Presidential in Ivory Coast: Pascal Affi N'Guessan, impossible freed?
Pascal Affi N'Guessan, August 27, 2020 in Abidjan.
AP Photo / Diomande Ble Blonde
Text by: Jenna Le Bras
14 min
The former relative of Laurent Gbagbo is part of the very small list of 3 challengers for the October poll in Côte d'Ivoire.
At the head of the Ivorian Popular Front since it wrested legal control from the party, he offers an alternative to "Gbagbo or nothing".
A position that has caused the split of the political group and isolates those who say they do not believe in the policy of the empty chair.
Publicity
Read more
From our correspondent in Abidjan,
Last December, he was ranked by
Jeune Afrique
as one of the “
ten losers
” of the African continent.
But the day after the announcement of the admissibility of his candidacy by the Constitutional Council for the presidential election of October 31, Pascal Affi N'Guessan continues to ignore the negative comments.
Since the start of his political career in 1986, he has suffered from others, much more serious, much more hurtful.
“
It doesn't move me.
When you are not in any of the extremes, you are criticized from all sides…
”
With a month and a half before the poll, his energy has no time to be wasted by the Cassandras.
He is one of the
three challengers against outgoing President Alassane Ouattara
, escaped from a long list of 40 rejected cases;
those of Mamadou Koulibaly, Albert Toikeusse Mabri and Marcel Amon-Tanoh, like those of two heavyweights: Guillaume Soro and Laurent Gbagbo.
The soon to be 68-year-old man receives in an opulent house in the Riviera 1 district: a large beige and white building with palm trees, small pebbles and high railings, "
just next to Hamed Bakayoko's house
[the Prime Minister, Editor's note]", specifies his assistant to guide the visitor.
The house is nevertheless clearly identifiable: it is this same home which, almost a decade ago, was ransacked during the post-electoral crisis of 2010-2011.
Returning to these walls for only a few weeks, Pascal Affi N'Guessan seems to have quickly found his marks there.
There is a cozy and warm atmosphere there despite the armada of assistants, journalists and security agents who come and go.
"
It took almost ten years to renovate everything, it's been something to come back here
", comments one of his employees in the shaded patio.
From his office, the host in a midnight blue suit gives a friendly “
Hi!
It's okay ?
".
It is here that he receives his guests.
Here too he says he likes to read “
essays mainly, I'm not a big fan of novels
”, especially since he has “
less time to play sports
”.
"
I especially like to play football,
" he smiles, apparently embarrassed by the banality of such a confession.
"
We are going to win
"
Rather midfielder than attacker, Pascal Affi N'Guessan has been advancing discreetly, in small strides for years and is preparing to play in a few weeks the most important game: the one to win the presidency, a decade after the ouster of his party of power and five years after a first unsuccessful attempt.
The opposing teams: the RHDP of Alassane Ouattara, the PDCI of Henri Konan Bedié and the independent candidate Konan Kouadio Bertin.
He recognizes a “
mixed feeling
”.
“
I am satisfied, because I was able to go through the legal system personally, but I am not happy because a certain number of candidates who deserve to participate in this competition were excluded on bases not always obvious, clear and explainable.
These adjustments constitute a weakening of the quality of the elections,
”he worries.
“
But before men, there are institutions.
And the institutions of our country with the Constitutional Council, by validating the candidacy of Alassane Ouattara without valid legal argument, did not reassure us
, he said with a serious air.
It is necessary that all the actors and ourselves candidates be convinced that we are going in a transparent and fair competition, that the best will be declared the winner and that we will not be subjected to manipulation.
"
For those who claim to be realpolitik, fewer candidates should mean fewer competitors, but Pascal Affi N'Guessan smiles: "
I do not believe that this is the number that can improve or disadvantage a candidate, it does not change anything. the quality of what you offer.
[…] Whether they are three or a thousand, that has no impact on the quality of your political project.
Between the lines perhaps, a well-supported tackle to the outgoing president who wishes to run for a third term with the blessing of the Constitutional Council,
which the opposition continues to contest.
Without arrogance, Pascal Affi N'Guessan is nonetheless confident and determined.
Last August 1, during the extraordinary congress of the fringe of the FPI which he directs, he warned: “
I am a candidate to win and we will win.
But who are we?
That day at the Palais de Treichville, the audience was certainly enthusiastic, but the room was somewhat sparse.
