Nana Jabs Spio
The Ghanaian frontier is on fire, with regard to the Ivorian crisis, as the Office of Nana Akufo-Addo pours cold water on Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah's so-called support for President Mills, describing it as a caricature that flies in the face of the facts.
Spio's analysis of the Ivorian crisis vis-Ã -vis President Mills' vacillating position on the matter, Nana's Office stated, was a piece of propaganda which should not be dignified with a rejoinder.
Spio's description of Nana's remarks, as an analysis itself, suffered a jolt when Nana's Office considered it as a misnomer and lacking substance and credibility.
'It forms part of the general NDC strategy of wholesale misinformation and deliberate deception on the issues of the day,' it said.
The Office recalled Nana Akufo Addo's tenure as Foreign Affairs Minister, during which he and his colleagues brokered peace for the war-torn country with President Kufuor as the driving force.
Ekwow Spio-Garbrah last week described Nana Akufo Addo's support for the ECOWAS position of considering legitimate force to remove Laurent Gbagbo as war-mongering, and Mills' stance as peace-making.
According to Nana's office, no amount of blatant distortions 'can change the hard fact that the Akufo-Addo-led NPP position on Cote d'Ivoire was a responsible one. It is the position of virtually the entire international community.'
Rarely had the international community, UN, AU, ECOWAS and EU spoken with one voice on a matter of global concern.
Laurent Gbagbo, Nana's Office asserted, lost the election and should cede power to the winner Alassane Ouatarra, adding, 'Indeed this is the crucial issue in the Ivorian drama.'
The Office recalled the outgoing President of ECOWAS Victor Gbeho's remarks that 'the situation represents a bad scenario: a leader loses an election, then calls the military to support him.'
The implications of Gbagbo's defiance were extremely dangerous and unhealthy for the growth of democracy on the African continent.
It was this specter, Nana's Office remarked, which should be the focus of public discussion and 'not artificial, diversionary issues about troop commitments. No requisition has been made for any troop commitment.'
After 'flip flopping on the crisis, including his declaration of 'dzi wo fie asem' foreign policy, President Mills told the diplomatic corps that he is after all in support of the ECOWAS position.'
Nana's Office asked Spio to explain what he meant by supporting Mills' position when the ECOWAS stance which Spio claimed to agree with, implied that Gbagbo hands over to Ouattara and that should he refuse to do so, the consideration of legitimate force would be put on the table.
If there was one West African whose efforts obviated war in Ivory Coast it was Nana Akufo Addo, his Office said, adding that he proved his mettle during the Accra III Peace Talks in 2004.
It was during this meeting that the Ivorian players, Gbagbo, Henri Konan Bedie and Alassane Ouatarra, assembled in Accra to plot the way forward, it recalled.
The Office added that it was this meeting which paved the way for the subsequent peace and the election which was today the subject of the avoidable controversy.
'If there is a Ghanaian public figure who has developed a deserved reputation in the West African region as a peacemaker, Nana Akufo Addo is one such figure,' the Office stated.
Continuing, the Office noted that it would be unhelpful to reduce the Ghanaian discussion on the Ivorian crisis to a mere case of support for either of the Ivorian leaders, adding that 'this is a complete red herring.'
Spio-Garbrah is a leading member of the NDC whose attack on the quality of President Mills' ministers in the early days of the ruling party's life caused a row in the ranks of the grouping and earned him notoriety among some of his colleagues, and fame with others.
His support for Mills' position on the Ivorian crisis had been described as flawed by some observers who thought because of the vacillating position of the President, Spio had really said nothing.
The President's latest position, a departure from the previous one, was that he supported ECOWAS, especially in considering legitimate force as a last resort and that Alassane Ouattara was the President of Ivory Coast- a position which he shied away from in the early days of the crisis in the neighbouring country.
By A.R. Gomda