Flagbearer of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has taken a swipe at President Mills\u2019 stance on the Ivory Coast political stalemate, saying President Atta Mills is blowing \u201chot and cold\u201d on the crisis.
\nAddressing a press conference on Thursday, January 20, at the Party\u2019s headquarters in Accra, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo charged President Mills to be decisive, bold and support ECOWAS\u2019 decision of a legitimate military action to oust Laurent Gbagbo.
\nRead below the full statement presented by the NPP.
\nLadies and gentlemen of the media, thank you, once again, for showing up in such strong numbers at such a short notice. We are very grateful. I can assure you that at this forum you are allowed to ask a follow up question and we shall at least attempt to answer more than half of the questions you may ask.
\nWe respectfully invited you here today to express some concerns the New Patriotic Party has over the situation in Cote d\u2019Ivoire and Ghana\u2019s role in ongoing international efforts to find a solution that brings into being the democratic wishes of the Ivorian people as expressed in the November 28, 2010 presidential election.
\nParticularly worrying are the conflicting signals that President Mills is giving on Ghana\u2019s position and the negative effect this is having on international efforts to resolve the crisis. Beyond the Castle, at least, there is a clear, unadulterated message of both the international community and the Ivorian people that Allasane Ouattara has been elected president of Cote d’Ivoire, and that Laurent Gbagbo must yield power and go.
\nRegrettably, Ghana is fast-losing face as a major stumbling block against efforts to bring to an end Gbagbo\u2019s quasi-military coup, which has been massively condemned by a concerted combination of regional, continental and international pressure.
\nSO WHAT NEXT AFTER ODINGA?
\nThe Chief Mediator in the current crisis for the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States, Kenyan PM, Mr Raila Odinga, after being rejected by Gbagbo, left Abidjan this week pessimistic about former President Gbagbo\u2019s commitment to accepting the offer of a peaceful exit. We wish to ask President Mills: so what next?
\nThe Prime Minister of Kenya, after visiting Accra, sought to give clarity to Ghana\u2019s position on Cote d\u2019Ivoire. After his close-door consultations with President JEA Mills, Mr Odinga came out to announce to the press that \u201cthere\u2019s been misunderstanding and misrepresentation\u201d of Ghana\u2019s position and that Ghana had never said that it was in disagreement with the option of military intervention.
\nIf there is any confusion, misunderstanding and misrepresentation of Ghana\u2019s position then the blame must go squarely to the President and his team. Mr Odinga may be forgiven; he may not have heard President Mills moving his own lips by himself to announce that he was against military intervention.
\nJust this week, the Castle, the Office of the President, deliberately leaked information on a so-called \u201cemerging consensus\u2019 among the three African non-permanent members of the United Nations\u2019 Security Council that \u201cthe military option is no option\u201d to finding a solution to the political crisis at Cote d\u2019Ivoire.
\nAs to how the African Members, including Nigeria, could take a position contrary to that of their own countries, whose interest they represent at the UN, was left to be swept up and away by the whirlwind of propaganda.
\nIndeed, the Communications Director at the Presidency, Mr. Koku Anyidoho, very happily declared on Wednesday, after circulating the leaked internal memo to media houses, that President John Mills was \u201chumbly excited and happy at the apparent endorsement of his stance\u201d against military intervention. He described the purported \u2018emerging consensus\u2019 as a \u201cwell-thought out decision.\u201d
\nGhana\u2019s Foreign Affairs Minister, Mohammed Mumuni, to whom that confidential cable from Ghana\u2019s ambassador to the UN was addressed, would not be denied his share of the excitement. \u201cIt is in fact affirming that a military option is no option at all. In other words, in defining a formula for resolving the Ivorian crisis, no resolve should be made to military intervention\u2026 Now this communication is in fact ruling out military intervention all together and that is very significant. It is also saying that the United Nations (UN) should be neutral in all of this\u201d he announced to Citi FM.
