Nigeria Content Online

The leaders of
the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have spoken.
Unlike in previous times when the community had spoken without a
distinctive voice, our leaders on the West Coast of Africa, for once,
did not muffle their voices.

In a clear tone,
they told Laurent Gbagbo, the disgraced ex-leader who sits at the
Presidential Palace at Yammoussikro with a stolen verdict, to vacate
the scene. The new lyrics are: Gbagbo out; Allassane Ouattara in.

It is one
decision that has brought a cheer or two to long suffering nationals on
the West Coast of Africa. We rejoice in the fact that our leaders
appear to be responsive to the cry of the people. We hope and pray that
the talk in Abuja would not remain mere paper guarantee.

The Chronicle
urges our leaders to ensure that Gbagbo is truly shown the exit. In a
number of such conflicts, the defeated candidates had benefited from
power sharing deals, by hanging on and using the power of incumbency to
attract leniency from leaders of Africa, many of whom do not have
proper mandates from the people, anyway.

When the likes of
Blaise Campaore of Burkina Faso and Yahaya Jammeh of Gambia, who seized
power with the aid of the intimidating powers of the gun and remain
glued to the presidential seat for more than two decades, after the
illegitimate seizure of power, are involved in the decision-making
process of such proportions, we stoop to applaud their action.

The West African
sub-region and the continent on the whole do not have any worthy
examples on how to deepen democracy. Faure Gnassingbe in Togo is a
father to son transmission of power, as if the presidency in Togo is by
inheritance.

On the continent,
Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Egyptian Head of State, Hosni Mubarak,
Mammar Gaddaffi of Libya and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda among others,
cannot be role models in any democratic experiment. Leadership in
Africa is a lost cause.

The Chronicle is
submitting for serious consideration by those of us inhabiting the
continent with the largest concentration of the black race, to make it
a point of working to eradicate the autocracy being perpetrated in the
name of democracy on the African continent.

We have a duty to
clean our acts by calling errant leaders to order. For a start, we
appreciate the stance of ECOWAS, and hope that those who gathered at
Abuja and took the decision would walk their talk. Gbagbo should leave
the scene. That should be without compromise.

As a History
Professor, the disgraced former leader of La Cote d’Ivoire should have
a fare idea of what eventually happens to leaders who overstay their
welcome. Those who make peaceful change impossible, make violent
removals inevitable.

Editorial from The Chronicle (Ghana)