrative and fulfills their mission objective. 

It is this situational astigmatism and selective lack of accountability, and making it up as they go attitude, and pick and choose as they elect, and the overall carefree disposition to life of Nigerians, that Abubakar Atiku is trying to cash in, on his quest for Aso Rock. Nigerians are also a very impatient people who hates to wait for anything to be fixed, as it should have been fixed since yesterday and tomorrow is rather too long. Both things are now proving a perfect storm for the current effort to yank President Muhammau Buhari out of Aso Rock. He couldn't keep all his election promises within 4 years, despite that it took the PDP 16 long years to achieve whatever they achieved; but an impatient society does not care nor give a damn and wants him gone since yesterday, as March 29, 2019 is rather too long a period to wait. 

All that is currently on some Nigerians mind is to send the Dracula of Daura back to his 150 gay cows in Daura, period. They are so impassioned with this desire, that nothing else makes any sense to them whatsoever; and they also do not care how the objective is met or achieved. To these 'Buhari Must Go" possessed Nigerians, it does not matter which vehicle is used in transporting Buhari back to Daura, they just want to get him there fast and without any further delay or dig-dallying. As far as they are concerned, anybody, even if it is the devil, is an acceptable conduit to realize their objective, provided Muhammadu Buhari is sent packing and out of Aso Rock come 2019. This is what is driving the current maniacal fervor, regardless of who replaces Buhari; as they have thrown every decorum, caution and circumspect out of the window, and stomped down on necessary qualifications that are usually required of a president. 

ICHEOKU prays that they are right and that they will not once again be burnt or feel used and discarded. It sounds too familiar to the "Anybody but Jonathan" fever that preceded the 2015 election and traveling down that path again is indeed too scary, a proposition. A matter made worse because the same guy that led them into the Buhari abattoir, is the same man they are now rooting for and you wonder the logic behind this. If Abubakar Atiku was such a discerning mind, what led him to foist Buhari on Nigeria just a few three short years ago; only to come now to pretend that the Buhari of 2014/5 was not the same Buhari of 1983/5. ICHEOKU says just positing the questions and hope to get some answers from those who are now fervently vested in the messiah-ship of Abubakar Atiku.

But ATIKULOOTED Nigerians could care less and have little to no regard at all, about who replaces Buhari or what becomes of a Nigeria that is once again handed over back to the same people who had Nigeria for 16 years but looted it dry and near bankruptcy. The records are they and ICHEOKU intend to excavate them in this lengthy treaties, so bear with ICHEOKU. It is not as if the period between 1999 to 2015 did not happen or was such an ancient history or that the records of it is not publicly available, for people to revisit and give it a serious comprehensive read either. 

But a society of anything goes and which does not frown at infra digs, is once again headed to the same cul-de-sac of gross mistakes and crass corruption, from where they were extricated and for merely three years plus now. Symptomatic of a battered wife syndrome, Nigerians are once again fighting to go back to the same choke-hold, which saw wanton abuse of power, disobedience to court orders and unmitigated corruption. They are trying to elect a  president based on their hearts' emotional touchy feely, and not using their heads, by first asking themselves some pertinent questions, especially the suitability or lack thereof of the candidate who they are now clamoring for. 

It was not too long a ago that Abubakar Atiku served Nigeria in his capacity as the Vice President to then President Olusegun Obasanjo. The memories of that malodorous eight long years in office is still fresh in many minds, especially of those Nigerians who cared enough to remember the ugly experience, and kept record of it; and who refused to fall victim to the confounding amnesia which is now afflicting millions of Nigerians. It was the sordid experience of the Obasanjo/Atiku's government from hell that forced Goodluck Jonathan to deploy the promise of a "Breath of Fresh Air" as his campaign mantra. But lest we forget, the same Abubakar Atiku, who tag-teamed with Olusegun Obasanjo, during the period under review is once again trying to cash in on Nigerians penchant for short memory, their ever forgetfulness, as he presents himself for election as the Nigeria's president. 

ICHEOKU says were Nigeria a civilized functioning country, Abubakar Atiku and Olusegun Obasanjo would still be in prison serving long prison sentences for the crimes against humanity which they both committed against Nigerians between 1999 and 2008.  ICHEOKU says therefore, falling for the Atiku's razzmatazz or biting the Atiku bait, will be the evidential height of this Nigerians' fabled notoriety for selective forgetfulness of past historical facts, especially when it suits them. Afraid of some inconvenient truths of what once was, this group of Nigerians also choose to ignore a Wole Soyinka's admonition that records are kept for a reason. So, with that as a foundation for this expose`, please join ICHEOKU as we now travel down the memory lane of a few short years ago, just for a refresher.

Some mind-numbed ATIKULOOTED vuvuzelas might argue that Olusegun Obasanjo was the president then and not Abubakar Atiku. To these fellas, ICHEOKU says the doctrine of Collective Responsibility and the duty to resign in protest, if you disagree with the policy direction and objective of a government, or did not see eye to eye with the president, inextricably yoked Abubakar Atiku to the government. He did not and failed to exercise any of the options which were available to him, and which would have otherwise extricated him from or absolved him of the blames of that government. 

Not even a vehement public protest or an outright resignation, which would have strongly suggested that what went down during the period under question were not his action nor had his approval. But the truth of the matter is that Abubakar Atiku was fully involved in the whole shebang; and he was on record, saying that he was the man in charge of things in that government, especially during the first term and that he even "mercifully" allowed Bola Tinubu to keep Lagos State because of their NADECO experience, otherwise it would have been a country wide sweep of an election by the PDP. Remember records are kept for a reason, lest we forget.

So, for staying put and not protesting or even resigning from the government of Obasanjo/Atiku, a reasonable inference could be made that Abubakar Atiku adopted, approved, participated and actively connived and contrived to achieve everything which  the government of Obasanjo/Atiku achieved and did within their eight long years in power. It is also a fair argument to input to Abubakar Atiku all of the lows and highs of that government, including their unbridled abuse of power and gross mismanagement of Nigeria, as was witnessed during the period under review. Therefore, every iota, modicum, scintilla or sliver of action of the Obasanjo/Atiku government, is entirely, technically attributable to Abubakar Atiku as his own act. So, it goes without saying that Abubakar Atiku is 100% responsible for all the credits and deficits of the Obasanjo/Atiku government between 1999 and 2008 and therefore Abubakar Atiku should be judged based on that record.

Lest we forget, when Abubakar Atiku and Olusegun Obasanjo took over power in 1999, the Naira exchanged for N78.99 to the American dollar and when they left office, the Naira  has plummeted to N247 to the dollar. 

Lest we forget, the same Abubakar Atiku alongside Olusegun Obasanjo ran one of the most brazen dictatorship which was masqueraded as democracy in Nigeria, where the executive completely swallowed up the legislature. Bribing the legislature with sacs of Ghana Must Go bags became rampant and an acceptable way of conducting government's business. Even ministers had to bribe the legislature before their Ministries could get adequate budgetary allocations. A case in point, which stood out, being the then Minister of Education Professor Fabian Osuji, who bribed the legislature with N50 million just to get enough allocation with which to run his Ministry. Lest we forget. 

Lest we forget, the National Congress during Obasanjo/Atiku government was completely emasculated, fettered and shackled; and was not allowed to operate freely as an independent co-equal branch of the government, where legislative leadership were incessantly removed and replaced at the pleasure of Aso Rock. The proverbial banana peel syndrome became a preferred means of the Obasanjo/Atiku government of affecting a desired legislative outcome, as any leader of either chambers, who will not play ball was summarily impeached and replaced by a more malleable one. Nigeria's legislature was completely subdued by this duo and it is on record that Abubakar Atiku was the hatchet man who was usually deployed by Obasanjo to affect the outcome which both of them desired and he did it with relish and glee. This is the same  man with such putrid record of intolerance and despotism that some Nigerians are now craving his presidency. Lest we forget. 

The matter became so rampant that the Senate saw more than five Senate presidents come and go just within the years both despots were in office. Lest we forget. Obasanjo and Atiku were laws unto themselves and they distributed such impunity and lawlessness with reckless abandon; using the army and all manners of security apparatchiks to visit wanton punishments on perceived enemies. Lest we forget. For this two, nobody else mattered in Nigeria except Obasanjo and Atiku; such that even a Chief of Army Staff, Victor Malu, was repeatedly disgraced and to the extent of burning down his village and demolishing his country home and supervised by their Minister of Defense TY Danjuma. 

Lest we forget, it was under Obasanjo/Atiku's government that the three branches of government in Nigeria were literary fused into one and made unitary; and operated from right inside Aso Rock, with power to decide who goes and who stays anywhere and in any position throughout Nigeria. The judiciary was completely muzzled, ditto the legislature and court orders were flagrantly disobeyed and human rights were violated with unbridled impunity. Recall that Obasanjo/Atiku government arrested MASSOB's Ralph Uwazulike and MEND's Asari Dokubo and held them in a dark, dank underground DSS dungeon and refused to honor or respect or obey all the courts rulings to secure their bail; and that it was not until Umaru Yar'Adua came to office that the two saw daylight. 

