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Time to End Shenanigans

Business Day (Johannesburg)
EDITORIAL
December 6, 2005
Posted to the web December 6, 2005
Johannesburg
AFTER two months of long and arduous negotiation with the Ivorian belligerents,
the African Union mediation team -- made up of Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria,
Mamadou Tandja of Niger and Thabo Mbeki of SA -- has finally appointed a new
premier in C�te d'Ivoire.
This is in accordance with resolution 1633 of the United Nation Security
Council.
The resolution extended Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo's term of office -
- which officially ended last October -- by one year and called for the
appointment of a new and "consensual" prime minister, who would be given all
executive powers and be charged with the task of organising general elections
by next October.
Charles Konan Banny, the former governor of the Central Bank of West African
States, has been handed the daunting task of putting peace back on track in the
west African country.
His appointment as prime minister is a gamble by the three African Union
mediators in their bid to break the stalemate over peace negotiations in the
country.
Though close to the former ruling Democratic Party of C�te d'Ivoire, of which
his brother Jean was a founding member, the banker is a novice in politics.
But the fact that he was not affiliated with any of the opposing political
factions in the country probably gives him more room to manoeuvre politically
and, obviously, he seems to have convinced the mediators he was the most
suitable candidate for the job.
Banny's chances of success will, however, depend mainly on Gbagbo's willingness
to play -- transparently -- by the UN- designed political rules.
This is not guaranteed. Since the signing of the country's main peace agreement
in Marcoussis, Paris, in January 2003, Gbagbo's reluctance to delegate
executive power to Seydou Diarra, Banny's predecessor, has been the main hurdle
to peace in the strife-torn country.
What is needed from Gbagbo now is a strong and positive sign, in the form of a
presidential decree, confirming the role and the extent of Banny's political
powers in accordance with the UN resolution.
Such a move would certainly ease tension and show that playtime is now over.
It isn't all Gbagbo, though. The political opposition and the rebel armies need
to be forced to stop trying to find fault with anything the government in
Abidjan does in order to justify their own continued cynicism about the value
of peace.

   

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