For long hours, executives, local and traditional officials, support groups and loyal activists had followed one another in the podium and on Skype broadcasts, broadcasting from across the country to extol the pedigree of their president.
“
Considering that comrade Pascal Affi N'Guessan, candidate for the candidacy, has remained constant, in his determination to defend and promote the ideal and the image of the party, we express our support for the victory of the FPI in the presidential election of 2020
”, had declaimed his support.
But who can really ignore it?
On the stage and under the pink and blue light spots which overheated the poorly ventilated room, loomed the shadow of another man whom the Ivorians have not forgotten.
Even within his supporters, we admitted half-heartedly: "
We do not follow Affi N'Guessan to forget Gbagbo, but we say that we have to move forward!"
», Explained Cyril in costume and briefcase at the end of the ceremony.
“
If Gbagbo comes back, then for sure, everyone will line up behind him.
But he's not there.
We have been waiting for years and Affi is doing the job,
”also argued Séverin, advertising t-shirt and threadbare thongs on his feet.
►
To (re) read: Presidential in Côte d'Ivoire: Pascal Affi N'Guessan candidate of a divided FPI
"
Laurent Gbagbo is a political reality that cannot be ignored
"
Pascal Affi N'Guessan, originally from the center-east of Côte d'Ivoire, is “an
engineer in telecommunications, former civil servant, former Minister of Industry and Tourism (2000), former Prime Minister (2000-2003), former mayor of the commune of Bongouanou (1990-1996), now a member of the National Assembly (since 2016) and president of the Morounou regional council (since 2018)…
”and has“
some experience in the affairs of the State with more than thirty years of political experience
, ”he said.
He is above all the president of the "
legal
"
FPI
- and his team holds to this term -: the branch recognized by the Ivorian authorities since another wing was created by the supporters of his mentor, the one he continues to elsewhere to call his "
father
": Laurent Gbagbo, historic founder of the party and former president of Côte d'Ivoire from 2000 to 2011.
Opposite stand the historical ones, those who are often qualified as “
hardliners
”, now “
dissidents
”: the “
GORs
” - for “Gbagbo or nothing” - known for their unwavering support for the former president. in forced exile in Belgium and their systematic boycotts of major political dates since his absence from the Ivorian scene.
“
GOR rhymes with hardcore
”, is ironic among observers.
Pascal Affi N'Guessan, well aware that he will not be forgiven for tainting the image of Laurent Gbagbo or his supporters, explains that he "
does not like these qualifiers
".
“
Yes, we have differences and we had internal debates on how to live politically after April 11 [2011, Editor's note].
Do we live it in a radical logic of permanent confrontation
?
Or do we live it in a logic of appeasement, of reconciliation
?
"
After the transfer of the former president to the International Criminal Court in 2011, the FPI quickly split into two factions: those who wanted to occupy the political field in the absence of the leader (pro-Affi) and those who refused a pragmatic succession (pro-Gbagbo).
The legend also says that if the first signs of differences appeared between the two men from the Marcoussis agreements in 2003, the rupture would have symbolically been ratified in March 2011, when Côte d'Ivoire was in the midst of war. civil.
Pascal Affi N'Guessan, former minister and remained privileged adviser to the then president, would have suggested that he enter into negotiations and study ways out of the crisis, while his camp contested the victory of Alassane Ouattara in the ballot boxes.
The deposed head of state, cornered, would however have preferred to follow the advice of his old guard ... The rest is known: Laurent Gbagbo and his relatives are arrested.
Incarcerated in different places, the two friends do not see each other for very long years: potential runner-up, Pascal Affi N'Guessan suddenly dons the habit of "
traitor
" for a large portion of FPI activists.
Ten years after this crisis
which caused the death of at least
3,000 people
and for which the responsibilities of each other could never really be attributed, also six years after the trial which officially gave him the keys to party in place of Laurent Gbagbo then pursued - and since acquitted - by the International Criminal Court, Pascal Affi N'Guessan is not fed up with it, on the eve of an electoral ballot in scale, that we still talk to him about his former model, absent from the political scene since then?
“
No, not at all.
I am a man who always tries to be pragmatic, who looks reality in the face, who refuses to be deluded, not to live in my ivory tower while denying reality.
Laurent Gbagbo is a reality, political and electoral.
