MUBARAK'S DEPARTURE, AMERICA SHOULD NOT STAMPEDE OR HUMILIATE HIM.

Icheoku says it is laughable the sudden explosion of disgust at Mubarak's style of governance, a sentiment which has become rather too loud in the West particularly in America. Egypt's Hosni Mubarak has now become a pariah dictator whom everybody wants chased out of Cairo 'NOW' that you wonder what hallucinatory substance these 'traducers' have been on all these 30 years plus of Mubarak's dictatorship not to understand the manner of man or the nature of his government.  Mubarak is now being attacked from right, left and center by persons and countries supposedly custodians of democracy; and you wonder where these countries and persons have been these past 62 years, particularly the last 30 years Mubarak has been a maximum ruler of the land of the Pharaohs including the 5years he was a vice president? These people as well as many television, newspaper and radio commentators are now behaving as if Hosni Mubarak suddenly and like a meteor, just materialized on the scene of power in Egypt.

To these bunch of people, Icheoku reminds them that Saudi Arabia, Libya, United Arab Emirate, Qatar, Morocco and Algeria are still subsisting Arab countries with maximum dictators and we are curious as to why they are not being called out to reform and democratize. It is also needless to mention China, North Korea, Burma and even Russia as other countries where peoples humanrights are being trampled upon and are not allowed to freely chose who leads them? Once again Icheoku reiterates that we have no problem with the world help in meeting the demands of the Egyptian people who want to see Mubarak gone; but we implore the world to be wary of what they wish for; just in case the sudden departure of Mubarak foists on Egypt as well as the entire Middle East, a Frankenstein character like ruler who will in turn become the West's biggest nightmare. Mobs are not rational people and in the usual characteristics of an over-heated and super-charged atmosphere of political volcano, questionable characters always arise to steal the moment and impose themselves on the situation. This scenario is what the world must avoid by all means necessary and as a precursor, allow Mubarak to solve this problem himself by using the requested six months to find a good replacement for him.

Icheoku maintains that neither America nor Britain can claim to know Egypt more than the man who has been in charge of the country for more than one quarter of a century and who has been somewhat around the corridors of power since 1952, being the part of the original triumvirates of Nasser, Sadat and Mubarak that overthrew the once powerful Egyptian monarchy. Mubarak knows fully well what will be afoot in Egypt with his sudden departure and has asked for a moderate six months to carry out a transition to civilian rule which will endure long after his departure. Icheoku says it will be utter madness not to accommodate this special request in the interest of an Egypt that will survive Mubarak's exit. 

America and President Obama it would seem are now treating President Hosni Mubarak's promised departure with the  notorious America's impatience of "it is my money and I want it now"; but like President Hosni Mubarak rightly pointed out, 'America does not understand the nature of the Egyptian culture to know that too much haste breaks the yam tuber inside the ground!' An Egyptian society that has never known democracy in its more than five thousand years of existence is being asked and pressured to democratize and NOW? An Egyptian society given to a command structure of order and absolute obedience from the times of the Pharaohs, as recorded in the Bible, cannot zap or free-fall into democracy as is being demanded by the West without adverse consequences. The Pharaohs of old ruled by fiat and cut off heads of dissidents to drive home their point and President Hosni Mubarak, as the present day pharaoh will be miffed at the apparent dictation being meted out to him by the West.   Icheoku says yes it is good that Egypt democratizes but it cannot happen overnight as there are no institutions to support such a sudden development; and unlike some other know transitions lasting several years, Mubarak has promised to get it done in six months and this is a reasonable time. The West and America did not wake up suddenly to a Mubarak's dictatorship, hence it makes for great comedy the sudden hysteria being generated by when Mubarak should go - whether NOW or in September when he said he will. But let the West not allow itself, because of political expediency, to relive their Gaza Strip experience with a Hamas-like government being voted into power in Egypt. The world must take a deep breath and tread softly to avoid a backlash by not stampeding Mubarak into abandoning Egypt for extremist mullahs who will deny women their own freedoms!

Some analysts have pontificated that Mubarak is being abandoned by his friends in the West at his hour of greatest need for support; but Icheoku says it is very far from the truth as no one chooses to remain aboard a sinking ship. Mubarak's supposed friends promise was to protect Mubarak and Egypt from foreign enemies and external aggression but not from domestic and internal uprising from his people rising up against his tyranny; admitted these friends will not permit him to crack down heavily on the people by welding the sledge-hammer. Icheoku wonders how such a dictator can maintain a hold on power without having the ability to visit viciousness on his stubborn population in order to keep them in check and very obedient. Ironical, eeh? Some also even questioned the beneficial use of having these Western friends when, as it has just happened with Mubarak, they will readily throw their friend under the bus and switch sides; when a country like China protects their own friend North Korea at all costs, no matter their intransigence or know autocratic rule and other abusive human rights violations they carry out on their people. Icheoku queries whether this type of "good friendship" is the reason why dictators prefer to stick out with such countries as China that will always look the other way as they wreck their countries and peoples?

As the developments in North African Arab countries have once again shown and reiterated that those who make peaceful change impossible make violent change inevitable, the world is witnessing the fallout from such a long suppression of a peoples right to express themselves and have a say in who rules them. Now Arabs are rising up,  demanding that Arab destiny be left for Arabs and in the hands of their own elected leaders and not for Jews and Americans to determine through their own anointed minions. From Morocco to Algeria to Libya to Egypt to Jordan to Syria to Yemen to Qatar the story is the same as Arab piece of humanity is braving it to challenge a clique of people who has for so many years dictated to them. These Arabs have so far fully succeeded in Tunisia with Ben Ali now in exile in Saudi Arabia; Yemeni's president has promised not to seek another term after 33 years in power, Jordan's King Abdallah is carrying out emergency reforms, Qatar has bribed their country men and women with a $3000 each shopping allowance, and the list goes on. As for Egypt, Icheoku affirms that Mubarak has to go and states further that technically, Mubarak has gone; but America and the West should help him to formally go by his September date. It is not easy and will not be easy after such a long time in power, with so millions of feeders and hangers-on that would rather they maintain the statusquo as it is, for Mubarak to just abandon ship. He needs time to reorder affairs in the house of the regime and its supporters and the West must help its conclusive resolution.

Icheoku says the lessons of Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan must help inform America and the West in any manoeuvring going forward, and the experience should rather be driving the agenda of the transition instead of the deafening 'Mubarak go NOW.' Let there be a peaceful orderly transition in order to avoid some cows from straying out of the herd being shepherded by Mubarak, the current cowboy-in-chief. Even a water flowing downstream since 1952 would have accumulated much sediments that it cannot just completely shut down without addressing what happens to these sediments. A regime of three army officers dating back to 1952 is not different as it have a lot of dependents and cannot just fold up that easily and NOW. It has to make provisions for these people post regime; Icheoku believes that is what the six months is intended for and a forced capitulation by 'reform NOW' will not bode well - it will bring resentment if not resistance, as a backed people will always fight back to regain what they think they have lost or will lose. What the West demanded is a transition and Mubarak has accepted to comply but only needs some time to effect it. Even the United States of America, despite all their democratic perfections, still provides for a period of transition from one government to another; the reason why American presidents are elected in November and are sworn in in January - in order to allow a seamless transfer of power, metaphorically termed change of baton. 