They were so many other Nigerians who shared similar fate and ICHEOKU received information on this with smuggled photographic evidence. It is on record too, that so many disaporan activists were put on a "Do Not Step into Nigeria" list by this very despotic government, including yours truly and this is a fact. ICHEOKU is not here to blow any trumpet but merely letting it all out, just in case Atiku visits America and this becomes the last oped about his suitability for office as ICHEOKU intends to honor the promise to end any further shinning of light on him if that visit happens. 

During the same reign of infamy of Obasanjo/Atiku government, peaceful demonstrations and protests were practically forbidden and banned in Nigeria; and those who dared were summarily vanquished by a heartless government and its very mean security agencies; whose only instruction was to, by all means necessary, not permit or allow any protest whatsoever on the streets of Nigeria, regardless of the reason for the protest and this was in a supposed democracy. Violators were were callously tear-gased, tased, indiscriminately bludgeoned with police batons, had their heads busted open with the butt of AK47s, kicked around, arrested and sometimes detained indefinitely without bail. It was during one of such heavy highhandedness that Chuba Okadigbo was murdered, Lest we forget. Yes, Dr Chuba Okadigbo, Oyi of Oyi, was murdered because he dared to exercise his freedom of expression, by the Obasanjo/Atiku despotic government. Aware that he was asthmatic, a murderous agent of the State applied nauseous gas directly at his nostrils, triggering an asthmatic attack which choked him to death. Lest we forget.

Communities in Nigeria were also forbidden from any agitation or protest whatsoever and were barred from protesting even the Obasanjo/Atiku's government and any attempt to disobey their government were met with brazen ruthlessness; and sometimes crushed to death. Yes, you heard ICHEOKU right that Obasanjo and Atiku summarily laid to to waste, the communities of Odi Bayelsa and Zaki Ibiam Benue. Lest we forget. Thousands of innocent Nigerians were wounded and murdered, their properties destroyed and their land laid desolate by the government led by Obasanjo and Atiku. Yet, an encore of this absurdity is what some unthinking Nigerians are clamoring for in their choice of Abubakar Atiku? Lest we forget. 

Even some State governors in their favored books developed their own messianic complex, including Anambra State Governor Mbadinuju, who had the then Onitsha Nigerian Bar Association chairman Barnabas Igwe and his beautiful pregnant wife butchered on the street of Onitsha and during daylight and walked away from such a heinous crime. Yes, you heard ICHEOKU right and the NBA cowered in great trepidation for fear of being the next victim. It was hellish and it was odious and it was under the watch of Obasanjo and Atiku, the same people that have once again ganged up and plotting evil against Nigerians. Mbadinuju was Atiku's loyalist and Atiku covered up for him; and shielded him from investigation and prosecution over the murder of a whole NBA chairman whose sin was merely criticizing the governor and fighting for the respect of human rights of Onitsha residents. This is the dark years which some brain-dead drunks are yearning for a re-live, really?

It was during the heartless regime of Obasanjo and Atiku that bombs went off at Ikeja Military Cantonment killing over 20,000 Nigerians. Olusegun Obasanjo visited the scene few days later and when survivors were complaining of thirst and that no government agency has come to their aid or given them even water to drink, Obasanjo berated and scolded them, admonishing them that they should even be grateful and happy that he bothered enough to even make the visit and angrily went back into his car and screeched off. These are records of the government led by Olusegun Obasanjo and Abubakar Atiku and which some Nigerians are somewhat praying for a comeback; and you wonder what manner of people are these Nigerians, the ATIKULOOTED vuvuzelas, that is.

Lest we forget, it was during the Obasanjo/Atiku government that a sitting Attorney General and Minister of Justice of Nigeria, the venerable Cicero of Oke Ona, Bola Ige, was murdered and till today, Nigerians have chosen to believe that 12 MOPOL security guards, who were protecting the chief law officer of the land, will all go to lunch or dinner break at the same time and within the same exact window of their collective absence, assassins struck and magically disappeared into the thin air, really? None of these security officers has even been questioned, arrested or prosecuted or even interrogated to at least try and ascertain on whose orders they acted by clearing way for the assassins to gain entry and kill Bola Ige while he was having dinner with his entire family. 

It is on record that his wife Justice Atinuke Ige never survived from the broken heart which she suffered watching her husband of many years hacked to death at their dinner table. Query, who else in authority could have overridden the security details of the country's chief law enforcement office, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice of the Federation, other than the person above him? And who else was above the Minister of Justice other than the President and Vice President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo and Abubakar Atiku. The records are there; Lest we forget.

Of all such State sponsored killings in Nigeria during the Obasanjo/Atiku infamous government, Harry Marshall's gruesome murder in Asokoro Abuja was simply hair raising. His assassins numbering about twelve men who are suspected to be members of a certain Nigeria's security unit, arrived his residence at about 11pm while the guy was already fast asleep, but was woken up by the noise. He contacted the police on his phone to report the intrusion into his compound; even his neighbors severally called the police as well; and there was a police station just within 1 mile from his residence, but no help came. He was inside his armored door bedroom and when the bandits could not smash through the door, they climbed in through the ceiling and butchered him. 

The whole macabre incident lasted for nearly 45 minutes, speaking of Jamal Khashoggi styled killing; and ten minutes following their departure, two Hilux pickup filled with MOPOLS belatedly arrived to put up their usual show of firing into the the air. ICHEOKU says please, let somebody with a better logical thought please help explain this to ICHEOKU and other curious minded people, who are finding it extremely difficult to figure out till date. Then add Dikkibo etc.  But the same participant of that inglorious days is who Nigerians are chanting his praises now and wants to elect their president. Interesting. Lest we forget.

This two brigands Obasanjo and Atiku ran a gestapo government which kidnapped a sitting Anambra State's Governor Chris Ngige, the current Minister of Labor. The same despots arbitrarily imposed martial laws on States, removing elected State governors and in their places appointed their friends as administrators and this was in a democracy? Ekiti State's Governor Ayo Fayose, Plateau State's Governor Dariye and one other governor were victims of this arbitrariness as they summarily removed from office under such a ruse of emergency; just because they dared open their mouths against the Obasanjo/Atiku government. This rascality and wanton abuse of power and utter disregard for separation of powers in a democracy is what some numbskull Nigerians are rooting for again and praying for a rerun and giddy about reliving the experience, really? Lest we forget.

It is on record too that between 1999 to 2008, no governor in Nigerian dared challenge the despots Obasanjo and Atiku as they held sway as a government of untouchables which is unaccountable to no one. Governorship and Local Government Chairmanship candidates stopped campaigning for election once they get a green light and seal of approval from Aso Rock. ICHEOKU is fully aware of this because a personally known candidate who was recommended through a third party got to Aso Rock a little too late, as they had already chosen a candidate prior. During this regime of infamy, any candidate for any office in Nigeria must first seek and secure the approval of Obasanjo/Atiku government before they can even venture to buy their nomination forms; because doing otherwise was merely an exercise in futility. 

Elections were predicated on candidates being in the good books of Aso Rock and they so micro managed elections in Nigeria that even a Local Government chairman and supervisors had to be signed off on before they can be "elected" into office. There was no opposition party or politician in tolerated anywhere in Nigeria, that the PDP was ice boasting of going to remain in power for 66 years. ICHEOKU was did an article questioning the rational of the number '66", teasing the then Vincent Ogbulafor why not make it 100 years or even eternity. This is the experience some Nigerians are suddenly rooting for again and you wonder what exactly are Nigerians' brains made of, mush may be? Lest we forget. 

It was the Obasanjo/Atiku government that deployed every and all manners of despotic cohesion, including confiscating a State's statutory revenue allocation from the Federal Government, just to punish an errant State governor who refused to dance to their tune, no matter how repugnant and repulsive it sounded. Then Lagos State government led by Governor Bolaji Tinubu had their statutory allocation seized by Obasanjo and Atiku simply because Governor  Bola Tinubu would not play ball, capitulate and allow the PDP to also overrun his State. For more than four years, no Federal Allocation was released to Lagos State by Obasanjo/Atiku until President Umaru Yar'Adua came to power and released the funds to Lagos State. Lest we forget. 

This is the reason Oba Akiolu of Lagos does not see eye to eye with Olusegun Obasanjo and by extension Abubakar Atiku, who he has bared from visiting his palace during his campaign tours. It is on record that Abubakar Atiku once boasted how he merely permitted Bola Tinubu to keep Lagos State because of their NADECO experience, otherwise he would have also 'WON" the State for the PDP. The same guy who engineered all these monumental abuses and pathetic nonsenses, is who some brain-dead Nigerians are saying come and be our president. Lest we forget. 

The same heartless Obasanjo/Atiku's government, which did not care a hoot about the welfare of Nigerian citizens; but held themselves up as demigods, above who, there was no other one and which was accountable to no one, and they viciously ensured this and ruthlessly, is the same people Nigerians are falling over themselves to come and rule them again. It knocks out the wind out of the argument that battered wives often get attracted to their abusive husbands. Lest we forget, Obasanjo and Atiku's government nearly killed democracy in Nigeria. 

