By Bonny Ibhawoh,
The crisis unfolding in Ivory Coast is a tragic and familiar one. A dictator without any legitimate claim to power sits tight in office in defiance of his people’s will and international opinion.
President Laurent Gbagbo remains defiant and has vowed that he would not cede power in Ivory Coast, to the widely acclaimed winner of the November 2010 elections, Alassane Ouattara. Gbagbo has been offered several concessions by the international community to ensure a quiet and graceful departure and forestall a slide to violence and war in that country.
According to the New York Times, he has been offered a position in an international organization and the opportunity to relocate to the United State or to some other location in Europe or Africa. But like the typical delusional dictator, has refused all these concessions and insists on exercising power without his peoples’ mandate or international legitimacy.
Gbagbo intransigence and obstinacy reminds me of Saddam Hussein in the lead up to the Iraq War. When he had the opportunity to quietly withdraw his troops from Kuwait following his ill-fated invasion, he thumped his nose at the intentional community. His fate is one that ultimately awaits all dictators….
Gbagbo is running out of time. There is very little tolerance for sit tight dictators like him in today’s world.
Read the New York Times Report.
