PRESIDENT ABDELAZIZ BOUTEFLIKA NEXT, AS ALGERIAN REVOLUTION BEGINS?

Icheoku calls on Algeria Trade Unions to wake up and smell the coffee. They should join hands with patriotic Algerians and the National Coalition for Democrat to make history by changing the political landscape of Algeria. Tunisia and Egypt showed that nothing is impossible for a willing populace and Icheoku hopes Algerians are as brave as their Tunisian and Egyptian Arab brothers and sisters. Now is not the time to sit on the fence as opportunity calls for every Algerian to rise up and make a difference. Icheoku says let the tinderbox go up in flame and NOW to remove President Abdelaziz Bouteflika from office! Saddam is gone; Ben Ali is gone and Mubarak is equally gone so what are other Arab countries waiting to also free themselves from their despotic leaders or are they not as brave and merely cowards of the Arab world? President Abdelaziz Bouteflaik OUT!

FREE AT LAST, FREE AT LAST, EGYPTIANS ARE FINALLY FREE!

Icheoku is happy with those sons and daughters of the Pharaohs who overthrew their present day Pharaoh Mubarak. Congratulations, admitted that no one knows what the day after Mubarak will turn out to be; but hey there will always be a way where there is a will.

AS EGYPT GOES, SO GOES THE ARAB WORD?

From left to right are exiled Ben Ali of Tunisia, soon to go Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and Kuwati's Jabar al Sabar. Icheoku asks were they all destined to fall as they are lined up in this picture - another case of nature playing its cruel joke on man? Anyway only time shall tell as Icheoku and the rest of the world continue to watch the unfolding history being made by the Arab people of North Africa, respectively 'deposing' their autocratic governments one country at a time!

MUBARAK OUSTED, EGYPTIANS WIN THE BATTLE OF WILL AND NERVE!

Just less than twenty four hours after his boast that he is not going anywhere, President Hosni Mubarak was eased out of power and he is now gone; GONE FOR THE GOOD OF EGYPT! Icheoku says good riddance. According to a statement by Vice President Omar Suleiman, “Mubarak has decided to relinquish the office of the presidency” and with those words several decades of despotism abruptly came to an end in the land of the Pharaohs.It would appear that Mubarak tried in vain to ride out the wave but would not get the support of the military to do the only thing left for him to cling to power - massacre those 'dissidents' at Tahrir Square and he had to go. This shows that his last statement to the nation was a ditch attempt to hang in there but the resolve of the people proved to be too much for that of one single old despot. Unconfirmed sources said Mubarak had already left Cairo for the Sinai resort of Sharm El-Sheikh enroute exile in Saudi Arabia to join his Tunisian counterpart Ben Ali.Icheoku says as Egypt now joins Tunisia as another liberated country in the Arab world, the tornado of change should move on to other countries in that region of the world and we pray it gathers awesome force enroute. With Iraqi Saddam Hussein gone; Tunisia Ben Ali gone and now followed by Egyptian Hosni Mubarak, the wind of change is packing much punch and must not cease or stop until the Middle East and North Africa are rid of these pestilence holding the region down. Icheoku have always supported the revolution but was inclined to accommodate Mubarak till September, provided it will ensure a smooth transition of power in Egypt as opposed to the madness that was witnessed in Iraq following Saddam's violent overthrow. But hey, Egyptians love their country and will do what is best for it. Congratulations Egyptians on your resolve which culminated into the overthrow of ages of a one-man madness; and should we rename the Revolution 2.0 the River Nile Revolution or what?

MUBARAK ACCEPTS GHONIM'S INFANTILE CHALLENGE, NOT GOING ANYWHERE!

President Hosni Mubarak did not mince words as he told thousands of protesting Egyptians and their Wael Said Abbas Ghonim who wants his immediate departure from office, that he is going no where. That whether they like it or not a man steeped and seasoned in warfare cannot be easily intimidated out of the Egyptian presidential mansion and not by ordinary Egyptian boys, many of whom were still pipe dreams when he ascended the seat of power in Cairo; first in 1975 as vice president and later in 1981 as president which office he has occupied till date.


Icheoku once again reiterates that the six months Mubarak is asking for is reasonable and that Mubarak should be accommodated with it instead of the long-drawn rough road those protesters are clamoring to travel. In our oped of day before, we called out Wael Ghonim as overreaching himself when he invited the Mubarak regime to kill him while insisting that Mubarak must  go and go NOW! Icheoku asks, now that Ghonim has not been killed by the regime and Mubarak is still in office or has rejected his call, what recourse for redress is then left for Ghonim and the rest of the Egyptian protest world? And how do they plan to pay their bills if they are not paid their wages as result of a long-drawn out society in disarray or don't those Egyptians pay bills?

