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Tag: Alassane Ouattara

  • Provisional results say Ivory Coast’s Ouattara wins re-election

    Provisional results say Ivory Coast’s Ouattara wins re-election

    Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara has secured a fourth term with a commanding re-election win, according to provisional results announced by the electoral commission yesterday

    The 83-year-old former international banker won 89.77% of the vote, his third consecutive decisive victory after the much closer election that brought him to power in 2011.

    His predecessor, Laurent Gbagbo, refused to acknowledge defeat in that race, sparking a four-month war that killed around 3,000 people.

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    Ouattara has since overseen a period of relative stability and steady economic growth in the world’s biggest cocoa producer.

    The turnout of around 50% was comparable to the presidential elections in 2010 and 2015 but far below the 80% who voted in the first round in 2010.

    Gbagbo and Tidjane Thiam, former CEO of Credit Suisse, were not legally permitted to run this year, and the remaining opposition candidates lacked the backing of a major political party, making Ouattara the clear favourite.

    The results are expected to be validated by the Constitutional Council in the coming days.

  • Pay your dues promptly – Buhari tells ECOWAS member states

    Pay your dues promptly – Buhari tells ECOWAS member states

    President Muhammadu Buhari has called on Member States of the Economic Community of West African States ( ECOWAS ) to pay their annual contributions as and when due for the Commission to operate effectively.

    The President made the call when he received the new President of the ECOWAS Commission, Mr Jean Claude Brou at the State House, Abuja, on Friday

    He also maintained that the sub-regional body must run a leaner organisation by cutting costs and becoming more efficient so as to achieve its objectives.

    President Buhari said a lot of work had already been done toward cutting running costs, following the recommendation of a committee set up by the Commission on the reduction of the number of commissioners.

    “We must work toward limiting costs, keeping the number of statutory positions low and running the organisation more efficiently,” he said.

    While welcoming the new President of the ECOWAS Commission to Abuja, the President pledged the full support of the government of Nigeria in ensuring that his tenure was successful.

    “The task is enormous. The job is not easy, given the many challenges facing the sub-region, ranging from issues of security and that posed by the environment, including the shrinkage of the Lake Chad,’’ he noted.

    He, however, pledged the full commitment of Nigeria to work with other ECOWAS Member Countries toward finding lasting solution to the problems.

    In his remarks, Brou said he was at the Presidential Villa to inform Buhari that he had assumed office at the ECOWAS Secretariat in Abuja, and was fully prepared to address priority issues.

    According to him, such issues include the common currency, restructuring of the organisation and the pending issue of new memberships.

    He also presented a special message from the Ivorian President, Alassane Ouattara to Buhari and condoled him on the recent death of two members of his family members.

    NAN

  • Instability in Togo may have regional consequences, Buhari, Ouattara warn

    Instability in Togo may have regional consequences, Buhari, Ouattara warn

    President Muhammadu Buhari and his Ivorian counterpart, Alassane Ouattara on Wednesday expressed concern that political instability in Togo, if not averted, could have regional consequences.

    Both leaders expressed the view during a bilateral meeting in Abidjan on the margins of the 5th AU-EU Summit.

    In a statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and publicity, Garba Shehu, President Buhari said “We must have a solution in Togo. The friends of the opposition and authorities must talk to them on the steps to jointly take to achieve stability. They must work towards gaining the trust of each other.

    ‘‘There will be regional consequences for instability in Togo and this will surely come at a cost to development,’’ President Buhari said.

    The Nigerian leader also had a separate bilateral meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel where the issue of stemming the tide of illegal migration of Nigerians to Europe took the front burner.

    The two leaders agreed to strengthen legal migration and made a commitment to expand discussions on how to stem the tide of illegal migration.

    On security, President Buhari told the German Chancellor that his government’s commitment to the security of lives and property in Nigeria remains absolute.