They never conducted actual elections in Nigeria, but allocated offices as if they were sharing dinner plates. Election results were awarded in Aso Rock and most times long before the Election Day and before even INEC could finish collating election results. But unfortunately the name Maurice Iwu has been magically been erased out of the minds of Nigerians; and the same fella who engineered all the shenanigans is now being touted as Nigerians' now messiah, the horse mounted knight in shinning armor who has come to rescue Nigeria, really? ICHEOKU says rescue Nigeria from what or plunge Nigeria back to their pillage and brigandage of between 1999 to 2008.

Lest we forget, it was also during the same sad period of governance in Nigeria that students of higher institutions, their lecturers and staff regularly went home as a result of the government's intentional act to frustrate them out of public universities and colleges. Students spent more time at home than the schools which their parents and relatives paid for to go and learn, just because Obasanjo and Atiku wanted to establish their own private universities and have them forage from the frustrated public universities' students. Both men were in public office and using their public power to pursue their own personal businesses. Lest we forget, Obasanjo and Atiku killed public universities in Nigeria so that their own private universities can thrive. Yet, this knucklehead is who Nigerians are fawning over to be their president. 

Lest we forget, it was under Obasanjo/Atiku government, that now Governor of Kaduna State and then Minister of FCT, Nasiru Ahmed el Rufai's bulldozers, were specifically target driven and dispatched to homes and businesses of critics and oppositions of the government in Abuja, and had them leveled to the ground; and most times without notice of any violation of municipal ordinances nor sufficient time given to abate manufactured nuisances or to conform to the extant "laws" which they allegedly violated. 

It was on record that one of such victims was sleeping at night with his wife and children when they were rudely awoken by headlights and menacing sounds of bulldozers eating up their fence, prelude to their main house. They had to escape to their neighbors house in their pajamas and night gowns with nothing else taken out of their multi million Naira home. Lest we forget. There was one case where an already paved road was literary excavated just because a government critic who attracted the construction of the road prior, who later became a critic, lived on the street, down the road. A very petty and mean despicable human excrement who would be serving long prison sentences were Nigeria a civilized and functioning society. 

Lest we forget, it was under the Obasanjo/Atiku's government that Igbo businesses in Nigeria were specifically targeted and marked for complete liquidation. Slok Airlines, Sosoliso Airlines, Hallmark Bank, Savannah Bank and Ibeto Cement, just to mention a few, all fell victims to this ethnic-business cleansing. Nnamdi Ozobia of Niger Docks was also not spared either, as he was fired and his groomed Niger Docks forcibly acquired by Abubakar Atiku under the guise of government privatization. It is also on record that Atiku paid pennies on the dollar for the self auctioned off Niger Docks. 

It is also on records that while Igbo owned businesses were being eliminated, those owned by other tribes flourished, as the Obasanjo/Atiku's government supported them by making some of them monopolies with sole import and distributorship of certain lucrative commodities, Dangote to mention just one. These other businesses also enjoyed mouth watering concessions and tax breaks as well as waivers of import duties, while Ndigbo businesses suffered under a well planned out ethnic-business genocide, led by Abubakar Atiku, just to slow them down. Femi Otedola also benefited from this skewed partiality, becoming an overnight billionaire just because Obasanjo and Atiku said so. Lest we forget.

Assassinations of Nigerians also grew exponentially during the Obasanjo/Atiku's government and no political opponent or dissenter was spared. Their thirst for blood  grew so much that some individual targets were eliminated by bringing down and crashing airplanes; killing off opponents, trouble makers and perceived enemies of the government. Plane crashes became the order of the day in Nigeria and their frequency became unheard of. A plane carrying the then Sultan Maccido of Sokoto, who Obasanjo/Atiku government had invited to Abuja, was enroute back to Sokoto, with over 100 Sokoto princes and officials when it crashed in a manner suggestive of sabotage, killing everyone on board. No investigation was conducted, case closed. 

There was Sosoliso Airlines plane which was crashed in Port Harcourt, killing tens of students on holidays returning from Abuja as well as many others, just  because some of their targeted enemies target were onboard the plane. Then the Mambila Plateau military plane crash in which 18 top Army Generals were summarily, conveniently wasted. Then another plane flew into the Atlantic Ocean and another one into the Lagos swamp. These incessant plane crashes suddenly became a thing of the past following the end of their administration,  but Nigerians choose not to ask pertinent questions. 

It is also on record that Ibrahim Babangida once questioned the motive behind the frequent plane crashes and insinuated that he will investigate them if he becomes president. What did the government of Obasanjo/Atiku do, they arrested Mohammed Babangida on a false charge of some monetary transaction and forced Babangida to abort his plans to run for the presidency. This is the gestapo government which Abubakar Atiku engineered in Nigeria, Lest we forget. There were other atrocious crimes which were committed under the watch of Obasanjo and Atiku, which are simply too many to be itemized here. Yet, the same guy who actively participated in such viciousness is who some Nigerians are singing his praises as their now new messiah, who will bring heaven on earth for them and you wonder what is wrong with these Nigerians. 

ICHEOKU says a man who does everything and anything just for his own personal interest and whose conscience is frequently determined by his present circumstances; and before whom everything is always good by Atiku until it affects Atiku personally, is not a man any thinking society should trust with their common destiny. This guy was for everything and all things Olusegun Obasanjo did and approved of them, signing off on them and adopting them as his own co-acts, until Obasanjo threatened his personal interest of becoming Nigeria's president. First, he moved against Obasanjo's second term but failed in his attempt to upstage Obasanjo and take over the seat of power. Obasanjo was forced on his knees and prostrated before Atiku, and pled to be allowed a second term. This triggered the conflict-filled second term of theirs which Nigerians witnessed during their second term and which nearly grounded everything governance in Nigeria.

It led to Obasanjo's desired third term, in his attempt to punish Atiku and stop him from ever becoming president. But when Obasanjo could not pull that off, he decided to impose Yar'Adua on Nigeria and ensured that Atiku will never fulfill his dream of ever succeeding him. It is on record, both video and audio, that Olusegun Obasanjo severally vowed that Atiku will never be president in Nigeria as long as he, Obasanjo, shall live; signing the vow off with "OVER MY DEAD BODY" shall Abubakar Atiku become president of Nigeria.' For a great grand father to swear an oath about a man, shows that he knew something about the character of that person that allowing him to be president will be detrimental to Nigeria. 

But Nigerians seemed not to be concerned about this telling oath. ICHEOKU says emphatically that the ruse of fighting against a third term was not the stick that broke the camel's back as the problem started a long time ago following private communications that Obasanjo will not allow Atiku to succeed him. Also, that there were  no elections in Nigeria during the Obasanjo/Atiku regime is also a fact, including none which secured victory for Umaru Yar'Adua, which even Yar'Adua later admitted and apologized for. 

Again, Atiku also tried to upstage Goodluck Jonathan and take over the presidency; but when he failed, he took sides with Muhammadu Buhari and successfully engineered the ouster of Jonathan from Aso Rock, simply because, according to Atiku, Atiku agreed with the Northern agenda that power must change hands and shift to the North. Further, as with Obasanjo, everything was honky dory between Atiku and President Muhammadu Buhari for more than three long years of a four year presidency, until the president decided to run for a second term; and again the selectively righteous indignation of Abubakar Atiku kicked into an overdrive. 

Meanwhile everything Buhari did in the past three years was approved and loved by Atiku and Nigerians know their experience within the said period, but not Atiku; because Atiku does not care, provided his interest is preserved. Abubakar Atiku who has no conscience or character or core nor conviction, decided once again to escape from the Buhari's shadow, all in his eternal quest to answer Mr President. He returned to the PDP which he had deserted from and sabotaged their President Goodluck Jonathan's second term bid; and forcibly dollar-twisted the hands of the PDP delegates to Port Harcourt convention, which turned into a sleazy bureau du change operation and purchased the party's presidential ticket. Lest we forget.

So, what manner of man is this and why are Nigerians not perturbed by such a fluke, who only worries about himself and could care less about the general interest of the people; and who will go to any extent to achieve the Atiku's selfish objective. Why must Abubakar Atiku approvingly support every infra-dig of any president and even participate in perpetuating some of them, until it begins to affect him personally? Abubakar Atiku fought against Obasanjo only when Obasanjo refused to yield him the presidency of Nigeria, which he later spinned as fighting against Obasanjo's third term desire. Again Abubakar Atiku started fighting against Buhari only when Buhari did not stick to their earlier agreement to serve only one tern and thus became a stumbling block for Abubakar Atiku's dreamt presidency. ICHEOKU says if selfishness has a human face or definition, Abubakar Atiku is definitely it; and this is why ICHEOKU is so impassioned with the drive to STOP ATIKU and nothing else. 