\nThe cable disclosed to us that the no to military option was President Mills\u2019 long-standing view. So why then did our President sign up to an Ecowas decision to which he had no intention of adhering? The day after this self-serving so-called \u2018vindication\u2019 of President Mills\u2019 position was carried in the state-owned dailies and propagated by government officials and NDC activists, the same Koku Anyidoho was forced to come out to say something exactly opposite to his earlier expression of what he said was the President\u2019s view on the use of \u2018legitimate force.\u2019
\nYesterday, Mr Odinga told reporters that \u201cGhana is not opposed to the use of legitimate force,\u201d to remove Mr Gbagbo from office. Confirming this, Mr Anyidoho told Joy FM, that \u201cin the unlikely event of a military action, Mills will not go against it.\u201d
\nWEAK AND INDECISIVE LEADERSHIP
\nThus, after a short visit from the Kenyan Prime Minister, our President felt compelled to change his long-standing view just like he did in Abuja on 24 December. What does this tell us about our President, ladies and gentlemen? Is this not the kind of indecision and weak leadership that have been alleged is dominating the affairs of the state at the highest level?
\nIn fact, finding what Ghana\u2019s actual position is on Cote d\u2019Ivoire is as taxing as locating the 1.6 million jobs that the Mills-Mahama administration claims it created in its first 12 months. It has been a sorry exhibition of international diplomacy and statesmanship, particularly on a matter that is SO critical to regional security and democracy in Africa.
\nA couple of weeks ago, within a matter of five minutes on a single day at a particular platform, President Mills managed to give a very befuddling statement from which only the intransigent Laurent Gbagbo could have benefited. January 7 was the first time that our President was asked by any journalist to express Ghana\u2019s position on any burning international issue and he simply fuddled.
\nSo damaging has this faux pas been that this week, Ecowas has had to send high-powered delegations, including the President of Burkina Faso, Blaise Compoare and the President of the Ecowas Commission, Victor Gbeho, across the world, including London and Paris, to reassure the international community that Ecowas, indeed, remains resolute on its decision to see to it that the democratic will of the Ivorian people is observed and in the shortest possible time.
\nBut, how did Ghana, a nation that has won international respect over the years for its decisive, competent and clear leadership role in resolving conflicts elsewhere get into this current situation of seeming leadership paralysis and confusion?
\nJ A KUFUOR AND THE IVORIAN CRISIS
\nIt would be recalled that on Thursday, September 19, 2002, the political situation had worsened in Cote d\u2019Ivoire when rebels engineered a military upheaval. Two days later, on his return from a UN General Assembly session, President J A Kufuor said Ghana \u201cwould remain firmly behind the legitimate government\u201d of Cote d\u2019Ivoire, that is the goal of President Gbagbo who had won the presidential election of 2000 for a five year term. \u201cWe will do whatever it is within our powers to support the tenets of democracy and the rule of law in the sister country,\u201d he stressed. The next day, President Kufuor sent a top-level team, led by Ghana\u2019s foreign minister, Hackman Owusu-Agyemang on a peace mission to Abidjan and, with that, began the processes which prevented Cote d\u2019Ivoire from plunging into a full-scale civil war.
\nA week later, African leaders, including Presidents Mbeki, Wade and Compaore, met in Ghana for a crisis summit on the rebellion in Cote d\u2019Ivoire. Africa, with Ghana in the lead, was in that crisis, offering unequivocal leadership to resolving a crisis next door. But, even then, ladies and gentlemen, there were clear signs that neither the Gbagbo government nor rebels would welcome intervention by a regional military force when Ecowas was absolutely clear in its collective mind that military intervention should not be ruled out.
\nPresident Laurent Gbagbo made it clear in 2002 that he wanted diplomatic support and arms, not foreign troops from Ecowas. The situation was such that a 15-day blitz campaign managed to split the country into two equal and separate territories, with the northern part from the city of Bouake upward under rebels’ control and the southern part, downward from the city of Bouake under government’s control.