In legal parlance what Mubarak did with his address to the Egyptian nation indicating his intention to 'adamantly remain in office is tantamount to calling their bluff and has now formally joined issues with those protesters calling for his immediate departure. According to him, 'I have said it before and in a plain unequivocal language that I am not going anywhere; Egypt is the land of my birth and in it shall I die and in its grounds shall my body be buried!' Icheoku says never has a bluff been called this blatantly, since the January 25th uprising begun than this frontal and direct challenge to the  protesting Egyptians main demand that Mubarak goes? Their demand in chief is that President Hosni Mubarak leaves office forthwith and Mubarak in turn just told them to stuff it; that he shall serve out his term of office. Now how would the protesting people of Egypt react now that someone strong and brave enough to call their bluff is the same person they want gone? Your guess is as goof as mine; but the end sure does not look good but very ominous. What happens thence is anybody's guess but Icheoku says the party with greater leverage shall force the issue to the fore, hoping for an opportunity to take a revenge.


Icheoku says what a clever speech delivered by Grandpa Mubarak, which was meant "to meet all the peoples demand" as earlier promised by the Egyptian military Chief. Meanwhile Icheoku likes and admires men of  great courage and President Hosni Mubarak is one of such men, a man who have severally put his life on the line for these protesting young pharaohs to have a place they can proudly call a home. The parties seem to be totally entrenched in their un-shifting positions and only the destruction of one by the other will sort the situation out at this point. Icheoku admonishes President Hosni Mubarak that the protest has lasted for too long and now is time to end it; either he cracks-down on it or he should meet the protesters demand and quit.  But to apparently remain powerless in a situation where exhibition of some power may be very productive shows a man whose regime is on life-support. Mubarak has no choice at this point but to decisively crackdown on the protesters if he wants to retain power and remain in office; and the other guys need to come up with something better to support their call for the early exit of the grandpa of the River Nile. But Egypt cannot remain in a state of anomie or a standing still position forever; something gonna give way and NOW!.

WAEL SAID ABBAS GHONIM, THROWS MUBARAK A GAUNTLET?

Icheoku says the time has never been so ripe and the moment rightfully so come, that for the survival of the quaking Mubarak led Egyptian government, it has to crackdown now and so hard on the stringing-out protesters in Tahrir Square. Such crackdown in order to shake the resolve of those protesters must be so bloody so red that Tienanmen Square will look like a child's play. The government of Mubarak must visit with vengeance the iniquities and angst of the past three weeks on these protesters; a crackdown so vicious in intensity that they will see enough red to scatter throughout the four corners of the globe? Such ruthlessness on fellow Egyptians is the only thing that will save the regime's skin, the resolve of these protesters considered; and in order to enable them survive what has come to be known as Revolution 2.0!


For the Mubarak regime to survive, now is the time to bring out the sledge-hammer to hammer down those 'dissidents' at Tahrir Square. Sixteen days and counting with each passing day emboldening the protesters and forcing the regime to sacrifice one thing after another; forgetting that until Mubarak is also sacrificed those protesters will not be placated. The regime have to shut out the country from the outside world and clean out Tahrir Square the best way despotic government knows best; such that blood will continue to flow until the River Nile once again turns red, but this time not because of a plague but with the blood of Egyptians massacred for standing up for democracy! That is the only other choice left for Mubarak here since he has decided to dig in and the protesters are not going anywhere either. According to the face of the protest, Wael Said Abbas Ghonim, President Hosni Mubarak should either go or have him (Ghonim) killed; and Icheoku hedges bet on the later? Icheoku says this sure sounds like two extreme positions which gives no room for manoeuvre or negotiation and this battle of the will is now more likely to boil over with an unpalatable result.

After watching Mr. Ghonim's interview with a CNN correspondent in Cairo, so many questions came rushing down our minds and begging for answers:- who is this man; what are his affiliations both political and religious; what were his antecedents of activism and why has Google suddenly become an activists nest, executives freely mixing business with politics? In the said interview, Ghonim threw caution to the winds, offering himself up to be murdered just to prove a point that he is not afraid to die for democracy? But unbeknownst to this guy, he is not in America or speaking to an audience that usually rationalizes issues and soon he may get what he bargained for and the heavens will not fall. Icheoku appreciates what he is doing and admires his bravery going up against an entrenched military offshoot government that has practically been in power since 1952; admitted Mubarak has been president for 30 years only, but people do such things with a lot of caution but not foolish bravado. Icheoku believes that Ghonim has made his point and would have joined the negotiation efforts currently underway; but for him to denounce all negotiations is an invitation for anarchy and no reasonable mind thinks the government in Egypt will allow him destroy the country or even the administration or even humiliate President Hosni Mubarak. The operating procedure usually is for the lesser of the mortals to go and this is our fears that soon and very soon, when the crack-down on the protesters eventually beins, that Mr Wael Said Abbas Ghonim might be specifically targeted as an expendable pawn in the unfolding game of chess playing itself out in Egypt.


