Opinion: The End of a Political Taboo in Côte d’Ivoire

For years, criticizing President Alassane Ouattara in Côte d’Ivoire has often led to accusations of xenophobia, effectively silencing dissent and debate. In this insightful opinion piece, political and international affairs consultant Eric Agnero argues that this era is finally coming to an end. Agnero contends that the very forces that once championed inclusion are now perpetuating exclusion, making it imperative to re-establish legitimate political criticism free from identity-based attacks. He challenges the current administration’s narrative, asserting that questioning the president’s practices is not xenophobia, but a demand for true democratic principles and equality for all Ivorian citizens.

Criticizing ADO Without Being Labeled Xenophobic: The End of a Political Taboo
By Eric Agnero – Political Communication and International Affairs Consultant

For three decades, Alassane Ouattara and his supporters built a large part of their political legitimacy on a posture of being victims of exclusion. Marginalized during the “Ivorianness” years, they loudly championed a discourse of rupture: it was necessary, they said, to forever cast aside this deadly logic, turn the page on identity-based discrimination, and rebuild a Republic of justice and equality. This powerful discourse resonated with the hope of a new era.
But today, the facts speak for themselves: Alassane Ouattara’s power, consolidated for over ten years, is now doing the excluding. It narrows the political field to its loyalists, marginalizes critical voices, and drags its feet on delivering a certificate of nationality to a member of the Houphouët-Boigny family.
How can we understand that those who suffered so much from being treated as second-class citizens are today the first to brandish citizenship as an instrument of political purging?

From a Discourse of Reconciliation to the Reality of Exclusion
Upon his accession to power, Alassane Ouattara affirmed the need to cast out hatred, bury the ghosts of Ivorianness, and create a climate of unity. He promised an impartial state where origin would no longer be a fault line.
Yet, under his governance, the famous ethnic “catch-up” became a doctrine for accessing positions of responsibility. The promise of justice morphed into assumed favoritism, and reconciliation remained a slogan without genuine implementation.
The confiscation of a Houphouët descendant’s certificate of nationality is not a simple administrative blunder. It is a political act. A signal sent to those who, even within the historic PDCI camp, would dare to criticize or question the established order.

Disarming the Blackmail of Xenophobia
For a long time, criticizing Alassane Ouattara meant exposing oneself to being labeled a xenophobe. The past had left real wounds, and those in power knew how to mobilize them to muzzle dissent. But today, this strategy is reaching its limits: it can no longer mask the reality of a power that reproduces the very flaws it claimed to combat.
Those who, only yesterday, called for inclusion are now acting through exclusion. Those who accused others of Ivorianness are practicing variable-geometry nationality.
Criticizing Alassane Ouattara is therefore not an attack against his origins. It is a challenge to his practices. It is a demand that the government respect its commitments, that citizenship be guaranteed to all, and that democracy no longer be confiscated.
I myself have been called every name by “elder brothers” for whom I had immense intellectual respect. I will not mention their names here to spare them embarrassment: gorged on bile and the stringy soup of the republican restaurant, they would undoubtedly choke on an embarrassed burp.

Reinstating Political Criticism
For those of us who truly knew what we were dealing with, it is finally a relief to be able to bring back, after thirty years of wandering, the central question: do we want to live in medieval kingdoms, or sincerely embrace democracy?
It is time for Ivorian political debate to free itself from the frivolity of identity-based accusations. That one can, in this country, question power without being sent back to supposed hatreds. That contradiction is no longer equated with treason.
The new Ivorian generation aspires to a politics of merit, transparency, and ethics. It no longer wants a Republic where citizenship becomes a weapon, where political affiliation determines access to fundamental rights.

The Broken Mirror
The RHDP (ruling party) can no longer continue to brandish the memory of exclusion to legitimize exclusion. It can no longer drape itself in Houphouëtism while sidelining those who embodied it.
Yes, criticizing Ouattara is legitimate. No, it does not make us xenophobes. It makes us demanding citizens. And that is the true Republic.