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While President Gbagbo himself has remained mum on commenting on any issue ahead of the African Union summit currently taking place in Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa preferring to play his cards to his chest, FPI President Pascal Affi N’Guessan says Odinga came to Abidjan with ‘preconceived opinions’, jeopardising his assigned task of being expected to be a non-partisan mediator.

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“Mr Odinga was not up to the task. That is why we decided to reject him as a mediator. A mediator is supposed to be a good listener but he (Odinga) came here with preconceived opinions,” said N’Guessan.
At the end of the mission he made biased statements based on his own sentiments and we found that worrying,” added N’Guessan.

N’Guessan said while Odinga was a naïve choice by the African Union given his own almost carbon copy experiences in the Kenyan election where he battled the legitimacy of Mwai Kibaki as president after a contested election, Ivory Coast had not prejudged him on his past and had hoped he would look at the facts and not draw from his own emotions or be influenced by his own experiences.

“The choice of Odinga as mediator was not by us but by the African Union and we accepted him because he is the Prime Minister of a respected African nation. We found it appropriate not to have preconceived opinion about him. We wanted to judge him on his work on the ground and not on his past personal battles. With this background it was up to Odinga to show he was equal to the task but sadly he failed to do so,” said N’Guessan.

 

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The FPI party leader however made it clear that former South African President Thabo Mbeki, who jetted into this powerful west African nation’s economic hub Abidjan as soon as post electoral tensions set in, had maturely and correctly read the situation on the ground, producing a ‘spot on’ report on what had fomented tensions.

“President Mbeki’s report on the crisis was swept under the carpet and not produced to the rest of the world. That is because it was not favourable to the West led  by France, who wanted to paint a picture that President Gbagbo had lost the election and was the wrong party in the electoral crisis,” said N’Guessan.

“Mbeki’s report shows that the constitution was disregarded in the declaration of Ouattara as the winner in the elections,” added N’Guessan.
The Independent Electoral Commission (ECI) only had the mandate to proclaim a winner three days after the election after which only the Constitutional Council held that mandate. However, the head of the

Electoral commission went ahead and declared Ouattara the winner, four days after the close of balloting and he did so alone instead of in the presence of the entire team of commissioners. Over and above that, the results were supposed to be presented before this nation at the commission’s headquarters but were delivered at the Golf Hotel in Abidjan, interestingly, the same location that was being used as the campaign headquarters for opposition candidate Alassane Ouattara and also his temporary residence during the polling period raising eyebrows of serious fraud and collusion. All this was captured by the Mbeki report which N’Guessan deemed legitimate and fair.

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Ivorian leaders believe their current battle stems from an attempt by former colonial power France to keep a neo-colonialist grip on this country in the wake of reports that the country may have abundant oil reserves over and above being the largest global exporter of cocoa and being the largest economy in West Africa.  

The Gbagbo administration still is in full control of the nation but a raft of punitive sanctions on individuals and the economy by France and her Western allies threaten to cripple the strength of this vibrant economy.

With reports that France wanted to go and lobby African leaders in Addis Ababa ahead of the African Union summit, the FPI President said Africa should not be lectured to or have decisions on African problems foisted down their throats.

“It is very scandalous that today in 2011, France still behaves like a colonial master. Africans can intervene and have a say but not France and the Western nations! African countries should stand up against the new form of colonisation,” said N’Guessan. -The Herald