आईटी इस अ फिघ्त फॉर Sirvival

The political Crisis in Ivory Coast.
Why do these leaders try to hand on to power for such a long time?
First there was Kenyan, then Zimbabwe and now the Republic of Ivory Coast.In each of these countries we are seeing former leaders that have lost elections in the polls and do not want to relinquish power. In Zimbabwe and Kenya both of the former presidents, who clearly lost elections to their opponents succeeded in hanging on by relinquishing a little bit of their power. In the case of Zimbabwe, President Mugabe who was defeated in the elections is now complaining that the power sharing deal with Morgan Tsvangirai is not working out. He should step down, he lost the presidential elections there. The current political crisis is now the one in Ivory coast, where Laurent Gbagho who had been president for ten years lost a run off election to opposition candidate Allassane Ouattarra. The UN elections committee in place in Ivory Copast says that the election which to them was fair and transparent was won by the opposition leader. He got about 54 percent of the votes compared to 46 percent for the incumbent ruler. The question to be asked now is why do these leaders hang on to power after being around for such a long time?
To me the main reason has to be the fact that true democracy is not yet established in the continent. Before the Presidential elections in Ivory coast, President Laurent Gbagho was making promises to the military that if he wins they would benefit from his stay in office. Also that if he goes down, they go down with him. Thus victory for the individual is the focal point of the elections and the welfare of the country is secondary. In a truly democratic system, leaders come into power with a clear agenda and promises are made to the population in general and not to a special branch of the society.
The presence of a powerful military is also a major factor. Military coups are still taking place in the continent and the ruler who succeeds in getting the military behind him usually gets to stay around for a while.
The African Union seems to have learn from its mistake of backing the power sharing deals in both Kenya and Zimbabwe.In the current situation they have lined up with the rest of the world in agreement that Laurent Gbagho should go.The United Nations,the Europeans Union and other regional bodies such as ECOWAS are all bent on seeing the defeated leader step down from power. He though does not want to step down because in my opinion he is afraid of payback. That is what happens in a system in which leaders go into power for their personal benefit. While in power, those people that support him benefit to the detriment of the rest of the population. For him to step down means that his backers would go through a period of economic hardship. What is tricky in this Ivorian situation is that it is an internal issue. Elections are rigged in different parts of the world and all external bodies can do is call for the defeated person to step down. In other words whether the UN,AU,or Europeans forces go in to try and get Laurent Gbagho out of Ivory Coast would depend on his hold on the country. He has the military backing and that is a key strength for him. Does the rest of the world want to see Ivory Coast go back into another civil war?.It is a complicated issue. The Nigerian government has come out and say that they would provide the incumbent president with an exile home in their country .I doubt whether he would accept such a deal . Charles Taylor stepped down as President in a deal that included a safe haven for him in Nigeria. He is now in the Hague fighting charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
History suggest that President Gbagho is going to stay and fight for power because being President of Ivory Coast has become his livelihood. He does not intent to go live anywhere else after being in charge of Ivory Coast for ten years.