One school of thought on the Egyptian crisis even went further to question how really grass-root is the uprising, that in a country of over eighty million people, only about one hundred thousand people are protesting the Egyptian government? To this group Icheoku says, they should prove their superiority by organising ten million man march throughout Egypt to showcase their strength in numbers and until then, the world is hearing the vocal chords of those few who are adamantly protesting Mubarak's open-ended stay in government. Icheoku's heart is with those protesting Egyptians but we believe that the cardinal objective of the protest was achieved when Mubarak agreed to step down and now all parties should join hands to ensure that he keeps his promise and in an orderly fashion. We condemn any attempt at unduly over-rushing the transition and having waited for thirty years, six additional months will not be too daunting a period to effectively trade Mubarak for someone else. A chaotic disorderly Egypt is not an option for Mubarak being rushed out 'NOW'; so Egyptians and the world must help him organize a transition that will endure and an Egypt that will be there for our future generations yet unborn. Nothing else matters, nothing else counts; not even one million martyr-ready Ghonims.


Icheoku says if the negotiation is called off, what other wind is left in the sail of those protesting the regime; since they neither have overwhelming disruptive numbers of protesters to shut down the government nor the instrument of cohesion to otherwise achieve their objective. There is already enough of Egyptian blood (302 people dead) shed so far to water the planted seed of democracy in Egypt and such obstinate foreclosing of any negotiation with the government, tantamount to hardening of the hearts (akin to the pharaoh who will not let go the Israelites, so it may be an Egyptian thing not to compromise) will only accelerate to more ugliness. January 25 till February 10 is such a long time for such a number of people to be protesting a government which has dug in and will only go on its term; so why bother thinking they will bulge now or just throw their honcho under the bus just because one Ghonim said so?  It must not remain this my way or the highway and Icheoku hopes these parties will hearken to a wise council and come to a meeting point instead of being strung out with their positions. Like his hero, Mohandas K. Gandhi, Ghonim has provoked a thought and Icheoku hopes he will ride out the storm and achieve democracy for the people of Egypt. 


Icheoku says, if like Ghonim himself conceded that Mubarak has "sacrificed a lot" for Egypt and ought to be treated with dignity, does it not therefore make sense to just indulge him with the six months he is asking for to make a seamless transition instead of rushing him out of the house he helped build like a common thief? There is some contradictions here and Icheoku only hopes that this Ghonim is not part of some clandestine organisation trying to cause unnecessary upheaval in Egypt. SIX MONTHS AIN'T TOO MUCH TO ASK. Icheoku admires the courage of Ghonim, trying to make a difference in Egypt and we wish him God's speed; however we would rather he does not take positions of extremism in this matter as there are principally two egos at play here - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's and that of the protesters. Let a common reachable goal be agreed now so that both parties retains something of value of their ego in order not to humiliate either. Simply put, both parties should try and meet each other half way and let there be peaceful transition. Icheoku warns that should negotiations fail and the government becomes agitated enough to become edgy or feel that they have been overly cornered, Egyptian blood will flow and the River Nile will turn red!

HILLARY CLINTON, SHOULD SHE BE FIRED FOR MISHANDLING THE EGYPTIAN CRISIS?

 

First it was 'Egypt was stable' followed by 'reform now' and later ' Egypt needs time to reform'. Icheoku asks which one of this is the real government foreign policy position with regards to the ongoing peoples power movement in Egypt? Icheoku says such mix-messaging is capable of misleading both President Mubarak and the Egyptian protesters as well as other Arab countries and their henchmen. Icheoku asks who is best to take a fall for this other than the person in charge of America's foreign affairs, Madam Hillary Clinton! But hey Madam Secretary of State was doing a superlative job until the Egyptian uprising caught the administration flat-footed and napping?

NIGERIANS SAY NO TO THEOCRACY, REJECT BUHARI/BAKARE TICKET.

Behold the two religious fanatics who want to rule Nigeria - one an Imam and the other a Pastor. But unbeknownst to them, Nigeria is a secular state which practices democracy and have no place for a government of religionists by religionists and for religionists. A theocracy which Imam Muhammadu Buhari and Pastor Tunde Bakare will foist on the country if they have their way. Icheoku says, reject this two zealots and tell them their places are in the Mosque and the Church but not Aso Rock.

SOUTH-SUDAN SOLUTION, MAY BE GOOD FOR OTHER AFRICAN COUNTRIES?

