News:
May 23, 2011
Communications Director of the opposition New Patriotic Party and MP for Okaikoi South, Nana Akomea, has discredited what the presidency claimed was a “critical role” played by President Mills to resolve the Ivorian crisis.
Speaking on Joy FM’s Top Story on Monday, he said various statements made by President Mills prior to the investiture of Alassane Ouattara as the president of Ivory Coast run counter to the claim.
An Ivorian newspaper is said to have published that it was President Mills’ intervention that the Ivorian Constitutional Court declared Mr Ouattara as the duly elected president of that country, leading to the latter’s swearing-in.
The presidency Monday corroborated the publication at a media briefing and also confirmed meetings held with the chairman of the Constitutional Court and talks with Mr Ouattara leading to the investiture.
But the opposition NPP is the least impressed about the turn of event, saying the presidency is only trying to score cheap political points.
“After Gbagbo’s capture, who else was there to be sworn in? Whether you like it or not, after Gbagbo has been taken out of the picture, the only person left, the only option left was to swear in Ouattara.
“Now we are being given the impression that if President Mills had not intervened, Ouattara was not going to be sworn-in? Is that the impression we are being given?” Mr Akomea queried.
He also disputed a report in the state-owned newspaper Daily Graphic attributed to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that President Mills is the best leader in Africa.
“Happily we have been told that, the assertion is not true that Ban Ki-moon made a statement that President Mills was the best leader in Africa,” Mr Akomea asserted.
However, he refrained from taking anything away from the president if the UN boss deemed it fit to praise him for his leadership role.
But he said, the “facts on the ground” do not support the kind of praise Mr Ban is said to have showered on President Mills.
He recalled that upon his return from an ECOWAS meeting that decided to use force as one of the options to resolve the crisis then, President Mills in an encounter with journalists said he did not support the use of force.
“As it turned out, it is the use of force which has solved the Ivorian situation. So the stand that President Mills took has proven to be a wrong stand.”
Meanwhile, people have questioned the presidency’s silence on the issue for all this while, but Dr Antwi Danso, an international relations expert said the “quiet diplomacy” stance the presidency took on the issue was not unusual, saying “there is nothing wrong with that”.
He however felt the press conference to confirm the newspaper’s story was needless.
Source: Joy News