Nigerians must therefore wake up to their senses and be wary of such a fair weather candidate, because for the right price, he might sell Nigeria to any highest bidder and the Chinese are lurking in wait to make Atiku an offer he cannot refused. Unlike Rotimi Amaechi who once said that his friends knows that he does not like money, Abubakar Atiku's love of money knows is legendary and knows no bounds that he can even go to the devil in his attempt to amass more. Please Nigerians, don't be fooled by Atiku's well orchestrated pretentiousness; nor be tempted by the hardship in the land to do something as stupid as playing a Russia's roulette with your common destiny. 

Ever asked yourselves who is this so desperate just because of the interest of others or have you seen anyone helping a truck pusher with his laden? ICHEOKU has no personal gratification from this effort, has not asked nor demanded nor received any; just that Atiku is not the right person to succeed Buhari and the records are there for those still lucid to see. Please avoid the temptation because if you don't, you will be sorry. To regret what was otherwise avoidable is the most foolish thing anyone can do. Who will police Atiku, in the unfortunate event he magically becomes president? He purchased the presidential ticket with his money, after walking back to the PDP to hijack the it from people who remained loyal while he was hopping around other parties. So, if he could pull it off, why would he listen or respect anyone to tell him what to do as president? Lest we forget.

ICHEOKU therefore calls on Nigerians, before they pull the lever in this Election 2019, to thoroughly think through their options and smartly weigh their choices and cleverly too. Also, to endeavor to avoid another buyer's beware and so soon after the other buyer's remorse that is currently in occupation of Aso Rock. George W. Bush once said that fool me once, shame on you; but fool me twice, shame on me. Nigerians must not succumb for the second time, to the cunning political manipulation of another Fulani man, who is deploying every decoy and deceits known to man, just to get hold of power. 

ICHEOKU is not a fan of either Aiku or Buhari; but maintains that between the two people, there is no difference; hence the lighter sentence of 4 years is to be preferred than an extended 8 longer years of more of the same. You will also note that ICHEOKU has not raised the issue of his polygamous lifestyle as that is just an aside and not a very important issue in the campaign to STOP ATIKU. Please Nigerians do not let your heart and flimsy emotion get the better hold of you; engage your logical cortex. Please remember that ICHEOKU has a choice not to bother with this election campaign, but fatherland is on the cusp of being handed to a very dangerous man and it is for real. It is one pull back from the cliff's edge which Nigerians can do and ICHEOKU urges them to please do. Atiku, NOT GOOD FOR NIGERIA. 

OPC FOUNDER FASEHUN: DEAD AT 83 YEARS, ADIEU.

ICHEOKU says he was a medical doctor who got tired of the injustice in Nigeria, particularly as it affected his Yoruba Southwest, and decided to do something about it. Alongside the current Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland Ganiyu Adams, they formed the Oduduwa Peoples Congress, an armed militia to battle the Nigeria government and/or defend their Yoruba people from the government's gangsterism. 

He did his part and now he is gone to be with his ancestors. ICHEOKU appreciates him for having the courage to at least try, and for this, his legend lives on and he lives on in the memories of those who loved him, whose interest he sought to protect and protected at a great personal risk to his life. Dr Fredrick Fasehun was 83 years old and died of old age related infirmities. May his fighting soul now rest. Adieu Doc.

PRESIDENT GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH: GONE TO BE WITH HIS WIFE.

ICHEOKU says he was the man's man; an alpha male, who achieved so much within his long  well lived life. He was an aviator, a politician, an oil man, a director of the Central Intelligence Agency, a Vice President, a president and also an elder statesman extraordinaire. He was a husband, a father of six children with five surviving him, a grandfather of 17 children and a great grand father of 10. He was a member of so many associations and clubs, but above all, he enjoyed the unique membership of the ultra exclusive and privileged club of former American presidents. 

In short, President George Herbert Walker Bush lived it really up, way up there in the stratosphere of human endeavors and accomplishments. Indeed he truly lived a good life of both service to fatherland and great personal achievements. He also enjoyed the honor of being also a father to a president and two governor; surpassing President Quincy Adams, with who he shares the singular honor of being both a president and father of president, by also being a father of two governors, one of which took a step further by also becoming a president. 

The 41st president of the United States of America, President George Herbert Walker Bush was married to wife Barbara Pierce Bush for 73 years and was in public service for 53 years. He lived to a good old age of 94 years and died of old age related infirmities. To the bereaved Bush family, ICHEOKU extends our condolences and to the departed, may he now rest. Adieu GHWB.

PRESIDENT GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH: DEAD AT 94, ADIEU

ICHEOKU says he has gone to be with his heartthrob of 73 years and together they can continue spending their life lived with love in the other side. ICHEOKU says was surprised that the former president even lived out his wife Barbara and for eight long months, after being inseparably together for that long. President George Herbert Walker Bush etched his name in the annals of history as to have indeed lived. May his soul now rest. Adieu GHWB.

MOGHALU: THE RIGHT MAN FOR THE JOB, MOST PRESIDENTIAL OF THEM ALL.

ICHEOKU says if there is a magic wand to wave to make Nigerians a civilized and thinking people, a people who indeed truly loves themselves and their country and who desire the best for their country's leadership, ICHEOKU will gladly deploy that power in favor of Kingsley Moghalu; for Nigerians to rise above their peculiar hamstrings and various other mundanities and elect him their next president come 2019. 

But unfortunately such a wishful thinking does not always come true, the reason they are merely a make believe, a wishful thinking. ICHEOKU listened to the guy for the very first time a few days ago and has also ran a quick background check on him and now reached a conclusion that a Messiah is indeed knocking on Nigerians' door to be let into Aso Rock. But whether such a fantastically corrupt and convoluted people will hearken to Kingsley Moghalu's "send me plea" to their clarion call of "who shall we send" to Aso Rock, is entirely up in the air. 

Kingsley Moghalu is in every inch, material and particular, very presidential. He looks the part; he is savvy; he is erudite; he is intelligent; he is educated; he is well travelled; he is globally exposed; he is eloquent; he is knowledgeable; he is nicely well mannered; he is presentable and sightly to sore eyes; he is urbane; he has the right decorum and posture, admitted he could use some muscle toning to firm up and improve his posture a little more. His presidential gravitas is also not questionable and he looks like an excellent communicator; a charmer of minds which will be helpful in his conduct of international relations as well as cordial relationship with other branches of government, especially the legislature. Such a cordiality will be in the over-all interest of the Nigerian public as it will help make governance easier and better.

Mr Kingsley Moghalu is the best of all the candidates who have presented themselves for office and currently running for the opportunity to be elected president of Nigeria in 2019. But unfortunately, Nigeria is not yet a civilized country and her citizens do not think nationally nor globally in matters of electioneering politics; and they do not always engage their cerebral cortex in matters of politics and elections. As always, tribe and religion usually get the better part of them as they are guided not by what the candidate is bringing to the presidency; but where the candidate comes from, and whether or not he or she is a member of their religious cult. 

Nigeria is also a fantastically corrupt society where the citizens/electorates expect to be paid upfront for their votes, aware that once the politician gets into office, they will be forgotten; and all pre-election promises made to them will automatically be canceled. This is why Nigerian electorates always collect bribes from politicians and in all forms and manners, way ahead of elections; including cash, gifts, food, motorcycles, bicycles, clothing etc, because that is all they will ever hope and expect to get for their effort and votes in electing their politicians into office. 

Unfortunately, the campaign of Kingsley Moghalu will be gravely handicapped by these extraneousness and his run for the presidency of Nigeria encumbered, not by his lack of qualification but by a people who will vote their stomach infrastructures and what their religious mentors told them. This will most likely prove fatal to his current effort, otherwise he is the president Nigerians have been waiting for, dreaming for, praying for and in fact their prayer-answered president, ever since Nigeria came into being in 1960.  ICHEOKU says so many other countries in Africa as well as the greater world, will jump and grab such an opportunity to elect a president who understands what need to be done to right the ship of the State, turn it around and steer it back into a rightful and correct course. He articulated so many things which will help Nigeria get back on the right tract and hopefully help it reposition on course towards so many achievable laurels. 

ICHEOKU particularly likes his plan to help collapse the 36 States structures into only six regional governments; a position which ICHEOKU previously canvassed in few articles many moons ago. Yes, it is a true, Nigeria does not need that many States since majority of them are not viable, nor self sustaining; but useless avenues for some local political lords to hold sway and waste money on useless bureaucracies and self serving generosities. He also articulated correctly what policies that work in other countries, including America, where States control their resources and just pay taxes on them to the Federal/Central government, whose responsibility will only be limited to areas of defense, foreign relations, monetary regulations and other sundry list as may be permitted it by the truly federated regional units. 

ICHEOKU agrees with him that the needless intrusive overreach of the Federal government on matters involving States is a big leg-chain which must be curbed, if not totally eliminated. He also spoke about other things which ICHEOKU finds progressive enough, including freeing up the entrepreneurial spirits of Nigerians and set them free to operate and thrive in whatever business calling they desire to go into. To do this, banks have to be encouraged or even mandated to free their stashed money from their vaults for soft loans, especially long term loans, which industries will require to operate with. 