Further as the West and America demand that Egyptian government open up the transition to every shade of political opinion in Egypt and "that they engage all parties", Icheoku asks if Al-Querida in the Arabia or in Egypt is one of such parties as contemplated here and should also be accommodated in the talks? Terrorist Ayman al-Zawahiri, the al-Querida number two man after Osama Bin Laden, is an Egyptian opposition activist and one of the pioneering member of the Muslim Brotherhood and this fact questions the wisdom of throwing open the transition. Or put in another way, Icheoku asks how wide is too wide of what Mubarak's transition is required to accommodate. As with every enemy, until they drink of your blood, it is never enough and asking Mubarak to cede power to the new vice president might not satiate these protesters as they would soon thereafter, demand that Omar be also gone, being part of the old regime. The Egyptians like the trailblazing Tunisians will demand for a complete and total break away from the past and will not settle for an Omar led transition. It is at that point that the transition will unravel; so it would be a better choice if the man in the know is allowed to do his thing, as only he knows best, having survived the treacherous African political landmine of Egypt for this long.

President Hosni Mubarak is a grandfather personality, he is the commander in chief of the Egyptian armed forces and he is been around the block for so long to command some earned and deserved loyalty among many Egyptians as well as the armed forces. Above all, Mubarak also knows the bad guys who should not be entrusted with power in Egypt otherwise they will do evil with it; so Icheoku says let Mubarak supervise the transition to democracy in Egypt.

Hopefully Mubarak will simply ignore the West and America hysteria, a people who will not be there at the receiving end should Egypt implode; afterall they have already flown out their folks out of the ground zero; and do right by Egypt and Egyptians in mentoring a smooth transition from his dictatorship to a democracy that will survive and endure long after his exit. Americans and the West cannot be more catholic than the pope and they cannot be heard to pretend to love Egyptians more than their own Mubarak; afterall why did they not move for a democratic Egypt until now, instead of playing a second fiddle to those brave Egyptians who first took matters into their hands and marched into Tahrir square. Anyway as the drama unfolds, Icheoku wonders when the bees-treatment will be meted out to those hold-over protesters who seem not to be placated with the promise to quit in September. Africa killer bees can sting the hell so much it hurts badly and will be the most effective way to tame and drive away all those "unruly" Egyptians holding the square against the will of their maximum ruler and his henchmen! Did you just believe that; except that if Mubarak chooses to dig in every option will be on his table; and that reminds Icheoku that President Laurent Gbagbo is still in Ivory Coast presidential mansion several months after he lost an election and the world demanded that he be gone; including a spineless ECOWAS that threatened a "legitimate military force" which logistics is still in infantile stage? So after all said and done, President Hosni Mubarak still has all the all the aces and will leave at a time of his choosing and he has chosen September 2011 and it is not too far! 

MUBARAK'S SEPTEMBER DATE, AMERICA SHOULD RATHER HELP HIM KEEP IT.

After a careful analysis of possible scenarios that might be at play following Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's sudden exit, Icheoku came to the conclusion that it will be more cost effective and a better option for America and its allies as well as Egyptians, instead of the current stand to forcefully push the Egyptian reject off the cliff, to simply cajole him into keeping that date with history. This process will gradually ease him out from power and thereby make it easier for his psyche and ego to accommodate and deal with.

Thirty-five years in office (five as vice president and 30 as president) is such an investment for Mubarak to just walk away from without a fight; which in the long run might not be beneficial to both Egyptians and America. A fractured and rife Egypt is not a good bargain for Mubarak's departure right 'NOW' and it would be better if the six months he is asking for is treated as a six-months transitional period, during which necessary political structures would be established and Egyptians tutored in the art of electoral democracy to enable them successfully complete the transition from the Mubarak's era to a peoples driven governance. Icheoku says the six months extension is a walk in the park for a people who have been forced to put up with such rabid autocracy for the past 30 plus years of and from hell. Igbo people of South East Nigeria have a popular aphorism which goes thus - the tortoise was once locked up in a putrid cell following a seven day prison sentence. After serving six days of his sentence, he was to be set free on the seventh day; and while processes were being formalized for his final release, the tortoise shouted to his rescuers to please make haste as he cannot stand the stench of the cell? This is a tortoise that has been with the stench for the previous six days but can now not stand it for a few hours or minutes?

So Egyptians, your voices have been heard not only by America's President Obama but the world at large as well as your soon to be former President Hosni Mubarak; and he agrees that your call for him to quit is legitimate and only asks for a few months to tidy up his affairs and prepare his handover notes? Icheoku says Mubarak is not asking for too much and should be obliged. The imperative here is that President Hosni Mubarak will finally call it quit with an office in which he has been around for nearly half a century and this in itself is humongous. Egyptian people, your protest is a success - you conquered your fear, you are free and you can now assemble as well as express yourselves publicly, your president fired his cabinet on the strength of your protest; he also appointed a vice president for the first time in the thirty years of his being in power on the persuasion of your protest and finally, he has accepted that you won and that he lost and he will step down. His only plea is not to be rushed out of town in order to enable him midwife a smooth transition to another government. Icheoku believes this request is reasonable as a leaderless society s prone to anarchy as well as other unforeseen eventualities. A life in Baghdad immediately following Saddam Hussein's fall is not worthy reliving in Cairo; neither is the lawless Somalia's or the Taliban bastardized Afghanistan prior to 9/11.

Icheoku says  Egyptians should cut their leader for thirty years some slacks and allow him an honorable passage into retirement. He asked for six months and Mubarak should get his six months - it is not too much for President Mubarak to ask of the proud people of the River Nile. A veteran of several Egyptian wars who somewhat equally served Egypt fairly well by developing the country's infrastructure, judging from what we could see on the streets of Cairo does not deserve any less. However this should not in anyway be read as a somersault or that Icheoku is now holding water for the dictator of Cairo; no, just that a smooth orderly transition is always a preferred alternative to a wild-wild west like alternative which may see some unpalatable elements of the society hijacking a peoples effort and converting same into their own parochial agenda-driven achievement. This is the only concern that is molding our current position on the matter of President Hosni Mubarak regarding his exit timetable.

Icheoku must also commend President Hosni Mubarak for not going the route of most dictators, who when backed to the wall always reacts with a vengeance; as they wreck the final havoc before leaving or being hung like a dog by an angry populace. Some world dictators would have first expelled all foreign media hounds from the country; then impose a total and complete media blackout in the country before unleashing his dogs of war to mow down as many still standing protester as they could point their machine guns and dump their bodies in a mass grave or use them to feed some hungry African wildlife. Afterall Mubarak is 82 years old and before the processes of his indictment for war crimes and crimes against humanity at The Hague would be completed, he would have already assumed cold-room temperature. A Tienanmen Square could have been replicated in Tahrir Square but Mubarak wanted better for his Egyptian people; hence the men in steel helmet were seen freely bantering with their protesting brothers and sisters.

Further, backed into a corner and feeling wounded, Mubarak could also have revoked the peace treaty with Israel and started a war to distract the people but he did not. Any crumbling emperor could also have called America's bluff and told the White House to go to hell, with the Palestinian peace process as a bargaining chip; or even threatened to cross over to the Iranians or the Chinese or even the Russians and it is deja vu cold war days. A desperate Mubarak could also have fired any of Egypt's army commander that refuses to obey his orders to carry out the massacre of those protesting Egyptians and replaced them with gun-ho types, but he did not. There are just several ways Hosni Mubarak could have escalated the situation; but instead he listened and accepted his fate; and asked the people to grant him just six months of extension of presidency to facilitate a new government. Icheoku says, this is a rational request that Egyptians should grant their president to enable him save his face and keep his honor. As for America, they should tag along and must not be seen to be dictating to the proud people of the River Nile as they chart their future post Mubarak.

