One resolute power mongering African head of state
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| Laurent Gbago with wife, Simone (Getty Images) |
Possible prison sentence and shameful arrest, possible international trial, bad name, outcast; an endless list of the kind that places most African heads of state in the hall of shame of politics is written in Gbagbo’s future should he as much as try to hand over power.
Add the looming feeling of helplessness that comes from wielding so much power then suddenly having no influence even on your grown up kids, and you have one resolute power mongering African head of state determined to deeply entrench (entomb) himself.
On the flip side, should Gbagbo succeed in holding on to power and warm his way back into the hearts of the international community, what awaits Gbagbo but more power and glory and a place in Ivory Coast history as the man who helped turn the West African country into a modern economic powerhouse.
Truth be faced, even with the strife in that country, Ivory Coast still bested its peaceful neighbor Ghana as the world’s number one cocoa producer; then there is the new found black gold that is known to quickly transform economies. With a politically stable Ghana producing oil and cocoa, economies of scale between the two countries should be guaranteed along with some synergy.
Or president in exile.
See what I am seeing? Forget it, “Ivory Coast President Gbagbo” is not moving an inch and “Ivory Coast President Ouatarra” better start preparing for the permanent accolade “the man widely believed to have won the Ivory Coast election in 2010” or president in exile.” That is unless, President Ouatarra has more to offer other than limiting himself to calls to the world have his rival forcibly removed.
African heads of state have fared no better in this conflict resolution and you have to wonder, whatever those African leaders who went with such self righteous bravado; more like impudence offered Gbagbo anything that could be more appealing than power and glory?
What befell that caricature Charles Taylor
Benin President Boni Yayi, Sierra Leone President, Ernest Bai Koroma, Kenya’s Prime Minster Raila Odinga and former Nigerian President, Obasanjo surely enjoyed some free warm cocoa drinks in Abidjan but it is not known whether between sips of the drink they guaranteed that one day a law suit would not be filed somewhere in the world including Ivory Coast to bring Gbagbo to book. An amnesty backed by a guarantee of immunity also backed by what laws in which countries they said? Such is the known unknown.
Still, what is known is what befell that caricature Charles Taylor, the former Liberian strongman who basked his family and friends in wealth belonging to the Liberian people. Gbagbo’s former neighbor now on trial in The Hague, is in tune with the canary; apatupre and has been singing the unknown knowns about his rise to power; namely his escape from Plymouth prison in Massachusetts with the help of the US government to unleash mayhem in West Africa.
China Maybe? Oui ce’st possible,
Charles Ghankay Taylor, whose eldest son Charles Chuckie Taylor was jailed for human rights violations dared dispatch his lawyer to Ghana to invoke the soul of Pan-Africanism to his side as he faced the International court. Now that we know the known unknowns about Taylor, which unknown is whispering the known unknown into Gbagbo’s ears to stay put?
China maybe? Oui ce’st possible, China guzzles oil more than an American car of the 60’s and the world’s second largest oil consumer shows no sign its oil thirst will abate in the near future. Just check the electronic gadget you are using now; take a moment, in which country was it made? So China does the smart thing and, supports rogue leaders to obtain oil on the cheap with trade deals to fuel its economy. Hugo Chavez’ Venezuela got a total of $22 billion dollars from China early half of 2010. And even as Sudan’s leader Al Bashir’s facilitated racism and other human rights abuses against black people in Southern Sudan, China protected him.
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