    Reaffirming the nexus between security and job creation in Nigeria, President Buhari said prompt attention is being given to the gainful employment of youths in Nigeria through education and the acquisition of skills and vocational training.

    He said Nigeria and Germany can draw from the experiences to cooperate effectively in the area of investing in youths for a sustainable future.

    In her remarks, the German Chancellor appreciated the strides made by the Buhari administration in revamping the economy and promised to increase support for Nigeria in dealing with terrorism.

    Merkel said 58 German companies are operating in Nigeria, adding that more companies have indicated interest to invest in the energy, manufacturing, agriculture and construction sectors.

    President Buhari also had fruitful bilateral discussions with Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo and the Vice President of the Gambia Fatoumata Tambajang.

  • Coca-Cola to launch ‘safe birth initiative’

    Coca-Cola to launch ‘safe birth initiative’

    A new program – The Safe Birth Initiative,  is to be launched by Coca-Cola company to support the Ministries of Health in Ivory Coast and Nigeria to tackle the high incidence of maternal and newborn mortalities

    This was disclosed by the Coca-Cola Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) Group President, Brian Smith, during a courtesy visit to Alassane Ouattara, President of the Republic of Ivory Coast.

    The program will focus on strengthening the capacity of maternity and neonatal units in selected public hospitals in Ivory Coast and Nigeria.

    With US$2 million grant from Coca-Cola to Medshare International Inc., the US-based not-for-profit NGO will source essential equipment, kits and supplies worth about US$20 million to enable safe deliveries and post-delivery emergency care for both mothers and their newborns.

    The program will also include the training of biomedical technicians and other appropriate hospital personnel by Medshare International on the operation, repair and maintenance of the donated equipment as well as the reactivation of a huge stock of faulty or abandoned equipment in public hospitals which is a major challenge for the country’s healthcare delivery system.

    This intervention comes as Ivory Coast, which has enjoyed stability as one of the fastest economic growth rates since the end of a civil war in 2011, grapples with some of the highest maternal and newborn mortality ratios globally.

    According to UNICEF’s 2016 State of the World’s Children report, 38 out of every 1,000 babies die within the first 28 days of birth while 645 out of 100,000 women die during or shortly after child birth due to avoidable conditions. This translates to 31,000 newborns and 5,400 maternal deaths annually in a country with a population of 24 million people.

    In Nigeria on the other hand, about 40,000 women and 260,000 newborns (excluding 300,000 stillborn) die during or shortly after childbirth annually. About 29% of the newborn deaths (90,000) occur in the first 24 hours of birth. For this reason, neonatal mortality is considered as one of the worst public health crises in Nigeria and a major priority for the Government in its resolve to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

    Brian Smith, Coca-Cola EMEA Group President stated, “The commitment to help promote sustainable development in our communities is a fundamental part of Coca-Cola’s strategy for sustainable business growth. This program which demonstrates this commitment will help save the precious lives of many mothers and newborns and also support the remarkable efforts of the Ivorian government at rebuilding this vibrant country”.

    President Ouattara welcomed Coca-Cola’s support for the Health Ministry, noting that maternal and child health was an area the country recorded a weak performance under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). “Your new program will translate to improved healthcare and budget savings which will be channeled to other needs,” President Ouattara said, adding that his Administration has been able to drive growth in the economy at an average rate of 9% over the last 5 years. “Our emphasis now is to boost social expenditure with a focus on health, education and youth employment in order reduce the poverty level further from 50% to about 25% by the end of my current tenure”.

    Ivorian Minister of Health, Dr. Goudou Coffi, noted that improvement of maternal and newborn healthcare is one of the public health priorities of the country and thanked Coca-Cola for the initiative. “Coca-Cola’s support through the Safe Birth Initiative will significantly strengthen our healthcare capacity and boost our resolve towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) targets in relation to maternal and newborn mortalities”, she said.

