Laurent Gbagbo bunkers down as assault steps up

Men captured by forces loyal to Alassane Ouattara are detained at a checkpoint in Abidjan yesterday. Picture: AP Source: AP

FORCES allied with Ivory Coast's internationally recognised President Alassane Ouattara vowed to launch new attacks overnight on the underground bunker where strongman Laurent Gbagbo remains holed up and refusing to surrender.

Already, airstrikes have pounded holes in his garden and destroyed his weapons depots, and fighters have encircled his home and stormed the gates.

But forces allied to Mr Ouattara, the recognised winner of last November's presidential election, fear killing Mr Gbagbo and stoking the rage of his supporters. About 46 per cent of Ivorians voted for him in the ballot that unleashed chaos.

Mr Gbagbo, 65, who has made an art of staying in power years past the end of his legal mandate, is now fighting for each day, even each hour. "He will not surrender," said Meite Sindou, a defence spokesman for Mr Ouattara. "We will have to take him."

Fighters loyal to Mr Ouattara have made it as far as the gate of the presidential mansion Mr Gbagbo has occupied for the past decade. They attacked it with a barrage of fire, and residents reported concussive blasts. They breached the perimeter only to be forced to retreat in the face of the heavy artillery unleashed by the ruler's inner circle of guards.

Mr Ouattara has pleaded with the international community for months to intervene and remove Mr Gbagbo by force, arguing it was the only way he would leave.

Mr Gbagbo still controls the Ivorian army and has repeatedly used its arsenal of heavy artillery to attack areas of Abidjan where people voted for his opponent. Security forces are accused of turning a machine gun on a group of unarmed women and lobbing mortars into a market.

UN attack helicopters, acting on a Security Council resolution, this week bombarded six arms depots in Abidjan, including a cache inside the presidential compound. "Obviously they didn't get all of it," said a senior diplomat. "When they came after him, he pulled out more stuff.

"Remember, he has had a long time to prepare for this."

Among the preparations was the choice of where Mr Gbagbo would make his last stand. He is said to be holed up in a tunnel originally built to link the president's home and the adjacent residence of the French ambassador.

Ivory Coast's first president, Felix Houphouet-Boigny, built the tunnel so he could take refuge inside the ambassador's residence in the event of a coup, said Ivory Coast expert Christian Bouquet, a professor of political geography.

Editorials Monday October 6, 2008

The killing medical centres

In a case of emergency, it takes these ‘demigods’ a decade to attend to emergency cases. These doctors pose, with different type of pens hanging on their crests. The nurses, many of who are quacks, are too lazy to sell the hospitals admittance cards to a patient. [DAILY SUN]

Managing the economy with seriousness

THE Central Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) held a special meeting three weeks ahead of its regular meeting fixed for October 7, 2008 apparently at the instance of the Presidential Advisory Committee on the Capital Market... [GUARDIAN NEWSPAPERS]

For peace in the Niger Delta

The “ceasefire” recently declared by the leading militant group in the Niger Delta, The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, ought to be seen as an opportunity to permanently defuse the lingering tension in the embattled region. [THE PUNCH]

Editorials Thursday, September 25, 2008

Goje’s HIV status

THE recent declaration of his HIV status by the Governor of Gombe State, Alhaji Mohammad Goje, is exemplary and a boost to the campaign on a disease that has decimated the population of Nigeria and other countries of the world. [DAILY CHAMPION]

THE ROT IN THE OIL INDUSTRY

IT is common knowledge that the Nigerian oil industry is being wilfully mismanaged.This explains why it is bedevilled by an assortment of problems. The painful aspect of the situation is that the ordinary people are being made to bear the brunt. [NIGERIAN TRIBUNE]

Bad news for our education

The nation’s dwindling fortunes in education has come into sharper focus with the damning report that 51 percent of candidates who sat for this year’s national common entrance examination into the Federal Unity Schools could not meet the cut-off points for their various states [DAILY SUN]