Icheoku congratulates the soon to be newest country in the world - Republic of South Sudan; which in an overwhelming landmark 99% votes, voted to secede from Northern Sudan. Icheoku says this plebiscite sure looks attractive as a panacea for the rest of other African countries with intractable internal strifes. Contraptions called countries, which were forcibly and against the will of the peoples, yoked together by uncaring colonial Europe despite their different and divergent peoples. The result is the never ending bloody internecine war ravaging the continent. Now at the slightest opportunity, black African South Sudan have voted to say enough for the oppression, subjugation and injustice being meted on them by their Arab Northern Sudan strange bed fellows. Icheoku wishes that other African countries could have similar opportunities, beginning with Nigeria!

BAKARE COMPARES HIMSELF TO JOSEPH THE DREAMER, VERY ARROGANT.

"But if you are a student of the Bible and you read your scriptures and the word of God, Joseph was a prisoner and not even a pastor. He came out of prison and his only experience was when he was in his father’s house at the age of 17 and then he was sent into slavery. His only experience at resource management was human resource, material resource that he gathered in the house of Potifer. From there, he was lied against; he was sent to prison, and he was never a lawyer or a pastor and he rose out of prison to become a world class ruler." - Pastor Tunde Bakare on his experience to serve as Imam Buhari's vice president. Icheoku says Bakare is not Joseph as he is not an Israeli, never a prisoner, was never sold by his brothers into slavery, never saw truthful visions , was not lied against by a seducer and above all, Joseph was not a product of a polygamous Islamic home like Gbolahan Sindiku Babatunde OluBakare. Therefore it is very arrogant for this politician masking as a man of God to make such gloating allusion or comparison. Icheoku says Nigerians deserve better than this two religious fanatics - one an Imam and the other a Pastor; now trying to surreptitiously introduce theocracy in Nigeria. Nigerians must not allow themselves to be hoodwinked by this two holier than thou cunning men and should therefore reject the duo of Buhari and Bakare as simply being religiously too extreme for a secular Nigerian society!

TUNDE BAKARE, NEITHER AN ELECTORAL CAPITAL NOR A POLITICAL PROFIT.

Simply stated he is not an asset. Icheoku has been paralyzed in thought for sometime now trying to understand the rational for the choosing of Pastor Tunde Bakare by Islamist Muhammadu Buhari as his running mate. As a confession, Icheoku is still at sea; but will only say that this pastor has pulled a fast one on every Nigerian who thought he meant well leading the SNG group to herd our political leaders in the right direction not knowing that he was only cultivating grounds for staging out his own preconceived political agenda. However, Icheoku is emphatic that Nigeria does not need a theocracy and shall not have one; and neither Imam Buhari nor Pastor Bakare can force it on them or be allowed to foist a religious extremism themed politics on the secular polity. Wrong choice. Wrong candidates. Wrong partnership. Wrong party and wrong religious extremist ideology!Nigerians must resist this attempt to pull a wool over their eyes by this two men especially Buhari since in Nigeria vice presidents do not affect policy direction of the country and Buhari is yet to say whether he will pull Nigeria out of the OIC or would Bakare make him do so? Nigerians, just forget about this two strange bed fellows! A man who purportedly sees vision should have seen that there is no way in hell Islamist Muhammadu Buhari would win a presidential election in Nigeria and therefore not accept the offer of the vice presidential candidacy; but who knows whether his is a double-vision similar to his 1999 vision that Olusegun Obasanjo would die before he is sworn in as president? Maybe he might even be a con-man out to con Nigerians using the facade of some type of Christianity?

'TUNDE BAKARE IS AN ISLAMIC APOSTATE AND DESERVES TO DIE?' - SENATOR JIBRIN.

According to Islamic injunction, any Muslim who deserts the faith and/or converts to another religion is condemned to death. It is also the duty of every Muslim to ensure that the Fatwa is carried out. Icheoku says, now that the vice presidential candidate of CPC Imam Muhammadu Buhari, Pastor Tunde Bakare, has fallen within the category of Islamic deserter; and by necessary implication, condemned to death for forswearing Islam; one wonders when the sentence will be carried out?

What happens when Bakare steps into any one of those Buhari-friendly Islamic Sharia States of North-Western Nigeria on a campaign with his boss is anybody's guess? What if the imams decide to execute a warrant of arrest as he campaigns through their state and summarily convict and stone him to death - a vice presidential candidate? The possibilities are endless; forcing the Sharia issue once again to the fore and Icheoku wonders why there should be dual laws in one country.

Icheoku asks, since the offense of leaving Islam was committed by Bakare and is of general knowledge, which imputes Buhari with its knowledge; and the Islamist Buhari went out of his way anyway to appoint such "infidel" as his running mate, should Buhari therefore be equally "stoned to death" for knowingly appointing such an "infidel" deserter of Islam as his running mate? May be as an accomplice to violate this tenet of Islam; since one expect a devout fundamentalist Islamist such as Buhari to be fully aware of what he did and he did it anyway - an affront?

FYI:- It took a zonal coordinator of President Jonathan's campaign, Walid Jibrin, to figure this albatross out but what says Buhari

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!