THE GBAGBO POLITICAL MADNESS

By: Peter Qeko Jere
10/01/11

A new political terminology is born in African political economy and this is the “Gbagbo political madness”. The so called Gbagbo political madness is the ill and unwise decision that is reached not to hand over power after losing the election. This terminology originates from the action taken by Gbagbo who in as much as he lost the election in Ivory Coast, still made himself the President of against the wished of the Ivorian people. Through the useless Ivorian constitutional court, the hopeless Ivorian President, Laurent Gbagbo, stole the presidency against the will of the Ivorian people and never has such a thing happened in the history of politics in Africa. Gbagbo stole the Presidency with the help of the Ivorian constitutional Court which sworn him into office and this act of political vandalism is a shame to the African People.

According to the presidential results released by the election commission in Ivory coast, Alassane Ouattara won the Presidential runoff with 54.1% with Gbagbo 49% of the vote. The world backs the veteran politician Alassane Ouattara as the clear winner of the election and have asked Gbagbo to hand over power to the president elect. The international community has voiced their support for the elected president, Outtara and these include the United Nation, African Union, the West African community and other African regional blogs.

However with the support of the army and his tribal based south, Gbagbo still maintains that the elections were rigged by Outtara mainly in the north. The Gbagbo political madness reveals the connection and political romance that exists between African politics and ethnicity. When the partition of Africa was done some years ago, European colonialists didn’t consider the tribal arrangement in many parts of Africa the results of which are manifesting in the many civil wars and political conflicts we see in African political economy today. Many of the wars we see happening in Africa today are tribally based. As in Ivory Coast, Gbagbo comes from the Christian south while Outtarra comes from the Muslim north and these two are geographically, historically, politically and religiously divided hence no wonder the north overwhelmingly voted for Outtarra while the Christian south voted for Gbagbo.

Various peace envoys have gone in Ivory Coast to help bring political sanity and these includes, the former South African president, Thabo Mbeki, the former Nigerian President, Obasanjo and Kenyan Prime Minister Odinga. Many proposals have been put in place to help bring unity and peace and these include the creation of a unity government based on the Zimbabwe and Kenyan model and the other one proposed by Obasanjo which would make Outtarra Vice President and allowing Gbagbo remain the Head of State. However in as much as different political solutions are put in place, those entrusted with this initiative need to know the historical and political background of this nation so that they properly begin to understand the main cause of this conflict. They need to know that peace in Ivory Coast demands the consensus approach where all key stakeholders are involved in the daily administration of the nation at every level. They need to know that leaving out one tribe ie north or south would generate more bloodshed and political confusion in the country but that they have to be a compromised and consensus political solution accepted by the majority south and north.