When will North Africa’s revolutions spread south?

Our own Tolu Ogunlesi at CNN:

Nigerians, masters of the art of self-flagellation that they are, waste no time proclaiming that Tunisia or Egypt will never happen here; we are too cowardly, too obsessed with self-comfort. This revolution will not be coming to a city near you anytime soon, we gleefully tell ourselves.

But the more I think about it, the more I become convinced that the answer to that question should be: “Why would anyone imagine that Nigeria needs a Tahrir-Square-style uprising at this time?”

Anyone following the protests in North Africa will realize that what is at stake is freedom. After decades of iron-handed rule, the Tunisians, Egyptians and Libyans deserve “freedom.”

Since democracy is supposed to guarantee this freedom (which is actually a melange of freedoms: of speech; of association; of having a say in the way one's country is being run and its wealth distributed), clearly what is happening across North Africa can be summarized as a push for democracy.

The only sub-Saharan African countries, therefore, that should be seeking to replicate Tahrir Square are those still in the grip of Egypt-style tyranny: for example Equatorial Guinea (where Teodoro Obiang has ruled since 1979), Gabon and Cameroon (where Paul Biya keeps altering the constitution.)

More here.