The President’s decision was variously described as a mark of someone who was uncaring, a President who was indifferent to happenings in a neighbouring country and as stabbing the ECOWAS in the back.
At an encounter with the media at the seat of government on January 7, 2011, the President was asked whether Ghana would contribute troops to an African Union or ECOWAS intervention force in Cote d’Ivoire to which he responded that Ghana would not contribute troops to any intervention force in Cote d’Ivoire.
He, however, said that Ghana was deeply concerned about the situation in Cote d’Ivoire and that the crisis in that country needed to be handled with the greatest care and quiet diplomacy.
President Mills also stated that given the commitment of Ghana to peacekeeping operations in other parts of the world, as well as the country’s own safety and security, it was important to keep a sizeable number of troops to maintain internal security.
With all these explanations, the President’s critics relentlessly questioned the wisdom of his decision not to send troops to Cote d’Ivoire.
Some even went to the extent of arguing that his posture of not sending troops but to pursue quiet diplomacy to help solve the Ivorian crisis was a betrayal to ECOWAS.
But the President was vindicated last Saturday by nobody else but the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr Ban Ki-moon, when he lauded the President’s role in the peace process in Cote d’Ivoire.
The UN Secretary-General, in a meeting with President Mills in Accra, praised him and said President Mills’s exemplary leadership role in crisis situations in Africa was unmatched and described him as “the best leader on the continent”.
Mr Ban, who went to Cote d’Ivoire with President Mills for Mr Alassane Ouattara’s investiture, stated that the UN’s duty to ensure peace and stability in Cote d’Ivoire was not over yet and that the UN would continue to count on President Mills’s support for the peace process on the continent.
Having contributed so significantly to the restoration of the current level of normalcy in Cote d’Ivoire albeit on the quiet, Ghana should continue to support her neighbour to attain sustained and durable peace as expected even after the investiture of Mr Ouattara, as President Mills pledged.
President Mills’s decision to attend the investiture of President Ouattara was due to the importance he attaches to the peace process in Cote d’Ivoire and the brotherly relationship that we have with the people of that country.
In the light of these, we would want to appeal to the people of Cote d’Ivoire to let bygones be bygones so that together they can rebuild their country.
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