Deconstructing African Dictatorship

There are an estimated five million Nigerians in Cote d’Ivoire effectively holding the country’s spare parts, telecommunications and second clothing business and now very vulnerable to Gbagbo’s henchmen. To see Nigeria evacuate its embassy staff, leaving these vulnerable ones is turning diplomacy itself at its head – when things go wrong, diplomats like captains of […]

There are an estimated five million Nigerians in Cote d’Ivoire effectively holding the country’s spare parts, telecommunications and second clothing business and now very vulnerable to Gbagbo’s henchmen. To see Nigeria evacuate its embassy staff, leaving these vulnerable ones is turning diplomacy itself at its head – when things go wrong, diplomats like captains of ships should be the last to leave. Families are free to be evacuated, but all the allowances Nigeria pays its diplomats abroad is to act as shield and if necessary lay down their lives for their country in times of crisis. Those who are not ready to live by that dictate should look for work elsewhere.

I expect President Goodluck Jonathan to be pricked by his conscience if he still has any as he becomes the arrowhead of ECOWAS calling the shots on Laurent Gbagbo. With bombs flying left, right and in the centre of Nigeria; with confusion and shock trailing his decision to run against his party’s rules, the Nigerian President must be in one of the worst moral dilemma of his ‘presidency by doctrine of necessity’. In civilised democracies, Jonathan would have vacated the ECOWAS seat until he secures a presidency of his own. It is no easy running a regional organisation on a dead man’s term.

As it stands, it would not be out of place when Gbagbo’s Goebbels, Charles Ble Gude, begins to run his slimy mouth against the Nigerian leadership for effect. Proud as we are to be called the Giant of Africa, our leaders have done very little to earn the sobriquet. With people of doubtful democratic credentials leading the onslaught against Gbagbo, one could easily understand his recalcitrance. It is evident even to a deluded Gbagbo that those who are eager to send him into political Siberia are by and large political ostriches afraid to confront their own past or come to term with their own present.

Fifty years after the exit of the white man, Africa is still a continent identified by its brutal dictators with a few exceptions. Little wonder then that believes he is tougher than the world. It is a fact that few of our leaders actually emerged from popular votes. If you ascended ‘the throne’ via a manipulated process, it would be tough to act as a converted democrat because you cannot act what you are not. Surrounded by praise singers these mere mortals have lost their heads in the pizzazz and everywhere they go they seem to be in good company. The sheer burden of bureaucracy as evident in jumbo salaries, allowances, security votes and the accoutrements of office have upturned their naive minds – mere mortals transformed into tin gods by the sheer perks of office. Take away the perks and public office assumes it designed position – avenues to render service. Most of those who occupy positions today would then want nothing to do with it and if they do, they would be so overwhelmed that they would not seek a second term. But that is an ideal to which Africa only peeks.

Recently, a picture of Mugabe’s dining room was all over the internet and one could not but marvel at the sheer contrast of its magnificence with the senile dictator dining there. You suddenly realise what it means to throw pearls to swine. It is clear that when we reduce the perks of office to the level of Ghana, where after terms in office at the highest level, both Jerry Rawlings and John Kuffour were sacked from their retirement homes by flood and had to apply to the state for a lifeline, there would continue to be a scramble for office.

It is also a known fact that the rules of accountability does not apply in most parts of Africa. That Gbagbo sits tight after all the financial noose has been tightened on his regime shows the power of kleptocracy when the treasury is in the hands of the leader and his minions and the army is built on the patriotism of his ethnicity. Again, the internet was recently awash with pictures of the stash of cash from an African dictator’s vault. It is not unlikely that Gbagbo has planned for this. He had a whole ten years to do so. And may survive a year or more with all the economic sanctions against him. After all, he has grounded the Ivorian economy in the years of his misrule and the only fear that the ordinary Ivorian has today is being estranged as it is from the land.

ECOWAS is not threatening to try Gbagbo for crimes against his nation or endangering the sub-region’s democratic ideals. It is trying to negotiate a safe passage for him to go and enjoy his loot. That is unlikely to make him change his mind. Gbagbo is likely to hear the message when he is told that his time is up and that no matter how he exits, except by death, he would face trial for the blood of every soul that was split under his octopus hold on power and in the current face-off. As one blogger said, one can only hope that ECOWAS would stand up to future electoral manipulation with the same zeal and zest it is standing against Gbagbo.