Despite the promises of successive Ivorian presidents, the birthplace of Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Yamoussoukro, is not the capital hoped for by the Father of the Ivorian nation. History of a failure.
This was one of Alassane Ouattara's promises during the Ivorian presidential campaign of 2010. The president had indeed assured that he would go to settle in Yamoussoukro and that he would thus proceed "to the effective transfer of the capital" . Ten years later, the same Ouattara apologized: “Unfortunately, the state of disrepair in which we found the country did not allow us to honor this commitment”.
Like Laurent Gbagbo before him, the transfer of the capital by Ouattara was a failure. But the Ivorian president, who was then running for a new mandate, assured his voters that he was "firmly committed to making Yamoussoukro, our political capital, a modern and model city".
Yamoussoukro sacrificed on the altar of economic problems
Since 1983, the transfer of the Ivorian capital has been slipping. In March of that year, the National Assembly adopted, as Félix Houphouët-Boigny wanted, the bill relating to the transfer of the capital of the Ivory Coast, Abidjan, to Yamoussoukro. The birthplace of President Houphouët-Boigny, considered the Father of the Nation, is located 250 kilometers northwest of Abidjan.
We finally have to wait five years for the project to be launched more concretely. The construction of the Hôtel des Deputies begins, it will be delivered in 2006. An architect, Pierre Fakhoury, is responsible for making a modern Yamoussoukro flourish. A presidential palace must also see the light of day.
Despite the creation of an international airport, the Hôtel des Dépôts or the presidential palace, Yamoussoukro is still biding its time today. The fault, in particular, to projects still unfinished. The fault, according to the secretary general of the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Foundation, in the economic situation. In Yamoussoukro, Houphouët-Boigny “wanted a city on the scale of a modern country. The project would have required a generation. Unfortunately, this design was betrayed by the drop in cocoa prices. Gbagbo tried to continue, Ouattara stopped for lack of money, ”he explains.
Now a simple campaign argument
Certainly, before the arrival of Alassane Ouattara, Laurent Gbagbo will try to keep his word. The then president will host the 12th summit of the “Group of 77 plus China” in 2008 or the meeting of heads of state of the Council of the Entente a year later. Gbagbo will also organize in Yamoussoukro meetings with counterparts, such as the Burkinabè Blaise Compaoré or Ali Bongo Ondimba, the president of Gabon.
But in the end, the most important event that will take place in the village will be the funeral of Félix Houphouët-Boigny. As a symbol of failure. Today, the inhabitants of Yamoussoukro feel abandoned. They no longer believe in presidential promises. Almost 40 years after having wanted to make the native village of Houphouët-Boigny a futuristic and modern capital, Côte d'Ivoire does not seem ready to abandon Abidjan. And Yamoussoukro, in the manner of "houphouëtism", is no more than a campaign argument which, every five years, returns to the heart of the debates.