\nIndeed, On Sunday, 29 September, 2002, a commander of the rebels said they would regard foreign intervention as an attempt to deprive them of victory. “If Ecomog comes here there won’t be peace for 20, 30, 40 years. There must be justice,” Tuo Fozie said in a Reuters report filed by Kwaku Sakyi-Addo and John Chiahemen. Yet, the Ecowas leadership persevered, with support from the wider international community.
\nThe then Ecowas Executive Secretary, Mohammed ibn Chambas, told reporters at the Kotoka International Airport that Ecowas had asked member states to put units in their armed forces on stand-by for possible intervention. However, he stressed a peaceful resolution was “the preferred option”. This was what led to a strong contingent of Ecowas forces forming a buffer zone between the north and south, which, in effect, created the conducive atmosphere for the series of accords, many of which our current flagbearer was instrumental, (including Accra II, Accra III, and the International Working Group which Nana Addo co-chaired), paving the way for last year\u2019s elections.
\nDr Chambas made a most instructive statement then. He said Cote d\u2019Ivoire was a test of Africa’s resolve to break with a past of bloody military coups. \u201cWe are determined to put the history of coups behind us. No government which comes to power through a coup will be recognised.\u201d
\nNearly seven years later, we are faced with another history, which Africa must put behind her: the phenomenon of leaders losing elections and choosing to hold on to power. Why it is particularly very significant for Africans to use this Ivorian situation to make a clean break with the past is that in 2011 alone a total of 26 countries are scheduled to hold elections and 19 of them may lead to a change in the national leadership of the respective countries. How Africa deals with the Ivorian situation may have far-reaching implications on the democratic path which Africa has embarked on. Gbagbo cannot be allowed to get away with this impunity. It would be too costly.
\nAccording to the Independent Electoral Commission, Mr Ouattara won the 28 November run-off election with 2,483,164, representing 54.1%. Thus Mr Gbagbo lost the election by over 8 percentage points, with 2,107,055 votes (45.9%).
\nBut, Mr Gbagbo, who disputed the results, went against the agreed processes of results declaration and got the Constitutional Council to nullify over 600,000 votes to force the results his way by less than two percentage points.
\nCOMPARING GHANA\u2019S 0.46% VICTORY MARGIN
\nLadies and gentlemen, it would be recalled that not so long ago, we faced quite a similar situation in Ghana, where the two parties in the runoff raised issues about a contest that was determined by some 40,000 votes (0.46%) of the total votes cast. However, once the Electoral Commission declared the president-elect in Ghana, the ruling party at the time and its candidate accepted the results and congratulated the winner.
\nIt is the significance of this gesture to the future of Africa\u2019s democracy that encouraged President Barrack Obama to visit our country in July 2009. He did so to encourage us further on this journey and for our neighbours to emulate our example. This, in fact, puts Ghana, especially, the person who most benefited from Ghana\u2019s smooth transition in 2008, President JEA Mills, in a special position to lead any robust effort on the part of the international community to get Mr Gbagbo, who lost the November 28 race by some 8% margin, to exit and let the man who has been chosen by a clear majority of the Ivorian people take over. It should be noted that Cote d\u2019Ivoire has a total voter list of 5.7 million, about half of Ghana\u2019s voter population and, yet, the incumbent President disputed an election which he lost by nearly 400,000 votes.
\nSadly, our President has adopted a very strange position or positions, putting great doubts on his principled commitment to multiparty democracy and, in the process, hurting Ghana\u2019s pacesetter role in charting the democratic path for our continent. Rather than protecting Ghanaian lives from needless deaths, it is our fear that our President\u2019s vague isolationist stance is what is endangering Ghanaian lives.
\nLadies and gentlemen, today, Cote d\u2019Ivoire has gone back to a situation in many ways similar to what we became familiar with seven years ago and, Ghana, under the able leadership of President J a Kufuor, played a pro-active leadership role in resolving it. That situation came to be known as \u2018a state of no war, no peace and no government.\u2019 That state of no war, no peace and no government has returned, unfortunately, and, like the fear then, Ghana\u2019s western neighbour may be drifting once again towards an eventual showdown between across religious and ethnic lines, economic disaster and bloodshed, if a solution is not found quickly.