Egyptians are matured enough and should not be treated as suckling infants that must be minded every time. President Barack Obama and his government has done their part by recognizing the rights of the protesting Egyptians to fire their government; but they must desist from being perceived as meddling in a purely internal affairs of the Egyptian people. At worst, they can withhold whatever aid they have been giving to the Egyptians prior but Icheoku believes that Egypt still has some aces in Suez canal, Palestinian peace process as well as other hot-button Islamic issues still lingering in various parts of the world to merit their paycheck. Finally Mubarak could ginger a fierce pan-Arabianism including Saudi Arabia to play the oil joker against what he might see as an impetuous West, trying to dictate to him; unlike Tunisia's Ben Ali who had practically no bargaining power to hang unto or trade.

Icheoku says, so now that President Hosni Mubarak has given his words with a date fixed in the future for his departure and it is just six months, we all should indulge him and continue to nudge him towards keeping that date. Let us all try to ease him out but not push him, as transition connotes a process rather than an event and six months is not unreasonable time. Mubarak deserves some dignity in departure in order not to leave in his mouth, some sour taste of regretting his friendship with America; wondering what manner of a friend that deserts a friend in need in his hour of greatest need, when he expected and needed their affirmation most but not rebuke or ordering around. Is it possible that Mubarak may be wondering today why he did not pursue nuclear weaponry program, which like Iran, would have bought him some much needed respect at this fork on the road? Icheoku remembers during the Iranian peoples attempted revolution that Washington said they do not want to meddle in Iran's internal affairs and we wonder if Egypt is now America's 51 state?

So the West should not rev the tempo rather too much and over-humiliate Mubarak in the process; they should instead help to ensure that the emerging government in six months time meets their expectation and that like all Egyptian who seek freedom now, that women and other religious Egyptians will have an Egypt that guarantees their freedoms and that some mullahs will not hijack the new freedom and in turn deprive other Egyptians their own freedom from either the bukah, clothing or life-style choices as well as the freedom of worship and religion. In addition, the West should ensure that Egypt will retain its secular status; but should not unnecessarily try to hurry off the great grand-pa as if the heavens will fall if he does not go right now. Mubarak has earned the right to an honorable exit from power after 30 years therein and let the six months transition period be his final parting gift both from Egyptians as well as the America led West. 

And lastly, Israel's sudden feeling of being surrounded by possibly unfriendly foes and governments might persuade them to speed up the peace process and make final and lasting peace with Palestine. A Palestine which may now be chaperoned by more aggressive Arab countries since we have not yet seen the final of this tornado blowing through the Arab world. But what kind of cold-peace even existed when $1.3 billion annual aid, mostly in military equipment, is being given to Egypt by America and Israel also receives about same if not more? Anyway, that is by the by as we are here concerned with creating a somewhat decent passageway for President Honsi Mubarak to make his final exit after 35 years of perching in the highest echelon of the Egyptian society. The American led West should also in addition to considering the interest of the protesting mob, also take into consideration the interest of the millions of other non-protesting Egyptians as well as the Egyptian elite who might fight back should their goose that lays their golden eggs be knifed in such cavalier manner that gave them no fall-back. All these anomalies can be avoided once President Mubarak is indulged his six months transition and Egypt can then push their reset button as we watch their understanding of democracy. 

EGYPTIANS DEMAND TERM LIMIT FOR PRESIDENT HOSNI MUBARAK!

 Icheoku says we are all Egyptians at this great moment in the history of the River Nile people and we demand in unison for a definite term limit for Hosni Mubarak. We also affirm that the term limit has since come and has now expired; so President Hosni Mubarak must leave now so that Egyptians can live in peace.

The cesspool of human-rights violations and mother of all dictatorships, Saudi Arabia, still has its gate open to take in more dictators and Icheoku suggests to Hosni Mubarak to make haste and make that dash across the red sea and get in before the gates are shuts him out. Such a scenario will be a preferred option than being hung like a dog in Tahrir Square, just like the other Arab dictator Saddam Hussein was hung in Baghdad. With Saddam Hussein gone, Ben Ali also gone and Mubarak soon to go and on his way out too, very soon the number of these despicable people will be greatly depleted as other dictators of the Arab world as well as greater Africa have been put on notice that their days are numbered and they all would be severally brought down.

Icheoku is pleased with the north African revolution and wishes every one joining to make a difference by participating in this historic patriotic duty, God's speed. Icheoku says to them all, your sacrifice to free Africans from years of ruthless despotism and complete emasculation is highly appreciated and history will record your valor a place and will also mention you in favorable terms. The world is anxiously waiting to see Hosni Mubarak also scurry away into exile in Saudi Arabia like his Tunisian counterpart dictator Ben Ali, so brave Egyptians do not falter and do not despair as you ride the wave of the popular Tunisian uprising and send Hosni Mubarak out of power and out of Cairo. Down dictatorship, Up Democracy!

MUBARAK HAS TO GO, EGYPTIANS DESERVE TO CHOOSE THEIR LEADERS!

Icheoku tuned into some right wing Republican/Tea Party  talking-heads just to feel their impulse on the epochal event currently afoot in Egypt. To our greatest chagrin, they were blaming President Barack Obama for starting the hurricane which is now blowing in the Middle East and which will soon blow away their "American greatest ally, Hosni Mubarak?" They said President Obama's Cairo speech is the trigger of the unfolding uprising spreading through the Middle East.

Some of them even went to the extent of saying that President Obama will be held responsible in the event America loses Egypt to the Islamists aka Muslims Brotherhood with the impending departure of Hosni Mubarak? Icheoku asks when has Hosni Mubarak become Egypt and Egypt become Hosni Mubarak that his departure would become synonymous with losing Egypt? Only in the jaundiced eyes of these selective patriots and convenient democracy apostles who has a particular agenda they are pushing - one to embarrass President Obama and secondly to continue to subjugate a people by foisting an unwanted president on them? According to their narrative, the Egyptian people are not matured or civilized enough to self-determine their destiny and cannot do right by themselves without their 'beloved' Hosni Mubarak providing the guiding light? For them, Hosni Mubarak is the one maintaining some moderation in the Arab world and without him, the region will implode and even the Israeli peace treaty will go to hell in hands-basket? They also posited that Hosni Mubarak's ouster is an existential treat to the use of the Suez canal as Middle East oil flow as well as other merchandise through the passage will be negatively impacted? They also theorized in their usual fear-mongering fashion that if Hosni Mubarak is allowed to fall that it will be akin to the Shah of Iran experience in 1979 where Iranian peoples power drove a West-friendly Shah and in its place foist a theocracy that is now vehemently anti-west and anti-America. They also argued that Egyptian Islamic Muslim Brotherhood is inchoot with Iranian government backed Hamas as well as Hezbollah; hence will enable Tehran to extend and exert undue influence within the region and enough to threaten America's interest? Finally, they canvassed that Mubarak's fall will spook other friends of America in that region to rethink their allegiance as it will have such a cataclysmic seismic effect in entire Middle East?

Icheoku says these fears are unfounded and in any event are easily surmountable. They are more of clever antics devised by these naysayers to ginger fear in the minds of American people and thereby force President Obama to continue to maintain a dictator whose time has since come. Regrettably these far-right pundits do not seem to really understand the world outside America or they deliberately chose to ignore it while pursuing their parochial and tunnel-visioned agenda. Icheoku says none of these right-wingers have ever paused to ponder what would have happened were President Hosni Mubarak to just naturally drop dead; even without there being a push in the first place or a revolution now pushing him out? Does it mean that Egypt as we know it would cease to exist in his absence? Does it mean that before Mubarak ventured on the scene there was no Egypt or a leadership presiding over the affairs of the country? Icheoku concludes that America proactively courted Hosni Mubarak and in similar manner, shall successfully court whoever his replacement might be and if he strings out or in any way tries to act stupid, then our boys at Langley should go to work to get ride of him. Such a successor shall have no choice in the matter about his loyalty since it is in our security interest that the Suez canal should remain open and the Middle East oil  continues to flow. America and its allies can also go to war to protect these interests if forced by a recalcitrant regime, should the unexpected and unbargained for happen and an unfriendly regime sprouts in his stead. Israel has repeatedly proved that it can take care of business when push comes to shove to defend itself and we can always still chip in if need be. So America has nothing to fear but the fear being generated by these agenda-driven far right wing talkers of American right led by Rush Limbaugh with the impending ouster of Mubarak.