Editorials Monday, September 22, 2008

Police roadblocks and Ndigbo

POLICE roadblocks are back with renewed vigour in Nigeria especially in the Southeastern states. There is no part of the Southeast geopolitical zone today that the pains of road travels have not increased because of reinforced police roadblocks sometimes mounted very close to each other. DAILY SUN>>>

Reflating the Stock Market

THE past three weeks have witnessed a flurry of measures by the Federal Government, regulatory authorities and other stakeholders, in a determined bid to shore up the eroded fortunes of the Nigerian capital market. On August 26, after a meeting with stakeholders [GUARDIAN NEWSPAPERS]

The closure of Channels Tv

The television station’s offence was that it caused to be broadcast a news bar that Nigeria’s President, Umaru Yar’Adua might resign from office on health grounds at a future date. The station claimed that it sourced the news item from another government body, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) [DAILY CHAMPION]

The Ministry of Niger Delta

THE Federal Government last week announced the creation of Ministry of Niger Delta to directly handle the affairs of the oil-rich region. The agitation for resource control has resulted in insurrection, thereby creating opportunities for criminals to take over the struggle. [NIGERIAN TRIBUNE]

Editorials Tuesday, Sept 16, 2008

The President's health and an anxious nation

THE return of President Umar Musa Yar'Adua to the country about a week ago is obviously a big relief to Nigerians, following speculations about ill-health that trailed his 17-day absence. [GUARDIAN NEWSPAPERS]

Oba Adeolu: exit of the ‘second calabash’

FIRST, it was Mrs. Elsie Olusola (Sisi Clara) who was snatched by death. She was followed by Joseph Layode (a teacher who, sometimes, deputised for the headmaster) and Oba Oluwole Amele, the Alara of Aramoko Ekiti (Councillor Balogun). [NIGERIAN TRIBUNE]

Editorials Monday, Sept 15, 2008

The Technical Committee on Niger Delta

THE sudden flurry of activities in government circles in response to the dangerously worsening Niger Delta problem is a very welcome development. First was the announcement of a 40-person Technical Committee set up by the Federal Government [GUARDIAN NEWSPAPERS]

Yar’Adua’s 17 days’ absence

President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s 17-day absence from the country expectably elicited diverse reactions, some of which ought not to have been expressed if the situation had been handled properly. [DAILY CHAMPION]

Editorials Thursday, Sept 11, 2008

The fake baby food alert

The National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has raised an alarm over the circulation of fake infant formula, SMA Gold packaged in 450g cans, by some unscrupulous individuals in some parts of the country. [DAILY SUN]

Oba Funsho Adeolu (1931 - 2008)

The Alaye of Ode Remo, Oba Funsho Adeolu, Sataloye II, died recently in a London hospital. He would have been 77 in December. We condole with the people of Ode Remo, Ogun State, and the cast and audience of Village Headmaster [GUARDIAN NEWSPAPERS]

Murder of PHCN’s manager

AS Nigerians savoured the joy of the silver medal won by the Dream Team in the just-concluded Beijing Olympics in China, one family that would ever scorn the day the semi-finals of the game was played is the family of Mr. Adetola Babatunde Ademolu [DAILY CHAMPION]

Editorials Monday, Sept 8, 2008

Repair Aba roads

I sometimes engage in reasonable discussion with experienced travellers who are aware of the conditions of some cities and towns. This exposure has led me to conclude that Aba is one of the worst (if not the worst) cities in Nigeria, in terms of roads. [DAILY SUN]

The sorcery scandal at the NDDC

THE sorcery saga involving the suspended chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Sam Edem marks yet another bizarre and disgraceful episode in a crucial segment of the country's public sector. [GUARDIAN NEWSPAPERS]

N1.5 trillion diverted revenue

The confirmation by Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Dimeji Sabur Bankole, of the diversion, between 2003 and 2008, by about 200 federal revenue bodies, of up to the tune of N1.5 trillion brings to the fore [DAILY CHAMPION]