\nCrucial to finding that solution is a collective resolve on the part of the international community, particular in the West African region, on the best approach. But, this time, under the leadership of President Mills, Ghana has taken an unassailable lead in an uncompetitive race to undermine the overwhelming international consensus. It is, of course, telling that Mr Gbagbo is the only person who has come out to laud our President as taking a \u201ccommon sense position.\u201d
\nIn less than two weeks, Ghana\u2019s position on Cote d\u2019Ivoire has been so ambivalent and confusing that it had to take the Prime Minister of Kenya, Mr Raila Odinga, to come all the way here to clarify for us, and, hopefully, for the benefit of the rest of the world, what the position of our President is purported to be on Cote d\u2019Ivoire. Except, even this position may be subject to the usual changes.
\nWHAT REALLY IS GHANA\u2019S POSITION?
\nSo what really is the position of Ghana? And, why has Ghana\u2019s position(s) generated so much controversy?
\nGhana\u2019s position has become an issue because our President has not been straight forward on this very critical issue of regional security. The President, his government officials and party members have treated this Ivorian crisis like a small political quarrel between factions in a constituency contest. Their support for Mr Gbagbo and the use of certain newspapers and commentators to push the pro-Gbagbo agenda are what feed the growing perception that our President is more interested in pushing a personal or partisan interest than the national interest.
\nMUMUNI SUPPORTED MILITARY ACTION ON DECEMBER 9
\nLadies and gentlemen, the Tuesday, December 7 communiqu\u00e9 of Ecowas, which recognised Ouattara\u2019s victory, did not call for military intervention. Yet, in an interview with Accra\u2019s Citi FM two days later, on Thursday, December 9, Ghana’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Mohammed Mumuni made a categorical statement that Ecowas would have no option than to resort to brute force to remove Laurent Gbagbo from office, if diplomatic efforts failed. Mr Mumuni said, ECOWAS was capable of taking military action. Thus, Ghana was the first country to have publicly entertained the military option, at least publicly. We ask, could this position of Ghana\u2019s Foreign Minister on December 9 have been lost on the other Ecowas members? Was he expressing Ghana\u2019s view at the time or his own personal view?
\nA week later, Mr Gbagbo was still refusing to quit, Ghana\u2019s President would not go further than to call on Friday 17 December for a weekend of prayers for Cote d\u2019Ivoire. It was this which prompted the NPP flagbearer\u2019s press statement of Monday, 20 December.
\nPlease permit me to read portions of Nana Addo\u2019s statement. \u201cThe nation has noted with approval the call by His Excellency the President, Prof J. E. A. Mills, for Ghanaians to pray for peace in La Cote D\u2019Ivoire. Much as most of us Ghanaians believe in the efficacy of prayer, prayer cannot be a replacement of or substitute for an active policy of Ghanaian diplomacy and engagement. Conflict and instability in La Cote D\u2019Ivoire pose a threat not only to the peace and stability of West Africa, but also to Ghana\u2019s national security. Ghana shares a 700km border with La Cote D\u2019Ivoire and our nation is an obvious haven for refugees from La Cote D\u2019Ivoire… These are some of the reasons why Ghana cannot afford to stand by and watch helplessly as La Cote D\u2019Ivoire is plunged into another cycle of bloodshed, conflict and division.\u201d
\nNana Addo added, \u201cHis Excellency the President\u2019s good relations with former President Laurent Gbagbo are well known. The President is respectfully urged to use his good offices to intervene with former President Gbagbo to ensure that the will of the Ivorian people is respected and that the position of the international community, as expressed by the position of ECOWAS at a meeting at which His Excellency the President was present, the Africa Union, and the United Nations Security Council, is respected. Everything should be done to avoid the spectre of La Cote D\u2019Ivoire descending into the status of a rogue state whose leaders act in defiance of domestic and international law. Bloodshed and chaos should not be the price for an individual seeking to remain in office at all cost.\u201d
\nLet me repeat, \u201cBloodshed and chaos should not be the price for an individual seeking to remain in office at all cost.\u201d Yet, it has been said by NDC propagandists that the NPP are warmongers, calling for our boys in green to be sent to the slaughter for a \u2018needless war.\u2019 The NPP position is not what is controversial. What is controversial is the oscillating diplomacy being artlessly exhibited by the Mills-Mahama administration. The NPP position is consistent with the Ecowas position, which the Ghana government is a signatory to, and consistent with the AU and UN position. We believe Gbagbo\u2019s removal is non-negotiable. What is negotiable is how that should be achieved.
