Head of Communications at the Presidency, Koku Anyidoho, has endorsed the Daily Graphicpublication that President Mills has been vindicated in his stance on the Ivorian political crises.
He said President Mills was ‘pleasantly happy’ when he received the information concerning the decision by the African Group of Ambassadors at the United Nations yesterday, Monday, January 17 not to opt for war in resolving the country’s disputed electoral results.
The Africa Group of Ambassadors at the United Nations say military option in the crisis in Cote d’Ivoire is “no option”.
In a letter, signed on behalf of the Head of Mission, Ambassador Leslie Christian linked the African group’s position to Ghana’s long espoused position, which kicked against the military option and said it appeared to have vindicated Ghana’s stance, although the solution, to the crisis seemed to be highly elusive.
The African members of the UN Security Council include Gabon, Nigeria and South Africa.
Earlier this year, President J.E.A. Mills told journalists at a media forum in Accra that the military option was not the best solution to the Ivorian crisis. He explained that Ghana was unable to contribute troops to such a military option because Ghana already had troops in Abidjan as part of the UN peacekeeping force, adding that Ghana should also consider the safety of its nationals in Cote d’Ivoire, which numbered about one million, in any military invasion.
Speaking in an interview on Peace FM’s Kokrokoo Morning show, the Presidential Spokesperson said President Mills was delighted that a lot of people have seen the wisdom in what he earlier said. Mr. Anyidoho believed that some people took the President’s statement that Ghana will not to commit any troops out of context.
“When the President received the information yesterday concerning the decision of the African ambassadors in US, he only thanked God that, now there are a lot of people who share in the stance that he took since a lot of people criticized him for turning his back on ECOWAS. He was pleasantly happy (at the news),” he noted.
He also cleared the air on why President Mills did not make his position known at the ECOWAS leaders meeting when they took the decision to resort to the use of force when the need arises. According to him, the President’s stance has always been the same even at the ECOWAS meeting but in a democratic environment, majority always carries the vote.
“It is not everything that the leaders of ECOWAS said at the closed-door meeting which was revealed, but they only came out with the document that stated the position of majority of the leaders. In a democratic environment, majority always carries the vote that is why they did not give the details of what actually transpired as in each person’s position on the Ivory Coast case; maybe for the sake of unity and consensus,” he said.
Mr Anyidoho pointed out that arresting the self-imposed Ivorian leader is indeed very challenging and not as easy as some opine, adding that one will have to deal with the hordes of human field around Mr. Laurent Gbagbo.
“Gbagbo is not someone who can easily be arrested; you have to go through a human field, from his family to his loved ones then to the soldiers who are around him. So we will have to kill all of them to get to him and that will be too bloody,” he emphasized.
He, however, gave the assurance that a final decision as to how Gbagbo should be dealt with will come up after the AU summit which falls on 28th January at Addis Ababa.