“I was born Ivorian” – The bank’s boss prohibited the race for the president says

Tidjane Thiam, a former international banker and leader of the main opposition party of the Ivory Coast, said that he will not give up on his place on the presidential vote without fighting.

Last month, an Ivorian court established that the former Boss of Credit Suisse was not suitable for contesting the survey, or even voting, because he had given up his Ivorian nationality when he acquired French citizenship in 1987.

But this was strongly rejected by Tham. “The bottom line is that I was born an Ivorian,” he told the BBC.

The government said that at the moment it was recorded on the electoral shot, it was not legally a citizen of the Ivory Coast.

Tidjane Tham was disqualified by the race to the presidential elections of the Ivory Coast in October.

In the BBC interview, Thiam suggested that the sentence had been politically motivated.

“It is not for the regime to choose who manages the opposition parties. It is not for the regime to eliminate the leaders of the opposition,” he said.

“I don’t think anyone in the ivory coast believe that this is not a weapon of the legal system by the government.”

This was rejected by the Minister of Information of the Ivory Coast Amadou Coulibaly.

“The Court declares that it was currently recorded on this [electoral] List, it was not Ivorian, “he said on Friday at the BBC newspaper program.

“This is a clear proof that this gentleman does not know the Ivory Coast … We have a problem with morality with Mr. Thiam – he knew he was wrong,” he added.

Thiam told the BBC: “What happened is that they have carved out a 1961 law that has never been applied to anyone. But in theory, he says that if you take another nationality, you lose your Ivorian citizenship”.

“Most of the Ivorian football team is in the same case,” he said, in reference to the national football team, which triumphed in the last Africa Cup of Nations tournament.

“So, if we apply the law in this way [that] They just applied me, we must return the cup to Nigeria, because the half of the team was not Ivorian. “

Although Thiam renounced his French nationality in March to run to the elections, the court discovered that his candidacy was not valid, since it was not Ivorian when he recorded for the first time on the electoral shooting.

The 1961 nationality code states that: “A Ivorian citizen of full age who voluntarily acquires or claims to possess a foreign nationality loses Ivorian nationality”.

Thiam is now mounting a legal challenge.

His disqualification came only a week after the democratic party of the center -right ivory coast (PDCi) confirmed it as an presidential candidate.

The party members of the party claim to suspend all parliamentary activities as a sign of protest for its disqualification.

His supporters still hope they can be readmitted as a candidate.

The final electoral list for the October elections will be published on June 20.

Thiam should have challenged the Rhdp party to power currently led by Alassane Ouattara, who has been in power for 15 years.

Previously in Ouattara he had been prevented from applying to the presidency in the early 2000s for reasons of nationality due to the statements that his parents came from Burkina Faso.

Tidjane Tham leads the center-right Pdci party
The Minister of Information Coulibaly told the BBC that the law on nationality had previously excluded a candidate who had French nationality in 2011.

“[Thiam] He blames the government for a decision taken by the court, “he added.

“It is an insult to think that when you are in the West, you can respect the rules, the laws of those countries and then arrive in your country because you think you have power and connections, you can trample all the texts, break all the laws,” said Coulibaly.

But Tham said his candidacy had shocked the government.

“This government has been in power for 15 years. They deserve five more? For me, this is what should be at the center of the presidential campaign, not my passport,” he said.

He also told the BBC that “political accidents” like this could reduce investors’ trust in the country.

He said that once a business partner said to him: “Investio only in countries where I can sue the President’s son and win”. This, said Tham at the BBC, had remained with him.

Who is Tidjane Thiam?

Thiam comes from a long series of politicians.

His reorganization-félix Houphouët-Boigny-era The founder president of Ivory Coast.

Four of his five brothers, including Thiam himself, served as ministers with five different presidents.

After becoming the first Ivorian to pass the admission exam to the prestigious engineering school of the French Polytecnique, he returned to Ivorio Coast and began politics.

In 1998, at the age of 36, he became a planning minister before the PDCi was expelled from power in a coup the following year.

Then he moved abroad and pursued a most successful commercial career.

Thiam has held senior positions in important international companies such as Aviva, Prudential and Credit Suisse.

He left the latter in 2020 following a espionage scandal, although he was authorized to any involvement.

In 2020, he was appointed special correspondent for Covid-19 by the African Union.

However, Thiam faced criticism from political opponents to be absent from the Ivory Coast for 20 years, which according to them means that it has a little recognition between Ivoriani.

He believes, however, that his years outside his country have contributed to building his profile at home.

“Many Ivorians have seen my international career. In the same way they saw the famous football players, they saw me, they knew me,” he said.

Thiam described herself to the BBC as “a boy of numbers”.

“The Ivory Coast in 1999 was 125th in the world [In the UNDP Human Development Index]. Now we are 166, so we are down 41 points. We are among the 30 countries in the world, “said Thiam.

He believes this is a direct result of years of political violence.

“The first phrase of my platform is an ivory coast in peace within its borders and in peace with its neighbors,” explained Thiam.

“The Ivory Coast is a mosaic. You go anywhere in the country, there are people on both sides of the border that are absolutely similar, they speak the same language. So the only model practicable for the Ivory Coast is to get along with its neighbors.”

The Ivory Coast has to face a growing threat to the safety by the Islamist insurgents operating from the border of Mali and Burkina Faso.

In February, France returned its last military base remaining to the Ivorian authorities, partly in response to anger on the Ivory Coast on the perceived weakness of the French army in dealing with these groups.

But Tham denied that there was an “anti-French feeling” on the Ivory Coast.

“I think what Africans are tired are corrupt and incompetent governments. When France aligate with corruption and incompetence, people will be anti-French and are absolutely right to do it.”

“Firstly, it is a problem for Africans. It is something that we must solve, and therefore the rest of the world will also be able to help us solve it. But it has to start with us,” added Thiam. [BBC]

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