    Peter Njonjo, President of Coca-Cola West Africa Business Unit said “Coca-Cola has a special relationship with women who are pillars of our business, especially in Africa where women play a dominant role in our distribution and retail network. Just like our 5 by 20 Initiative, the Safe Birth Initiative which we will be implemented in Ivory Coast and Nigeria is a platform enabling us to promote the well being of women, in this case, as it relates to the special but vulnerable experience of childbirth”.

  • Ouattara names ex-PM as vice-president

    Ivory Coast’s President, Alassane Ouattara, named former prime minister, Daniel Kablan Duncan, as vice-president, a new post created under a constitution approved by referendum late last year.

    Duncan, 73, an economist, has served in posts at the West African central bank and as finance minister and is among Ouattara’s closest long-time collaborators, Reuters reported.

    He resigned as prime minister on Monday.

    “This is a person of experience, a great servant of the state, who has demonstrated his exceptional personal and professional qualities in all the high functions he has occupied,” Reuters quoted Ouattara as saying in a speech to lawmakers.

    In Duncan, Ouattara – himself an economist and former senior International Monetary Fund official – has chosen a vice-president largely in his own image.

    The post of vice-president was included in a new constitution enacted in November to help ensure a smooth succession of power in the event the sitting president dies or is incapacitated while in office.

  • Buhari congratulates Ouattara on re-election

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday congratulated President Alassane Ouattara of Cote D’Ivoire on his re-election for a second term in office.

    Buhari, in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, also commended the people of Cote D’Ivoire for putting the unity, stability and progress of their country above all other interests.

    He applauded the peaceful conduct of the election, which President Ouattara won with almost 84 per cent of the votes.

    President Buhari believed that the relatively high turnout of voters, despite calls for a boycott, was a clear testimony of the commitment of the people of Cote D’Ivoire to peace, unity, stability and progress in their country.

    President Buhari trusted that President Ouattara in his second term will continue to do his best to foster national unity and faster socio-economic development for the benefit of all Ivoirians.

    He looked forward to continuing to work with President Ouattara to strengthen bilateral cooperation between Nigeria and Cote D’Ivoire, and accelerate the pace of economic integration in the West African Sub-region.

  • Ouattara wins Ivory Coast poll

    Ouattara wins Ivory Coast poll

    Ivory Coast’s President, Alassane Ouattara, won a landslide poll victory and a second five-year term in a weekend vote intended to draw a line under years of turmoil and a 2011 civil war, the elections commission announced on Wednesday.

    Ouattara won a total of 2,118,229 votes, or 83.66 percent of ballots cast, President of the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI), Youssouf Bakayoko, announced at a media conference.

    Sunday’s vote had a turnout of 54.63 percent, he said.

    The former International Monetary Fund official, whose leadership has helped the West African nation re-emerge as a rising economic star after the 2011 civil war, faced a deeply divided opposition, Reuters reported.

    Ouattara won the most votes in all but one of the 31 regions as well as the largest city, Abidjan, and the capital, Yamoussoukro, results showed.

    He won all but 16 votes in his home constituency of Kong, in Ivory Coast’s north, where more than 14,000 voters cast ballots.

    Sunday’s election was judged to be peaceful and transparent by observers, likely reassuring investors who have flooded into the world’s top cocoa grower, drawn by growth around nine percent over the past three years.

    “I would like to congratulate all Ivoirians for their maturity and exemplary behaviour,” Ouattara said late on Tuesday before the results were announced.

    “Ivory Coast is resolutely committed to the path of stability and the reinforcement of democracy.”

  • Ouattara launches re-election bid, pledges access to justice

    Ouattara launches re-election bid, pledges access to justice

    Ivory Coast’s President, Alassane Ouattara, pledged on Friday to improve citizens’ access to justice as he launched his bid for re-election in an October 25 poll he hopes will cement the country’s economic recovery following a brief civil war.

    Ouattara, who is widely expected to win a second term, is presenting himself as the guardian of stability and the new-found prosperity in French-speaking West Africa’s largest economy, Reuters reported.

