It is amazing what the world can achieve by mobilizing "the international community," or better still, disheartening how the world under-performs when the international community fails to mobilize. The examples are legion, from Rwanda to Afghanistan, Haiti, Somalia, Sudan and now Cote d'Ivoire, a former French colony in West Africa, which is enjoying the world spotlight for the wrong reason, a dubious reputation of having two presidents and two governments in one country from a disputed presidential election.
As expected, violence has flared up with more than 170 innocent civilians already killed, dozens of others reported abducted and several thousands have fled the country. The situation could escalate into a full blown civil war unless a solution is found quickly.
But the political problem in Cote d'Ivoire is not new. It has been on for decades. Perhaps the international community is only just waking up to its responsibilities. But will it get it right this time and at what cost?
Suddenly American President Barrack Obama, who avoided Nigeria and his fatherland Kenya, during his first ever visit as president to Africa last year, is now working the phones to speak to his Nigerian counterpart President Goodluck Jonathan. To the White House, it is not that much has changed to warrant an Obama visit to Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation any time soon. But strategic interest is at play. France is more than an interested party in Cote d'Ivoire and President Nicholas Sarkozy is building a cosy relationship between Paris and Washington. So, Jonathan can enjoy his "15 sec of fame" as current chair of the sub-regional grouping – Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which the "international community" - France, USA, EU and UN, with the African Union in tow – appear eager to use to enforce peace in Cote d'Ivoire.
The cocoa-rich West African country of an estimated 20 million ethnically diverse and religiously divided people is tethering on the brinks following a disputed presidential rerun after the first poll failed to produce an outright winner. The country now has two governments, one led by the incumbent President (or former president) Laurent Gbagbo who is claiming victory with the backing of the nation's Constitutional Court and the other by his rival Alassane Ouattara who was declared winner by the country's Independent Electoral Commission.
From the "international pressure" mounting against Gbagbo, it is only a matter of time before he is forced to surrender power to Ouattara, who the electoral body gave 54% of the poll victory and by implication, the "adopted son" of the "international community."
But any lasting solution to the deep-rooted socio-economic and political crises in Cote d'Ivoire must go beyond installing Ouattara as president based on the results of an election conducted in a country divided along ethno-religious lines and with the rebels controlling half of the territory. That was the situation in Cote d'Ivoire when the October/November polls were held, and that situation persists.
Gbagbo, who assumed the presidency after another bitterly contested presidential election in 2000, had been governing the majority Christian southern part of the country since 2002, while the rebel "New Forces" control the Muslim-dominated north, with United Nations Peacekeeping forces and French Lincorne forces serving as a buffer between the two warring factions. In order words, the recipe for instability or indeed a civil war was present in Cote d'Ivoire before the latest elections.
But rather than address the issues squarely, the same "international community" now trying to force Gbagbo from power, rushed Ivorians into an election, whose results have produced an inevitable consequence – chaos.
If any further proof was required that elections do not equate to democracy, this is one.
Part of the reasons the "international community" is lining up behind Ouattara is based on the reports of international poll observers, which like similar reports on many other countries in the past ended with a now familiar executive summary -- "there might have been irregularities, but they were not enough to invalidate the results of the elections."
It requires no expertise of a space scientist to know that any election held under an environment of uncertainty as in Cote d'Ivoire where the rebels have refused to disarm and where a sitting head of state does not control the entire country, is doomed to failure.
Assuming the "international community" manages to install Ouatta as president, for how long will they be ready to prop him? What happens to the 45% of Ivorians who had voted for Gbagbo in the disputed poll? And what guarantee is there for a free and fair election in Cote d'Ivoire or any other country for that matter where the national Constitution allows the electoral commission to declare results of polls that must be authenticated by handpicked judges of a Constitutional Court?
At the risk of reopening old but festering wounds or repeating unpopular anti-neo-colonialist arguments, the unravelling crises in Cote d'Ivoire go to very heart of the country's independence, and indeed the French policy in Africa.
