After the sudden death of the Prime minister and the ruling party’s candidate in the October presidential elections, Amadou Gon Coulibaly, took place on 8 July last, Alassane Ouattara, has chosen to hand over the keys of the office of the prime minister Hamed Bakayoko, 55, who assured the interim for nearly two months. “The president of the Republic proceeded to the signing of a decree on the appointment of Mr. Hamed Bakayoko as Prime minister “, while retaining the Defence portfolio, according to a press release from the presidency released on Thursday, July 30. His name had been circulated as présidentiable, prior to the appointment in march of Amadou Gon Coulibaly as the ruling party’s candidate for the presidential election of October in Côte d’ivoire. But who is he really and what room for manoeuvre does he have, while the Ivory Coast is entering a period of uncertainty.
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Hamed Bakayoko, an ex-man media
from The top of his meter and eighty-nine, the former journalist and businessman Hamed Bakayoko has become in a decade a political actor that cannot be ignored : minister of State, minister of the Interior in 2011 and the Defence in 2017 and for two years mayor of Abobo, one of two municipalities in the more densely populated areas of Abidjan and the Ivory Coast.
But there are twenty years behind, Hamed Bakayoko was a happy ruler of media, The Patriot, Radio Nostalgie, or Nostalgia for Africa. It is in 2011 that” Hambak “, as nicknamed by the Ivorians, made his entry into politics. He was appointed minister of New Technologies, Information and Communication technologies (ICTS) in a secure context-sensitive. The agreements of Linas-Marcoussis (the name of a small town in the paris region) were to be signed in France under the auspices of Jacques Chirac and Laurent Gbagbo, and a government of national reconciliation was to be formed. While Hamed Bakayoko is a member of the RDR, Rassemblement des républicains, it maintains excellent relations with the opposition, and especially Guillaume Soro, who insists that he entered the government. He remains at his post from march 2003 to April 2011.
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Hamed Bakayoko, a child of Adjamé
And yet, nothing predestined for such a career. Hamed Bakayoko was born in the neighbourhood of Habitat-Extension, in the commune of Adjamé. His family is devout and conservative, a descendant of muslim scholars known of the family of El-Hadji Moussa Bakayoko, who, according to legend, founded the city of Koro, in the north-west of the Ivory Coast. Raised by his widowed father with his brother and his two sisters, Hamed Bakayoko from the end of high school for Burkina Faso in order to study medicine. He will not go to the end, because in Ouaga this music lover a lover of rhythms from ivory coast and a regular in the clubs awakens to the political, discovers Thomas Sankara and the discourse of struggle.
Hamed Bakayoko, a journey of an activist
On his return to Abidjan, he begins to argue within the Movement of students and pupils of Côte d’ivoire (MEECI), a trade union close to the PDCI-RDA (african democratic Rally). What gives him the idea of founding in these years 90 the movement of the Youth, student and school of the PDCI (JESPDCI). That’s not a problem, why not start a journal. Hamed Bakayoko launches The Patriot, who wants to be close to Houphouet-Boigny and the PDCI. The Old is not sensitive and Hamed Bakayoko decides to put himself at the service of the defence of the Prime minister to Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Alassane Ouattara. It has just launched with Djéni Kobina the Rally of Republicans (RDR) and The Patriot became the organ of the press. But Henri Konan Bédié, the great rival of Ouattara, did not digest any of the posts in drive-infringing. Bakayoko was sent in detention in the Maca in Abidjan for four months and sixteen days.
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A turning point : meeting with Dominique Ouattara
After his release, he started in radio before the encounter that was to become the first lady of Côte d’ivoire, Dominique Ouattara, who invests in its media. Since that time, a relationship of trust was established between the two men have grown close over the years. To the point that when the 11 April 2011, Laurent Gbagbo was finally arrested in his residence in Cocody by the republican Forces of Ivory Coast (FRCI) Alassane Ouattara appoints Hamed Bakayoko to ensure the protection of the former president at the Golf hotel.
Married to the very discreet Yolande Bakayoko for more than twenty years, freemason and grand master of the Grand Lodge of Côte d’ivoire, Hamed Bakayoko is today a personality of weight within the machine Ouattara. In all cases, it is a crucial essential for the next presidential election. Alassane Ouattara is expected to run again in the presidential election for a third term, but he announced to defer its decision on Wednesday, before the political council of his party, the RHDP in Abidjan.
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