Nasty Politics Brought to West Africa
The recent election in Ivory Coast has seen our politicians in West Africa copying from disingenuous politicians in East and South Africa, such behaviour is very dangerous for development in any country, because the people’s right to vote has been trampled on and their contribution to the country’s development would be minimal due to fact that their chosen leader was robbed of his leadership. (Photo: Ernest Smith, author)
The umbrella condemnation by the Africa Union and ECOWAS is not enough. Individual condemnation by heads of state in Africa would have been seen as a total rejection of their comrade Laurent Gbagbo, some of these African leaders would not want to reject Gbagbo individually because they would want to use this same tactics to keep themselves in power. How genuine is the condemnation of Gbagbo by the African Union when the president of Zimbabwe and Kenya have benefited from this same tactics.
The African leaders who have used this new political doctrine want us Africans to believe that the west is dictating what should happen in Africa, though it happens sometimes but in this case they are saying it to keep themselves in power with total disregard of their people’s right and the consequences that would follow, their actions. Such response by African leaders to Laurent Gbagbo’s new imported political doctrine from East and South Africa is a worrisome development for Africa, knowing how dishonest some of our leaders are. If Laurent Gbagbo is given the opportunity to power share with the rightful winner of the election Alassane Ouattara, there would be no more loss for incumbent president in Africa. In fact how many of these African leaders have indisputably won elections. The Constitutional Council that ruled in favor of Mr. Gbagbo was handpicked by Gbagbo himself with the head been in his ally, how genuine and independent are they in giving victory to their boss Gbagbo.
Heavy international pressure and threat to use military force would be the best options to force Gbagbo out of power. The fear of reprisals by Ivoirians to citizens, whose country would contribute to the intervention force if military action is used against Gbagbo, should not be a stumbling block. It happened in Sierra Leone though the situation is different the regime then had supporters who are still leaving in Sierra Leone with Nigerians in peace, who were the sole force to unseat the government then.
The UN, USA, Europe and Genuine African Leaders should discourage Russia and China not to do business with Laurent Gbagbo, because the Chinese are in the habit of supporting rogue regimes in Africa to satisfy their thirst for oil, iron ore, diamond and control of African wealth. The Chinese should know that the world is watching, if they do any business with Gbagbo that would keep him in power for even a month, they would be seen as nation that want to destabilise Africa.
Ernest Smith, The Netherlands
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