Propaganda Logic

Never underestimate the desperation of a distressed politician, especially when he is in power. The immediate aftermath of the Ivorian crisis has been characterized with absurd logic from presidential minders employing public media. Having bruised his nose for a shameful ambivalence in the Ivorian crisis and opposing the use of legitimate force, which was what eventually pulled out Laurent Gbgagbo from the Abidjan Presidential Palace bunker in which he was holed like a scared squirrel, President Mills is busy seeking to undo the damage done to his political image. It is interesting to note however that President Mills is not laying claim to playing a part in the ousting of the man who lost the Ivorian polls because, after all, he was averse to the use of force by the regional bloc, ECOWAS, to which Ghana belongs. He is rather clinging on to what can relatively pass for an insignificant aspect of the whole process- the investiture of Alassane Ouattara. The way the Mills minders are going about the subject under review is mind boggling. Taking Ghanaians for granted is unacceptable under the circumstances when indeed the crux of the matter was a foreign policy gone wrong. Such blunders happen at times in governance and when they do, responsibility must be accepted and apologies rendered. But letting it look like Ghanaians cannot read between the lines, in the way we are being fed with crap, is insulting to our intelligence. Gbagbo assisted the NDC with funds during the last elections and this is high politics beyond the ken of the unlettered and so to render him the kind of support Mills did was not unusual. At such a high level of politics, not everything is showcased and it is understandable. It is insulting however when incompetent minders attempt drawing us to their below average level of competence. The fact cannot be denied that an investiture could not have been feasible without the seizure of power from the stubborn Gbagbo who clung on to it even after losing it democratically. The stalemate which appeared to have held sway was only broken by the introduction of legitimate force. Such a force was what finally made the difference and not Mills� hypocrisy which earned us the international community�s derision and opprobrium alongside many Ivorian lives. The investiture was a mere formality, if you like, an icing on the cake in Ouattara�s ascendancy to the high office. It should be remembered that at the time that Laurent Gbagbo illegally swore himself into office, his rival Alassane Ouattara also went through the same procedure at the Golf Hotel. The investiture by the disgraced Yao N�Dire, the head of the Constitutional Council, was only a symbolic procedure to, as it were, ice the cake and restate the international community�s recognition of the man who won the November polls as the legitimate President of the Ivory Coast. If Mills� words are anything to go by, regarding his ability to convince Mr. N�Dire to go and enact the investiture ritual, it stands to reason that he could have done that much earlier but stood by for so many lives to be lost. N�Dire had no choice but to listen to his host and pal to his boss, Laurent Gbagbo. With no option since time was up for Gbagbo, could he have objected to proceed to Abidjan? We did not even know that Mills was harbouring this disgraced man in this country until the propaganda machinery got busy on managing the matters arising from the Ivorian crisis. Such a disgraced character should have resigned his appointment and hid his face in shame under other dispensations following his vacillating nature. If the allegation that a political party in Ghana is responsible for the contents of Le Patriote and a military group�s website in that country, according to Mills� minders, it can be stretched similarly that the so-called attribution of the investiture to the Ghanaian President�s role by a so-called Abidjan newspaper was equally manoeuvred by the Castle boys. We should be spared this embarrassing and insulting propaganda logic.