Former banker Tidjane Thiam takes over the leadership of Ivory Coast's oldest party at the age of 61. At the end of the Eighth Extraordinary Congress of the Democratic Party of Ivory Coast (PDCI), which after many adventures finally took place in Yamoussoukro on Friday December 22, the Franco-Ivorian achieved an overwhelming victory against his with 96.48% of the votes cast only rival, the mayor of Cocody, Jean-Marc Yacé.
With this choice he has can already estimate what pitfalls would await him if his presidential ambitions were confirmed. His inauguration as President of the Democratic Party of Ivory Coast (PDCI) actually marks the final act of an incredible political-legal soap opera.
The congress originally scheduled for December 16 in Abidjan to determine the successor to Henri Konan Bédié, who died on August 1, was canceled at the last minute by a court decision a few hours before its opening. Two activists filed a complaint denouncing irregularities in the delegate list. The party leadership immediately complained about judicial interference in its internal affairs, before the same two activists filed a new complaint. On Thursday it was finally withdrawn after a three-hour hearing in the Abidjan court, clearing the way for the organization of this congress, this time in the capital Yamoussoukro.
Also read: Ivory Coast: The largest opposition party is in turmoil after the courts canceled its congress
With this rise to the top of the PDCI, Tidjane Thiam made his return to the political hinterland of Ivory Coast after spending 22 years outside his home country. He used the aura of his name and highlighted his career. “Titi,” as he is known to his supporters, is the youngest of the seven children of the Ivorian-Senegalese journalist Amadou Thiam, who became a minister in Ivory Coast, and Mariétou Sow, a niece of Félix Houphouët-Boigny, the father of independence first president of the country. He grew up in Morocco from 1966, where his father was appointed ambassador, and then completed excellent studies in Abidjan and France. He was the first Ivorian to attend the Ecole Polytechnique, graduated from the Ecole des Mines and earned an MBA at the European Institute of Business Administration in Fontainebleau, a breeding ground for future big bosses. In 1988, as a young university graduate, he was recruited by the American consulting firm McKinsey, which employed him between Paris and New York.
But in 1994, after the death of Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Henri Konan Bédié, who had become president, convinced the Franco-Ivorian to return to Ivory Coast. At just thirty years old, he took over the management of the National Office for Studies and Technical Development in Abidjan and was responsible for the most important work. He then entered political office in the PDCI, where he remained from 1996 to 2002, then the government, of which he became Minister for Planning and Development in 1998.
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