I listened to BBC “Have Your Say” (both African and World versions) on the Côte d’Ivoire situation today. So many people are claiming the French are using this crisis to further their colonial ambitions. There was a French MP on the program who got so irritated by these accusations to the point of calling them “rubbish”.

So I guess African problems can do with “African solutions” of doing nothing but watching a country descend further into civil war while people are being murdered daily under the watch of a despotic ruler clinging onto power. Removing Laurent Gbagbo was the correct thing to do, but Alassane Ouattara should not be too eager to be president. He has a gargantuan task to heal the country, bring back peace and foster unity. The civil war is not over.

I do not share people’s fascination with democracy. It simply does not work in Africa and will not for a long time. What should be emphasized much more is individual rights. Research already shows that people in nations that protect property rights earn up to nine times more income than those that do not. The International Property Rights Index shows this clearly. (http://www.internationalpropertyrightsindex.org)

If even half the resources used on democracy were used to establish and maintain rights, most of these problems (including democracy itself) would be redundant and there would be peace and prosperity on this dark continent.