Lessons from Cote d’Ivoire

Nigerian leaders, sadly, are not good students. They see a lot, hear a lot, but they appear to learn nothing on a regular basis. Otherwise the country would have since joined the league of developed economies with its huge human and natural endowments.

Although Nigerians are rated among the most travelled in the world, they go to countries where everything works and as soon as they step down from the aircraft back home, they put on their old selves. Hence, the continued poor state of affairs in Nigeria.

While he lived, Nelson Mandela was regarded as a good example of what an African president and statesman should be. In and out of office, Madiba exhibited attributes of a sought-after leader and was a rallying point for many leaders within and outside the continent of Africa. But it is doubtful if past and present crop of Nigerian leaders, who interacted with Mandela at various levels and were full of praises for him at death, allowed themselves to be positively influenced character-wise. Had they done so, Nigeria would have been better for it.

In Nigeria, the struggle for power is akin to warfare where everything and anything is employed to defeat an opponent. Here, performance is not the determining factor in who wins an election, provided he or she is connected in the right places with heavy war chest.

Everywhere in the world, there are rules guiding elections and electioneering and those who flout the rules are made to face the full weight of the law. A few days to the 2015 general election, it has become very necessary to remind Nigerian politicians, political parties and their supporters that there is the need for them, no matter how highly placed, to respect the laws of the land in their utterances.

Since the commencement of the campaigns, there has been unfortunate deployment of speeches laced with hate, careless talks, intemperate language, outright name-calling and character assassination. All the parties in the country are guilty of this.

Despite the peace pact entered into by various political parties and their candidates, their utterances have not encouraged peace and unity. They see their ambition as a do-or-die affair and some of them seem determined to cause chaos and anarchy in the land. By their inciting words, their supporters are ready to cause mayhem.

One speech that appears to have attracted attention even beyond the borders of Nigeria was that credited to the first lady, Patience Jonathan, who reportedly called Muhammadu Buhari, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), “brain dead” and allegedly insulted the party and its supporters. Mrs. Jonathan was also said to have employed uncharitable and inciting words against the opposition party, directing supporters of the ruling party to stone whosoever chanted “change” (APC slogan).

Consequently, the APC presidential campaign organisation threatened to drag her to the International Criminal Court (ICC) over the alleged utterances. Critics said she employed some words that were capable of engendering strife in society.

Reports have it that the ICC has since reacted, saying it “would take all the necessary steps, which will likely include interrogating the president’s wife and others mentioned in the petition of the APC”. The court also promised to give consideration to this communication, as appropriate, in accordance with the provisions of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, as it does with all such communications.

Recently, Simone Gbagbo, former first lady of Cote d’Ivoire, was sentenced to a 20-year prison term by a court in her country. Gbagbo’s wife was found guilty of charges of “undermining state security” during post-election violence in 2010-2011 that left nearly 3,000 dead. She was also accused of “disturbing public order” and “organising armed gangs” after her husband and his supporters rejected results of the December 2010 presidential elections showing rival Alassane Ouattara had won the contest.

We note that while she was ordering the violence, Simone Gbagbo refused to realise that one day she would be an ordinary citizen. While she bestrode the entire place like a tigress, she forgot to spare a thought on the fleeting nature of position of authority.

The development in Cote d’Ivoire reminds us of the trial of Charles Taylor, a former military leader of Liberia, who was sentenced to prison by ICC at The Hague. Today, people’s sins of yesteryears are finding them out. The world is changing and crimes committed in one country can be tried in another by the ICC. There is no more hiding place.

The lesson to learn from Simone Gbagbo’s ordeal is that power is ephemeral and nothing lasts forever. Those who carry themselves as tin gods, who also hide under political power to perpetrate impunity, must realise that there is a day of reckoning.

We, therefore, urge all the first ladies in all the states of the federation to provide the needed soothing balm for the country through their utterances. Rather than fan the embers of hate, acrimony and division, they must always preach peace and harmony, even at the risk of their own lives.