Thursday 10 November 2011

Gbagbo's Woes, Ouattara's Gains.

The former Ivorian Presidnet, Laurent Gbagbo is now being kept in detention in the northern part of the country he once ruled by the government of Alhassane Ouattara. Was Gbagbo trying to be more African by fighting for what really belonged to his people? He was trying to be a hero for his people, but the whole world saw him to be a villain and in the end, he nearly paid for his life. Lets look at certain facts. Gbagbo wanted to do away with the Post-Colonial Pact signed between the French-Speaking West African countries and their colonial master, France. This pact stipulated that, the French-Speaking West African countries should deposit 80% of their annual GDP in a common bank controled by France. If they needed money more than $20million for development, premission would have to be sought from the French authorities before they could withdraw money more than that amount for any development project in their countries. Gbagbo was just trying to put an end to that. These African countires had no right to allow any foreign country to exploit any natural resource discovered in their countries. France was to be given the first opportunity to exploit before any other country could come in and exploit. Gbagbo wanted to protect the rights of the Ivorian peoples property.  But the French would not allow him to do that. Gbagbo had invited the Chinese and the Russians in to exploit the newly found oil reserves off the Ivorian coast. The French would have none of that. The elections in Ivory Coast were rigged the moment the registration exercise began. The UN looked on as the northern border with Burkina Faso was opened for Oattara's kinsmen (Burkinabes) to register in their numbers. Gbagbo could not do anything about this situation, because he had no control over the northern part of the Ivory Coast which were in the hands of rebels loyal to Ouattara.The French and the UN saw Gbagbo as a stumbling block in their attempt to launch a new era of colonization in Africa. Alhassane Ouattara was seen to be easily manipulated by France and her western allies, since he has been on their payroll before when he served as the deputy IMF president. Now the ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo has been in Ivory Coast pretending to be investigating crimes against humanity committed by both sides during the Post Electoral conflict. But, we all know that, Gbagbo is their main target, Oattara's forces would be left off the hook, no matter what. Ivorians would one day remember Laurent Gbagbo for trying to be an African and not kowtow to the whims and caprices of France and her western allies, posterity would judge us all especially the African Union. This organization should bow down its head in shame.

No comments:

Post a Comment