The country with two governments nationalized/robbed its banks

What do you do when international sanctions create a major cash flow crisis in the country and the banks refuse to give out salaries to your government employees? Simple, just send some men with guns to take over the banks and claim them nationalized. At least that’s what Ivory Coast president dictator Laurent Gbagbo has done. 

The international banks in the country like Standard Chartered, Citigroup and BNP Paribas have refused to honor cheques with Gbagbo’s signature due to his disputed position as the president of the country. But faced with the possibility that he won’t be able to pay the government and more importantly military salaries, Gbagbo invaded the bank offices with his paramilitary and declared them “nationalized”. Now he can dole out as much money as he wants.

Cote d'Ivoire or Ivory Coast has been turmoil since December 2010, when after losing the elections the Gbagbo simply decided not to step down (didn’t know you can do that). For the last two months, he has been occupying the presidential palace and his challenger, Alassane Ouattara, the man who won the elections according to United Nations observers, has set up shop in a hotel next door. The hotel is being guarded by the UN Peacekeeping Forces as Gbagbo still controls a lot of the military.

The dispute has created a deep financial crisis for the country after sanctions from other West African countries and the rest of the world, which forced the international banks operating in the country to cut Gbagbo’s access to funds. Liquidity has been sucked out of the country’s economy and there are lines of people trying to take their money out of the banks. With this latest move, the president may have actually worsened the economic situation.

I just want to ask this man, what is his game plan here? The entire world is against him, his opponent is sitting right next door (using hotel manager’s fax machine to send out orders to government servants) and the economy is down the tube. One can’t just wish away these problems. As this crisis lengthens, I see few options for Gbagbo. Even if he gets support of some foreign governments and all of the military, he will still have Ouattara across the street, sitting in a place defended by soldiers he can’t touch. I imagine he can pretend Ouattara is under house arrest, but that won’t really fly for long because the legally elected president has too much legitimacy for a let’s-lock-him-up-and-forget-about-him political dissident. 

Hopefully, this dispute can be resolved without bloodshed. But knowing the history of this terrible world, I am not too optimistic.

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