The political situation in Ivory Coast

Young politicians wait their turn: “The elderly are always right”

Several young politicians in Ivory Coast are patiently waiting their turn in a country where leadership traditionally belongs to the elderly and only one minister is under 50, AFP reports. The fact that it looks the way it does has to do with traditional cultural structures, says 32-year-old Mylene Amary Kacou, vice-president of the opposition party PPA-CI.

“In Africa, we say that the elderly are always right,” she says.

She sees herself as a future minister or president, but only in 25 or 30 years.

29-year-old Issouf Olivier Traore from another opposition party, ADCI, ran in a local election in 2023. Although he did not manage to win, he believes that his generational peers are behind him.

“They are ready to get involved if just one of their own takes up the challenge,” he says.

80-year-olds compete for power in young Ivory Coast

More than three-quarters of the population of Ivory Coast is under 35. But when the presidential election is decided later this year, both main candidates will be over 80, AFP reports.

The election appears to be between current President Alassane Ouattara, 83, who has been in power for 15 years, and Laurent Gbagbo, 80, a former president who was overthrown after two bloody civil wars. Gbagbo has announced that he intends to run despite being recently banned from running.

Currently, the country has only one minister under 50, Youth Minister Mamadou Toure, 49. 62-year-old opposition politician Tidjane Thiam has been seen as a young innovator.

Political scientist Geoffroy Kouao explains this appearance by a traditional view of age.

– The general image is that “youth” is synonymous with political immaturity, he says.