The government can also float loans and savings banks to help with micro financing and other investments related loans to help put money into the hands of Nigerians, who have ideas on what to do to flourish; because when they do, they will be in a position to employ others as their businesses continues to expand and thus help absorb the millions of unemployed Nigerians looking for something to do that will help keep them alive and well. Then add improved road networks and general transportation, as well as adequate power supply and Nigerians can transform Nigeria into a competitive economy that will be globally envied. Of course security will be improved with each regional government running their regional police force and other security agencies; while the Central government will maintain a federal police with specific duties including federal crimes such as banking fraud and matters of inter regional crimes. 

Anyway, what is possible is simply too good to be wished away; except that Nigerians need a thinking and intelligent president to have this mission, accomplished. Kingsley Moghalu is a perfect choice and the right fit for the job, but unfortunately, not in the present Nigeria as is presently constituted. The mentality that believes that Enoch Adeboye and his fellow scriptural hustlers have a direct telephone line to God and that their tribe must produce the president, is not the type that will evaluate Kingsley Moghalu fairly to find him qualified for the office. 

Possibly, Kingsley Moghalu came a little bit too early for Nigeria or Nigeria is too way back stuck in the mire and left in the dust to appreciate the great opportunity which he represents. What another missed opportunity this will also turn out to be; but hey, it is possible that the curse of the black-man might be affecting the most populous black country in the world in more ways than anyone could previously have imagine; otherwise Kingsley Moghalu should be elected President come 2019. ICHEOKU says would have worked heart and sinew out to help make this possible, but not in a deaf and dumb society of too many tribal and religious bigots, whose neurons are apparently not firing correctly nor working properly well. SAD.

MY TRANSITION HOURS: A PSEUDOLOGIA FANTASTICA - ZAINAB ABIOLA

"Goodluck Jonathan's "My Transition Hours" is a pseudologia fantastica, a monumental manipulation of historical facts and figures. The claim by Jonathan that former US President Barack Obama and ex-UK Prime Minister David Cameron interfered with the country’s 2015 election is “ludicrous. Jonathan did not want to believe that Nigerian voters swept him out of power because of his gross incompetence and ineptitude. I think the only option left for Jonathan is to plead with God and Nigerians for forgiveness and until we forgive him, he should remain in his purgatory of lethargy. 

No amount of write-up can erase the fact that he took this great nation for granted. The indeprecabilis question for Jonathan to answer is "what did he do with the power Nigerians entrusted him with?" Did he ameliorate the sufferings of Nigerians or even the marginalized Niger Deltans? Did he even put drinking water in his own village? Are Jonathan’s village mansions accessible by road? Why does he charter helicopters to travel to his own village? Jonathan said corruption is not stealing and thereafter flagged off the looting spree of the treasury, which ultimately plunged Nigeria into recession when he left. Jonathan will go down in history as Nigeria’s worst political mistake." - Zainab Duke-Abiola.

NIGERIAN ARMY LOSES IN NORTHEASTERN NIGERIA: UNFORTUNATE AND REGRETTABLE.

ICHEOKU says it is the unspoken tragedy of a military destroyed by successive governments, many of which, intentionally and purposefully, undermined the military to make it impossible for them to overthrow their governments and thus put an end to military incursions into politics through coup de tats. It did not start today and it will not be fixed overnight; and gradually, an under equipped, under trained and highly demoralized and nearly factionalized Nigerian army cannot be the best fighting force it was used to be in Africa or which anyone could expect them to be. It is rather unfortunate as it is regrettable that the clueless Nigerian politicians, like Emperor Nero, are partying while the only thing that is still holding the glue of Nigeria together and in place, is burning and unraveling like a candle; and you wonder which country will these thieving politicians prey on once the military falls victim to their ineptitude and wicked deprivation of the army what they needed to do their job precisely and professionally. 

Any number of soldiers lost in a battle field is a number too many and these brave men and women ought not to die, especially not in the hands of ragtag terrorists urchins, who are hellbent on decimating and destroying Nigeria. So, ask yourselves, what becomes of Nigeria should this last hope and last bastion of Nigeria's general defense falls. This is the reason every Nigerian should see the tragedy that befell those brave and courageous soldiers in their fight against Boko Haram Islamist terrorists, as a personal tragedy, because in them does our collective safety as a people and as a county rests. They need to be supported, prayed for and encouraged but not derided because Nigeria will cease to exist the day there is no Nigerian military to defend and protect the sovereign entity called Nigeria. Also is it possible that the same foreign interests who engineered the Jonathan loss of the last election are once again behind the latest insurgency in their attempt to once again influence the coming election outcome?

ICHEOKU's heart bleeds and ICHEOKU's mind broods and moans for the tragedy that took place in Bornu State, which saw nearly a company wiped out, alongside their commanding officer. ICHEOKU calls on the authorities in Abuja to set up a commission of inquiry over the tragic incident, to find out what exactly actually happened and how to prevent a repeat occurrence in the future. It is indeed mind boggling how a professional army of one, trained and equipped to overwhelm enemies of Nigeria, could sustain such a high number of loss of its soldiers, and without any counter action against the terrorists.  ICHEOKU says whether their mission was compromised and sabotaged by some insider informants, who knew about the planned mission and tipped off the Boko Haramites, who waylaid the advancing soldiers and killed them all off, nobody knows and hopefully such a commission will be able to make a determination about this. 

ICHEOKU respects anyone who could be so selfless as to put his or her life on the line and in defense of others; and hereby urges the Nigerian government to provide the Nigeria military with all and whatever they need but currently lacks to help them do the job at hand. They must be supported by all means to help them mission accomplish their current mission to root out those Boko Haram terrorists and solve the insurgency problem militating against Nigeria, particularly the Northwestern Nigeria Bornu State, once and for all. Imagine, if they could face such a huge challenge now pitied against an ordinary terrorist group, what will become of them should a well trained and equipped foreign country's military invade Nigeria. It is sad and it is lamentable the level of unpreparedness being exhibited by the Nigerian military in the fight against Boko Haram terrorists and their command and control cadre seems oblivious of the damage to their reputation which this non abating and never ending Boko Haram insurgency is causing to it. 

ICHEOKU says is not here to apportion blame or to hold anyone in particular responsible for what happened or to lay the blame for the latest loss of so many soldiers on anyone's footsteps, because the problem proceeded the current government and also the one before it. 

Ibrahim Babangida is the person responsible for messing up the once fierce fighting force called the Nigeria military, in his failed attempt to perpetuate himself in office. Three times did he wipe off a crop of Nigerian military officers under the guise of quelling military coup detats. Also 365 Nigerian Army Majors were killed through a plane crash in Ejigbo, all in his attempt to keep a lid on the military. One of the victims of that plane crash, a captain who was just promoted to a Major few weeks to that crash, was someone known to ICHEOKU. May the soul of Major Mba and his 364 other colleagues and course mates continue to rest in peace, however difficult that may be; because a soul so violently taken cannot really find peace as long as their killer still breathes. First there was the Mamman Vasta alleged coup that swept away so many military officers and personnels. Then come the Gideon Orka coup which saw many more officers and personnels once again wasted by the same evil genius resident of Minna Hilltop. The list of his victims went on, including individual soldiers who were prematurely retired and thrown out of the military for no just cause, thus rendering their training and beneficial use to the country useless. 

Then Olusegun Obasanjo happened on the stage and continued the fallowing in the military that the military was nearly completely hollowed out, as he compulsorily retired so many young military officers and corp who were the backbone of the military and still had a lot to offer to the country, under what some Northerners termed ethnic cleansing of the military of Northern military officers and personnels. These soldiers were laid off despite their youth and training and of course their courage, which is needed and necessarily required of anyone whose job is facing bullets and enemy's fire. It was probably politically expedient for Obasanjo to do what he did then as his admirers might argue, because he feared military coups. But today, Nigeria is now paying the hefty price for lack of real seasoned officers directing affairs of the military and preparing younger soldiers on how to professional charge into battle with caution, swiftness to overwhelm the enemy and of course preceded with recognizance. 

While other countries allow their fighting officers to remain in their military for as long as they can still hold their own; in Nigeria, an officer on who millions was spent training and seasoning for battles, can so easily be swept out of the military and for no just tangent cause, but due to tribal and religious nonsensical and fear of military coup. ICHEOKU still recalls like it was yesterday, the fate which Victor Malu suffered in the hands of Olusegun Obasanjo and his Minister of Defense TY Danjuma, just for no reason other than their being vindictive and petty. How do you expect a serving army chief to still be loyal when you burn down his country home. Anyway, Nigerians must try not to lose the only thing they still have and could call their own - their military as morals are very low and some of the soldiers feel like they are not being appreciated and they are dying for nothing. 