\nThe presidency has gone as far as to ask whether Nana Addo, as President, would commit troops in support of a military intervention in Cote d\u2019Ivoire. Now, first of all, is the ruling party telling Ghanaians that it is waiting on the leader of the opposition to give leadership on Ghana\u2019s position on this Ivorian issue? We can appreciate their recognition of Nana Addo\u2019s exemplary leadership role as Ghana\u2019s Foreign Minister under the NPP, however, that is no excuse for the NDC to neglect their constitutional obligation to offer clear, considered, firm and decisive national leadership which is in the national interest.
\nHAVE WE BEEN ASKED TO PROVIDE TROOPS?
\nIt is not for the opposition leader to give speculative answers to hypothetical questions. The NDC has, in their usual occupation of diverting focus from substantive issues on the ground to manufactured issues of propaganda value and convenience, reduced the whole debate about Ghana\u2019s position on Cote d\u2019Ivoire to one of sending Ghanaian troops to fight a war next door.
\nWe would wish for the President to tell Ghanaians: has Ecowas asked Ghana to provide troops to remove Gbagbo by force? How many troops have we been asked to provide? When are we supposed to provide the troops? Again, why is the NDC desperately making it seem as supporting a military option necessarily means providing troops? Can Ghana be forced to provide troops if we are not in a position to do so?
\nAll that the NPP has been asking for is for the President to show clear and decisive leadership and not let his personal relations get in the way of the national interest and our international obligations. An anxious Ghanaian nation awaits the leadership of its President. Our message has always been that former President J. A. Kufuor got involved in the resolution of the Ivorian crisis at its very beginning and helped broker the peace that prevented Cote d\u2019Ivoire descending into full scale civil war. President Mills should get equally involved so that former President Gbagbo exits peacefully from power to spare Cote d\u2019Ivoire another bout of conflict and confusion. The Ivorian people deserve better and Ghana can help in this viable venture to build a better Cote d\u2019Ivoire rather than sending conflicting signals that only serve as oxygen to Gbagbo\u2019s quasi-coup regime.
\nECOWAS COMMUNIQUE ON LEGITIMATE FORCE
\nIndeed, as recalled, it was rather President Mills\u2019 own number one diplomat, Alhaji Mumuni, who first suggested a military intervention to remove Gbagbo. Paragraph nine (9) of the 24 December Ecowas communiqu\u00e9 reads, \u201cThe Heads of State and Government regret the fact that the message sent by the ECOWAS Chairman on behalf of the Authority on 17 December 2010 has not been heeded by Mr. Gbagbo. In this season of peace, the Summit decided to make an ultimate gesture to Mr. Gbagbo by urging him to make a peaceful exit. In this regard, the Authority decided to dispatch a special high-level delegation to C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire.\u201d
\nThe subsequent paragraph reads: \u201cIn the event that Mr. Gbagbo fails to heed this immutable demand of ECOWAS, the Community would be left with no alternative but to take other measures, including the use of legitimate force, to achieve the goals of the Ivorian people.\u201d
\nShortly after this communiqu\u00e9, Ecowas made clear its intention to continue pursuing a diplomatic settlement, while leaving the military intervention as a final option, by forming a five-member joint AU- ECOWAS mission, led by Kenya\u2019s Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
\nIt was looking positive that the threat of military action was helping, when Mr Gbagbo on Tuesday, January 4, told the Odinga-led team that he was in favour of negotiating a peaceful end to the crisis in that country without any pre-condition and had agreed to lift the blockade around Hotel Du Gold, the temporary headquarters of Alassane Ouattara, the president- elect.
