When you are weaker, never fight for honor’s sake; choose surrender instead. Surrender gives you time to recover, time to torment and irritate your conqueror, time to wait for his power to wane. Do not give him the satisfaction of fighting and defeating you – surrender first. By turning the other check you infuriate and unsettle him. Make surrender a tool of power. Law 22: Use the Surrender Tactic: Transform Weakness into PowerSmoked Out
The drama which rocked Gbagbo's bunker could not be over emphasised. Perhaps Robert Green and Joost Elffers in 48 Laws of Power captures the intentions and soul of this former troubled Professor of Political Science turned failed president.
How else can you describe a man short of strategy and exposed to the vagaries of a world out to condemn him for his illegitimate stay in power?
After months of whirlwind diplomacy by many a diplomats in Africa and international pressure, the man behind a cloudy throne was smoked out like a run away terrorist wanted for crimes of international degree.
This Man Gbagbo
Now of interest perhaps is no longer what happened thereafter though the very compromising state in which he was caught is rich fodder for the gossip columns.
What endears one though is what makes a man of Gbagbo's ilk degenerate as low as he sunk to defend an already lost throne? It's quite illuminating perhaps to understand what kind of a man this man Laurent "Cicero' Gbagbo is.Cicero, a nickname given to him during his hey days in Sobornne University for his love of Latin.
Skillful Wheeler-dealer
A skillful politician for some, a wheeler-dealer for others, Gbagbo cut his teeth as a trade union leader, an astute academic before plunging into politics. As the Texans say what goes around comes around, Gbagbo's fate was to befall him later in life after muzzling the national assembly to extend his term limits in 2002. This man has been described in many circles in a myriad of ways but perhaps The Telegraph captures it well in this description: A skilled orator who likes to play the man of the people, shedding suits and ties for African shirts, Mr Gbagbo conceals a ferocious will behind an affable exterior.
Law 24 : Play the Perfect Courtier
Indeed though he came tumbling from body and soul during that afternoon of reckoning, Gbagbo mastered Robert Greene's sets of laws; The perfect courtier thrives in a world where everything revolves around power and political dexterity. He has mastered the art of indirection; he flatters, yields to superiors, and asserts power over others in the most oblique and graceful manner. Learn and apply the laws of courtiership and there will be no limit to how far you can rise in the court.
Law 30 : Make your Accomplishments Seem Effortless
Perhaps the wish of every man is that the next person is stupider, and maybe that kept Gbagbo going strong even when the whole world including the United Nations acknowledged his bitter arch rival Alassane Ouattara as president. He kept his faith even when his chances of ever walking a free man once again dwindled. Save for the counsel (of the wicked) his wife, this man seems to have struck a deal with destiny.
The question oft disturbing is, what makes a man at the apex of his life's achievement so obstinate and obdurate to a point when the same things he endeared himself to as a budding politician sound like a gong at the back of his head? It's quite ironical to see a president once enjoying the lavishness of power and all that be reduced into a powerless state suggestive of an urchin under mercies of pedestrians.
Only he/she who has trudged this path before understands it better.