Egypt's democratizing will also remove the fear of authoritarianism in the Middle East, which Israel always plays up that they are the only democracy in the Middle East. Icheoku says there is no better and faster way for democracy to permeate the Middle East than for the greatest and most populous Arab country and the citadel of 'Arabianism', Egypt, to become democratized. As Egypt goes so goes the Arabian countries- from Morocco to Saudi Arabia; and only an anti-democracy-in-Arab-lands scholar would stand in the way of the mass action going on in Egypt to dethrone dictatorship and enthrone democracy. It is a cause worth dying for by Egyptians and worth supporting by Americans. Further Icheoku makes bold to state that neither America nor any other country in the world reserves the right to tell the Egyptians who should rule them; and just like so many countries have term limits for their presidents, Egypt deserves to also have term limit for Hosni Mubarak. In the absence of a term limit definite, 30 years in office is rather too long for just one person to remain in office and this is how long Hosni Mubarak has ruled against the will of the Egyptian people, with obtuse support of the citadel of democracy, America! And this unabashed support is without regard to President George W. Bush freedom-creed that democracy is a gift of God for all mankind and Icheoku adds, Egyptians are part of the whole!

Icheoku wonders aloud whether this is a case of that which is good for the goose not being good for the gander; or is there sphere limitations for the spread of democracy? Is there different democracies when Arabs or other people who are not Americans or look white enough are involved? Say it ain't so Rush Limbaugh and co; that suddenly it is now ok for the government (Mubarak) to be telling the people (Egyptians) what to do and they have been doing so for the past 30 years? Rush Limbaugh please tell Icheoku it is not true that suddenly you find nothing wrong for someone to be ruling against the will of the people or is that an exclusive preserve of the "real Americans" when it involves President Obama; who you continually rail against as ruling against the will of the American people? And if according to your warped ideological driven position "President Obama cannot rule real Americans against their will," why then is it ok for President Hosni Mubarak to be ruling against the will of the Egyptian people? Icheoku says if it is ok for the government in America to butt out of the American peoples business and let the America people chart their destiny, doesn't it make sense then that peoples of other countries of the world including Egypt would desire similar deference by their governments?

It is simply an irrational, impetuous, unjustifiable and rambunctious equivocation in self-denial for Rush Limbaugh and crew to be taking such grandstanding and fallacious position over the Egyptian Mubarak near fait-accompli exit. On one hand they are demanding that President Obama leave American people alone to chart their future and for him not to rule against their will; while on other hand they are not extending and do not want to extend such lollipop to those Egyptians on the streets of Cairo, Alexandria etc. Rush Limbaugh led  Republicans and Tea Partiers support constitutional democracy and even recited the charter on the floor of the House of Representatives, yet they disagree with the people of the River Nile who are trying to assert their constitutional right to both to freely assembly and to chose who would rule them? Is it possible that these "purists" think that Egyptians are not capable of taking care of their business and only their Pharaoh Mubarak can hold their water for them; while  conveniently forgetting that Egypt has been in existence for more than three thousand years and have survived several hundreds of leaderships down to the soon to become history, Mubarak's? So when Mubarak finally goes as he will definitely very soon, another will leader will succeed him and so goes the cyclical time capsule of succession until the end of time or end of Egypt, which ever comes first.

Icheoku says it is rather very arrogant for anyone in America especially Rush Limbaugh and his cohorts to pretend otherwise or preach one thing while they are busy practicing another thing. Icheoku has in the past written severally on the double standard of our foreign policy especially when it comes to our "spreading of democracy." It also does not also make sense that we went into Iraq to bring democracy to the people of River Tigris and Euphrates and at the same time cavorting with the worst anti-democracy dictatorships the world has ever known. That we have also attacked democracy when we removed a democratically elected President Aristides of Haiti is also an inexplicable act of "spreading of democracy." Now America far right and Rush Limbaugh, Icheoku asks, is Mubarak's Egypt a democracy? What about Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Algeria, Qatar, Jordan, Morocco, Sudan, Equatorial Guinea?, Chad, China and even Russia?  It sometimes appears that it is only when our foreign policy interest is at stake and we can muscle our way through that we fan the embers of democracy otherwise why our dalliance with repressive China?

Conversely, Icheoku would like to ask Rush Limbaugh and co, supporters of dictator Hosni Mubarak, whether President Ronald Reagan was wrong when he war-cried "Gorbachev tear down this wall" and with it liberated Eastern Europe in the eighties? Rush Limbaugh, please tell Icheoku what is wrong if America  now relives the Ronald Reagan 'tear down this wall' moment in 2011 through President Barack Obama or can't this guy ever do right by your faction of the American polity? Admitted that America has a lot at stake in Egypt including being our foremost overseas wheat market, a Middle East buffer, our Israeli's peaceful neighbor, keeping the Suez canal open for merchant mariners especially to our allies in Europe via the Mediterranean Sea and as Arabia oil shipping corridor; but Hosni Mubarak is not Egypt and these opportunities will endure long after Mubarak is gone. Icheoku says someone else can still be strong-armed to also play ball well enough like Mubarak at the pain of his being taken out, period. Icheoku really do not seem to comprehend the panic mode some of these commentators have put themselves and are desperately trying to engage Americans; as there is no real danger that Egypt will be lost to anyone since they are used to the Western ways and will personally resist any attempt by the Mullahs to take them back to the stone age. It is not going to happen and with it Icheoku calls for a stronger Washington response to the political earthquake shaking Egypt to its foundations. President Hosni Mubarak should be chaperoned into retirement either in Sharm el-Sheikh or Riyadh or California or London or any other country of his chosen; but go, he must as the people of  Egypt has in unison said, ENOUGH! Mubarak is down and soon to be out, so there is no need backing a dead horse, he has to leave and NOW is the time for him to leave! 

THE EGYPTIAN ARMY ARE ALSO EGYPTIANS, THEY TOO WANT MUBARAK GONE!

They were sent to quell the revolutionary protest but instead became part of it as they joined ranks with other citizens united against a dictator; and converted the army tank bought with the peoples money into a staging platform for the peoples protest. What a big sign of relief that the revolution is grass-root and people driven. Icheoku says it appeared that the near-senile President Hosni Mubarak forgot too soon that the Egyptian army are also Egyptians and they too feel the impact of his rabid dictatorship. A mark of great professionalism was displayed by these Egyptian army by not allowing themselves to be strong-armed by a spent dictator into shedding the blood of their brothers and sisters. President Honsi Mubarak is just one out of eighty million Egyptians and should not continue to hold the country hostage by stringing out his departure. GO MUBARAK and GO NOW!

PRESIDENT HOSNI MUBARAK IS THE PROBLEM, NOT THE SACKED CABINET!

With an over-dyed hair and a French suit masking a wrinkly frail 82 year old skeletal body, the despot of Cairo and the man who sees himself as the modern day Pharaoh of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, addressed his raging country men and women. To placate their anger, the old pharaoh pawned up his cabinet - the sacrificial offal and bargain for their demand that he quit power? But Mubarak refused to throw in the towel and has so far refused to really comply with the Egyptian masses demand that the era of Mubarak's despotism came to an end in Egypt.

