Word: houphouet
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Billboards picturing Houphouet-Boigny, 86, are everywhere. They show Le Vieux in a charcoal-gray leisure suit surrounded by enthusiastic young Ivory Coasters, the camera angle chosen to make the tiny President look as tall as everyone else. Houphouet is regarded as a master politician. Says a Western diplomat: "When the Ivory Coast won a regional soccer game, everyone was convinced it was because Houphouet managed to buy off the other teams. They feel he is capable of anything...
...Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in Yamoussoukro, he will be consecrating the biggest church on the African continent. But critics of the structure, which cost more than $200 million, charge that the Pope will also be giving his blessing to the monumental extravagance of Ivorian President Felix Houphouet-Boigny. In response to questions about where the funds came from, the President insists that he used his own fortune to finance the basilica...
Embarrassed Catholic leaders have tried to stress the basilica's importance as a bulwark of Christianity. But others say Houphouet-Boigny has more earthly aims: to use the Pope's visit to clinch a seventh successive five-year term in the upcoming presidential elections...
Overnight President Felix Houphouet-Boigny, 85, whom Ivorians had been & conditioned to regard in reverential terms since he took power at independence in 1960, became an object of vilification. Step by step, the government gave ground. Houphouet-Boigny announced that he would relinquish leadership of the party at its congress later this month. Next the tax hikes were scrapped, and finally, two weeks ago, opposition parties were legalized...
...total control they have enjoyed. The need for foreign aid and the fear of social unrest drove President Kenneth Kaunda, Zambia's leader for 25 years, to embrace the idea of pluralism, but he has yet to schedule a promised popular referendum. In the case of Mobutu and Houphouet-Boigny, their utterances have contained a hint of "Apres moi, le deluge." These old-timers may be calculating that they can stand back, allow chaos to break out as competing factions scuffle for power, then return triumphantly. Mobutu's police did their part to encourage disarray two weeks ago when they...