\nThe President of the ECOWAS Commission, Victor Gbeho, on that day made it clear in Abuja what Ecowas had in mind per the December 24 communiqu\u00e9. He said, \u201cECOWAS and AU is now saying even if there is half per cent chance of resolving the issue peacefully, we will explore it.\u201d He went on, \u201cWe are aware of the danger of using military force but if necessary, when we get to that bridge, we will cross it.\u201d
\nDZI WO FIE ASEM
\nBut, three days later, at a press conference at the Castle, Accra, President Mills chose to throw a very unhelpful lifeline to Gbagbo\u2019s illegitimate hold on power. He said, without provocation, “It is not for Ghana to choose a leader for Cote d’Ivoire. As a person I don\u2019t think this military option is going to bring peace to the nation. I don\u2019t want to be saddled with a problem we can\u2019t settle.\u201d He went on to say that we should mind our own business as Ghanaians and, in other words, leave our neighbours to burn. In his own words, \u2018dzi wo fie asem.\u2019 Ladies and gentlemen, these were the words of the Asomdwehene. This is the thinking of so-called disciple of the avowed Pan-Africanist, Kwame Nkrumah.
\nWe are happy that none of his last two predecessors, former President J. J Rawlings and J. A. Kufuor, decided to mind their own business when trouble brewed in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cote d\u2019Ivoire, among other places. They chose to continue with Ghana wonderful tradition as a peace-maker and peace-keeper.
\nThe issue, ladies and gentlemen, is not about sending Ghanaian troops to a foreign land to be slaughtered and brought back in body bags as the Government would want Ghanaians to believe. The fundamental issue is the inexcusable decision by the President of the Republic to make a voluntary public statement which has undermined the collective decision of ECOWAS on the question of ruling in the option of legitimate force to get the legitimate will of the majority of the Ivorian people respected by former President Laurent Gbagbo.
\nWe are not prepared to debate Ghana\u2019s Commander-in-Chief over his position that Ghana\u2019s military, which recently saw the return home of more than 500 troops from the UN mission in Chad, \u201cis already over stretched.\u201d But, we have every reason to doubt the President\u2019s sincerity in this matter.
\nThis is because it is simply not on for a President to sign up to a decision only to come out to denounce that very decision a few days later. It devalues the high office of the presidency and creates problems for the enforcement of that same decision by those who are committed to it. Moreover, the President, after saying that Ghana\u2019s military was overstretched, went on to speak against the very option of military intervention.
\nFor Ghana, a key actor in the regional body, to break ranks, strikes at the very heart of the necessary processes to tighten the bolts and nuts of integration, including peace, security and democracy. President Mills\u2019 position is a throw back to the erstwhile OAU, which earned the nickname Despots Club. So low has Ghana\u2019s standing fallen under President Mills on this issue that our Chief of Defence Staff is not even trusted to attend meetings of regional military chiefs.
\nThe question is this: why did President Mills do that? Was it to send a message of hope to Gbagbo and one of despair to the people of Cote d\u2019Ivoire?
\nNobody is praying for a war in Cote d\u2019Ivoire. Indeed, before the New Year, Patrick Achi, Ouattara\u2019s spokesman said, “We are pursuing the diplomatic path where possible\u2026 But it seems that former President Gbagbo doesn’t want to listen to the world – so the possibility of using force, as suggested by West African countries, is also on the table.\u201d
\nOn Sunday, January 17, President Goodluck Jonathan, was compelled to stress, during his meeting with Prime Minister Odinga that Ecowas always said the use of force would depend on the outcome of a series of meetings to be held with stakeholders on Cote d\u2019Ivoire.