That Goodluck Jonathan caved in to undue pressure of Muritala Nyako's cries of genocide and removed COAS Ihejirika was yet another tragedy that befell the military.  The guy was in the process of fully repositioning and stabilizing the army, into becoming its former fighting force of reckon in Africa, a military which liberated Liberia, Senegal, Gambia,  using ECOMOG, as well as so many other flash-points globally, that the Nigerian army was feared and respected, when he was unceremoniously removed from office. But today, many are wondering what happened to that fearsome awesome Nigerian fighting army of yore which other African nations admired but feared. What became of the army that once chased out the French military supported Cameroonian Gendarmes out of the Bakassi Peninsular. How has the mighty fallen? ICHEOKU says the military must be placed above and beyond politicization, because if not, the country known as Nigeria will cease to exists. Therefore such unpalatable balkanized thinking of the Nigerian Army of One, as an army of Fulani or army of Yoruba or army of Igbo must be avoided like leprosy, regardless of who is in Aso Rock. 

ICHEOKU is saddened beyond belief at the massacre that took place and prays that both the families of the fallen soldiers, as well as their armed colleagues in uniforms, their fellow uncompromising patriots, should find the fortitude to bear such a heavy loss. ICHEOKU says will remember them in prayers and urges Nigerians to please cease and desist from the blame game. At least, respect their memories and for once mourn their loss together as a country of one, whose service men sacrificed their lives for their general well-being and well fair. Enough of the bastardization of the memories of the fallen with all those ill commentaries and gory videos and pictures. These are fellow country men, sons, brothers, boyfriends, lovers, husbands, fathers, uncles and relatives of fellow Nigerians. 

It is so petty to diminish their ultimate sacrifices by relaying their bloodied bodies the way some of you have been doing. It is callous and it is hurtful; and portrays you as an unfeeling cur. Please show some respect for the dead; be circumspect and exercise your discretion more reasonably and more rationally, putting yourself in the shoes of the bereaved, whose wards are being so displayed like road kills and pieces of macabre artworks in a gory exhibition. ICHEOKU says may God welcome their souls and bless their bereaved ones, both family and the military and give them the strength to cope facing such adversity. They answered the ultimate call while bravely facing the danger of Boko Haram terrorists and for this, Nigerians should remain eternally grateful. It shall be well IJN. May God heal their loved ones. 

MY TRANSITION HOURS: A BOOK OF COWARDICE BY GOODLUCK JONATHAN.

ICHEOKU says but for this guy's crass, clueless ineptitude, as well as his Tin-man/Scarecrow's level of pitiable, wimpy cowardice, he would be completing his second term in office by now and also, Nigerians would have been spared and saved from the unmitigated disaster that is the bloody skeletal effigy in Aso Rock. But his linguine spine got the better part of him and he surrendered the PDP's presidency to a man who has been three times severally defeated in the past and who had taken a retirement from politics, but was urged on by some political and economic vultures to come out of his retirement and they used him to get hold of the Nigeria's treasury as well as the political structure. 

President Muhammadu Buhari was three times in the past rejected by the Nigerian people in three failed presidential bids, until a cowering and whimpering spineless Goodluck Jonathan surrendered the keys of Aso Rock to him and without even mounting a fight, not even a perfunctory one. That action of surrender reverberated throughout Nigeria and it's fallout is still being felt today. Nigerians are still regretting that single act of betrayal by a man who promised them a breathe of fresh air, but ended up suffocating them with trachea-singeing, putrid carbon monoxide, instead. That displayed cowardice by the coward of Otuoke, bequeathed Nigerians with the unwanted deadly cargo in Aso Rock, the government of President Muhammadu Buhari. 

Therefore ICHEOKU does not need to read any book, particularly one written or rather made up by the same person, who is now trying to become a revisionist, by giving a self effacing and burnishing, different account of what everybody witnessed happen. ICHEOKU says not this time, as every right thinking Nigerian have refused to be led by the nose, bamboozled and flabbergasted and also flummoxed, by a tepid account of what happened through the eyes of Jonathan Goodluck. These thinking Nigerians, therefore resolutely rejects the self righteous tales by the moonlight aka "My Transition Hours" by former president Jonathan Goodluck as a pure work of fiction of his imagination which has no intersection with what indeed truly happened. ICHEOKU paraphrasing Zainab Duke Abiola, reiterates that "My Transition Hours" by Jonathan Goodluck is a mere work of fiction and in her own words, "a pseudologia fantastica; a monumental manipulation of historical facts and figures."

ICHEOKU says the worst part of what Jonathan did, preceding to that presidential election 2015, was that he denied and deprived other highly qualified and more courageous and capable PDP potential presidential candidates, the opportunity of a primaries to vie for the presidential ticket; only for him to later surrender the presidency to the other party, and you wonder what was he thinking or rather drinking or even smoking? Why such a great betrayal of party's interest, knowing fully well that he does not possess the mojo needed to confront Buhari or his heavily propagandizing APC. If he knows that he was not equal to the task and could not handle Buhari  successfully, why did he seize the presidential ticket of the PDP, only to later pony it up to the other side. 

Actually, Goodluck Jonathan ought to be investigated by the PDP for his role in bringing about Muhammadu Buhari's presidency; because the opportunity which he denied other more competent and more capable PDP honchos, he surrendered without a fight to the clueless and certificate-less, old and tired, Muhammadu Buhari. 

ICHEOKU says cunningly enough and in the manner of all cowards, Goodluck Jonathan has blamed everyone else but himself, including the Americans and the Brits, for his losing the 2015 presidential election. ICHEOKU says does not think that the Americans and the Brits cost him the election, as the election was lost a long time ago even before the election held and strictly due to Jonathan and nobody else. ICHEOKU says emphatically that Goodluck Jonathan lost his reelection bid long before the March 29, 2015 when election was held. How could any reasonable and rational person, going to war with someone, choose that other person's kinsmen as his fighting force. How did Jonathan convince himself that his Fulani appointees in high places were going to loyally fight on his behalf, against their own Fulani brother, when the publicly stated goal-objective of the entire North is that power moved back to the North. 

Unthinkingness has never been so brazenly, better defined, as what Goodluck did to himself preparatory to that election 2015. He was going to battle a Fulani man for the presidency of Nigeria and his first order of business was to fire an Igbo INEC chairman Maurice Iwu and replaced him with a Fulani Attahiru Muhammdu Jega, from Buhari's nearby Kebbi State? Jonathan also fired an Igbo IG of Police Ogbonna Onovo and replaced him with three successive Fulani, Hafiz Ringim, Mohammed Dahiru Abubakar and Suleiman Abba, from Buhari's neighboring Jigawa State, who supervised the election security. as if that was not enough handicap already, Jonathan fired an Igbo COAS Ihejirika and replaced him with MInimah and so close to the election. As if possessed by a demon of loss, Jonathan again appointed another Northern Fulani Bello Haliru Mohammed from Buhari's neighboring Kebbi State as his campaign chairman. Jonathan also named another Northerner Ahmadu Ali his campaign director general. 

ICHEOKU says how any intelligent person could make such choices, fully aware of the determination of the North to wrestle power back, is simply beyond ICHEOKU's comprehension. Goodluck Jonathan was aware of the publicly stated goal of the North that power move back to the North, and by extension that these Northerners are fully vested in the Northern agenda that power returned to the North and will therefore not work their hearts out to achieve victory for Goodluck Jonathan, but he went strong headed anyway. The result was obvious as these fellas did not put their 100% effort in the reelection campaign effort and some of them looked the other way as elections were rigged for the benefit of their Northern brother and of course millions of underage almajiri voters, who publicly queued up and voted. Probably Jonathan was under the influence of some clear liquid when he decided as he decided; or possibly too under a great spell that separated his decisions from logic thinking.

Therefore, Goodluck Jonathan has not told Nigerians just yet, how and why he lost the election or what indeed forced his hands to concede the election so soon and immediately, even before INEC has finished their collation of results. ICHEOKU is emphatic that the real story of that election has never been told, convinced that Jonathan is hiding some pivotal information from the Nigerian pubic. There are so many things the book did not contain nor addressed or answered; and it was a deliberate decision by Jonathan to omit them because they are indeed rather damaging. For instance, why did the book not tell Nigerians why Goodluck Jonathan did not win the MO Ibrahim leadership award for Africa. A $5 million award with a $200,000 yearly allowance for life to former African leaders who showed exemplary, corruption-free leadership. 

This is the real reason Goodluck Jonathan ponied up the presidency, so quickly and so fast and more than Usain Bolt could do his 9seconds 100 meters dash, because America threatened to go public with his level of corruption and publicly announce measures to hold Jonathan accountable. That Jonathan stashed close to a $1 billion for himself, part of which came from his $431 million share of the Malabo oil scandal, is a highly sourced information. It was for this reason that President Muhammadu Buhari repeatedly assured him that he will be protected and that nothing will happen to him, either extradition or prosecution, under his watch. But Nigerians did not care to find out from where Dame Patience got all the millions of dollars floating about including the "seized" $15 million which she first claimed was her mother's, later maid's, before finally going to court to have the money released to her as her "earned" money. This is a woman who was selling road side food in a bukateria before she married Jonathan and suddenly worth millions of dollars. 

