Alassane Ouattara: French-Groomed, Installed, Sustained – Now Weaponized

When future historians review the year 2023 and recount the betrayals that nearly derailed Africa’s resurgent struggle against neocolonialism, the titles of the critical chapters will have to be “Tinubu”, “Ruto” and “Ouattara” in that order. They will record the futile role of Nigeria’s Tinubu in trying to subvert Niger’s democratic military coup on behalf of France and revisit the pan-African masquerade of Kenya’s Ruto as Africa’s spokesman to validate neocolonial schemes.

However, it is their account of Côte d’Ivoire’s Alassane Ouattara that is likely to emerge as the epitome of meticulously planned and effectively orchestrated puppetry. Ouattara’s IMF career, and his marrying a French woman, solemnized by none other than Nicolas Sarkozy, symbolized the ultimate master-puppet pact. Sarkozy’s later involvement in crowning him as Côte d’Ivoire’s president by force of arms in 2011 was merely the culmination of decades of intricate planning.

Ouattara’s role in destabilizing Burkina Faso

Tinubu and Ruto, at least until now, have mainly engaged in rhetoric without taking substantial actions on their Western assignments. Tinubu even set deadlines for an attack on Niger on behalf of France, but these deadlines passed without any action. As for Ruto, his planned invasion of Haiti on behalf of the US is still pending, and he has not been seen outside Kenya in his Kaunda suit disguise since a recent exposé of his masquerade. However, the same cannot be said for Ouattara. Recent revelations have exposed his involvement, in collusion with France, in at least three coup attempts in neighboring Burkina Faso to topple President Traore. Ouattara reportedly funneled funds from the French to military renegades within the Burkina Faso army to facilitate President Traore’s ousting.

Is this a surprise? Not for those familiar with Alassane Ouattara’s history and his rise to power. In 2011, West Africa witnessed two infamous foreign interventions: the first removed Ghaddafi from Libya due to his pan-African stance, while the second, less remembered, installed Alassane Ouattara as a French puppet in Côte d’Ivoire. Ouattara’s recent collusion with France to overthrow President Traore of neighboring Burkina Faso is therefore not an isolated incident. It is part of a long history stretching back decades.

But to truly understand Ouattara’s actions in the present, we must trace his journey from the corridors of the IMF to the helm of Ivorian politics—a meticulously crafted French plan that began with his appointment as an economist with the IMF in 1968 and culminated in his installment as the President of Côte d’Ivoire in 2011, a process that spanned almost 40 years. In essence, the story of Alassane Ouattara is not merely one of personal ambition; but evidence of the enduring influence of neocolonial powers in enslaving African nations

A job with the International Monetary Fund (IMF)

Alassane Ouattara’s ascent to the helm of Ivorian politics and his eventual presidency was set in motion, starting in the corridors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 1968 when France secured for him a position as an economist at the young age of 26, and thereafter deliberately fast-tracked his progress. In due time, France arranged his appointment as “Chargé de Mission” at the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO), where he was posted in Paris from late 1973 to early 1975. From there, France ensured his promotion to the position of Vice Governor of the BCEAO in 1983.

Its important to note that during this period, France covertly undermined Côte d’Ivoire’s economy, progressively leading to economic stagnation and the manufactured necessity of an economic bailout. This necessity would provide the opportunity to introduce Ouattara into Côte d’Ivoire’s politics as a purported savior.

Return as Savior of Côte d’Ivoire’s Economy

By 1984, as the economic situation in Côte d’Ivoire deteriorated, France orchestrated Ouattara’s return to the IMF as the Director of the African Department while simultaneously serving as the Counsellor to the Managing Director. Four years later, in 1988, France ensured his return to BCEAO, only this time on promotion to the position of Governor, resident in France. By late 1989, with Côte d’Ivoire’s economy in free fall, France had achieved the ideal circumstances to send back Alassane Ouattara as the ‘savior of the country’s economy.’ They convinced President Houphouët-Boigny to appoint him chairman of the country’s economic stabilization program in early 1990.

By this period, President Houphouët-Boigny’s health was also rapidly deteriorating, as he had recently undergone surgery for prostate cancer. France, where he received the majority of his medical care, was of course aware of his condition and limited life expectancy. Thus, the appointment of Ouattara, ostensibly to ‘rescue’ the country’s stagnated economy in 1990—a situation that France had indeed orchestrated—was a strategic move aimed not only at providing Ouattara with political credibility before the Ivorian public but also at granting him and France leverage over President Houphouet-Boigny whom they didn’t expect to live for long. Indeed, before the end of 1990, France pressured President Houphouet-Boigny to appoint Ouattara as Prime Minister.

Master-Puppet Pact by Conjugal Subjugation

Ouattara’s ascendency to the Premiership in 1990 was simultaneously orchestrated with an equally significant development, his paring and marriage to Dominique Claudine Nouvian in August 1991. However, a very important detail, often overlooked despite its significance in Ouattara’s grooming process, is the fact that Nicolas Sarkozy, the former French President, officiated Alassane Ouattara and Dominique’s marriage in France when he served as the mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine, consummating France and Ouattara’s master-puppet pact by conjugal subjugation.

