By Owei Lakemfa
THE peoples’ hurricane which swept ferociously through Tunisia making the 25-year presidency of General  Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali history, made a strong landing in Egypt on Tuesday, January 25.Its ferocious nature  and intensity shocked not just the repressive Egyptian presidency but also the demonstrators themselves.

As a police hot water tank sped towards the  mass of people, a lone demonstrator stood in its tracks daring it to run over him; the truck slowed down and more protesters joined him to pelt the vehicle.

It was just one example of courage displayed as the Egyptian masses expressed their opposition to the dinosaur-president, Mohammed Hosni Mubarak who  continues to dominate their lives after 30 years in power.

The 83-year old Mubarak with his repressive police has for long put  a lid on mass protests; but this hurricane partly relied on new technology to mobilise people; mainly on Facebook, Twitter and text messages. Some ninety thousand people signed on for the protests on the internet .

It was the largest anti-government protests in contemporary times with children and their parents, Muslims and Christians, participating in this country of 80 million people.

While the people marched in Alexandria, Suez and other parts of the country, the target of the demonstrators in Cairo was to occupy the city centre and parliament.

Three people, including a policeman lost their lives in the protests but the message was clear and well delivered: the generation-straddling Mubarak regime must come to an end.

Organisers  dubbed the protests, “The Day of Revolution Against Torture, Poverty, Corruption and Unemployment”. A small placard summarised the demands on the streets: “Leave and let us live”

Understandably, the first major international reaction was from the United States (US)whose Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton tried to paint the Mubarak regime as being economically and politically stable. Mubarak, a long term puppet of the US is one of its most reliable allies in Africa and the Arab world.

When the Americans were engaged in the 1991 Gulf war, Mubarak placed 38,500 Egyptian troops at the  disposal of the anti-Iraq coalition. When  the Americans complain about sit-tight rulers and dictators who do not allow multi-party liberal democracy to blossom, they do not mention Mubarak who is the influential  dean of the club.

Mubarak, a General, has been wedded to power  for four decades. In 1972, he was appointed the Deputy Minister of War. He served in this position for three years before becoming Vice President. When President Anwar Sadat was assassinated  in a movie-style manner on October 6, 1981, Mubarak replaced him and has been in power since then.

In the 1987 elections, he was returned unopposed. There was  a bizarre assassination attempt on him in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in June 1995 which was blamed on  Islamic militants, particularly the Muslim Brotherhood which he had repressed two years before. In elections, he scores himself quite high. One of the low marks was in the 2005 elections  when under direct multi-party  elections he scored a mere 85 per cent.

Unless the protests gather momentum, they are unlikely to uproot the Mubarak regime that is beginning to have signs of a dynasty.

But if the regime were to fall, the forces that would replace it do not seem to be clear. There is the Muslim Brotherhood which has some following but which has since the days of charismatic Gamal  Nasser has been under siege.

With fears of international terrorism  and claims on the eve of the protests by the Egyptian regime that it arrested 19 armed Arabs of Tunisian and Libyan decent with links to al Qaeda, the Brotherhood is being blackmailed.

There is the more secular opposition, but lack of unity may be an impediment to their picking up power if it falls on the streets of Cairo. Besides, if they are cast in the mould of Mohammed Elbaradei the former United Nations Nuclear chief who largely played the Western card in the campaigns against Iraq, then there will be no fundamental changes if Mubarak is forced out. Whatever may be the case, it is time for Mubarak to move on.

The Egyptian protests  is also a message for a leader like Yoweri Museveni of Uganda who has been president for 25 years. He had fought in the 1979 war that uprooted the human butcher, General Idi Amin from power and planted him in the Saudi Arabian desert.

In turn, he and his Movement for National Reformation had  thrown President Milton Obote out of power in 1986 which heralded the rise of the Museveni  presidency. On the positive side, except for the activities of The Lord’s  Resistance Army,  Museveni  has succeded in restoring the rule of law in a country used to anarchy.

He also assisted in the Rwandan revolution. But he certainly cannot be the only Ugandan that can lead the country; the cemeteries are full of people who think that without them, their countries cannot survive. Also, his strong-arm tactics, including promotion of a nebulous “Movement” in which no political parties were allowed for many years have not helped.

President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe is another African leader who has made contributions to the liberation movement in the continent and now needs to move on and allow other patriots lead. At 87 and having being in power for 30 years,  he needs to allow the ZANU-PF to produce other leaders. Another leader in this sense is  Muamma Qaddafi of Libya who has been in power for 42 years.

No matter the contributions he has made to his country or towards the unity of the continent, he needs to take a back seat and let a new generation mount the rostrum.

We must learn from  leaders like Nelson Mandela of South Africa who despite being seen by many around the world as a messiah, stepped aside after only a term for younger people to lead the country.