Innocent Kobena Anaky (born 27 July 1948Page for Anaky at National Assembly website .) is an Ivorian politician and the President of the
Movement of the Forces of the Future
The Movement of the Forces of the Future (french: Mouvement des Forces d'Avenir, MFA) is a political party in Côte d'Ivoire
Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern ...
(MFA), an opposition party. He served in the government of Côte d'Ivoire as Minister of State for Transport from 2003 to 2006.
Biography
Anaky was born in
Bondoukou
Bondoukou (var. Bonduku, Bontuku) is a city in northeastern Ivory Coast, 420 km northeast of Abidjan. It is the seat of both Zanzan District and Gontougo Region. It is also a commune and the seat of and a sub-prefecture of Bondoukou Depa ...
and was an adopted son of President
Félix Houphouët-Boigny
Félix Houphouët-Boigny (; 18 October 1905 – 7 December 1993), affectionately called Papa Houphouët or Le Vieux ("The Old One"), was the first president of Ivory Coast, serving from 1960 until his death in 1993. A tribal chief, he w ...
.John Rapley ''Ivoirien Capitalism: African Entrepreneurs in Côte d'Ivoire'' (1993), Lynne Rienner Publishers, page 64, note 48. He founded the Inter Transit company in the late 1970s and headed the company as its President Director-General. In November 1988, he participated in the constitutive congress of the opposition Ivorian Popular Front (FPI).List of presidential candidates Ivoire Sondage website . Anaky used money from his business to finance the FPI. Houphouët-Boigny loaned Anaky 100 million
CFA francs
The CFA franc (french: franc CFA, , Franc of the Financial Community of Africa, originally Franc of the French Colonies in Africa, or colloquially ; abbreviation: F.CFA) is the name of two currencies, the West African CFA franc, used in eight We ...
for the company, but Anaky allegedly used some of that money to support the FPI. As a result of his political activities, Anaky was arrested and sentenced to 20 years in prison. He was released in 1991.
In December 1992, Anaky established his own political party, the Movement of the Forces of the Future. Following the December 1999 ''coup d'etat'', he was arrested. In the December 2000–January 2001 parliamentary election, he was elected to the
National Assembly
In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...
as an MFA candidate in Kouassi-Datèkro constituency; he was the only MFA candidate to win a seat. Following a political agreement in 2003, he was appointed to the government as Minister of State for Transport. He headed a delegation to
Ouagadougou
Ouagadougou ( , , ) is the capital and largest city of Burkina Faso and the administrative, communications, cultural, and economic centre of the nation. It is also the country's largest city, with a population of 2,415,266 in 2019. The city's ...
,
Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso (, ; , ff, 𞤄𞤵𞤪𞤳𞤭𞤲𞤢 𞤊𞤢𞤧𞤮, italic=no) is a landlocked country in West Africa with an area of , bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the ...
, in May 2003 to engage in talks regarding trade routes through Côte d'Ivoire that had been closed to Burkina Faso due to the outbreak of the Ivorian Civil War in 2002.
In the midst of a scandal regarding the dumping of toxic waste, he was attacked and beaten by angry residents of
Abidjan
Abidjan ( , ; N'Ko script, N’ko: ߊߓߌߖߊ߲߬) is the economic capital of the Ivory Coast. As of the Demographics of Ivory Coast, 2021 census, Abidjan's population was 6.3 million, which is 21.5 percent of overall population of the country, ...
, who also damaged his car, in mid-September 2006; he was saved by security forces. He was excluded from the government in a cabinet reshuffle at the time of the scandal. Anaky placed blame for the dumping of the toxic waste on port and district authorities.
In early 2009, Anaky said that he did not believe the planned and long-delayed presidential election would actually be held in 2009. In a state television broadcast on 18 March 2009, Anaky called for the people to overthrow President
Marc Ravalomanana
Marc Ravalomanana (; born 12 December 1949) is a Malagasy politician who was the President of Madagascar from 2002 to 2009. Born into a farming Merina family in Imerinkasinina, near the capital city of Antananarivo, Ravalomanana first rose to ...
; Anaky was subsequently arrested"Cote d'Ivoire's MFA quits coalition government" Xinhua, 24 March 2009. by the Direction of Territorial Surveillance on 20 March. He was questioned and released on 21 March, and on 23 March he announced that the MFA was withdrawing from the coalition government, in which the party had held one portfolio.
Following a stampede at a football match in Abidjan on 29 March 2009, in which 29 people were killed, Anaky blamed youth leader
Charles Blé Goudé
Charles Blé Goudé (born 1 February 1972) is an Ivorian political leader, born at Guibéroua, in the centre west of the country. He is currently on trial at the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity allegedly committed in Côt ...