LORI LIGHTFOOT: CHICAGO MAYOR ELECT, FIRST OF MANY THINGS.

ICHEOKU says she is the first openly gay lesbian and first African American woman to be elected by American third largest city to lead them. What an epochal moment in America, particularly the City of Chicago where this magnificent feat was accomplished. 

ICHEOKU says congratulations to Ms Lori Lightfoot for what she was able to achieve, winning the Mayorship of Chicago and on her platform of fighting entrenched segregation, gun violence and economic inequality. Above all, she went up against the Chicago Democratic machine politics and emerged unscathed. ICHEOKU says there is nothing wrong with the tall dream, except that putting the rubber to the tarmac is where the heavy lifting really is. 

So many have also thought similarly about ending all human problems and Lori Lightfoot has now formally joined that group. All ICHEOKU can do now is to wish her well, admitted she is embarking on a journey with a heavy leg-chain of soured race relations, uncontrollable gun violence and heavy economic disparity of the City keeping her greatly restrained. However, if she manages to make some dent on any or all of them, that will be considered a great success; but ICHEOKU is not overtly optimistic, the City of Chicago internals considered. So, it would appear that she is embarking on a Mission Impossible and unless she is a female 007, the jury stays permanently out on her ability to surmount these festering problems. 

Lori Lightfoot, a 56, was a former federal prosecutor, former police oversight board chairwoman, and comes into City Hall with a lot on her plate and she also promised a lot to deliver as well. In her victory speech, she said:- "We need to make sure that we are bringing real hope and economic opportunity to so many neighborhoods that have been disinvested in for decades. Building channels for people to believe that the city sees them and hears them and is willing to invest, is going to be critically important, and we have to start that right away. 

I think that the people who come from communities like me as an African-American woman, as a member of the LGBT community, we haven't sat in the corners of power. It's quite the opposite. We've been discriminated against. We've been locked out, and we've been excluded. And to have someone like me representing these multifaceted communities now be on the cusp of being the mayor and what I think is the greatest city in the world, I think gives a lot of people a lot of hope --and it is a milestone in a long journey that will continue to demonstrate though that we're making progress."

ICHEOKU is completely satisfied that she was able to break through the great barrier of Chicago Democratic Party machine politics, which has been in place for nearly a century, to emerge victorious. Hopefully she will remain her own woman as she administers Chicago. Her victory spells a monumental achievement of a gargantuan magnitude. Once again, congratulations Ms LL.