Instead of complying with the peoples demand that he relinquish power and leave office for good after 30 long years of no meaningful impact on the society's economic and political well-being, the modern day pharaoh arrogantly proclaimed himself as 'destined to take responsibility for Egypt?' Icheoku queries, which of the gods of Egypt so destined Hosni Mubarak to see himself as indispensable or is it his aging old faculties that is deluding him as to his "irreplaceable" role in Egypt? Icheoku says Egypt can do and even thrive without Hosni Mubarak and hereby call on the living sphinx to stop being delusional about his place in the Egyptian society. Icheoku therefore reiterates that President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt is the problem of Egypt which the Egyptians are protesting and wants gone; but not the cabinet which he appointed, dictated to, tele-guided and now forced to sack as a bargain for his own political survival. Hosni Mubaraka should therefore hearken to the outcry of the Egyptians and go NOW! 

Icheoku expects that after 30 years in office that Hosni Mubarak would have exhausted his all and have nothing else to offer which he has not yet offered to the great people of the River Nile; with the only sensible and rational thing left for him to do being to let another Egyptian try. But none of that happened so far, leaving the raging Egyptians with no option but to increase the decibel of their protesting-voices such that the seemingly dumb and deaf Mubarak can really hear them, loud and clear. Their cry is that Hosni Mubarak should just leave and leave NOW; and Mubarak's willful pretension of not having read the hand-writing on the wall is rather very insulting to the psyche of all average Joe-Egyptian. Icheoku once again restates that Hosni Mubarak is the problem that needs a solution which the ongoing revolutionary protest intends to solve. As long as Mubarak remains adamant to the call for him to quit with his expressed intention to cling to power at all cost and in defiance to the will of the Egyptian people, that long will his over-made up face continue to insult the eyes of many Egyptians and their sympathisers all over the world; who are wondering what the old grandpa still desires in office. Hosni Mubarak your time is up, just go and NOW!

However the good news is that at last the fog of fear which has been holding Egyptians down and cowered all these past 30 years of Hosni Mubarak's despotic rule has finally been lifted; as they have come to realize that Mubarak is not the pharaoh he claims to be. Icheoku says fear is man's greatest problem and the biggest obstruction to achieving anything including removing a despot from power. So with this problem now solved in Egypt, their greatest fear-inducer shall soon be gone and Egyptians will be free to articulate their future unhindered and uninhibited. In addition to dissolving his cabinet, Hosni Mubarak promised a hell lot of other reforms just to offer a candy to the cry-baby Egyptians; but Icheoku would be greatly disappointed if the Egyptians prove so gullible as to swallow their embattled president's hollow offer which the last 30 years was not enough for him to bring them to fruition. The bad news is that no one knows whether this time around, the modern pharaoh of Egypt will give meaning to those words he uttered while addressing the Egyptian people, begging for his political life and power. Icheoku says Egypt belongs to Egyptians and not Mubarak and his family, hence the current intifada must continue until they get rid of him and take their country back.

The genie is already out of the bottle, the momentum is on their side and so those brave protesting Egyptians will be so naive to fall for their despotic president's cajoling, believing him that things will be any better this time around than it has been the last 30 years of his absolute maximum supervision and control. So the solution is for them to continue to protest Mubarak until the maximum ruler turns tail and runs into exile in Saudi Arabia and joins his Tunisian co-despot, Ben Ali, who is already cooling off from the hot chase that drove him out of power from Tunis.

It is indeed regrettable the negatively charged DNA that all these African leaders are wired with, that make them to so hate their people that they could care less about their welfare and well-being just like Hosni Mubarak, whose policies have impoverished nearly half of Egypt's 80 million people who today live below poverty line on about $2 a day. These people have had enough and today, Hosni Mubarak's cup runneth over as some middle class disenchanted Egyptians have now united with the have-nots in a rage against a regime that is corrupt, abusive and neglectful of the average Joe-Egyptian and they are so many of them. Icheoku  also debunks Hosni Mubarak's claim that the ongoing Egyptian peoples power protest is "part of a bigger plot to shake the stability and destroy the legitimacy" of the Egyptian political system as fantastical because the protest is entirely home-grown and Egypt has no political system other than the Mubaraks. Further Mubarak's assertion that "we want more democracy, more efforts to combat unemployment and poverty and combat corruption" is hollow, since he had ample time of over 30 years to address these issues but he did not; instead he chose to muscle the people of Egypt down repressing them with a paralysing fear induced by his vicious state security apparatchik.

Icheoku hopes that every Egyptian is today the 36 year old journalist Faiza Hendawi who rightly articulated what the world is thinking, that a revolution is afoot in Egypt. According to this guy, "Mubarak didn't meet any of the demands of the people and they will continue to demonstrate. He thinks by speaking to us he will calm it down. What he doesn't understand is that this is a revolution." Icheoku says, VIVA REVOLUTION OF EGYPTIANS! Reechoing 21 year old Ahmed Sharif, Egyptians re the ones to bring about change in their lives and if they do nothing things will only get worse as the rest of the world will only hope and pray for a successful outcome for the revolution while wishing them the best. Debunking Hosni Mubarak, Icheoku affirms that the revolutionary protest will solve the problems Egyptians face and will also realize the objectives they aspire which is to see Hosni Mubarak gone from power.

Finally Icheoku says however the current impasse ends or is resolved, Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei is not the answer for Egypt going forward as he too is too old and belongs to the same old school as the soon to be gone Pharaoh Mubarak. What a futuristic Egypt needs is a young Turk in the mold of America's President Obama or British Prime Minster Cameron to energetically drive the Egyptian agenda forward. ElBaradei is simply too old and does not possess the necessary panache to replace another aged and soon to be gone Mubarak as the leadership of Egypt is not and should not be gerontological skewed. Admitted no one knows what the revolution might throw up or the nature of the bargain to come as Mubarak's replacement; but hey whoever or whatever comes would have a way of dealing with it. The  world must also insist that Egypt does not go backwards or be turned into an Islamic Republic; and should be prepared to go to war if necessary in order to maintain Egypt's current secular status. Lastly, provided the  successor of Mubarak will not be a stooge in the hands of the Iranians who might be engineering the current putsch as a payback for WikiLeak's leaked Mubarak's push for Iran's snake head to be cut off; anyone but Mubarak is ok by Icheoku going forward. Admitted Icheoku is not buying the conspiracy theory or as suggested by Mubarak himself when he cautioned that the protest is part of a bigger (Iranian) plot? So Pharaoh Hosni Mubarak, set Egyptians free - just go and NOW!

EGYPTIANS GET OUT AND GET IT DONE NOW, AWAY WITH MUBARAK!

 

Icheoku calls on the great people of the River Nile who gave the world the great pyramids and papyrus to follow the people of Tunisia into reckoning and into the history books. The momentum is on their side and opportunity never called better than now for them to just end a 30 year dictatorship that has brought untold hardship and great misery in the land of the Great Pharaohs.

Saddam Hussein is gone, Ben Ali is also gone and hopefully Mubarak will soon follow suit, as dictators of the Arab world are respectively being shown the way out - chased out of power like common criminals which they are. Icheoku says they should not be allowed to just run away into exile but should be tried and hung like the dogs they are in public squares for the atrocities they visited on their people. So Egyptians, the world is anxiously waiting and watching for you to push a little harder and get rid of the scumbag that has been holding you down for over three decades! There is palpable fear already within the inner circle of all Arab maximum rulers and Mubarak will turn tail any moment from now. Just a little heave and some sacrifice and Hosni Mubarak will become history. You must not waiver; you must not falter and do not let the possible death of a few deprive the many their liberty. Just follow the Tunisian example and take Hosni Mubarak out now!

