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This is one endgame that is nowhere near the end.
Laurent Gbagbo continues to stubbornly hold on to power, despite no
longer being in control of the country — the area he currently ‘rules’
over is reportedly restricted to the grounds of the presidential
palace. Meanwhile, the dead bodies are piling up — late last week,
humanitarian agencies found tens of bodies of victims of mass killings
— and looters and bandits roam the streets of Abidjan unchallenged.

The French foreign minister, Alain Juppé, has
described Mr. Gbagbo’s continued hold on power as “absurd”. There are
many, including us, who share this view. But equally absurd is the
relative silence from the African regional bodies, AU and ECOWAS,
regarding this crisis.

Two weeks ago, ECOWAS, during the 39th Ordinary
Summit of its Heads of States and Government, issued Resolution
A/RES.1/03/11, which stated that “in the event that Mr. Gbagbo fails to
heed (the) immutable demand of ECOWAS (to hand over power), 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
Ivorien people.”

Any keen observer of ECOWAS would have since
realised that it is no more than a serial issuer of ‘Decisions’,
‘Resolutions’ and press releases, none of which should be taken
seriously. Indeed, only last week, it issued a press statement
“[urging] Mr. Gbagbo once again to consider the greater interest of the
Ivorian Nation…”

This, coming two weeks after “recognizing that the
crisis in Cote d’Ivoire has now become a regional humanitarian
emergency”, and after vowing that it “would be left with no alternative
but to take other measures, including the use of legitimate force”, is
absurd.

Even the Resolution A/RES.1/03/11 that contains
the threat of military intervention, quickly lapses into an evasive
tone, characterised by a series of “requests”, “directs”, “urges” and
“invites” aimed at the United Nations Security Council, the African
Union Commission, and the president of the ECOWAS Commission. ECOWAS,
it seems, has now gone back to sleep, leaving the UN and French troops
to provide a semblance of security, and to prevent the country from
totally falling apart.

Waiting for the situation to resolve itself is no longer an option, but ECOWAS doesn’t seem to have realised this.

An Ouattara spokesperson has been quoted as
saying: “Mr. Gbagbo has nothing left. His arsenal is gone. His army has
evaporated. How much longer can he last?” What history, however,
teaches is that an African strongman who believes that power belongs to
him should never be underestimated. He will go to any length to ensure
his wishes. It matters little that he was once a professor of history
(with a doctorate from a French University) and one-time opposition
activist like Mr. Gbagbo, or the survivor of colonial oppression and
holder of several academic degrees like Robert Mugabe.

This, tragically, seems to be the defining story of Africa’s
leadership — revolutionaries who in the end become monsters requiring a
revolution to dethrone. Mr. Gbagbo’s actions reveal a man bent on
ensuring that his country does not outlast his reign as president. Up
north is Muammar Gaddafi, who has kept Libya in the news for all the
wrong reasons for well over a month. These men, having not only failed
the continent, but also been rejected by their people, take refuge in a
mindless, stubborn refusal to acknowledge and face reality. But when
the story of this moment in history is told, the list of those who
failed the continent will include all powerbrokers who sat and watched
with folded arms. ECOWAS, led by Nigeria’s Goodluck Jonathan, will be
at the top of this list. Unless it wakes up now, and moves to provide
urgent military and humanitarian intervention in Cote d’Ivoire.