Gbagbo Gets His Wish

Such is the nature of politics in Africa. Laurent Gbagbo, who stole the elections in Ivory Coast, is now being offered negotiatitions by African leaders. The earlier stance that he should step down from power because he lost the elections has now been abandoned by the African Union (AU). The AU is now talking of finding "an African solution to an African problem." That is code for the pursuit of aberrant policies that usually endanger the lives of Africans. African leaders have often looked for African solutions to what they see as African problems, but it has not carried the continent much further. It is true that Africa largely suffeers from the problem of bad leadership but the problem of bad leadership is understood by most people in the world. And most people in the world try to overcome this problem by encouraging transparency and accountability. African leaders instead sublimate the problem and make it seem intractable. Although the problem of bad leadership is mostly an African problem, there are universal methods of addressing the problem. There is no particularly African way to address such a problem. African leaders should stop compounding the problems of the continent by inventing strange ways of doing things that threaten the lives of their people. Gbagbo stole an election. The best way to handle the problem is to find a means to remove him from office. Period. It is time to abandon the cliche of looking for an African solution to an African problem.