It is a surprising tradition on the campus of Félix-Houphouët-Boigny University in Abidjan. Every morning and evening, groups of students from the Fédération estudiantine et scolaire de Côte d’Ivoire (Fesci), the largest student union in the country, show their presence by singing and marching in a row with an almost military step. . Some are dressed all in black, others wear traditional clothes.
This Wednesday, April 5, they are busy in front of amphitheaters and classrooms to proudly announce the holding of their general assembly. In the afternoon, more than 2,000 students will witness the suspension of the executive office as well as disciplinary sanctions against certain officials. “Lately, there has been too much violence between several sections of Fesci. We are going to appoint new section heads to ease tensions,” said Allah Saint-Clair, secretary general of Fesci, nicknamed “General Makélélé” in reference to the former French footballer. “A player who had heart”, assures the one who has the motto: “Zero violence for the promotion of excellence”.
Yet, even if “the violence has dropped to a respectable level”, he promises, the universities of Abidjan are not spared the bloodshed of some members of the student union. On March 9, the Association of Muslim Pupils and Students of Côte d’Ivoire (AEEMCI) thus accused Fesci of “beating” against its members at Nangui-Abrogoua University in Abidjan, injuring ten seriously rushed to the Military Hospital and one reported missing. A few days later, members of Fesci authoritatively interrupted the investiture of the office of the Association of Communication Students (Adescom). “They blame us for not giving them the floor,” explained Vessaly Traoré, the association’s president. “If they don’t like a personality or if they don’t like the conference, they block everything,” note several academics.
Contrary to the promises of its leaders, testimonies collected from professors and students past and present show that the violence, racketeering and intimidation committed by members of Fesci takes place “every week” on university campuses in the country where the union is admitted. “At the university, it is the students of Fesci who govern”, assures a professor, a former member of the union, who prefers to remain anonymous.
“We have a capacity for nuisance”
“If you want to have accommodation, it will be easier if you join Fesci. If you refuse to join, they can come and beat you up or intimidate you with bladed weapons, “explains an undergraduate student, threatened the day before by some “comrades” claiming to be from the union. “These are isolated acts, we can’t control them all”, we are assured on the side of Fesci, which believes that some sometimes abuse their “little power”. Despite the intimidation, the threatened young man refused to join “this sect” so as not to “spoil his name” (tarnish his image) and participate in this systemic violence.
Critics that “Makélélé”, elected in 2019 and then re-elected in 2021, no longer support. The “General”, greeted by his members hand on the forehead, like a high-ranking officer, assumes the military marches “so as not to be intimidated by the police and tell the rulers that we have a capacity for nuisance”. He lists the battles won for a better student life: “The banking of scholarships, the abolition of exceptional contributions paid by parents of students… We have achieved many things for students, but many caricature Fesci, and have a image related to past events. »
Because violence has been at the heart of the union since its inception. At first clandestine, the federation founded by Martial Joseph Ahipeaud in 1990 follows in the footsteps of the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI, of Laurent Gbagbo), the first opposition party to have dared to confront the Democratic Party of Côte d’Ivoire. (PDCI, of President Félix Houphouët-Boigny). Considered by the former single party as an instrument of the FPI, Fesci plays an important role in the organization of demonstrations against power and the mobilization of protesters. After the death of the “Old man” at the end of 1993, the union mobilized on the living conditions of students and imposed itself through strikes and boycotts in the socio-political landscape of the country. The repeated arrests of its general secretary Charles Blé Goudé became a symbol of student activism.
But during the military transition of 2000, a leadership war, bloody to the point that it is nicknamed “the war of the machetes”, breaks out between two rival factions of Fesci. It is finally the camp of Jean Yves Dibopieu, who claims to be Laurent Gbagbo, who takes over. Under his leadership, Fesci would become a sort of student militia in the pay of the FPI during the crisis years, from 2002 to 2011. Several of its leaders experienced a national political destiny: nicknamed “the general of the street”, Charles Blé Goudé became Gbagbo’s youth minister, while Guillaume Soro, his predecessor at the head of the union, took the lead in a rebellion against power in 2002 and became prime minister at the end of it, then, a few years later later, president of the National Assembly, before falling out with the current president Alassane Ouattara and living today far from Côte d’Ivoire.
“This movement works like a mafia”
“I was told that it was a movement of camaraderie within which we would have a minimum of security during our university course, recalls a former member, today the professor quoted above. Over the years, it was understood that this movement operated like a mafia, with clans, nepotism and unnecessary wickedness. In 2008, the term “mafia” will also be used by the NGO Human Rights Watch to describe the acts of Fesci.
In 2011, after the arrest of Laurent Gbagbo, Fesci called on its members to lay down their arms and participate in “reconciliation and reconstruction” advocated by President Ouattara. But she does not die. “We no longer saw them, but some in the RDR [the Rassemblement des Républicains, ancestor of the RHDP, the party now in power] felt that they had to be recovered, explains an academic. If the power has not dissolved these organizations, it is because it has an interest in their being there. »
These criticisms surprise “Makélélé”, who assures that today Fesci is politically “orphaned” and has no more funding. “The Fesci must be considered as an actor in university life and must be subsidized. We are not a clandestine organization,” he continues, assuring that some members of the government are “friends” but not “godfathers”.
Several politicians had hoped for its dissolution, which was regularly agitated by the power. But for some, the absence of a strong union would be a setback for student rights. “Fesci just needs to civilize itself, learn to accept contradiction and move away from gratuitous violence,” said the anonymous professor.
As soon as the Easter holidays return, Fesci intends once again to carry out “demand actions” against certain measures of the university administration. These strikes are traditionally marked by raids by “Fescists” on universities and high schools, where classes and exams are stopped short. “Everyone knows that I am far from violence, but I have the strength, assures “Makélélé”. When I decide the schools are closed, it’s closed. »