UGANDAN GAY RIGHTS ACTIVIST DAVID KATO, MURDERED!

Icheoku says regrettably this African country has taken its hatred for people who are different and not orthodoxy in their sexual preferences to a new horrific heights. They bludgeon them to death, using mattock, hammer and such other blunt-force objects as would simply disintegrate the human skull. Uganda, the East African country that former guerrilla leader, Yoweri Museveni, has presided over since the early nineties so hate gays, lesbians, transgenders and bisexuals that it is simply a crime punishable by lynching to be so sexually wired differently.

All that is needed to carry out the death sentence is for the country's tabloid, "Rolling Stone" to condemn you as a gay person, publish your picture as a gay person with your address and you are so gone as a once lived human. Icheoku does not know if there is any professional or business relationship of this Uganda anti-gay tabloid with the American Rolling Stone magazine; and says if any, it should be immediately severed. The American RS should also denounce unequivocally this brutal murder of an innocent Ugandan gay man and distance itself from the local Rolling Stone; otherwise the American magazine will similarly share in this heinous crime and peradventure have its hand stained with the blood of the innocent murdered. It is worthy of mention to remind the world that Ugandan Yoweri Museveni is one of those African despots who hopefully should be blown away by the wind of change currently blowing through Africa and which whirlwind originated from Tunisia. Yoweri Museveni has spent the last 25 years in Uganda's seat of power in Kampala without any noticeable difference in the lives of Ugandan people including lack of upward movement in their economic and political status.

Worldly known Ugandan gay activist and the face of gay activism in Uganda, David Kato, 42 was murdered this week in his home in Uganda after being outed and marked for elimination by the country's Rolling Stone tabloid. A school teacher who gave up his teaching career and took up the gay cause in Uganda, following an anti-gay bill which called for death penalty for  homosexual acts/practices? He also successfully enjoined the Ugandan Rolling Stone tabloid from further acts of defamation in publishing names, addresses and pictures of gay persons in Uganda. He had brought a lawsuit against the tabloid for defamation and invasion of privacy for publishing his name, photo and address as a gay man that needed to be dealt with by hanging? He was equally active in the activist group Sexual Minorities of Uganda (SMUG) and actively led effort to develop HIV/Aids polices in Uganda.

Icheoku says it is simply not right for anyone to so hate another person or a people simply on account  of their differences - who they are, their skin color, language, culture or even sexual preferences as to wish that person death. Uganda is the loser here and not David Kato; who has become larger in death than in life that even the president of United States of America Barack Obama as well as his Secretary of State paid tribute to him. Icheoku hereby declare Uganda stained by the blood of the gay martyr, David Kato; and also designates it as a gay-unfriendly, homophobic African country of the world. Icheoku also urge every gay person of this world and their sympathizers alike, to abandon Uganda and henceforth not to spend a dime in that African country or in any project or product that will in any way benefit them. One murdered gay person is just one too many for the community to tolerate and the community must hold Uganda to account for the murder of one of their own, David Kato. It is called being one's brother's keeper; and every gay person should see him/herself as a David Kato and thereby be united in grief as they condemn this senseless murder of DK.

David Kato paid the supreme price for a lifestyle which he sincerely and strongly believed was not a choice; but a natural genomic wiring of gay people. Should he have been murdered for just being who he is, Icheoku does not think so and hereby condemn in unmistakable terms, his brutal murder as a very big black-eye and deficit for the entire people of Uganda. Icheoku hopes and prays that the blood of David Kato has purchased freedom for all gay men and women of Uganda and also that his innocent blood will help water the tree of gay-liberty and allow it to grow into a mighty Sequoia of freedom for every Ugandan including their gay citizens, brothers and sisters. Icheoku also hopes that very soon LGBT lifestyle could be freely and proudly lived and celebrated in Uganda just like any other civilized human-habitation on planet earth, without gay people necessarily looking over their shoulders constantly. Further that Kampala will someday have its own Castro district with a thriving gay community and like San Francisco California, come to accept that just like there are white people who are differently colored from black people and do not look like atypical Ugandans, that there are people who are different in their sexual preferences. People who prefer different orifices and that this behavior is not criminal; and even if a crime, should not be a death-penalty offense; and even if death-penalty, should not be extra-judiciously carried out but allowed to travel through the long winding course of justice. Simply stated, there should not be another David Kato again - not in Uganda, not in Africa and not anywhere else.

Irritably however, the police in Uganda is trying to mislead the world into accepting that David Kato was killed by armed robbers during an armed robbery operations and that they are investigating the incident? But Icheoku says don't believe the fantasy and hereby rebuts that DK, judging from his austere looks, would have something or even anything of value that would interest the armed robbers? The David Kato the world has come to know and embrace as the poster-child for gay-freedom in Uganda does not appear like a man of any meaningful means or who had enough earthly possession as would entice any robbery gang to visit his home at such ungodly hour of the night? Icheoku concludes that Dave Kato was a victim of a society's hatred for people who are simply different from them and that the Ugandan police's weak explanation is a sordid attempt to mask a brutal bludgeoning to death of a man who loved differently and who many Ugandans may consider an unorthodox lover. But hey, at least he died with his convictions and beliefs intact; unlike many turncoats who will take to their heels the moment they are fingered as one of them - remember Apostle Peter and his three-times denial of our Lord Jesus Christ in Gethsemane.

Icheoku holds Ugandan Rolling Stone tabloid collaterally responsible for the murder of David Kato as they should have known that words whether spoken or written has consequences. When they write derogatory commentary on gay people and how they are corrupting the Ugandan society, with their pictures and home addresses published in toe and urging their hanging on the lamppost; it should have been obvious to these publishers that some people might be persuaded by their argument to act on their urging. But now the tabloid, like Alaska's Sarah Palin did with regards to Tucson Massacre, is denying any manner of responsibility whatsoever for the tragedy that was David Kato's murder.

By his death David Kato has become a gay-rights hero and legend, at least in Africa Uganda and within that context, has joined the annals of other notable heroes for a cause greater than themselves. Admitted in a small scale as serves his Ugandan gay community properly and purposefully. Like Gandhi he was petite. Like Martin Luther King he was an eloquent speaker. Like Mandela he was a freedom fighter. Like Obama he was a leader. And like every known person who have changed the course of history, David Kato was not afraid to speak up, as he was a brave man who charted a course that was both unpopular and derided within the Ugandan community. But he soldiered on until the wicked gay-haters of Uganda, instigated by that country's Rolling Stone tabloid, clobbered him to a painful death and in his home while resting from the day's  work? But will he be ever forgotten; Icheoku says nope, as David Kato has transmuted into history as that Ugandan Harvey Milk, who stood up for gay-rights when others turned tail and when it was deathly and not convenient to so do. The good news is that history never forgets the just who fight for just causes; especially when that leads to their death. Like Harvey Milk did in San Francisco, David Kato has lit a gay-fire in Uganda which will turn into a raging inferno scorching all anti-gay ideology as well as humans in Uganda since one's sexual preferences does not make him or her any less human. To David Kato, Icheoku says to you posthumously that your death has reached all corners of the globe and people paid attention and they knew the reason you were murdered. You died for your conviction, your cause was worthy and your mission was accomplished. Your legacy lives on. Icheoku says, Adieu!

RAHM EMANUEL MEETS THE ONE YEAR RESIDENCY RULE, HE IS BONA FIDE!

