Sarpong, Justice

As a Ghanaian, I am really ashamed of President Mills and some Ghanaians who have condemned the AU and France for backing the legitimately elected Ivorian President Outtara and removing Gbagbo, the rejected former Ivorian President from the Presidential Palace. As Ghanaians, I think we're getting it wrong when we pitch France against Gbagbo instead focusing on the big picture: Which is, France coming in and saving Ivory Coast from getting into a holocaust situation.

President Mills got it wrong from the 'get go' when his 'Dzi wo fie asem' soporific and puerile sophomoric infantile foreign policy was revealed to the world and Ghana became the butt of jokes around the world and Mills lost any semblance of a serious President in the international community. President Mills refusal to back the Ecowas policy of sending in ECOMOG to remove Gbagbo if persuasion fails gave Gbagbo hope to cringe on to power at a cost of 1,500 Ivorian lives all because of personal frienship rumored to have benefitted Mills 2008 Presidential campaign.

When I read the nonsense from the so called Pan-Africanists about France exerting their colonial policies and influence in Africa again because they stepped in to prevent a civil war that would have claimed hundreds of thousands of lives if not millions including Ghanaian diasporians in Ivory Coast, I start to wonder if these Pan-Africanists know what they are doing.These Pan-Africanists don't want any western powers to involve itself in African affairs, which is all well and good only if we Africans can wean ourselves from their sphere of influence. We go begging them for loans and grants and gift to meet our budget demands but have the nerve to tell them to stay away from our affairs.

Maybe these Pan-Africanists have no idea what they are saying and the issue might be too complex for them to comprehend so let's use our own life experiences as an example of what we Africans are telling the so called imperialits to do.

Some of us have teenage sons and daughters and others might even have children in their twenties still living at home with their parents. Let's say your twenty something sons and daughters are living under your roofs, you pay all the bills in the house but your son ot daughter wants to be independent from your control. He or she doesn't want you to dictate to him or her what to do, in essence, they want their independence but they want you to pay for their upkeep, but stay away from their affairs. This might seem too simplistic but that is what we are telling countries like USA, Britain, France, Germany and others to stay away from our affairs but we run to them to support us economically. People, it doesn't work that way. You can't run to somebody to borrow money or take care of things for you and tell that person to stay away from your affairs. We Africans are very guarded about our independence but our independence is not complete when we depend on Western countries to even feed us, what kind of independence did we achieve if we can't take care of our economic or security affairs?

How soon do we forget. Does Rwanda ring a bell? It is the same Africans that accused the international community for standing aloof whilst Rwandans were massacred during the Hutus and Tutsis fight for political power. That time, we accused the same powers, USA, Britain, France, Belgium for deserting the Rwandans. Do we know more than one million Rwadans were killed because the international community failed to act and Africa as a whole could not even mobolize an African force to stop the holocaust that took place in Rwanda. Do we want Rwanda in Ivory Coast?

When the Arabs were killing the people of Darfur, we Africans could not mount a force to stop the Sudanese Arabs from killing the dark skinned Darforians and accused the powers that be(USA, Britain, France etc) for deserting our brothers and sisters in Darfur whilst we folded our arms and straddled the fence like zombies and allowed the Sudanese Arabs to run roughshod on our Darforian brothers. If it wasn't the same so called Imperialists, Darforians would have been wiped out from the face of the earth and these Pan-Africanists who run their mouths like parrots but cannot back it with action would have accused their so called imperialists for intentionally allowing extinct of Darforians. Can the so called Pan-Africanists tell us what plans they have in the offing to stop the Ivorian genocide? They didn't want Mills and his other five or six other African leaders to send any African force to Ivory Coast to stop the civil war, what was their plan to stop the Ivorian war, I am all ears and ready to listen. I don't want to hear diplomacy because diplomacy failed. More than five emissaries were sent to Gbagbo trying to find an amicable settlement to the problem and he was adamant in his position of cringing on to power because he thought the Ivorian Army will use force to keep him in power, and Mills 'Dze wo fie Asem' wet behind the ears foreign policy did not help either.

A lot of forumers predicted the outcome of what is going to happen including me that, Gbagbo will not survive or continue to rule Ivory Coast without bringing civil war to his country but like most stupid African leaders who are consumed by power, he didn't care and was ready to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of Ivorians and foreigners lives to keep himself in power. We told President Mills his backing of Gbagbo will expose Ghanaians in Ivory Coast in harms way but he and his fool soldiers in the forum will not listen to reason. How Ghanaians thought a man who won the election by more than 400,000 votes when the total votes cast in Ivory Coast was just 4 million will allow Gbagbo to hijack his victory is just beyond me.

Now Ghana has closed its Embassy in Ivory Coast because Gbagbo is no more and Outtara forces see Ghana as an enemy country, thanks to Agya Atta and his clueless administration for riding on a sick horse. Mills could have stayed neutral in this conflict by being a team player with other African leaders instead of forming an alliance with such figures like Yahya Jamme of Gambia to deny Outtara his victory.

Back to those accusing France and AU of being Outtara master and Gbagbo enemy, we have short memories and forget things not in too far distance past. It was the same AU and France that helped Gbagbo to rule Ivory Coast because in 2002, Outtara rebels were at the outskirts of Abidjan and were ready to move on to the Presidential Palace to remove Gbagbo until France and AU prevailed on him to stop his march and brokered a deal for elections that Gbagbo postponed more than two times. Now the same Gbagbo supporters who benefitted from France for protecting his administration are now accusing it of being an Imperialist, what a bunkum.When France prevented Outta from removing Gbagbo in 2002, we did not see France then as IMPERIALISTS.

Now we have two Dictators who are afraid for their lives being vociferous and protesting about France intrusion into Ivorian matters.Rawlings was booming as usual the other day about France removal of Gbagbo and condemning that action because he didn't like the way Outtara forces treated the Gbagbo household, what a nerve this Scot bastard have. This is a man that killed three heads of state and scores of Army officers. This is a man that marched straight to Colonel Ennigful house and killed him and his wife on their bed because the Colonel has the misfortune of being the Prosecutor in his May 1979 failed abortive coup. Rawlings might be seeing his end being as bad, if not worse than what Gbagbo is going through.

What are we hearing from Yahya Jamme of Gambia? That he will not recognise the Ivorian government. Jamme should worry about his own rule because Africa is ridding itself of Dictators who entrench themselves in power for decades. This Gambian Dictator is a Rawlings shadow.

He came to power in 1994 at the age of 29 through a coup. After ruling as a Military leader for some years, he exchanged his military fatigues for Gambian smock and metamorphosed his Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council (AFPRC) into a Political Party, ala Rawlings template. This man has ruled Gambia since 1994, about seventeen years now and at 46, this man has no intention of relinquishing power anytime soon hence his condemnation of France for helping removing an African tyrrant like him. Jamme should not feel comfortable because his time is nigh.

Justice Sarpong

Houston, Texas