Moreover, when we see those who fought him yesterday, parading in Brussels or in The Hague, clinging to his possible support, we understand it well,
”he quipped, referring
to the about-face. by Henri Konan Bedié which occurred a few months earlier.
Slinger and "
free man
"
After a missed first meeting deemed "
humiliating
" by the declared candidate, Pascal Affi N'guessan and Laurent Gbagbo, without formalizing a frank reconciliation, however dined at the same table in Brussels, twice last January.
But since then, the GOR camp, to which Affi and his associates are suspended to assess the content of the forces present for the election, has been walled in silence.
The only certainty: Laurent Gbagbo, struck off the electoral lists and deemed ineligible by the Constitutional Council, saw his candidacy rejected.
Only one FPI candidate will therefore fight the campaign: Pascal Affi N'Guessan.
Behind the scenes, the former head of state knows he is the “
wild card
” of this election and the object of all covetousness;
from his former collaborator and even from his old enemies.
“
Who can hope to win alone today, with their only supporters?
No one !
», Recognizes Pascal Affi N'Guessan who, in the 2015 presidential election, came second with some 9.29
% of the votes: too little for a man who had not succeeded in rallying the base of FPI militants sufficiently against the RHDP machine.
“
We made a choice, which was fought.
But today, many realize that it was unavoidable.
[…] This is the only way to resolve the problems in a peaceful and democratic way
, reassures the man on the eve of this major election.
Given the long history that unites us, that we are part of the fight he led, and the continuation of it, we hope that he will agree to pass the torch to us, to pass us the anointing, because he [Laurent Gbagbo, Editor's note] needs his fight to be prolonged and supported by a new generation.
This is the moment that has arrived.
And I am counting on his sense of history to understand that what I am doing is to guarantee the future of our struggle.
"
Wishful thinking or self-fulfilling prophecy?
This time again, without the support of Laurent Gbagbo, wresting the supreme post from Alassane Ouattara promises to be difficult, not to say impossible.
If in 2015,
his recent release
and the lack of time to gather could be mentioned, in 2020, despite three seats won in the National Assembly [in 2016, Ed], his profile continues to cringe.
In meetings of the Together for Democracy and Sovereignty platform, a coalition in support of Laurent Gbagbo, the names of birds even continue to ring out against him: “
He's a traitor
”;
"
Ouattara's false nose
";
“
There is no question of joining him, he is no longer our comrade
!
".
"
I claim that it is a big mistake to always make an empty chair policy!"
Of course, that's hard to reconcile, staying true to the past while being committed to the future.
Do not deny it but succeed in enriching it without being a prisoner of it.
Some raise it like a tree of betrayal, but others appreciate it and see it as a message of hope,
”he defends himself.
Again, tirelessly.
"
You have to show autonomy
", he finally let go.
Continuously accused in recent years of being a “
traitor
”, qualified at best as a rebellious soul or a freedman who is struggling to take off on his own, Pascal Affi N'Guessan prefers to call himself a “
free man
”.
“
My very first action as a free man was to join the FPI in 1986 when I came from a family acquired by the PDCI, born in a region with a very large PDCI majority, even though my brother was elected mayor under this banner
, he recalls.
But maybe that is also my problem, faced with people who are dependent on them.
I followed my apprenticeship within a political group, with a great leader, but I believe that I have learned enough, that I have a minimum of control, that I can stand on my own feet, I do it.
Some refuse that.
They would like me to be just an instrument.
I contribute but I freely contribute.
And that's also why I say so freely that I will freely support Laurent Gbagbo if he comes back.
I want to have the freedom to get involved in his absence.
That one forbids me, it is out of the question.
I'm ready.
Willing to do as much, if not better than in the past.
"
►
To read also:
Presidential election in Ivory Coast: Alassane Ouattara, the last round
Presidential in Côte d'Ivoire: Henri Konan Bédié, the revenge of the "Sphinx of Daoukro"
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
Ivory Coast
Ivory Coast Politics
our selection
Laurent Gbagbo
Alassane Ouattara
Portrait
On the same subject
Presidential election in Côte d'Ivoire: Pascal Affi N'Guessan joins the opposition's appeal
Portrait
Presidential in Côte d'Ivoire: Henri Konan Bédié, the revenge of the "Sphinx of Daoukro"
Portrait
Presidential election in Ivory Coast: Alassane Ouattara, the last round