So, the boy who once had no shoes from the creeks of Otuoke, was as corrupt as it gets; and he also handsomely helped himself from the Nigeria's treasury. This is the sword of Damocles that was hanging over his head, which forced him to concede the election immediately and unconditionally, as a condition to save his butt from it being kicked around by the Americans and their anti corruption buzzards. Why has the supposed alter-boy and Eagle Scout Goodluck Jonathan not been invited or feted by any world leader ever since he was forced out of Aso Rock? His security dossier is filled with stinking stench of corruption and people who are plugged knows this and Jonathan knows this, the reason he has cleverly been avoiding certain countries ever since he was literary hounded out of Aso Rock. 

Anyway, without much further ado or continuing adumbration of a book which is as hollow as hollow can get, ICHEOKU will like Goodluck Jonathan to throw more light on the following and explain why they did not make it into his book of transition or transmission or transfiguration or whatever trans that suits him. If he explains them satisfactorily or may be writes another book of the real things that forced him out of Aso Rock, ICHEOKU promises to buy 1000 copies of his edited Transition book or the the subsequent one of explanation which he will write and distribute them to libraries and colleges/universities for free. Until then, the composition in his "My Transition Hours" is not worth the white papers they are written on; just a balderdash of complete hogwash bunkum by a lily livered fellow who has no balls and who turned tail and flee away from Aso Rock just because another man challenged him to a fight for the right of occupation of Aso Rock. ICHEOKU says please not in our name, Oh Jonathan. 

Now the questions which did not find themselves answered in the Transition book:

1. Why Jonathan fired all Ndigbo heads of Police IGP Ogbonna Onovo, Army COAS Ihejirika, Immigration Rosemary Uzoma, National Population Commission chairman Festus Odimegwu, INEC's Maurice Iwu, PDP chairmen Vincent Ogbulafor and Okwy Nwodo and in their places, appointed Fulani men as their replacements. 

2. Why Jonathan refused to construct the 2nd River Niger Bridge?

3. Why Jonathan refused to appoint Dora Akunyili a Minister and watched as they poisoned her, for daring to facilitate Jonathan's presidency. Dora Akunyili moved that the same Jonathan be allowed to replace the incapacitated President Umaru Yar'Adua as president, yet Jonathan threw her away and under the bus. So, why was there no explanation in the book of Transition? 

4. Why Jonathan called a man who made him president, Olusegun Obasanjo, a motor park tout and after accepting the benefit of Nigeria's president from the same man he later insulted before a delegation of some Fulani nomads at Aso Rock? 

5. Why Jonathan prevented the entire Ndigbo from occupying any of the headship of the three branches of government, the first time in the recorded history of Nigeria that Ndigbo were completely excluded and marginalized from the government at the center in Nigeria. Not the presidency, not the vice presidency, not the Chief Justice, not the Appellate Court president, not the speaker of the House or President of the Senate. None, zilch and nada and for such a large component of the Nigerian State with over 80 million people? 

6. Why Jonathan did not avenge the deaths of the 161 DSS officers slaughtered by the Eggon Ombatse Cult in Nasarawa State, but chose to leave it in the hands of "God", according to his then Director General of DSS, Ota Ekpenyong?

7. Why Jonathan watched as former NSA Patrick Aziza and Kaduna State Governor Patrick Dakowa were blown up in a staged helicopter crash in Bayelsa State?

8, Why Jonathan did not allow the NSA Patrick Aziza to arrest Muhammadu Buhari when he was inciting riots and threatening Nigeria's peace with his many terrorist utterances and pronouncements? But failed to protect the same Aziza from the same people he was trying to protect Jonathan from, who later had him killed for daring to protect Jonathan through a security condone around the then president?

8. Why Jonathan did not allow COAS Ihejirika to raid Daura Emirate to confiscate many caches of weapons that were imported into the country for bad intentions and stashed in Daura by the same people; just because the Emir of Daura kicked against it threatening that he will not allow any soldier to search his emirate? 

9. Why Jonathan allowed Sanuis Lamido Sanusi to be turbaned as Emir of Kano after the running ins he had with him, especially when Sanusi distributed Nigeria's money in the CBN as if they were his personal money and spent them on his Islamic causes, giving Kano State N500 million, just like that. Sanusi also accused Jonathan and his government of stealing $21 billion NNPC money without a proof, yet Jonathan chickened away when he could have exerted his pound of flesh, including wasting him if it gets to that.

10. Why Jonathan tolerated 5 other pseudo-presidents of Nigeria and in Nigeria,  concurrently holding presidential forte alongside him. Jonathan allowed them to have a free range during his presidency and they did much harm to and in fact damaged his presidential authority. It is a public knowledge that Olusegun Obasanjo, Edwin Clark, Friday Tompolo, Asari Dokubo  and of course the Sultan of Sokoto, each had a field day either attacking Jonathan or countering his policies and declarations, yet they were allowed to sleep with their two eyes closed in Nigeria. Something nobody could have dared under Obasanjo or even Yar'Adua nor could any try it were ICHEOKU president, but they did it anyway, knowing that the coward of Otuoke has no liver. 

11. Why Jonathan did not walk away when he was left abandoned by the Oba of Benin who refused to see him when he visited his palace; and left him sitting there alone like an unwanted leprechaun.

12. Why Jonathan, so disgracefully knelt down before those Yar'Adua women in Katsina?

13. Why Jonathan gave that defeatist speech at the onset of his government where he said that he was not a retired army general nor a despot and cannot tell Nigerians how to behave or order them around? The worst speech ever given by a leader and it came back to haunt him down and eventually succeeded in evicting him out of Aso Rock. 

14. Why Jonathan so belittled the presidency that he was attending nearly every weddings, funerals, birthday parties as well as anniversaries and naming ceremonies, etc. He became the proverbial "iyolu mu, mu ju" type; just ask and Jonathan will be there, smiling like he has nothing else better to do or any place better to be, except among levelers and drunks, floating in debauchery and licentiousness; and this is a president of a country, right?

15. Why Jonathan tolerated the 7 renegade PDP governors without moving the earth to have them defanged. All he needed to do was issue the order and if not carried out, replace and fire the chief of the service and/or agency responsible and let the heavens fall. 

16. Why Jonathan built those Fulani herdsmen almajiri schools without building equivalent fishing and farming kids schools, both in the Ijaw riverine Niger Delta and the faming communities of the Middle Belt and the Southeast. 

17. Why Jonathan released Sani Abacha's enforcer Mustapha from prison and without extracting concessions from the North especially Kano State Kwankwaso. And what he said to the families who lost their loved ones in that monster's blood thirsty hands, including Pa Rewane, Kudirat Abiola and others?

18. Why Jonathan did not insist that Enoch Adeobye publicly laid hands on him as he did previously and confront him on his support of Buhari because his pastor Osibanjo was his running mate? 

19. Why Jonathan did not lead effectively and with square shoulders, but led from the behind, deferring to any tom, dick and harry in Nigeria, especially among the elites when he is the CNC and at his disposal were all manners of unleashing terror, if needed. 

20. Why Jonathan did not go to the Russians to checkmate Obama and procured weapons needed to fight Boko Haram and fought them decisively despite the Muritala Nyako;s of Nigeria and their charge of genocide. 

21. Why did Jonathan, the man who once said that he does not give a crappy damn and was prepared to die for Nigeria suddenly morphed into something else and became morbidly afraid of dying and started giving a damn about what Obama had to say or what Muritala Nyako said. 

In short, Goodluck Jonathan was over his head in the inept manner in which he ran his presidency and which was the catalyst that quickened his ouster. He was clueless as he was timid and he inspired no one. His sense of fashion was tardy and not sharp; admitted he is from the Niger Delta; but as president of Nigeria should have mixed his fashion a little more to make it more cosmopolitan. What stopped him from wearing Ijaw attire on Monday, Itsekiri's on Tuesday, Fulani/Hausa's on Wednesday, Igbo on Thursday, Yoruba on Friday, Western the next week's Monday and just keep on rotating it and that way look more inclusive than the perpetual Ijaw stuff. Not impressed. 

It is also on record that the same time he was commander in chief of the Nigeria military, he also had the police, the DSS as well as other militias including OPC, MEND and MASSOB who were readily at his disposal and would have protected and defended his presidency to death, had he but showed some steely resolve. ICHEOKU prayed that he had some balls to dare the Fulani to strike him dead as that would have unraveled Nigeria as the people were prepared for a showdown with those bullying mallams, but Jonathan chickened out, leaving millions fallen crested. 

Weakness, weakness and weakness only, did Jonathan in and cost him the presidency, his second term that is. ICHEOKU gave him the moniker "COWARD OF OTUOKE" for this reason; it was rightly earned, and that is exactly what he is. How any man would allow a fellow man to chase him out of Aso Rock without a fight is simply mind boggling and mind bending. Put in another way, Jonathan made himself a rat and the cats had him for lunch, case closed. This is a man who he defeated before and before that, was defeated by Umaru Yar'Adua and before Umaru, Obasanjo defeated him too. 

