Anthony Benoudjita
Anthony Benoudjita | |
|---|---|
| File:A. Ouattara.jpg Benoudjita in 2018 | |
| President of Bamvango | |
| Assumed office 17th October 2014 | |
| Vice President | Oscar Kuol Arop Mosaab Arman |
| Preceded by | Oscar Kuol Arop |
| Leader of the Union of Progress and Development | |
| Assumed office 22nd December 2000 | |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Minister of Foreign Affairs | |
| In office 15th June 1996 – 4th September 2000 | |
| President | Abdallah Yaya Ibrahim |
| Preceded by | Solomon Kisitu |
| Succeeded by | Jonathan Opega |
| Personal details | |
| Born | May 6, 1945 Kamba, Estmerish Bamvango |
| Political party | Union of Progress and Democracy (2000-present) |
| Other political affiliations | Democratic Rainbow Alliance (2018-present) |
| Spouse | Marianna Ankunda |
| Children | 2 |
| Alma mater | Baiqiao Academy of Economics University of Spálgleann |
Dr Anthony Benoudjita (born May 6, 1945) is a Bamvangan politician who has served as President of Bamvango since 2014. He was prior to that an opposition leader as head of the Union of Progress and Democracy (UPD) from 2000 to his election as president, previously serving as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1996 to 2000 in the government of Abdallah Yaya Ibrahim.
Benoudjita was born in a Horo family in the city of Kamba in 1945 whilst Bamvango was still under colonial rule. He attended the Baiqiao Academy of Economics in Xiaodong from 1969 to 1973 receiving an undergraduate degree, returning to Bamvango in 1973 to work at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Benoudjita however left the country in 1978 shortly following the assumption of power of Kashim Shehu to do a doctorate of economics at the University of Spálgleann in Caldia, where he remained for the duration of the Shehu regime working as an economist for the Global Development Bank. In 1988 he returned to Bamvango where he subsequently became Bamvango's representative for the Community of Nations from 1988 to 1996. In 1996 Benoudjita was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs by then president Abdallah Yaya Ibrahim.
In 2000 Benoudjita resigned from the Bamvangan government over Ibrahim's plans to run for a third term in the 2001 presidential elections pledging that he would run against Ibrahim to restore democracy. Benoudjita subsequently formed the UPD although critics accused Benoudjita of being a phoney opposition candidate. The UPD came second in the 2001 election with 8% of the vote compared to the ruling Bamvangan Popular Renewal Organisation's 72%. Benoudjita would lead the UPD into the 2006 election where it got an improved 11% of the vote, but boycotted the 2011 election after fleeing to Caldia after facing increased repression from the Ibrahim government.
Following the ousting of the Ibrahim regime Benoudjita returned to Bamvango where he supported the interim government of Oscar Kuol Arop. At the 2014 election the UPD surprisingly beat Kuol Arop's Patriotic Front. Benoudjita subsequently formed a coalition government with the PF serving as president whilst Kuol Arop became vice-president. Kuol Arop and the majority of the PF would leave the government in 2017 to restart the civil war, although a faction of the PF based around Mosaab Arman (the Patriotic Front-Arman) maintain the coalition with Benoudjita. Benoudjita would lead a coalition of parties known as the Democratic Rainbow Alliance (DRA) dominated by the UPD to victory in the 2019 elections.
During his presidency Benoudjita has faced continual violence as a result of the ongoing Bamvangan Insurgency particularly since the collapse of the coalition government in 2017. Benoudjita has been credited for helping lead to democratic reforms since ascending to office and restarting economic growth. Conversely critics accuse the Benoudjita government of corruption, the centralisation of power behind the president and a small clique of advisors and focusing more on protecting the interests of foreign governments such as Estmere, Senria and Zorasan then the Bamvangan people.
Early life
Benoudjita was born on May 6 1945 to a Horo family. He was the eighth child and third son of an "assimlated" native Solomon Benoudjita who had fought in the Great War for the Estmerish army in the Bahian theatre and was a prominent local politician for the city of Kamba. Benoudjita's uncle Francis Benoudjita was a lawyer and would become the Chief Justice of the Bamvangan Supreme Court from 1962 to 1968. Beoudjita's family was heavily tied to the North Bahia United Party (NBUP) that opposed the governing Bamvangan National Rally (BNR) of the country's inaugural president Johnathan A. Akech.
Benoudjita was educated at a religious boarding school, the St Thomas Academy for Boys in the capital of Jombo, from 1956 to 1964. Following the overthrow of Akech in 1962 he was said to live in relative luxury as the new president, Joshua Ngakoutou, promoted fellow Horo people into high positions of power including Benoudjita's father and uncle.