This post is part of our special coverage Côte d'Ivoire Unrest 2011.

Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) is a country in West Africa. It has a southerly facing North Atlantic Ocean coast, and is surrounded by Ghana to the east, Liberia to the west, Guinea to the northwest, Mali to the north, and Burkina Faso to the northeast.

The dispute over the results of presidential run-off and post-election tensions are the major items in most news headlines across Africa and Europe. The Ivorian authorities have closed all natural borders of the country and suspended local transmission of international news stations.

Let’s see how Ghanaian bloggers are reacting to the situation in Côte d'Ivoire.

Mac-Jordan (the author of this post) blogging at Future Challenges, asked Laurent Gbagbo to stop clinging to presidential power:

Ivory Coast’s Laurent Gbagbo should stop clinging to presidential power and stand down according to one of his former prime ministers. Laurent Gbagbo and rival Alassane Ouattara are each saying they won the election, though the international community does not recognize Gbagbo’s claim on power.

In the opening paragraph of his post entitled Drogba’s charitable works and Gbagbo's madness, Ghanaian blogger, Anny Osabutey says the political situation is embarrasing to the Ivorian football star, Didier Drogba, who was raising money in London to help establish a hospital in Abidjan.

According to Anny:

The country is at the moment divided between the South and North. The latter is controlled by the rebel forces where Mr. Ouattara draws much of his support. There are attempts to get him (Laurent Gbagbo) to sit up and reason like a human being and not an animal. His actions are embarrassing to the works of footballer Didier Drogba who rallied round other countrymen based in England, musicians and colleague football players to raise money to build a hospital back home in a country that an idiot is desperately trying to set on fire.

Earlier on; another post by the same author; Quitte le Pouvoir, a message to Laurent Gbagbo attracted two interesting comments from his readers. Mike said:

I am no fun of Gbagbo but I think that you are lashing out alliteratively at Gbagbo out of ignorance and support for what you are yet to discover. We shall only listen to you people if you are accurate. The Constitutional Council has the mandate to review and validate election results if the need be. The constitutional council is the one that can swear in a president. That is what they have done. Take a look at the figures and dispute them if you can or keep mute because some pronouncements such those of the IMF, France and USA are disgusting and has shown where their interest lied in all these. Ivory Coast is for Ivoirians not for the French nor the America. Who did the swearing in of Dr. Alassane Ouattara? Please get involved in Africa and get insightful and refuse to be misled by the BBC. London has no interest in CI that is why they left their very very long ago (almost eight years). Dr. Alassane knows where to go to seek justice than committing treason. The foreign media have been banned on several occasions from reporting from CI. This is not the first time. They must respect the laws of CI or be thrown out like the child of a prostitute.

Nana Yaw Sarpong couldn’t disagree any further:

Good point on why the USA etc want Gbagbo out so much Mike. They tolerated him for 10 years so… I think he lost, but he is using the constitution well to his advantage.

Unbelievably, “Gbagbo the fool” was the headline from Novisi whose post also attracted two very interesting and well summarized comments.

Sankofa thinks the whole exercise was extremely dodgy:

This whole election was extremely dodgy from the get-go. Although I think Gbagbo's harming the nation by going ahead and re-instating himself as president anyway, I'm not sure Ouattara won fairly either. This whole thing's a big mess.

Nana Fredua-Agyeman sided with Novisi in his comment:

Novisi, he is the most stupid man I have ever heard of. It hurts me so much that by someone's quest for power he becomes the cause of another's death. Yesterday at Talkparty, I read a piece I wrote specifically for him. I hate that guy. Yet, who declares the results of an election: electoral commission or the constitutional court. So that while the election organizer says Alassane Ouattara won the Constitutional Court says Gbagbo is president. Stupidity to the nth order.

In his post entitled “Tragicomedy of the 21st Century – Gbagbo vs. The People of Ivory Coast”, Nana-Yaw Sarpong expressed his opinion on the current state of affairs in Ivory Coast:

I do not have an idea of any man – or woman – who would be as silly as this man Lauren Gbagbo to want to steal an election through a constitutional means. He has prolonged his stay in power for nearly 10 years, delaying the organization of an election – this is not to say that it is the only legitimate means of gaining access to a presidency – chiefly by invoking statutes from the Ivorian Constitutional. Gbagbo, as a man of reason would have to leave power but he has refused, just like the Underground Man. He sees his death coming, yet he would embrace it fully.

Ghanablogging.com co-founder, Kajsa shared Ivory Coast’s timeline from the BBC,which reminds us of Ivory Coast’s volatile past and that Ouattara was the presidential candidate who was accused of not being Ivorian back in 1999:

Earlier this morning I saw a couple of tweets from my twitter-feed on Ivory Coast;

BBC reports: UN says it is moving non-essential staff out of Cote d'Ivoire: http://bbc.in/gPnqKe #CIV2010

Baldaufji Ivory Coast elections: media and diplomatic reaction — csmonitor.com by @sahelblog http://bit.ly/fF4UL6

Mac-Jordan: Gbagbo's high-handed behavior has been condemned by the United Nations; @UN. Give what belongs to #Ouattara & let peace prevail. #CIV2010 http://is.gd/iis3Y

Related articles from mainstream media

• Ivory Coast's Disputed Presidential Election (time.com)
• Thabo Mbeki tries to resolve political turmoil in Ivory Coast (guardian.co.uk)
• UN begins evacuating personnel out of Ivory Coast – Washington Post (news.google.com)

This post is part of our special coverage Côte d'Ivoire Unrest 2011.