But a whimpering Jonathan just gave it up to save himself from his imaginary enemies, including for fear of an American war ship, stationed off the coast of Ghana. But what he failed to understand is that American Naval forces are always patrolling the seas and oceans; and possibly was merely waiting to evacuate American citizens in Nigeria should law and order break down; but he did as all cowards normally do, passed out before even the first shot was fired. What a man indeed he is, thanks to Dame Patience who castrated him a long time ago and turned him into the apology he became. Any leadership requires either respect or fear to succeed; but with Jonathan, he was neither respected nor feared and that spelt his Waterloo. SAD. 

CROWN PRINCE BIN SALMAN: GETTING AWAY WITH MURDER?

ICHEOKU says whatever happened to the "severe consequences" threat should investigation conclude that the Prince of Beelzebub was involved in the macabre murder of Jamal Khashoggy? When has President Donald John Trump stopped following through with his threats; afterall he told the world that America no longer makes empty promises and that once he makes one, he intends to and will keep it. What happened to the mantra of promises made, promises kept or is Prince Mohammed Bin Salman above his reach. 

ICHEOKU says not good and it amounts to surrendering to petrol dollars and giving comfort to the enemy of civilized behavior; and it should not be tolerated but strictly followed through. How can such a bloody tyrant be allowed to walk away with such a heinous act or is the human life now that so worthless when placed against the almighty dollars? MBS needs to be held accountable because he has sullied his hand with the blood of the innocent and can no longer be an acceptable partner, especially in the Western world. 

ATIKU: PLAYING WITH THE EMOTIONAL WELLBEING OF NDIGBO.

ICHEOKU says Ndigbo have been through this beaten path before, with several presidential candidates, promising to build the second River Niger bridge, but failed or rather refused to so do. From Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999 to Umaru Yar'Adua to Goodluck Jonathan down to Muhammadu Buhari; all of them, severally, made the 2nd River Niger bridge a campaign sloganeering promise, but they never fulfilled it. They used it to get Ndigbo votes, only to dump both the bridge and Ndigbo soon after securing their votes, following their swearing into office. To date, the bridge is nowhere near completion, admitted some piling work has been completed or rather are still ongoing. But four presidents thus far, yet no 2nd River Niger bridge anywhere to be driven across on between Delta State Asaba and Anambra State Onitsha in Igboland.

Now, another election season is here and the same lying politicians are again mining the emotional sensibilities of a people, to secure election votes. The crafty, crooked and corrupt polygamist, Abubakar Atiku, sensing that restructuring Nigeria has become paramount in many Ndigbo's minds, has decided to milk the cow of their sensibility and peradventure, ride the pony into Aso Rock. Abubakar Atiku has now deployed the old ploy, mastered by many cunning, conniving and contriving politicians, of just tell the people what they want to hear, to use what is dear to a people to whip up their sentiments, in order to persuade them to vote accordingly and in anticipation that their wish will be granted by their newly found messiah. Abubakar Atiku has suddenly presented himself as the now messiah, who has come to redress Ndigbo's long distress about Nigeria as he who will make their forlorn, despondent hearts, whole again and fully reintegrate them back into Nigeria. 

ICHEOKU says expecting or asking Abubakar Atiku to restructure Nigeria is akin to expecting or asking Abubakar Atiku to outlaw polygamy or to abolish corruption; because he cannot shoot himself on the foot or shut off the spigot from which he has been drinking himself fat of free Nigerian milk, and for so long and continuing till this day that is will be extremely very difficult if not impossible to wean himself off it. Therefore the current restructure mantra is dead on arrival, DOA; because the crooked and corrupt polygamist Abubakar Atiku does not have power nor the will to mission accomplish it. Abubakar Atiku and every other enlightened mind in Nigeria, as well as in Igbo land, knows this; but Abubakar Atiku chose to carry on anyway, regardless. Abubakar Atiku is just trying to ride the restructure train, which looks very promising, to sneak into Aso Rock and before Nigerians, especially Ndigbo, can even wake up from their restructure induced stupor. 

Anybody with a scintilla or modicum of knowledge about constitutional provisions, particularly powers vested in the various arms of the government, the three separate but equal branches of government which operate in any constitutional democracy - the executive, legislature and judiciary, knows that powers to make laws rests with the legislature and that it will require a constitutional amendment by the legislature to change the current structure of Nigeria. There is no way around this foundational and fundamental requirement and Abubakar Atiku knows this or should at least know about it or is expected to at least know about it. ICHEOKU says every reasonably sensible adult Nigerian, with even a simplistic knowledge of the constitution, understands that making laws is a legislative affair and the process is often cumbersome and tiresome. 

Such vested powers in the legislature, the House of Representatives and the Senate, is none negotiable; neither could a president usurp or appropriate it to himself, period. The Congress  will have to first pass such an enabling bill to do such a lasting havoc to the foundational structure of Nigeria, before any president can append his signature on the enabling parchment, to bring about such a change. Then there will be various commissions put in place and set up, to actually prosecute the implementation of such devolution, which will take a life of its own, due to all the nuts and bolts which will be unscrewed before Nigeria can finally fully devolve. It is a long, arduous process; and it is not always very easy an assignment, and Atiku knows this. But the ever calculating conman chose to continue with his deceitful promise of a thing which he knows that he cannot do, just because it is a good campaign soundbite.

It is also instructive that the North which Abubakar Atiku is a bona fides member of, has strong aversion to anything that will in anyway threaten or attenuate their stranglehold on Nigeria. Abubakar Atiku is part of this fully resolved North and Abubakar Atiku is a beneficiary of the skewed Nigeria, which saw him rise to the Assistant Directorship in the Board of Customs & Excise without any qualification nor certificate whatsoever. That he is still riding this Northerners-only on-board, Nigeria groovy train, till today, is a fact of incontrovertible truism. Nigeria, as it is presently constituted is a cash cow for Northern Nigerians and those mallams are not yet ready to let it go and will not let it go so easily, without a bloody fight for their survival; because without milking Nigeria, they cannot survive as a people. Like his millions of other Northerners, Atiku knows this consequential fact, but decided because of political convenience, to pretend otherwise. Atiku is willfully riding the current pony of restructuring Nigeria, hoping that it will convey him right into Aso Rock, the reason he is adamantly sticking to the talking point. But Atiku and his Northern brothers has been riding Nigeria and milking it for so long to just dismount now; and will not willingly give it up, unless they are forcibly removed from their predatory perch. 

Therefore, anyone believing that Abubakar Atiku is sincere with his promise to restructure Nigeria and will indeed restructure Nigeria if elected, and that his Northern Nigerian people will so willingly loose their stranglehold on Nigeria, has a milkshake for a brain. Abubakar Atiku will not restructure Nigeria, first, because restructuring Nigeria is against Northern Nigerians' interest and second, he does not have the power to do it even if he wants. Such restructure power lies with the Congress, a Nigerian Congress, which is dominated by anti-restructure Northerners who are averse to such idea; and Atiku has nothing on them to make them cave in. The worst part of this con job which Atiku is perpetrating on Ndigbo, is that he has successfully sold this restructure cockamamie to some Ndigbo, who have bought into it and now believes that Atiku will give them a restructured Nigeria. ICHEOKU says just ask yourself, where is Atiku's incentive or motivation to go against his and his Northern people's interest by yielding their power hold in Nigeria.

ICHEOKU is emphatic that what Abubakar Atiku is currently peddling in his campaign for president about restructuring Nigeria is a mere bunkum hogwash, because he neither has the power to do it nor can he muster the Congress to do it and he knows it. Alternatively, Abubakar Atiku should be taken before Alusi Okija to swear or be sworn under oath, that he will keep all the promises he has made and is making, including restructuring Nigeria; and that he is not purposefully deceiving the gullible in order to just get their votes and help usher him into Aso Rock. Thereafter, Atiku should be made to put his hands on papers and sign a solemn pledge that he will keep his promises or at least, try to keep, if elected; otherwise, no deal. 

So, until then, Ndigbo and Nigerians in general should keep their safe distances from the danger man Abubakar Atiku, a man who is more dangerous than a Fashola transformer, when and if powered. Abubakar Atiku is a vulture, waiting to feast on Nigeria's decaying carcass and Nigerians must avoid a festival of vultures on their general commonwealth. Nigerians must run to the hills and at worst, even not vote at all, instead of allowing this guy to sneak into Aso Rock under a subterfuge of restructuring Nigeria. 

ICHEOKU says Abubakar Atiku is an existential threat to Nigeria, as he has perfected his plans to and will sell Nigeria and whatever is in it, including its population, to the Chinese, rather than restructure Nigeria. The Chinese are coming to recolonize Africa and they are already swallowing other parts of Africa, one country at a time. But Nigerians can still avoid the fate which has befallen some Eastern and Southern African countries already, where they are now being forced to speak Mandarin and Cantonese and pledge allegiance to Beijing, with Chinese heading their armies, police, customs, as well as other agencies of their governments, by rejecting the Chinese agent, Abubakar Atiku. Nigerians, do not say that you were not warned. Be afraid, be really afraid of Abubakar Atiku and stay alert and guarded; as only eternal vigilance will ensure that you will still have a country which you can still lay claim to and which is not over run by the Chinese invaders and colonialists. Atiku, NOT GOOD FOR NIGERIA.