Icheoku says the politics of the proverbial windy city never ceases to amaze its numerous fans and watchers. The latest being the attempt by Illinois Appellate court to suggest that the erstwhile chief of staff to President Barack Obama is not a 'sufficient' Chicago resident and does not meet the one year residential requirement for any prospective mayoral candidate of the city of Chicago; hence is not qualified and cannot run for the office.

Icheoku says never in the history of global legalism has an opinion been so weird; reached without adjudicating the intent of such a person as to his residential allegiance. This is a man who answered a national call by the president of the country to serve the government and the country as the chief of staff of the president. In accordance with the dictates of the office he moved on the national assignment to Washington DC from his primary place of residence, Chicago. Icheoku says only a demented human will interpret this temporary relocation to Washington DC to be an abandonment of  the primary Chicago residence. We are also convinced that were the two cities easily commutable, Rahm Emanuel would rather have commuted than uproot and dislocate his wife and children from their place of work and school as well as from family, friends and relatives including a familiar neighborhood.

The people of Chicago would have, instead of this pettiness of trying to bar Mr. Emanuel from the Chicago mayoral race through the back-door, ushered him with fanfare into the mayor's office for meritoriously representing Chicago in Washington, helping another Chicagoan, the president. But politics always gets in the way and humans start taking inexplicable positions which no rational mind can fathom or explain. The only explanation that could possibly try unraveling the appellate court's position is that its membership is constituted by anti-Emanuel judicial activists who are so petty and jealous of his success in getting all the pies that their chagrin turned to irrationality? The matter was even made worse by the fact that two of the opinionated members are registered democrats and you wonder where cometh the beef? Good enough, his appeal of the matter to the states Supreme Court is in good hands and the wise men and women of the higher court will see through the phoniness of the appellate decision.

The controlling and dispositive legal guiding principle in cases like Rahm Emanuel's, is to determine the intent of the party - whether he  want to permanently divorce himself from his primary residence or still regards it as home and plans to return thereto at the end of his call for service. Icheoku says Rahm Emanuel is the later and his case is akin to our servicemen and women who go on call of duty tours in Afghanistan and Iraq or even NASA astronauts who are at the Space station hovering over two hundred miles above the earth. So will it not be ridiculous to suggest or in anyway infer that these people have lost their primary residence in the country just because duty-called and they answered, 'here I am send me?' Icheoku agrees with Emanuel erudite lawyers that he never lost his residency by answering the call of the president to serve the country as his chief of staff. Therefore let Rahm Emanuel run for the mayoral seat as he will definitely win and is the only candidate among the contestants with a feet big enough to fill the vacating Mayor Richard M. Daley colossal shoes. Other contestants Miguel del Valle, Carol Moseley Braun, Patricia Van Pelt-Watkins, Gery Chico and William Walls do not possess the gravitas of Rahm Emanuel and are no match or good enough for Chicago. Chicago does not deserve any less a mayor than a man who has been a White House aide, a Congressman and a Chief of Staff!

LIST OF OTHER ARAB/AFRICAN SIT-TIGHT DESPOTS THAT NEED TO GO!

1. Moummar Ghaddfi of Libya - 42 years in power since 1969

2. Paul Biya of Cameroon - 29 years in power since 1982

3. Yoweri Museveni of Uganda - 25 years in power since 1986

4. Mugabe of Zimbabwe - 31 years in power since 1980

5 Omar Bashir of Sudan - 21 years in power since 1989

6. Yemeni's ruler - 33 years in power since 1978

7. Jose Santos of Angola - 32 years in power since 1979

8. Blaise Campore of Burkina Fasso - 24 years since 1987

9. Idrissu Deby of Chad - 21 years in power since 1990

10. Mbasago of Eqatorial Guinea - 32 years in power since 1979

11. Yoweri Museveni of Uganda - 25 years in power since 1986

12. Gbagbo of Ivory Coast - 10 years plus in power since 2000

MOUMMAR GHADDAFI, THE POSTER-CHILD OF AFRICAN SIT-TIGHT RULERS. HE TOO NEEDS TO GO!

 Icheoku hopes and prays that the wind of change currently blowing through north Africa will not cease and will not abate until it blows away all African tyrannical leaders who are ruling against the will of the people. Libya's Moummar Ghaddafi is the longest of these dictators as well as the ignoble face of these despicable genre of human-beings in Africa. Icheoku hopes that the people of Libya braves it and rise to the occasion and say to Ghaddafi, ENOUGH! 

ZINE EL ABIDINE BEN ALI, TUNISIA MOST WANTED FUGITIVE!

 

Icheoku ask you to help Tunisian people capture their deposed and now exiled former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, now a fugitive from justice, hiding in Saudi Arabia. His offense include crimes against the people of Tunisia, torture, murder, economic paralysis of Tunisia, gross unemployment, food scarcity and the looting of Tunisia public funds. Icheoku hereby call on the Kingdom of Saud to deport this fugitive immediately to answer for his crimes; while they too should await the rage of Saudis in their own version of Tunisia-Revolution to reclaim their kingdom from their family. Dictator Ben Ali deserves to answer for his stewardship in Tunisia and Saudi Arabia must not be in the way or anyway, constitute themselves into the receptacle of African as well as Arab dictators running away from justice!

BOLA TINUBU'S FAMILIAL-STYLED DEMOCRACY IN ACTION?

 

Former governor of Lagos State and ACN chieftain, Bolaji Tinubu is a family-based democrat. He believes and practices democracy provided the beneficiaries are members of his family:- his wife, Remi Tinubu is the ACN nominee for Lagos Central senatorial seat; his daughter, Sade Tinubu is the ACN nominee for Agege Constituency in Lagos State House of Assembly; his son in-law, Oyetunde Ojo is the ACN nominee for a House of Representative seat while his wife's elder sister, Lola Akande is also a ACN nominee for a Lagos House of Assembly seat. It was on these terms that Lagos State governor Fashola was endorsed for a second term by Tinubu and any person with any objection was advised to leave the party and seek his fortunes elsewhere. Icheoku asks what manner of a democrat is this Bola Tinubu; except that he is not alone in this their selfish "all for me and nothing for others" type of democracy as practiced in Nigeria as Olusola Saraki of Kwara State shares similar character traits with him - his daughter Gbemi has to be governor following after his son Bukola who will be termed out as governor of the same Kwara State; go figure?

2015 IGBO PRESIDENTIAL DREAM, ABORTED?

Election have consequences and so it is that the 'election' of President Goodluck Jonathan has literally killed the dream of Igbo people of South-East Nigeria of producing the president of Nigeria in 2015. First is the Namadi Sambo factor as he will most likely graduate from vice president to president in 2015. Second is a wounded north that will not take a chance at being left out next time around and will fight with everything within their means to get back the presidency. Now they are sounding out that intention, surreptitiously hinting that Abubakar Atiku should wait till 2015 to stage a come back? First to fly the kite of Atiku's 2015 candidacy is Bamangar Tukur and now Governor Nyako of Adamawa State has followed suit by saying that 'Atiku should go for the contest in 2015?' Icheoku says where is this sudden somersault coming from, but a north that knows the South-East Igbos are not deft politicians and are not prepared to make needed sacrifices to achieve their political goal of producing the president of Nigeria. But where does this leave all the guarantees made by IBB and co for an Igbo president in 2015? To the Igbos of South-Eastern Nigeria, Icheoku challenge you to show cause and prove to Nigerians that you too can make a successful dash for the presidency; and be bold and audacious going about it. Please do not cower down in 2015 and let the courage of the South-South Niger Delta which got them the presidential trophy be your inspiration!

OJUKWU'S SOCIAL SECURITY NEEDS, NOT ONLY FOR GOVERNOR PETER OBI.

