After the time of mourning, comes the time of questions and ambitions. Two weeks after the death of Henri Konan Bédié (“HKB”) on August 1, everyone is wondering who could succeed the “Sphinx”. During the twenty-nine years he spent at the head of the Democratic Party of Côte d’Ivoire (PDCI), the former Ivorian head of state never appointed a successor, striving to silence the ambitious and to dismiss the executives of his party who marked too many differences with his choices.
Even at 89, the age at which he died, Henri Konan Bédié reigned supreme over his political formation. “I think the party has already gone through the brunt of the turbulence,” said political scientist Sylvain N’Guessan, “and those who were supposed to leave have already left in recent months. “A few large chunks of the PDCI could still join the majority, recognizes the analyst, “but the essential should stay and stick together for the upcoming elections”, where the formation will play its survival.
As the municipal and regional elections of September 2 loom and the next presidential election is to be held in two years, it is urgent for the PDCI to remain in working order. In accordance with the statutes of the party, it is the oldest of the hundred vice-presidents who is currently acting as head of the PDCI, in this case Philippe Kwassi Cowppli-Bony. This academic born in 1932 led the PDCI funeral vigil on Friday and Saturday, bringing together executives and activists around the widow and the family of the deceased.
Mr. Cowppli-Bony gave a speech for the occasion intended to galvanize the troops, quoting former Ivorian President Félix Houphouët-Boigny for whom “it is in mourning that we rebuild unity”. “We’ve all been orphaned,” he said. This is why we must draw, each and every one, from the depths of ourselves, the momentum of solidarity, in memory of our president, in order to win the candidates he chose before leaving us. »
A discreet succession war was brewing
But at 91, Philippe Kwassi Cowppli-Bony has already announced that he will not have the energy to lead the party, reports one of his relatives. This framework, which is also not one of the most influential in the political formation, has according to the texts a period of six months to organize a new election. The discreet war of succession that has been simmering in recent months will then be able to burst into the open. With, in the front row, the chief executive secretary of the party, the indestructible Maurice Kakou Guikahué.
Right arm of “HKB”, kingpin of the party, the now septuagenarian has long been presented as his dolphin. But Mr. Guikahué’s influence waned following the 2020 presidential election, in which the PDCI’s active boycott strategy was seen as a failure, with Alassane Ouattara re-elected as head of state. without difficulty. Maurice Kakou Guikahué, then campaign manager for Henri Konan Bédié, was held to be primarily responsible for the party’s inability to regain power.
Mr. Guikahué will have to compete with Noël Akossi-Bendjo, 72, the former mayor of Plateau, one of the municipalities of Abidjan and ex-boss of the Ivorian Refining Company (SIR). Exiled to Paris for three years following a conviction for embezzlement, he returned to grace in 2021 and was entrusted by Henri Konan Bédié with one of the party’s vice-presidencies and the post of special adviser in charge of the reconciliation. The rapprochement, however, did not last. In March, Mr. Akossi-Bendjo caused an uproar in the party by asserting, in an interview with the Nouveau Réveil, a newspaper close to the PDCI, that it was time for Bédié to cede his hand to become “the Mandela of the Coast”. d’Ivoire”.
But, for years, it has been the “young people” of the party who have made their ambitions heard, arguing for the need to renew the generations. Among them, Thierry Tanoh, 61, former CEO of the pan-African bank Ecobank, former oil minister in the government of Amadou Gon Coulibaly, now in charge of party finances, appears to be a serious candidate for the presidency of the PDCI. His brother-in-law, Jean-Louis Billon, 58, heir to one of the largest groups in the country, the Real Estate and Financial Company of the African Coast (Sifca). He had already declared in January his intention to be a presidential candidate in 2025.
A change for the whole political scene
There remain questions about the future of Tidjane Thiam. The name of the 61-year-old Franco-Ivorian economist, former managing director of Credit Suisse and nephew of former president Houphouët-Boigny is regularly brandished as that of a possible appeal. Unlike Jean-Louis Billon, his word is rare: Tidjane Thiam has disappeared from the Ivorian media since 1999, after Robert Gueï’s coup which cost him the ministry of planning and development. For twenty-four years, he built a distinguished career in Europe in the banking and luxury sectors. A double assessment, public and private, which he welcomed this Sunday, by making his big media comeback with a one-hour interview on the Ivorian private channel NCI.
“I’ve been working for thirty-seven years,” he recalled. I believe that the little experience I have can be useful in Côte d’Ivoire. Even when I was not there, I did things that benefited Côte d’Ivoire. Interviewer and interviewee carefully avoided the question of Henri Konan Bédié’s succession, in the name of mourning, and Tidjane Thiam did not clearly state his political ambitions. But he should return “more and more often” to Côte d’Ivoire in the coming months, he promised, adding: “I have always been at the disposal of my country. My country has never called on me without my responding. »
The next president of the PDCI will occupy a springboard of choice to be the 2025 presidential candidate. A place that Henri Konan Bédié never wanted to give up. Even in 2020, at 86, after months of suspense, he ended up running himself, resuscitating the face-to-face against Alassane Ouattara. His absence in 2025 raises the dice both at the PDCI and on the entire Ivorian political scene.
