Former Associate Professor of Linguistics at the National University of Côte d'Ivoire in Abidjan, I was fired on the 15th of January 1988, without any hearing whatsoever, from my tenured professorship by a presidential decree issued in the name of the late president of Côte d'Ivoire, Mr. Félix Houphouët-Boigny. 

In October 1991, I was appointed by Mr. Laurent Gbagbo as the Representative of the FPI in the United States of America. In that capacity, I have been a staunch political activist on behalf of this major Ivoirian political organization here in the U.S. In that context, I created three chapters of FPI in the Washington metropolitain area (DC, Maryland and, Virginia), in the New York metropolitain area (New York City and New Jersey) and in the Delaware Valley (Delaware and Pennsylvania). 

I organized two visits to the U.S. of Mr. Laurent Gbagbo, an member of the Ivoirian Parliament and the current President of the FPI. During his latest visit in June 1997, the leader of FPI forcefully declared at the National Press Club that basic human rights violations, micro-management of the judiciary branch, and attempts at gagging the private press have lead to perverting the whole democratic process in Côte d'Ivoire where the ruling party is both judge and judged (Excerpts of his address).

The greatest achievment of my tenure as the US-FPI Representative occurred after the 18th of February 1992, when Laurent Gbagbo, several officials of Ivoirian opposition parties, human rights organizations advocates and, leaders of teachers' unions were harsely arrested, convicted and sentenced to prison for having organized and actively participated in a peaceful demonstration to protest against human rights abuses that occurred on Abidjan University campus, where female students were raped. 

With the precious assistance of some Washington and New York-based human rights agencies my organization lobbied the US Congress and succeeded in obtaining a letter of support for the political prisoners. The letter endorsed by 6 U.S. senators and 7 U.S. representatives was mailed to Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara of Côte d'Ivoire, on the 29th of April 1992. In this letter the U.S. Congressmen expressed their grave concern about the government actions to intimidate peaceful opposition parties and damage the overall climate for free political participation in Côte d'Ivoire. This action on the part of the U.S. Congress put pressure on the Ivorian Government to release immediately the convicted political leaders from prison. 

Since January 9, 1998, I am an American citizen. But, as a former Ivorian citizen, I do have first-hand knowledge of the socio-political situation of Côte d'Ivoire that is supported by the credentials I have just spelled out in the previous two paragraphs and mostly by my book entitled: Le Front Populaire Ivoirien: de la clandestinité à la légitimité, le vécu d'un fondateur (Paris, L'Harmattan, 1999: 240p. ISBN 2-7384-6219-7).