This Thursday, July 14, 2022, in Côte d’Ivoire, President Alassane Ouattara receives his predecessors Henri Konan Bédié and Laurent Gbagbo. This meeting was mentioned during the political dialogue organized at the beginning of the year. It must be used to advance reconciliation after the crises of 2010-2011 and then 2020, but also to prepare for the next elections from 2023 to the presidential election of 2025.
The last interview of big three as some call them, that was over ten years ago. It was before the first round of the 2010 presidential election. This new mini-summit between Alassane Ouattara, Laurent Gbagbo and Henri Konan Bédié nevertheless remains a classic for historian and teacher Arthur Banga. He explains that such meetings:
” It has always taken place in Côte d’Ivoire, remember at the end of the 1980s already, the famous meeting Laurent Gbagbo and Félix Houphouët-Boigny. And then throughout the crisis, first the summits of the big four, when Robert Gueï was alive. Then Ouattara, Bédié, Gbagbo often met around agreements. These are meetings that we often have in periods of tension, which for some lead to the acceleration of the peace process, but which nevertheless did not prevent the country from sinking. “, details Arthur Banga.
Three ubiquitous leaders
On the menu of the discussions, the prisoners policies “, stopped during the electoral crises of 2010-2011 and 2020. But also the environment of the local elections of 2023 and presidential of 2025.
For Geoffroy Julien Kouao, political scientist and essayist, this last election and its conduct remains the most crucial deadline. According to him, the three men are ubiquitous ».
They make and break Ivorian political weather. The question of the political divide revolves around the question of accession to power. All Ivorian crises start from the presidential election. These three personalities must therefore agree on the framework. Will they be candidates? Is it necessary to review the electoral code and the Constitution, but especially to see the institutional framework, with the Electoral Commission? Should this body be in the hands of political parties, or should it belong exclusively to civil society? And the question of the arbiter of the electoral game, that is to say the Constitutional Council. Should we redefine the composition, allow greater neutrality of this institution? These are inaugural questions that should be addressed by the three political figures.
tell the truth
But some fear that this kind of summit between the three pillars of Ivorian political life is precisely not too political and ultimately does not address certain questions that are fundamental for lasting reconciliation. ” The Achilles’ heel of post-crisis Côte d’Ivoire is not having told the truth. There was a justice that took place from a somewhat biased angle, and it did not deal thoroughly with all the responsibilities. And we are very much afraid that if indeed this issue has not been dealt with, and that we quickly move on to a kind of political forgiveness without explanation, this risks providing the seeds for future instability. “, warns Fahiraman Rodrigue Koné, principal researcher at the Institute for Security Studies.
Alassane Ouattara is 80 years old, Laurent Gbagbo 77, Henri Konan Bédié, 88. For Fahiraman Rodrigue Kone, the three men “ weigh heavily on the political destiny of the country, on the political arena, but there is reason for them to make a strong commitment to building the future. A renewal of the elite of the political class should be one of the biggest concerns, so as to bequeath a less confrontational Côte d’Ivoire. This meeting should be under the sign of wisdom. That of being able to pass on the torch to carry Côte d’Ivoire so as to truly move it away from the zone of turbulence that it has known for the past 20 years.. »
It is not known if the three men will go that far. But the meeting takes place in a favorable context, with a rather peaceful political climate. According to the government, Alassane Ouattara, Henri Konan Bédié and Laurent Gbagbo speak to each other regularly on the telephone: the power has made a sign of openness by proposing a new seat for the opposition on the Electoral Commission. We are therefore in a political atmosphere which could allow the three to agree at least on certain points.