Sarkozy’s officiation of Ouattara’s marriage is even more revealing, in light of the key role that he would later play in crowning Ouattara president of Côte d’Ivoire in 2011. But until then, France continued to mastermind and manufacture the circumstances for Ouattara’s inevitable rise beyond the premiership to the targeted position of President. They ensured that he would leverage his Premiership to torment other potential contenders within and even outside the government whom France foresaw as likely to present formidable alternatives to the Ivorian Public in the post-Houphouët-Boigny time.

In fact, during the country’s first election after the introduction of multi-party politics in 1990, Alassane Ouattara’s first major act as Prime Minister was to jail Laurent Gbagbo, the only opposition presidential candidate, along with his then-wife, Simone Ehivet, triggering a bitter rivalry that would long endure.

The Death Announcer Stakes His Claim

Ouattara’s primary role as Prime Minister was to safeguard French interests under Houphouet-Boigny, neutralize political opposition within and outside the government to position himself as the sole viable alternative, and bide his time for a presidential takeover upon Houphouet-Boigny’s anticipated passing. This move was so masterfully timed that in 1993, Ouattara would be the one announcing President Houphouet-Boigny’s death, presenting himself as the anointed successor, contrary to Henri Konan Bédié, Houphouët-Boigny’s handpicked and designated successor.

And so, it wasn’t long before a power struggle ensued, with France supporting Alassane Ouattara while the Ivorian public backed Bédié. Many Ivorians’ saw Ouattara as an outsider and were rightfully suspicious of his French connections. In the end, Bédié emerged victorious, assuming the interim presidency in 1993. With Ouattara’s presidential ambitions thwarted – at least for the time being – France recalled him for a reset and had him appointed to an even higher position as one of the three Deputy Managing Directors of the IMF on July 1, 1994.

Making Ouattara President at Any Price

Ouattara held the position of Deputy Managing Director of the IMF until July 1999 when France required him to become more actively involved in Ivorian political life. However, Ouattara’s apparent Burkinabè origin, which had previously led to his constitutional exclusion from the 1995 presidential elections won by Bédié, also resulted in his exclusion from the October 2000 election following the short transition after Bédié’s ouster via a military coup on Christmas Eve 1999. France’s role in the coup against Bédié remains shrouded in mystery, but it can’t be a coincidence that the coup occurred four months after Ouattara left the IMF in likely anticipation of the same.

Nevertheless, Ouattara remained excluded, and with France unable to change that status, Laurent Gbagbo, the very man Ouattara had previously jailed during his tenure as Prime Minister in 1990, won the 2000 election, marking an ironic twist in their rivalry. Of course, Gbagbo’s victory didn’t sit well with France, which, over the next 10 years, would utilize its economic influence in the country, as well as Ouattara’s connections within the IMF, to tighten the economic stranglehold on Côte d’Ivoire and undermine Gbagbo’s leadership.

But not to be distracted from their objective of installing Ouattara as president, France orchestrated civil civil in Côte d’Ivoire in 2002, two years into Gbagbo’s presidency by arming Ouattara’s henchmen in the northern regions of the country. This civil war resulted in the de facto division of Côte d’Ivoire, with the north under rebel control of Ouattara’s henchmen, and the south under the leadership of President Laurent Gbagbo. This division served a secondary purpose for France, as it provided a pretext for stationing French troops in the country, ostensibly to prevent further hostilities between the two regions.

Nicolas Sarkozy Crowns Ouattara by Force of Arms

The war persisted for nearly a decade from 2002 until late 2010 when, upon losing the November 2010 elections, Ouattara claimed electoral victory. Assured of French military support from both French troops stationed in the country and the French leadership in Paris, he called upon his rebel henchmen from the north to march south and overthrow Gbagbo. This escalated the civil war for the next three-and-a-half months, culminating in Ouattara and French-backed rebel forces entering the economic capital Abidjan after weeks of fighting, massacring thousands of civilians on their way, including at least 1,000 people in a single village.

However, the army-backed Gbagbo held them off for days until Ouattara publicly appealed to his friend and erstwhile handler, Nicolas Sarkozy, who had advanced from the position of Mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine, where he previously officiated Ouattara’s marriage to a French wife 20 years earlier, to the President of France. Subsequently, on 3 April, Sarkozy put Ouattara under the protection of French Elite soldiers in a hotel in Abidjan and sent another 1500 French soldiers to lay siege to Gbagbo’s residence, shelling it to rubble with tank and helicopter missiles, and eventually seizing Gbagbo, and installing in his stead, Ouattara as the new president of Côte d’Ivoire’s in 2011.

Thus, it came to pass that the project to groom and install Ouattara as a puppet president, which started with a job in the IMF in 1968, finally came to fruition in 2011. The rest is history.