Editorials Thursday, Sept 4, 2008

The Africans for Obama Group

THE Africans for Obama group was allegedly put together by the Director-General of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Prof. Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, ostensibly to sensitise African-Americans and Nigerians in diaspora to their civic responsibility [GUARDIAN NEWSPAPERS]

Teaching hospitals contracts’ probe

The plan by the Senate to probe the award and execution of contracts for the rehabilitation of 14 university teaching hospitals in the country is apt and timely. The contracts, worth 162 million euros, were variously awarded to VAMED Engineering Limited in 2002 and 2006 [DAILY SUN]

Reparations: The Italian example

Many years after late Chief MKO Abiola made it one of the many battles he fought and lost in his checkered life, the issue of acceptance of wrong- doing against Africa in particular and making some restitution by the Western powers that enslaved, colonized and raped the continent, is yet to be settled. [DAILY CHAMPION]

Editorials Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Masaba, the man with 86 wives

INCREDIBLE things constantly happen in Nigeria but perhaps none is as bizarre and engaging as that of Mohammed Bello Abubakar Masaba who married 86 wives. The man from Bida, Niger State, is father to over 170 children. [GUARDIAN]

Improving the road, rail sectors

The Federal Government recently unveiled a three-year plan to improve Nigerian roads. Under the plan, the government is also revisiting the railway modernization project initiated by former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration. [DAILY SUN]

Babatunde Jose

The grand old man of the pen profession, who passed on on Saturday, August 2, this year, rose from the lowest rungs as a technical trainee at Daily Times of Nigeria, Lagos, between 1941 and 1946 and reached the topmost rung of the leadership ladder of the then conglomerate as its Managing Director (1962-1976) and chairman (1968-1976). [DAILY CHAMPION]

Editorials Sunday, August 17, 2008

The Africa peace initiative

IT WAS recorded that the United Nations Security Council deployed a record number of peacekeepers to 19 peace operations around the world in 2007. At present, more than 100,000 blue berets and civilian staff are serving in the field to build and keep peace around the world. [The Punch]

After the Bakassi handover

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) had, in October 2002, sat in judgment over the disputed ownership of Bakassi Peninsula and resolved the matter in favour of Cameroun. Since then, tension has remained heightened in the Peninsula especially on the part of Nigerians who felt that the judgment was not in the best interest of the country. [Daily Sun]

The Jose Medellin exception

Tuesday's execution of Jose Medellin, a Mexican citizen who was convicted of the 1993 rape and murder of two girls in Texas, ended the life of a vicious criminal. But it also flouted a treaty signed by the U.S. that will now offer less protection to Americans arrested and imprisoned abroad -- unless Congress acts. [Los Angeles Times]

Mr. Ng’s Death

This country’s harsh regime of immigration enforcement is racked with troubles from top to bottom, from the federal raids recklessly sweeping thousands of harmless immigrants into custody to the scandal-riddled detention system that abuses and neglects them once they get there. [New York Times]

Spreading Hope

IN HIS 2003 State of the Union address, President Bush surprised many when he proposed to take the fight against AIDS to Africa. At the time, slowing the spread of the disease seemed quixotic, particularly on a continent where only about 50,000 of the 30 million infected people received antiretroviral treatment. [Washington Post]

Editorials Wednesday, August 13, 2008

The demotion of ribadu and others

LAST week, the Police Service Commission(PSC), announced the demotion of Mr. Nuhu Ribadu and 139 other serving and dead police officers. [NIGERIAN TRIBUNE]

US apology for slavery

IT seems to be a season of apologies these days. First, there was the Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologising to the aborigines who were grossly maltreated and dehumanised by the British Settlers exiled by Her Majesty to that Island continent. [DAILY CHAMPION]

Bakassi: A futile handover?

