Irony of the week

I read on Abidjan.net that Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade is to be awarded the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Prize in Paris.

The FHB Prize is awarded to who makes great efforts toward seeking and making peace. It's named after Côte d'Ivoire's founding leader and president-for-life, after whose death the country started falling apart.

One of the dignitaries at the award ceremony will be Henri Konan Bédié. Bédié succeded Houphouët and made the racist and xenophobic ideology known as Ivoirité state policy under his regime. Since it opened up the Pandora's box of hatred and exclusion, Ivoirité has been the single biggest factor in the country's descent to hell in the last decade.

Ironically, one of the conflicts Wade been involved in mediating is the crisis in Côte d'ivoire... originally precipitated by Bédié.