US says it broached idea of academic post for Gbagbo

Ivory Coast strongman Laurent Gbagbo after his capture © AFP/TCI/HO/File

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States said Tuesday it had proposed late last year that Ivory Coast strongman Laurent Gbagbo become a university lecturer in return for leaving power gracefully.

After the November 28 election, which Gbagbo was widely deemed to have lost, the “State Department did reach out to Mr Gbagbo’s staff and contacts” to discuss his future, agency spokesman Mark Toner said.

Among the possible options discussed during the calls that lasted through the end of 2010 were “potential positions that would draw on his previous background in academia,” Toner told reporters.

“Visiting professor positions offered by universities to former leaders are contingent on the fact that these leaders are gracefully departed individuals who allow for a peaceful transition to democracy to take place.

“And let’s just say the train’s left the station on that, and we had stopped talking about that a while back,” he continued.

Toner did not confirm reports that Boston University had offered Gbagbo a position.

In Nairobi, Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga said Gbagbo had stubbornly refused mediation offers and should have accepted a job as a lecturer at a US university.

Odinga, who was appointed in December as the African Union’s envoy to the Ivorian crisis that erupted after the disputed November elections, said he had warned Gbagbo not to dig his heels in.

Gbagbo was arrested Monday after spending several days in a bunker by forces loyal to Alassane Ouattara, who was recognized by the international community as having beaten the incumbent in the polls.

© AFP — Published at Activist Post with license