HOME | POLITICS | SPORTS | LIFE | SCI/TECH | OPEDS | HELPFUL TIPS
|
Apr. 16, 2007 Cote D'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) is a beautiful land with beautiful people. A prosperous nation of some 16 million people with over 60 ethnic groups is indeed a rare exception, an oasis in West Africa where wars, famine, economic stagnation and diseases ravage nations around it. When compared with other West African countries Cote D'Ivoire is an example of how leadership with a well-defined patriotic vision could transform a society with little resources at it's disposal. This French-speaking but English-language-loving nation with sophisticated inhabitants could be described as a land of bliss in an Africa context. It took the leadership brevity, dexterity and vision of a patriotic late founding president Felix Houphouet-Boigny to turn this landscape into a modern country where every single of life basic amenity works round the clock without compromise! Here electrity, pipe-borne water, transportation and other social infrastructures work 24/7 though a bit expensive. But since the service is impeccable who really cares if it is exhorbitant? From here to other cities in the interior of the country the story is the same; no city or region was discriminated against or neglected in the equitable distribution of the national wealth which proceeds from coffee, agriculture and cocoa made possible. The first time I came here late 90's I was stunned at FHB international airport how simple but effective protocols and formalities in the airport could be. I was left wondering inside the red-coloured taxi that brought me into the city (especially as we approached the administrative district of Plateau) how on earth an African leader could have been a success story, a national builder! I discovered to my chagrin that a country nearer home could exploit the human and material resources God placed within it's territory to better the lot of happy many; and this is in direct opposite, a sharp contrast to my native point of embarkation. While in Yammoussokro (Yakro for short) few months afterwards I saw how audacious Boigny was by constructing the golden Basilica which the late Pope John Paul 11 visited there to open. I have seen that of Rome so I believe the Yakro version is greater and richer from all indications. Like Abuja Yakro is the political capital of Cote D'Ivoire though the seat of power remains Abidjan. But there's massive infrastructural development going on in Yakro and a date for administrative shift to the city has been set for 2008. A true tale was once told of how some Nigerian sex purveyors who were brought here en route Italy were deceived into believing at wee hours of the night upon arrival (faced with the imposing breath-taking district of Plateau) that the city center was a city in Italy! The international sex exporter disappeared into thin air abandoning his human cargo in Plateau (their supposed Italian city!) Any naive 'jjc' like the Edo/Delta girls would have fallen woefully for the '419' because Plateau is the combination of architectural beauty and demystification of American and European cities. The multiple ubiquitous skyscrapers (almost uncountably competing for space in the skies) coupled with 'sandless' good outlay, sound ground work and network of roads and bridges challenge critics of the African infrastructural underdevelopment syndrome to think twice. In terms of splendour and glamour I dare say here that Abidjan as an organized 5-star city is comparable in Africa only to Jo'burg and Nairobi and perhaps Abuja and Tunis. Mark Doyle, former BBC West African correspondence based in Abidjan (whom I had met once in BBC's office here in Immeuble Acasias in Plateau when I was called upon to come for a financial prize won in one of BBC's weekend competitive programmes) once described Abidjan as a 'mordern city' built with eyes unto the future. A city that does not sleep with street lights at even the remotest of suburbs; a city where you see women sweeping the streets every morning. A city where you see even septugenereans wearing jeans and coming to night clubs for some fun. A stately, grand and intimidating city where Yopougon's Rue Princesse is called 'Soddom and Gomorrah' because every shade, size and colour of call girls are available and ready to give you your money's worth even in the open! A big city of over 7 million people where even the French and Morrocan girls do pimping as source of livelihood! A city where the Lebanese, the Italians, the Americans, the Chinese and the French dominate big businesses especially fashion, petroleum, cosmetics, construction and electronics. A city where Nigerians, Ghanains, Senegalese own houses and business interests with some including yours sincerely marrying their beautiful girls. In an architectural masterpiece of a city where young and old women dress to kill daily with men falling in and out of love easily (sometimes in maquis or night clubs) the HIV/AIDS pandemic figures are on the high side indeed! Having been to France however I believe the French connection and it's colonial assimilation ideology and state colonial policy is firmly rooted in the Ivorian society. For Maliens, Burkinabes, Chadians, Nigeriens and Togolese Abidjan is 'petit Paris'. Before I set foot on the Ivorian soil I was thinking about the land that welcomed Dim Ojukwu and his fleeing comrades and other Igbos in the tail end of the Biafran/Nigerian civil war in 1970. Here in Abidjan there's a small 'quartier' in Treichville area of town caled Biafra where most of those that fled Nigeria (after the aborted Biafrian dream) own houses and business interests. Late Houphouet Boigny in welcoming Ojukwu and his people gave them free lands upon where to construct. Today Nigerians, Yorubas and Igbos have fully integrated into the Ivorian society with some even in their police, civil service and national Army. There was relative peace and tranquility here until 'Nana' Houphouet Boigny died in early 90's. The late president who held sway for more than three decades in a glorified one-party state was forced as his health was failing to embrace reforms as demonstrations by the opposition led by the current president Laurent Gbagbo became gradually intense. Gbagbo, a veteran politican here and best known opposition figure battled Nana Boigny escaping by a hair's breath many assassination attempts on his life. On many occassions he had had to flee to France when the old wise president tried to corrupt him to abandon his struggle for a multi-party democracy; in one of such occassions, Gbagbo, a history university teacher, had gone to the bank to withdraw some cash and was shocked to discover inexplicably that his bank account had been credited with a huge sum of money. He immediately called the attention of the bank manager and asked him to pull out the money whose source could not be accounted for. Houphouet-Boigny never prepared a clear successor before he gave up the ghost. In the Ivorian constitution it was ambiguosly written that upon the death or incapacitation of the president the prime minister or the speaker of the house of assembly would assume power. Meanwhile as opposition mounted over Boigny's one party state he drafted an international financial guru working with the IMF Alassane Dramane Ouattara (ADO) as a prime minister to help him stabilise the economic decline. When this political giant with small physical stature died there was a power struggle between Henri Bedie, the then speaker of the parliament and the prime minister. In the end Bedie assumed power but it was soon discovered that the leadership shoes left behind by Boigny was too much for Bedie, a man Boigny took as his 'son' and trained in both France and America. Bedie who likes life and went to the club for drink with friends at night could not maintain a firm grip on power as the opposition grew over his leadership style. Consequently on the 31st of December 1999 the Army struck for the first time in the political history of the country shattering the peace and harmony. General Robert Guei, a man who was retired in the Army by Bedie siezed power and forced Bedie to flee first to Togo , then Nigeria and finally to France. As the General wielded power Ivorians who were not used to the diktat of the military began to emigrate to France, America, London and other countries. Those without the means simply crossed border to Ghana. Myself I left Abidjan for South Africa in the heat of the military putsh. With curfews and other military curtailments of freedom people who knew freedom from independence in August 1960 could not tolerate or bear the arbitrariness of the military boys in power. General Guei under pressure from France (who maintains a large military camp here) and the opposition led by Gbagbo organized a general elections in October 2000. But before the polls there was a heavy division in the political class as General Guei disqualified both ADO and Bedie from participating in the presidential election. For Bedie the supreme court judge Tia Kone used by Guei cited morality issues and corruption while ADO was disqualified based on nationality issues. Mr Ouattara, an intelligent highly-organized technocrat cum politician was accused of Burkinabe origins. In the presidential election General Guei squared up with Gbagbo and one or two other inconsequential candidates. As the final results of the elections were being announced Guei sensing defeat used his military thugs to disrupt proceedings kidnapping the electoral commission chairman and taking him to an unknown destination. Gbagbo sensing fraud went underground and called out his supporters onto the streets urging them to cripple everything and block everywhere until General Guei withdrew from the dangerous path he was blindly headed declaring himself winner in the polls. France and other international institutions were prevailed upon to call Gen. Guei to order and in the end Gen. Guei released the electoral body boss who continued where he stopped in announcing the tabulated results. When the final result was announced Laurent Gbagbo had won and Abidjan was sent to celebration frenzy. Gbagbo was sworn in as president and he went about it all with responsibility and maturity but the opposition from both Bedie and ADO camps grew with time. General Guei with shame quietly retreated to his Biankouma village in the northern part of the country (where he built mansions) with his horde of bodyguards and military boys. Here in Cote D'Ivoire the late president Boigny invited millions of Burkinabes (don't forget that the two nations were one before, upper and lower Voltas) and Malians over to the huge cocoa and coffee plantations in the Ivorian hinterlands. This country like America has almost every nationality here present doing one thing or the other. You have statistically over 30 percent of foreigners living and working here. It is only perhaps the US that can boast of such intake of foreigners! ------------ About the author: Sunny Chris Okenwa is a U-K contributor based in Abidjan Cote d'Ivoire. Email: soco_abj_2006_rci@hotmail.fr Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
||||||
|
|
|||||||
|
