Did President Obama get his first phone snub from Ivory Coast’s embattled President Gbagbo?
Special report by Chido Nwangwu, Founder & Publisher of Houston-based USAfricaonline.com
USAfrica, Jan 5, 2011: Apparently, the pressure from the international community, France and the domestic struggle over who won the disputed November 28, 2010 elections in the west African country of Ivory Coast have had a direct hit at the usual respect accorded the President of the United States of America. The embattled President of Ivory Coast Laurent Gbagbo, reportedly, refused to take an opportunity and facilitation for him to speak with the U.S President Barack Obama on ways to resolve the crises in cocoa-rich, multi-ethnic/multinational country.
This information is derived from a part of the letter from Washington DC-based attorney Lanny Davis, outgoing President Gbagbo’s lobbyist/counselor in the U.S. and close confidante of former President Bill Clinton and his wife current U.S Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Davis was contracted for $100,000-a-month by the Ivory Coast government. $100,000-a-month….
In the letter dated December 29, 2010, and sent to the Ivorian Ambassador to the U.S. Charles Koffee. Davis, a regular on FoxNews wrote, in part:
“In the past ten days, I have spoken repeatedly with a senior official of the State Department toward this end, and specifically to facilitate a call between the President of the United States and Mr. Gbagbo so Mr. Gbagbo could be presented with options for a peaceful resolution, that would avoid further bloodshed and be in the best interests of his country and the people of the Ivory Coast. There is no excuse for a return to violence or civil war.”
Very significant, Davis claims that “Unfortunately, as you know, the decision was made in Abidjan not to allow President Obama’s call to be put through to Mr Gbagbo,”
At the time of this USAfricaonline.com special report (12:02am US CST on Wednesday January 5, 2011) neither the Ambassador/Embassy of the Ivory Coast in Washington DC nor the Gbagbo camp in Abidjan responded to Davis’ letter.
It may be recalled that in the 2nd week of December 2010, U.S Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated the American position: “We are in full agreement that Alassane Ouattara is the rightfully elected president … and that former President Laurent Gbagbo should respect the result of the election and peacefully transfer power to his successor.” She added that President Obama had”sent a letter to President Gbagbo, urging him to step aside and warning him of consequences if he does not.”
Ivory Coast has friendly relations with the U.S but Gbagbo loyalists argue that the Obama administration is working with France and the UN against the former radical university professor and grassroots mobilizer.
But a senior member of the African desk of the U.S National Security Council in Washington DC told me/USAfrica that: “it’s obvious Mr. Gbagbo is overplaying his hand. Unfortunately, we think he’s trying to tie his personal agenda with those of his country at such a critical and sensitive time. The presidential elections are not only disputed but many in the international community say his opponent Mr. Ouattarra won.”
When I asked further as to what will be the next move by the U.S., the official simply said: “The U.S supports free and fair results. We support democracy in Ivory Coast.”
Obama, born August 4, 1961 to a Kenyan scholar and a White mother in Honolulu, is the first African American to hold the office (since January 2009) and seems a man with interests on more democratization across Africa. (Obama’s Africa agenda, our business and democracy.)
Pierre Kablan, an activist in the capital city of Yamoussoukro informed USAfrica via phone that “Ouattarra is the man for France and U.S and the IMF-World Bank for decades. They can control him but not President Gbagbo. That’s the point.”
Any major slip and dangerous move in Ivory Coast by the typically patient Obama, the usually brash Sarkozy of France and others in the international community in this once peaceful, idyllic former colony of France with
18million people could be expensive for the U.S and other west Africans. Evidently, the reasons and hopes for Ivory Coast’s independence in the 1960s are turning into mirages and conflicts and….
• Chido Nwangwu is the Founder and Publisher of USAfrica, and first African-owned, U.S-based newspaper published on the internet USAfricaonline.com; The Black Business Journal, CLASSmagazine, PhotoWorks.TV, AchebeBooks.com, USAfricaTV and several blogs, assessed by The New York TImes as the largest and arguably most influential multimedia networks for Africans and Americans. He served on the editorial board of the Daily Times of Nigeria in Lagos and worked for the Nigerian Television Authority (news) in the 1980s; served on a publicity committee of the Holocaust Museum, Houston; recipient of an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree in May 2009; adviser on Africa to Houston’s former Mayor Dr. Lee Brown. Chido appears as an analyst on CNN, VOA, SABC, CBSNews, ABCNews, FOXNews, NBCNews, etc. Chido@USAfricaonline.com. wireless: 832-45-CHIDO (24436). Office: 713-270-5500.
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Special report/alert: Nigeria’s bin-Laden cheerleaders could ignite religious war, destabilize Africa. By USAfrica’s Publisher Chido Nwangwu. https://usafricaonline.com/chido.binladennigeria.html
310 killed by Nigeria’s ‘talibans’ in Bauchi, Yobe n Maiduguri; crises escalate. USAfricaonline.com on July 28, 2009.
www.usafricaonline.com/chido.ngrtalibans09.html
This is spiting his nose, if Gbagbo really did refused to answer Obama's call.
This is not about Obama, stupid; the title and your gratutitous use of the word "snub" (thank goodness you misspelled it; we know you meant "snob") is an unnecesary grate on Obama whom the Republicans in the US are already determined to give a rough time out of sheer racism. You of all people do not need to pile on him. Ivory Coast has the problem–as does Africa; it is not an Obama / US problem.
Needless calling anyone 'stupid'
1st note that snub is correct in the USAfrica report.
2nd this report points to Gbagbo's indiscretion toward Obama
3rd talk of being stupid, to help you, here's the dictionary:
snub (snb)
tr.v. snubbed, snub·bing, snubs
1. To ignore or behave coldly toward; slight.
2. To dismiss, turn down, or frustrate the expectations of.
1. A deliberate slight or affront.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
****Guess who is stoopeed now??
ANON,
The issue or reality is not the Republicans in the USA wanting to be against Obama "out of sheer racism", stupid, blind, unthinking, smear meister race baiting whiner.
You suck up the Left's poison like a non-thinking sponge and parrot it like a good LeftBot.
If yuo would put away your own bias, filthy habit of calling Repubs racists, and really research enough – Obama shows himself to be a horrible occupier of the White House. ALL do some good, but Obama has been very bad.
Of course, if you see everything against someone who happens not to be Caucasian through the twisted and distorted glasses of race baiting, then you will stay deluded with self-inflicted blindness, and by spreading your lying deception, you end up 'deceiving and being decieved.
I am not a Republican, BTW & have voted for Democrats, Republicans and some small party candidates in all levels of gov't. I was hoping when he spoke at the 2004 or 2006 Democrat National convention that he would be a great voice for a better Democrat Party, but the more I checked him out by facts, not shallowness, smearing by the Left's propaganda talking pints, I found him to be very bad for the office.
We are seeing this come to pass.
Wake up.