Until 2000 when Cote d'Ivoire joined the growing list of unstable nations in Africa, the former French colony was considered the last bastion of peace and political stability in West Africa, with great support from Paris. But like many other political contractions of its kind by the colonial powers that governed Africa, the true colour of the "Ivorian Miracle" or seeming political stability has been revealed for what it really is - an artificial coating.
The long suppressed consequences of the erstwhile French colonial policy of Association and Assimilation, which sought to transform Africans into Frenchmen and Frenchwomen, are now rearing their ugly heads.
Perhaps, some good might come out of the political evil that has beset Cote d'Ivoire. Is it time for a reality check or damage assessment by Francophone African countries on what constitutes their true sovereignty? Are these countries actually independent? And/or what is the value of their independence beyond the replacement of the French Tricolour with indigenous national flags?
To be sure, close, cordial relationships between former colonial powers and erstwhile former colonies should be encouraged as much as possible since we live in an interdependent world. But the rules of the game must respect the spirit of true partnership, especially the sovereignty of states, equity and fairness.
It is an open secret that Paris' over-domineering and protectionist policy in its former colonies in Africa do not always respect these principles. Under defence pacts signed between France and these countries, Paris has military troops and/or bases in many of these countries and frowns at competition in the exploitation of the resources in these former colonies. The fact that at least eight of these countries use the CFA francs as national currency supported by the French Treasury means that their tax laws and major fiscal and monetary policies are controlled by France.
No doubt, France will claim to be pursing its national interests in Africa. So it behoves leaders of African countries who are perpetually asleep at the wheel to wake up and protect the interests of their own countries and people. But the sad truth is that the internal mistrust among Africans, in some cases fuelled by former colonial powers, which are only too happy to continue to exploit and plunder a divided Africa, coupled with the weak positions of many governments in Africa, often leaves them with little of no chance of rising above the self-imposed and externally engineered obstacles.
Gbagbo might have fallen out of favour with Paris once he started questioning the status quo, including the allegation that until a few years ago, Cote d'Ivoire was still paying annual rent to Paris on the Presidential Palace and National Assembly in Abidjan.
For 33 years after independence from France in 1960, Ivorian first President Felix Houphouet-Boigny, with strong support from France, managed to keep a lead on the religious and ethnic fault lines in the country. But all this ended when the late General Robert Guei led a coup in December 1999 which toppled Felix Houphouet-Boigny's successor, Henri Bedie. Gei himself was killed in a reported coup attempt in 2002 and Cote d'Ivoire has never been the same again.
Houphouet-Boigny fondly called Grand Old Man of African politics, and an apostle of Francafrique used his close ties with Paris to telling effects. Very well documented is his dubious reputation as a "destabiliser" of regimes in Africa, such as his alleged involvement in the coups or attempted coups against Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah in 1966, Ahmed Sekou Toure of Guinea in 1977, Mathieu Kerekou of Benin also in 1977, Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso in 1987, and his support for Jonas Savimbi's rebel UNITA party, against the Marxist regime in Angola.
As the principal interlocutor for France in Africa, Houphouet-Boigny pursued his personal-cum-French interests amassing huge wealth estimated at US$11 billion, while the country had incurred external debt estimated at US$10 billion by 1987. Arguably, the socio-economic and political implosions in Cote d'Ivoire today are consequences of bad government policies from independence and the fact that as is always the case with most dictators, Houphouet-Boigny left no sustainable structure for political succession behind at his death in 1993.
UNESCO in 1989 established the Felix Houphouet-Boigny Peace Prize for the "safeguarding, maintaining and seeking of peace" in the world. But ironically, after his death, conditions in Côte d'Ivoire quickly deteriorated and peace now eludes the country with the world's largest church, the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro built by Houphouet-Boigny at an estimated cost of US$300 million.
No doubt, Gbagbo has his own faults, including the fact that it has taken him and his compatriots more than five decades to question a flawed status quo. But better late than never, they say. African countries, and in this case Francophone African countries, must interrogate and review their relationships with former colonial powers. Without digging deep to rectify its faulty politico-economic foundation, any solution to the Ivorian crises would amount to scratching the surface. A mishandling of the current situation could result in more avoidable blood bath.
* Ejime is a Communication/Media Consultant
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