Nigeria Content Online

The impending collapse of Laurent Gbagbo’s regime marks not just the end of that country’s nightmare: it has signalled the return of Nigeria as a voice and a leader of Africa.
When Gbagbo and his cronies declined last November to accept the results of an election in which he was beaten by eight percentage points, the Goodluck Jonathan administration took a principled stand and has been out in front ever since.
Foreign Minister, Odein Ajumogobia, has worked assiduously behind the scenes and publicly to shape the diplomatic environment, to isolate Gbagbo, to impose sanctions, and to point him in the direction of the exit.
This is no small matter. In the world of international diplomacy, no censure of a state or a leader is possible without the assent of the region. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), under the Chairmanship of President Jonathan, recognised Allasane Ouattara on December 8, and called on Gbagbo to honour the outcome of the electorate.
In early March, after months of doomed mediation and wrangling as it battled to speak with one voice, the African Union recognised Ouattara as the legitimate winner of the election and endorsed a plan for him to set up a national unity government.
On March 14, Ouatarra stopped in Abuja to meet with Mr. Jonathan, the one leader on the continent he chose to consult before heading back to Abidjan for the home stretch.
On Wednesday night, the United Nations Security Council voted for Gbagbo’s removal and for a freeze of all Gbagbo’s foreign assets. As in the other initiatives, this was driven by Nigeria, this time in concert with France.
While the military push from the reconstituted Republican forces was critical, the economic and financial sanctions and steadily growing isolation – in the teeth of vicious propaganda from the Gbagbo side – made the downfall inevitable.
At the end of the day, this has been a huge victory for democrats in Africa – and a boost to the continent’s democratic credentials.
It contrasts and counteracts places like Zimbabwe, where Robert Mugabe has lost election after election and deployed horrific violence against his opponents, but remains firmly in power.
The South African Development Community (SADC) has pussy footed around Mugabe’s abuses for years. Apart from never resolving the crisis, this sets a poor example. Every bad loser of an election that gets away with using violence and the instruments of state to stay in power encourages the next one. The line in the sand that was drawn under Gbagbo is of importance to more than Ivory Coast.
The firm leadership and deft diplomacy that Nigeria has shown is desperately needed in a continent that is crying out for leadership.
The AU represents a number of often conflicting and competing states, and is at its best as a mediator but it can no more take the lead than the European Union can. As has been shown recently in Libya, it is only states like France or the United Kingdom that can take the decisive steps, for better or worse, that actually make a difference.
There was a time when, for all their sins, Thabo Mbeki and Olusegun Obasanjo had a broader vision for Africa and were taken seriously in the councils of the world. But during the last four years there has been a vacuum in pan-African leadership – unless one would use that word to describe Muammar Gaddafi who as Chair of the African Union spent his time fantasising about a United States of Africa (with its capital in Libya).
Nigeria has a long and respectable reputation for peace keeping in Africa. But as everyone knows, the brand has been tarnished by military rule, corruption and the debacle of the 2007 election.
Nigeria under Umaru Yar ‘Adua took a backseat. A country of 150 million, a model and a challenge of Muslim and Christian co-existence, a holder of great strategic natural resources, the most populous country in Africa, was not afforded a lot of respect.
Since taking office last year, Mr Jonathan has turned that around – not with grand gestures but rather by showing Nigeria as a responsible citizen of the global community. Nigeria is building a case for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
It was, for instance, one of the OPEC members that stepped up to the plate to increase oil production to meet the shortfall when Libya exploded, easing the pain of billions of consumers around the world.
As a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, Nigeria voted to authorise the action that potentially prevented the slaughter of thousands of people in Libya. There are many who disagree with that position, and the armed intervention that followed, but at least it was a position. Nigeria stood up and was counted.
This is not to say that Nigeria’s prominence in global forums should be dependent on its remaining a reliable ally of the West. The country has to be judged on its strategic and human importance, and its ability to give voice to a billion Africans, especially on those issues that touch the continent.
To do that, Nigeria needs to put its own house in order. The economic growth that is forecast for the next few years, and that is forging a new and surging middle class, must be accompanied by social provision for the poor and the underclass. Nigeria cannot afford to be near the bottom of every social indicator.
And an election that is at the very least a marked improvement on 2007 is essential for Nigeria to be able to defend democracy on the continent, as it has in Ivory Coast.

Phillip van Niekerk is the former editor of South Africa’s Mail & Guardian newspaper