\nAlso this week, the Chairperson of the Mano River Union of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone had to come out and say the group was in full adherence with the Ecowas communiqu\u00e9. Mrs Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said, although military intervention remained an option, a peaceful settlement to the political crisis was still being sought. President Mills caused the damage and retreated to the Castle for his colleague Heads of State to clear the mess.
\nMr Gbagbo\u2019s uncompromising stance leaves Ecowas with very little options now. In this same week, after the meeting of regional military heads in Mali, Air Chief Marshall Oluseyi Petinrin of Nigeria, the president of the ECOWAS Committee of Chiefs of Defense Staff, told reporters \u201cVirtually every member of ECOWAS has agreed to contribute troops. Military preparations are already well under way.\u201d Although the Chief Marshall failed to give further details, the military chiefs are expected to travel by special flight to Bouak\u00e9, a city in northern Ivory Coast controlled by Ouattara to conduct a scouting mission.
\nWe wish to know from our President whether or not Ghana was part of this agreement.
\nLet us make no mistake, it is the presence of UN forces and the threat of military repercussions that have so far prevented forces loyal to Gbagbo from attacking Ouattara\u2019s claim to the presidency.
\nMEDIA PROPAGANDA FOR GBAGBO
\nJust yesterday, the UN Security Council agreed to add 2,000 more troops to the 10,000-strong contingent in Cote d\u2019Ivoire. In its communiqu\u00e9 yesterday, the UN Security Council welcomed continued efforts at mediation but expressed concern about ongoing violence and human rights violations, and in particular the role of the media. “The members of the Security Council strongly condemned and demanded an immediate halt to the use of media … to propagate false information, to incite hatred and violence, including against the UN,” the council’s statement said. We want to send a message to Gbagbo and his friends that no amount of propaganda can undo the expressed wishes of the majority of the Ivorian people.
\nThe UN says it has clear evidence that Mr Gbagbo is behind attacks against its peacekeeping force. Of the 800 peacekeepers guarding the Golf Hotel in which the internationally recognized president of Cote d\u2019Ivoire has sought refuge, we are told by President Mills that, Ghanaian troops are included. There is no question that their lives are in danger but they are, as Ghana should rightly be, committed to the greater good of restoring peace and democracy to our next door.
\nIt is our contention that the isolationist position that is apparently adopted by President Mills is what rather endangers, not only Ghanaians soldiers, but the estimated 1.5 million Ghanaians who have made Cote d\u2019Ivoire their home. Millions of people in la Cote d\u2019Ivoire are looking up to us and the other ECOWAS states to act together to bring a peaceful end to the crisis. The Ivorians are not asking Ghanaians to choose their leader for them. They did that on November 28. They are only asking us to help them put into office the leader that they themselves have democratically chosen, a choice that the international community has wholeheartedly welcomed.
\nLet us be bold and responsible in showing that we are fully behind the democratic choice of the people of Cote d\u2019Ivoire. Let us support the spirit and letter of the AU, which is based on the principle that we are each other\u2019s keeper.
\nGhana cannot mind its own business. We believe, as the good Christian that our President professes to be, he should be very familiar with Genesis 4:9: \u201cAnd the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And Cain said, I know not: am I my brother’s keeper?\u201d That is not the way to go.
\nWe risk returning to the situation in recent years where the Ivorian state will no longer control the entire territory, with hundreds of thousands of people displaced, many fleeing to neighbouring countries, including Ghana.
\nThank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Flagbearer of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has taken a swipe at President Mills\u2019 stance on the Ivory Coast political stalemate, saying President Atta Mills is blowing \u201chot and cold\u201d on the crisis. Addressing a press conference on Thursday, January 20, at the Party\u2019s headquarters in Accra, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo charged President Mills […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-274527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n