Why Ex-President Gbagbo Must Stop Killing Innocent Civilians and Leave

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Since the disputed presidential election in Cote d’Ivoire last November, in which the then incumbent president Mr. Laurent Gbagbo and Mr. Alassane Ouattara, a former prime Minister contested, it has been bad news over and over again for that small country. And it has been a disaster for Africa; a battle-field for reaping dead bodies of civilian population, especially those of women and children as well as a looting mine-field for criminals.

Results from the disputed presidential elections were declared in favor of Mr. Ouattara by the domestic election umpire and upheld by both the UN and AU observers who witnessed the elections. But a compromised Judge, who is alleged to be Mr. Gbagbo’s loyalist, subverted the whole process and countered the electoral Commission’s result in favor of the incumbent president.  Mr. Gbagbo refused to relinquish power to the internationally acknowledged winner, Mr. Ouattara, claiming irregularities. The international community, after they exhausted their patience with him, has imposed all kind of sanctions on the country, and also blocked his access to fund from outside the country. The effect has been both gory and devastating. The UNHCR representative, as at last week told BBC that the death-tolls is around 400 as dogs feast on dead bodies in the streets of Abidjan, the nation’s capital. In addition, it had created refugee crisis with over 250000 refugees already moved into neighboring country of Liberia. Liberia is a country recuperating from a 15 year civil strife and still has its own refugee problem to deal with. Why would Mr. Gbagbo create a situation that has the potential to strain the fragile economy? Last month, thousands of Liberian refugees still in Bundubura Camp in Ghana, were at logger’s head with some Ghanaians over the death of one female refugee.

Ivory Coast is a country that has not known many political leaders in its post- independence existence. Since the death of Late President Houphuoet Boigny, who held unto power for many years; the country has been in leadership crisis and Mr. Gbagbo has now become the face of the story. Mr. Gbagbo is a professor of history, so he should not be ignorant of the politico-historical developments in his country. When the death of president Boigny left a leadership  vacuum, there arouse a chaotic situation that saw  Mr.  Bedei and Ouattara as President and Prime Minister. They were both overthrown by General Robert Guei. By the time Gen. Guei, a military officer wanted to transform his government to a civilian government, through a dubious constitutional change, he branded ex-minister Minister Ouattara a foreigner and excluded  him from the election process in 2000. Thus, by the time of the elections, the coast was clear for him and Mr. Gbagbo, an election that declared the latter winner but Gen. Guei refused to hand over power to him. What did Mr. Gbagbo do to claim his victory?

It was historic that ECOWAS supported him when he led a mass demonstration against Gen. Guei to hand over power. On the 25^th of October 2000, the General  left and Gbagbo became president. The same circumstances that brought him to power are not different from those he is killing innocent souls to defend. Why does his ambition for power have no end? Why is he buying guns for students to mow down civilian population?

While the United Nations and the AU are still doing their best to restore normalcy to the Ivory Coast, they must speed up whatever means they chose to use to remove Mr. Gbagbo. He has refused to learn from the Libyan event that continues to unfold every day, the whole world is waiting for him to step down quietly and  go into self-exile as did ex-president Charles Ghanky Taylor of Liberia. Mr. Gbagbo  would be a threat peaceful governance in the Ivory Coast.