Icheoku has watched and followed with disdain, the lackadaisical attitude of all the governors of the five South-Eastern states, except one, towards the emerging welfare and health-care needs of the Ikemba Nnewi, Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu. To say the least, it is quite appalling and very unbecoming of a people, who would have been a-nobodies but slaves of the northern Hausa/Fulani oligarchy were it not for the brave sacrifice of the Ikemba, to be so nonchalant about the Ikemba's needs? A man who gave them a pride of place and a ringing strong voice within the Nigeria political establishment to be abandoned in this manner, left to his fate, is very heart-wrenching indeed.

Icheoku says if a man who invested all he had both in wealth and career as well as risk to life, and in a cause as worthy as the Biafran war of survival on behalf of his people, the Igbo people; would be so neglected by them when he absolutely needs all the help he can get with his increasing welfare and health-care needs, then how would the next guy dare should similar situation, a precursor to Biafra, arise in the future? Ordinarily, a culture that is appreciative of heroic sacrifices as was made by the Ikemba would have suo-moto, declared the Ikemba a public-charge and the responsibility of the entire South-East Igbo people and their respective governments. There should have been a budgetary allocation made by the five South-Eastern states for his upkeep, welfare and maintenance. But nay, these opportunist-governors would not do so or think about it or even hear about that. Instead they are parading themselves as the lords of the manor while forgetting that without Ojukwu, there probably would have been no Igbo states or even Igbo people left for them to govern?

However, Icheoku wants to specifically single-out and thank Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State for being the only rational and appreciative governor among  this class of unthinking governors of Igboland South-East Nigeria. Governor Peter Obi is hereby commended for appreciating that the Igbos of the South-East Nigeria owes much to the Ikemba for what he did on their behalf during Biafra. Borrowing from Britain's Winston Churchill, Icheoku reiterates that "never in the history of Igboland has so much been owed by so many to just a single individual and that individual is the Ikemba." Or could it be that some of these governors were not old enough or even born during the Biafran war of survival to appreciate the great sacrifice of this great son of Igboland; who rose to the occasion to say enough of the Igbo blood-shed to the blood-hounds of northern Nigeria. A man of great courage who took up the gauntlet of a war which was forced on the Igbo people by the bloody Hausa/Fulani pogrom that took place in the north, especially the then Benue-Plateau region is a man who should be revered by all Igbo people and his needs taken care of without any question or hesitation.

Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu risked his all - his life, his military career, his inherited enormous wealth which stood to be seized and were seized by the Federal government of genocidal Yakubu Gowon, to tell all Igbos in Nigeria particularly in the north to just try and make it to the East and the safety of their lives and properties will be guaranteed. It was unplanned and it was ill-prepared, yet Ojukwu gallantly fought off the Federal army and for three long years which but for the mercenaries would have lasted longer if not victorious? Ojukwu defended the honor of Igbo people under very austere circumstances and a completely blockaded situational region, using only his resolve and the "Igbo-kwenu" can-do spirit of an all volunteer peoples militia to protect a people who were under the threat of being completely wiped out of existence. It was genocidal and it was earth-scorching; there were so many massacres of innocent Igbo people in the north before the war and during and after the war in Onitsha, Asaba, Nsukka and other sectors. All geared at exterminating Igbo people from Nigeria that Icheoku wonders what would have been were it not for Ojukwu's drawing a line in the sands against a maniacal Gowon's attempt to wipe out the Igbo race.

The rest as they say is in the history books for those governors of the five Igbo South-Eastern states to go verify themselves, assuming they were not around then or never heard anything about that sad chapter of Igbos in Nigeria. Icheoku says it is about time these governors did right by Ojukwu and gave him his duly earned benefits; at least a pensioner deserves his pension! Ojukwu earned it; Ojukwu worked hard for it; Ojukwu sacrificed for it and Ojukwu deservedly earned to be repaid for his good works and at this time of great toll on his welfare, upkeep and health-care needs. Icheoku hereby call on Governors Theodore Orji of Abia State, Martin Elechi of Ebonyi State, Sullivan Chime of Enugu State and Ohakim of Imo state to without much delay or any further indifference, team up with Governor Peter obi of Anambra State in taking care of the Ikemba Nnewi and Dikedioranma of Igboland on behalf of the Igbo people of Nigeria. It is the right thing to do and the Igbo people of South East Nigeria understands this and will be perpetually grateful for these governors rising up to this responsibility - it is never too late to make amends or repay a debt owned.

Icheoku admonishes that Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu does not belong to only Anambra State or Governor Peter Obi or the APGA; no, Ojukwu should ordinarily be a Nigeria national responsibility if not that some people in Nigeria are still punishing him for his role during Biafra; but at least he should be the responsibility of South-East Igboland. Ojukwu has been going through some health challenges in recent times and only Governor Peter Obi has so far risen to the occasion, shouldering this responsibility whether as individual or on behalf of Anambra State; but it should not be so as Peter Obi or Anambra State state should not be left to bear it alone. Ojukwu did service for the entire Igbo people and his needs now should be borne by the whole Igbo people as a group, being the beneficiary of his great sacrifice during Biafra. "The fowl does not forget the person that took off its feathers during rainy season" and so the Igbos must now show their gratitude to a man who stood up when it mattered most. The good news is that Ojukwu is responding well to treatment in an undisclosed London hospital, all courtesy of Governor Peter Obi's magnanimity and generosity; but should the unexpected happen and the Ikemba is no more; Icheoku will hate to see these governors jostling for the camera in their attempt to outdo one another with his funeral arrangements. Mike Ejegha has a song "kwaa m na ndu", translation "celebrate me while I am still alive" and Icheoku will hate to see Ojukwu being celebrated by these governors posthumously.

Now is the time for these five governors to take up the challenge of Ojukwu's failing health and ensure that the Ikemba stays around as much as possible; challenged that they will not watch and see Ojukwu be the first one among those many other despicable actors of the Biafran war of survival, to make his exit from this earth and Nigeria. Genocidal Yajubu Gowon is still very much around, Olusegun Obasanjo is also still around and likewise Ibrahim Babangida as well as many other minor players of that genocidal war. Icheoku says it will be very shameful for the Igbo people to in addition to loosing the Biafran war to also lose the psychological war of whose leader dies first. Igboland five governors, the onus of ensuring that Ojukwu's life, welfare and health is  preserved for as long as humanly and medically possible lies squarely on your shoulders and please do not fail in this task or in any way disappoint the expectation of the Igbos. Icheoku says it will be a great shame that a man who risked everything to protect the Igbo people of South-East Nigeria from assured genocidal extermination in the hand of maniacal Yakubu Gowon led federal army, was abandoned by the same Igbo people at his hour of great needs and/or eventual demise.

It sure will not look good and these five Igbo governors should do all within their powers to ensure that Governor Peter Obi gets the support he deserves in taking care of Ojukwu and that the Ikemba never regrets or was forced to ever question the merit of his historic sacrifice on behalf of the Igbo people, protecting the Igbo race from an assured destruction? Lastly,like America, Biafra is a dream and the dream must not be allowed to die due to attitudinal indifference of a people who should know better as represented by the five uncaring governors of South East Igbo states. The dream called Biafra must live on in its hero, the Ikemba Nnewi and Dikedioranma of Igboland, Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu. Icheoku wishes the Ikemba a quick recovery and a full return to active good life and many more years of inspiring leadership of the Igbo people of South Eastern Nigeria. Icheoku also agrees that Ojukwu should not continue to be a political partisan at this point of his life but should instead serve as a father of all Igbo partisans, a symbol of authority for every Igbo man and woman and also the unifying beacon for the entire Igbo people of South East Nigeria. Long live the Ikemba and thank you Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State for holding the forte!