    Nobody expects a repeat of the civil war that marred the aftermath of the 2010 presidential election, when more than 3,000 people were killed, but doubts linger among investors over Ivory Coast’s long-term political and economic stability.

    Ouattara marked the first day of the official two-week campaign period with a rally in the capital Yamoussoukro that attracted thousands of supporters, some brandishing signs reading “With ADO,” referring to the president’s initials.

    “I will make accessibility to, and the independence of, the courts my guiding principle so that every Ivorian, whatever their social standing or ethnic or geographical origin, can trust the justice system,” he told the crowd.

    “Every Ivorian deserves that the fundamental rights spelled out in our constitution and the Charter of the United Nations be respected,” said Ouattara, dressed in a white shirt bearing his own image.

     

  • Buhari, ECOWAS leaders meet on Burkina Faso‎

    Buhari, ECOWAS leaders meet on Burkina Faso‎

    President Muhammadu Buhar and eight other ECOWAS leaders are locked in a closed- door meeting over the political logjam in Burkina-Faso.

    The extra-ordinary meeting which is ongoing is expected discuss the ongoing political crisis in Burkina Faso and the way out of the imbroglio.

    ECOWAS has since placed Burkina-Faso on suspension, following a military coup which toppled the interim government headed by Michel Kafando.

    ECOWAS leaders attending the meeting which is taking place at the Presidential wing of the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport are – John Mahama (Ghana), Thomas Boni Yayi (Benin Republic), Macky Sall (Senegal) and Alassane Ouattara (Côte d’Ivoire).

    The leaders of Guinea, Niger Republic and Mali are also in attendance.

    Buhari in his welcome remark said the development in Burkina-Faso runs contrary to the expectations of ECOWAS‎.

    He stressed that the extraordinary summit therefore provides the opportunity to review the development.

    ‎He also commended the process of engagement by the regional body, which according to him, has resulted in some measure of understanding towards the resolution of the crisis.

     

  • Protests in Ivory Coast over Ouattara’s re-election bid

    A second day of violent protests broke out in at least two towns in Ivory Coast on Friday over incumbent President Alassane Ouattara’s candidacy in an October election, witnesses said on Saturday.

    One person was killed and others injured on Thursday as supporters and opponents of Ouattara clashed.

    Police fired tear gas as they separated the two factions both days.

    Before winning power in a 2010 election, Ouattara was twice excluded from running for office as opponents questioned his national origins. Disputes over his qualifications were among the central causes of the years of turmoil, including civil wars in 2002 and 2011, Reuters reported.

    The upcoming elections are meant to draw a line under the decade-long political crisis. They will be a critical test of the West African nation’s stability for foreign investors attracted by its rapid economic revival.

    The constitutional court on Wednesday cleared 10 candidates including Ouattara, who is heavily favoured to win re-election, to take part in the October 25 vote.

    However, the decision sparked protest calls from a segment of the opposition, among them a faction of ex-president Laurent Gbagbo’s Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) party.

    Clashes broke out on Friday between rival groups of Gbagbo and Ouattara supporters in the town of Gagnoa, in Gbagbo’s home region, and in Bonoua, the hometown of ex-First Lady Simone.

    “The pro-Gbagbos set up barricades and the pro-Ouattaras tried to remove them. From there it degenerated. They were throwing rocks and other projectiles at each other,” one witness in Gagnoa, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.

    Police moved in and separated the groups, he said, and there were no immediate reports of injuries. In Bonoua, police fired tear gas to disperse rival groups, who also threw stones.

    On Thursday, at least one person was killed and others injured near Bayota, a town in Ivory Coast’s cocoa-rich west.

    “The FPI asks its militants, but also the entire Ivorian population, to once again mobilise to continue peaceful demonstrations in the next days,” Boubakar Kone, a spokesman for FPI hardliners, said in a statement.