President Donald Trump’s rise to power has African leaders joyous, according to a former top official in the Ivory Coast.
Toussaint Alain was formerly a senior adviser to Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo. Gbagbo came into office in 2000 and was arrested in 2011 after refusing to accept the results of the 2010 presidential election. He is currently facing trial before the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. He denies all the charges against him.
At the time, President Obama and Secretary Clinton cheered Gbagbo’s ouster, and Alain told The Daily Caller in an interview Monday that the meddling by Western leaders in African politics has him and others hopeful for a change under Trump. The former Ivorian official said people were praying in African churches for Clinton’s defeat.
It isn’t just Trump that Alain and other African politicians like. The former Ivorian official now lives in France and said that he hopes Marine Le Pen of the French far-right National Front party wins the presidency. Behind this support of nationalists in the West is a disdain for the foreign policy of these major powers in Africa.
African leaders who are joyous about Trump’s election are afraid to voice their opinion and get condemned by France, the former official said. France to this day controls the currency in many former African colonies through the CFA Franc.
He added that African leaders are hoping that with Trump’s “America First” policies, there will be less focus on supporting opposition parties and rebels in Africa, which would in turn lead to stabilization and stronger economies. Alain believes that Trump should meet soon with an African leader such as Guinean President Alpha Conde, who is the head of the African Union.
The Obama administration expanded its drone program in Africa and dramatically increased the deployment of special operations troops in the region. Alain, however, said U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) and French military forces are similar to past imperialist efforts in Africa.
The former Ivorian official went as far as to say that the French have supported terrorists such as ISIS-affiliated Boko Haram and other rebel groups in order to justify their military presence in the region. During Gbagbo’s presidency, the French and Ivorian militaries clashed, and France was alleged to have been behind the arrest of the former president.
Instead of foreign aid and drone operations, the former official is hoping for the U.S. to provide weapons and training to African forces and allow them to build up their economies on their own without foreign meddling.
Alain bemoaned that the Obama administration followed France’s interventionist lead in Africa. He said Africa felt hopeful for Obama’s presidency as he was African-American, but ended up feeling disappointed.
A common joke in Africa, according to Alain, is “Martin Luther King said, ‘I have a dream.’ Obama said, ‘I have a drone.'”