As was expected, the article on former president of Ivory Coast, Laurent Gbagbo which was published last week elicited different reactions from both sides of the controversy on the unfolding scenario in that country. Today, here are two reactions from my e-mail box and an sms. Happy reading.Adeniyi Sunday, sundayime97@yahoo.com: Thanks for your article. May God bless you. African leaders and dictator will never learn from history. Gboyega, 08163084077: Mrs Lewis, Quattara, a former Ivorien Prime Minister and World Bank Vice President is actually tested in state matters. Tito Scud,titoscudd@yahoo.com: I just read your article on Nigeria world and I must say that the content of it, which, in my opinion, lacked any detail on the SUBSTANTIAL issues at stake for Ivory Coast just served to reaffirm my conviction, that Africans havent the slightest inkling or the most basic grasp of international power politics and economics.While I dont support the fact that hed been in power for 10 years and was reluctant to relinquish power, the law is the law. There were irregularities in the North that disqualified votes for Ouattara, the pre-election agreement set a deadline, after which any announcement of a winner was null and void. The announcement of Ouattaras win happened after this deadline and was only made following a visit by French and US diplomats, after which an individual in the electoral commission, and not the entire commission, went to Ouattaras headquarters and declared him winner there. The Constitutional Court which was the pre-election agreed final arbiter had declared in favour of Gbagbo. All these factors were ignored by the international community.Moreover, Alassane Ouattaras father wasnt/ isnt an Ivorien.(This you cannot prove, Tito).In Ivory Coast, it is said that France derives 70per cent of the revenue generated from the export of Ivorian cocoa. This was one of the things Gbagbo is said to have been trying to address and wrest control of from France. And Ivorian cocoa, like Nigerias oil, is their main export and it grows in the rainforest regions of the south, where Gbagbo is from, and not in the arid north, from which Ouatara hails().I just read the following quotation in the commentary section of the Economist Magazines website and tried to find out about this guy, Loïc Folloroux. Unfortunately, all the information was in French but, he does seem to be linked to a cocoa trading company. But, if true, then this MAY explain a lot.Anthony Wards, a British citizen and Loïc Folloroux (a white French citizen), who is Mr Allassan Ouattaras step-son, are the ones speculating over cocoa prices since the beginning of the Ivorian electoral crisis through their trading company ARMAJARO. Stocks were made from 2000 to 2002 until the rebellion that started in September 2002. Then again in autumn last year, before the elections, another stock were released to be sold as the prices raised with the electoral conflict. In January, as Mr Ouattara asked for an embargo from western countries on Ivorian ports and cocoa production, the cocoa price picked-up at its highest in 32 years, helping AMARJARO with substantial capital gains. Loïc Folloroux is the son from Ouattaras wifes first marriage. Alassane Ouattara and his white French wife were joined in marriage by none other than the then Mayor of Paris, Nicholas Sarkozy, who incidentally is the current President of France.This means that Ivory Coast now has a former IMF banker as its president, whose son, Loïc Folloroux, controls the price of the countrys primary export, cocoa. Personally, I wouldve preferred that Gbagbo had stepped down and run in the next elections. The UN was supposed to monitor the cease fire line that separated the new forces of the North from the loyalist forces of the South. In the last few months the UN, DELIBERATELY starved Gbagbo of funds and weapons, while they armed the North and allowed their fighters to cross that cease fire line and invade the South. More recently, France and the UN were active participants in supporting the advance of Ouattaras forces. This same pattern is playing out again in Libya.However, as an African, I feel deeply humiliated by the conduct of the UN and particularly France. Would the UN and France treat an European leader in this manner Parading him in such an undignified manner on international television May I ask if you were totally unaware of the voting irregularities that occurred in northern Ivory Coast Are you unaware of the ruling of the Constitutional Court in Gbagbos favour Are you unaware that Gbagbo had pushed for a re-count Are you also unaware that it was a subversion of the UNs role as a neutral arbiter for it to have launched attacks on Gbagbos base in concert with the French armed forces Did you even bother to do ANY FORM of investigative journalism beyond the propaganda youd been fed via the BBC, CNN and other Western outlets If you did, why then didnt your article touch on these issuesLewis,08055001746(SMS only)
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