GOING by the last available pronouncement of the Attorney-General of the Federation, Chief Michael Aondoakaa (SAN), on the issue, the Yar’Adua administration is set, as from Thursday (tomorrow), August 14, to fully withdraw all Nigerian civil and law-enforcement authorities from the Bakassi Peninsula [THE PUNCH]

Editorials Tuesday, August 5, 2008

The indictment of Omar Al-Bashir

Within two weeks that the prosecutor in charge of Darfur, Luis Moreno-Ocampo filed 10 charges of war crimes against Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir at the International Criminal Court (ICC), the Sudanese president has suddenly woken up to the seriousness of the situation in Darfur... [GUARDIAN]

Food diplomacy works

The United States cannot lead if it is hated. If Americans still aspire to remake the world as a more democratic, more prosperous place with fewer terrorists and nuclear weapons states, if we seek global cooperation on issues ranging from counter-proliferation to climate change, we must set about earning back the goodwill of nations. [Los Angeles Times]

Editorials (Nigeria) Thursday, July 31, 2008

Nigeria’s Last Teachers

THE teachers’ strike is not a national emergency. The best the Federal Government has done, after leading the teachers into believing it was to issue a circular for their new pay scales, was to claim it never had such powers. [VANGUARD]

Killing the tyre industry

Dunlop was until the announcement, the only remaining tyre manufacturing company in the country that was producing. The rest of them have closed shop, on account of several reasons including inclement business environment, mostly the energy crisis, policy summersaults and product dumping from other economies, where production infrastructure are taken for granted. [DAILY CHAMPION]

The attack on Abia State governor's convoy

LAST week, the convoy of Theodore Orji, Governor of Abia State was attacked by suspected hoodlums on the Aba-Port Harcourt Expressway. The attack took place at 7.45a.m. in a village, Ngwanyiekwe in Abia State. [GUARDIAN NEWSPAPERS]

The lingering power emergency

Hopes for a quick resolution of the power crisis via a declaration of an emergency in the sector have again been dashed following an announcement of the postponement of that initiative. [DAILY SUN]

Editorials (Nigeria) Monday, July 21, 2008

Power Sector Reforms Report Says Nothing!

THE 17-member Power Sector Reform Committee the President inaugurated on September 7, 2007 has submitted an important report that contains nothing new.Under, the heading GENERAL, the Committee made the following observations, "The power sector requires urgent government intervention to save it from collapse..." [VANGUARD]

Politicians and death threats

AFTER what looks like a break from a vicious past, there are indications that the nation could return to this barbaric era, going by the recent outcries by some political office holders that assassins were after their lives. [NIGERIAN TRIBUNE]

Delayed election appeals

FEW issues have as much potential in defining a country as the state of its justice system. While conflicts and disagreements are inevitable in human transactions, the hallmark of law and order derives from a society's capacity to resolve such conflicts speedily and justly. [GUARDIAN]

Tinubu and Yoruba leadership

We have read and heard of many views on the issue of Yoruba leadership and the vacuum created after the demise of our former leader Senator Abraham Adesanya. If we may deduce from the various opinions of some of our leaders who have spoken on the subject matter, we will see that they have been ambiguous in their statements on who actually should take the mantle of leadership of the virile and politically conscious race. [DAILY SUN]

Editorials Monday, July 07, 2008

The kerosene at N50 per litre initiative

THE plan by African Petroleum Plc to retail kerosene at N50 per litre has enjoyed much media fanfare and its launch late last month attracted a presidential representative, Petroleum Minister of State Odein Ajumogobia. [Guardian Newspapers]

Federal Government Without Budget

THE national budget must be very important, otherwise, it would not still be debated six months to the end of the year. The final debate on the budget will start with President Umaru Yar’Adua’s decision to amend the version passed last April, after contentions that had nothing to do with the well-being of ordinary Nigerians. [Vanguard]

Zimbabwe's Election Saga: The Way Forward

With the recent swearing in of President Robert Mugabe after a sham of presidential runoff elections in which he contested against himself, the octogenarian president is in for another controversy. Last Tuesday, African leaders rose from a two day summit in Cairo adopting a resolution calling on Mugabe to enter into negotiation with the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai who withdrew from the runoff election on the grounds of violence against his supporters. [Niger Delta Standard]