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Ivory Coast: Ex-president Gbagbo’s triumphant return

By Bisi Olawunmi
23 June 2021   |   2:38 am
Abidjan, the main city of Ivory Coast, officially known as Cote D’Ivoire, was agog in celebration on Thursday, 17 June, 2021 when former President Laurent Gbagbo made a triumphant return to the country.

Former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo appears before the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands February 6, 2020, Netherlands February 6, 2020. Jerry Lampen/Pool via REUTERS

Abidjan, the main city of Ivory Coast, officially known as Cote D’Ivoire, was agog in celebration on Thursday, 17 June, 2021 when former President Laurent Gbagbo made a triumphant return to the country. He had been discharged and acquitted at the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague, Netherlands, where he had faced trial on charges of crimes against humanity, arising from violence that erupted after the Gbagbo – Alassane Quattara presidential election run off that claimed about 3,000 lives. Tumultuous and ecstatic crowds of supporters had thronged the Abidjan international airport and lined the route to town in a carnival atmosphere. Gbagbo, who holds a doctorate degree in history from France’s prestigious Sorbonne University, had been charged along with his party’s youth leader, Charles Ble Goude. The appeals chamber of the ICC had on 31 March, 2021 upheld the 2019 trial chamber verdict which discharged and acquitted Gbagbo and Goude of all charges. “ The appeals chamber, by majority, has found no error that could have materially affected the decision of the trial chamber.

“The appeals chamber hereby revokes all remaining conditions on the release of Mr. Gbagbo and Mr. Ble Goude as a result of this judgement “. The appeals judges agreed that the evidence in the case was extremely weak, raising questions about how the trial went as far as it did. It had taken nearly 10 years since November 2011 when Gbagbo was hauled to The Hague for justice to finally prevail. The trial chamber of the ICC had in 2019 discharged and acquitted the two men for want of substantive evidence but prosecutor Ms Fatou Bensouda appealed the judgement and it took another two years to end the case.

It was like the ICC trial was deliberately protracted to allow installed President Quattara enjoy two terms in office and even a bonus third term !!! Quattara was elected to a third and last term in the controversial October 31, 2020 presidential election in which the Constitutional Council declared that the 78-year old won 94 percent of the vote.

The decades-old Ivorian political crisis that nearly brought a prosperous country to collapse, should be a lesson to Africa’s leaders and its strident, but often times ill-informed journalists and columnists. Like they say, all politics is local and so has been the case in Ivory Coast. There are two major subsisting issues at stake – indigene/settler dichotomy and economic/resource control – as well as arrogance of power by France. The indigenes want Ivory Coast for Ivorians, feeling threatened by non indigenes, mainly Muslims from Burkina Faso, Mali in the north of the country, constituting 26 percent of the country’s 25.7 million population. On resource control, it was President Gbagbo’s battle to wrest control of Ivorian economy from the vice grip of France that pitched him against a vengeful French government. So, the battle lines are drawn, making France, the neo colonial oppressor and Quattara, a non native, formidable allies in the battle of conquest of Ivory Coast.

Quattara has been the recurring decimal in Ivorian political crisis since 1993 when he attempted to assume the presidency of the country, as an appointive Prime Minister, following the death of founding president, Felix Houphouet-Boigny. Henri Konan Bedie, the elected President of the National Assembly prevailed in that power struggle and was President from 1993 to 1999. Unrelenting Quattara’s induced political uprising led to a coup by Gen. Robert Geui whom Quattara thought would install him but who, instead, wanted to transform into a civilian president and got killed in the process. Gbagbo won the presidential election in 2000 but faced insurrection from pro Quattara rebels whose military offensives divided the country into two : north – south, which made President Gbagbo to incorporate the rebels into government appointing their leader, Guillaume Soro, Prime Minister, as a peace initiative.

The immediate cause of Gbagbo’s travails was the 2010 presidential election with multiple candidates, including President Gbagbo and Mr. Alassane Quattara. No clear winner emerged. President Gbagbo had won 38 percent of the vote as against 32 percent for Quattara. There was a run-off election between the two front runners on 28 November 2010. The Electoral Commission declared Quattara winner but the Constitutional Council, which has the final say on elections, declared Gbagbo the winner, after discounting some invalid votes. That was when power play by the ‘International Community’ took over.

France and western countries disregarded the Constitutional Council’s verdict and endorsed Quattara as winner, as declared by the UN Representative in Ivory Coast !! Yes, a UN Country Representative became Electoral Returning Officer in Ivorian election !!! However, the Western-led, so-called ‘ International Community ‘ realized that for legitimacy and effectiveness, their threat of sanctions against President Gbagbo must enjoy the endorsement of two African institutions – the Economic Community of West African Countries (ECOWAS) and the African Union (AU).
To be continued tomorrow
Dr. Olawunmi, lecturer, Department of Mass Communication, Adeleke University, Ede is former Washington Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria.
Phone (SMS ONLY) 0803 364 7571. Email: olawunmibii@yahoo.com

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