Guinea Conakry: time to turn a long page, and look forward

By African Bulletin on June 23, 2010

In this country incredibly rich with natural resources but classified among the poorest of the world, there is a strong hope to turn finally the long page of bad governance and plunder,  And return finally to a normal,  civil power and a democratic authority, after the disastrous and bloody period opened in December 2008.
The acting president, General Sékouba Konaté, is not a candidate and up to here, he is keeping the promised neutrality.

“The Guineans are coming out of a long and heavy sleep. Since the independence, it is the first time they can express themselves without fear. It arouses a real popular jubilation”, declared Taibou Diallo, a national member of the transition council. However, he made a wish that the unfortunate candidates will know how to grant their defeat, and  avoid of turning  shady.
Among the twenty four candidates, there is a stream of former prime ministers and mainly a quartet of heads that seems to get the public’s favours.
The Diplomat, Lansana Kouyaté, was named Prime Minister in 2007 with the support of the labor unions, while a powerful social movement made the regime of General Lansana Conté vacillates, before being dismissed at the end of eleven months. Sydia Touré was prime Minister from 1996 to 1999, and the favourite of the community “peulhe”, Cellou Dalein Diallo was also Prime Minister, from December 2004 till April 2006.
In this main platoon, only Alpha Condé can be pride  for not having any responsibility under the former regime.
This historic opponent, candidate for the presidential elections of 1993 and 1998, was put in jail without any trial, before the end of Lansana Conté ruling period.Today, these events made of him the favourite’s figure in the country. He has already delivered his own vision of the “change”in giving satisfaction to the fundamental needs of the people: Food, health care, education and finally housing and accommodation. Indeed, it is a vast and mandatory construction project, in a country where 55 % of the population lives under the level of poverty.