As far back as the 1960s, Guinea’s president-elect Alpha Condé was already in opposition. Now, he will finally take his seat in the presidential office.

“I dedicate this victory to the people of Guinea […] My younger brother Cellou Dalein Diallo, I salute and congratulate him sincerely […] I will be the president of the change that benefits everyone.”

President-elect Alpha Condé in full rhetorical flow, addressing his country and the man he defeated in the second round of the presidential elections on 7 November. He won, because Mr Diallo appeared so convinced of his victory that he forgot to do what Mr Condé does best: campaigning. He has been doing it all his life: first as a student, later as a politician. So, who is Alpha Condé?

Left of centre
The facts are pretty straightforward: born in the coastal bauxite town of Boké in 1938. Goes to France to study at the Sorbonne – Guinea is still a French colony. He is an active member of FEANF – the Federation of African Students in France – a club for aspiring academics who want to make friends and influence people. After graduation, Alpha Condé becomes a professor at the same Sorbonne University.

Professor Alpha Condé has always been recalcitrant, much like his school friend, the just-fired French foreign minister and founder of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), Bernard Kouchner.

His sympathies have always been to the left of centre and he has walked the same international socialist path as President Laurent Gbagbo of Cote d’Ivoire and the former Senegalese leader Abdou Diouf, who now heads the International Organisation for the French Language (OIF). All good friends.

Death sentence
But while in Paris, Guinea’s first president Ahmed Sékou Touré turned Guinea into a vicious police state. Condé did not like that – and said so. The tyrant responded in kind and condemned him to death, in absentia. This was in 1970. Alpha Condé had to wait 14 years before he could return to the land of his birth.

Mr Sékou Touré died in 1984 and a corporal by the name of Lansana Conté took power. Sadly, things continued pretty much as before. But the world had changed: the Cold War was over and the West discovered democracy in Africa.

You can argue forever about the hypocrisy of it all, but Alpha Condé got his break. He and his friends built a formidable political opposition machine: the Rally for the People of Guinea, RPG. He came within a hair’s breadth of taking power from Mr Conté. The year was 1993.

Prison and torture
Five years later, the soldier had clearly learned from his mistake. Lansana Conté defeated his challenger by a wide margin and then had him arrested for endangering the state security.

This must have been Mr Condé’s worst hour, a traumatic time: instead of a man in his political prime at 50, he found himself imprisoned and severely tortured, until international pressure got him out in May 2001. He then lived in Senegal and in France. Once again he had to wait until the death of his nemesis on 23 December 2008.

On the same day, there was yet another coup and this time the wildly unpredictable captain Moussa Dadis Camara took power. But the final turning point was soon to come. In September 2009, 157 unarmed civilians were killed in the main stadium of the capital Conakry.

All major political leaders witnessed the violence, except, curiously, the veteran opposition leader Alpha Condé. Electing a civilian president had, by now, become inevitable.

Flaws?
June 2010: Alpha Condé runs with 23 others and wins a place in the critical second round. September: he runs against Cellou Dalein Diallo – and wins. If he is confirmed, Guinea will join a string of countries where veteran opposition politicians hold power: Abdoulaye Wade in Senegal, Laurent Gbagbo in Côte d’Ivoire, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in Liberia and now Alpha Condé.

But the race was tight and Mr Condé has his detractors. His long spells away from the country have led to the criticism that he is not really in touch with ordinary Guineans. Many consider him too rigid in his ideology. More practically, he has no experience in running anything bigger than his own party. So how can he be expected to run a whole country?

Promising sign
And then there is this thing called ‘the opposition mindset’. Abdoulaye Wade is a prime example. He is petty and vindictive towards his predecessor and seems to be fighting battles with the past, not taking his country forward. Will president-elect Alpha Condé defeat these weaknesses?

There is a first promising sign. In his first post-election interview, he said: “We need a big government of national unity.” If he manages to pull that off, he will have a chance of becoming the president who finally – finally! - delivers on the eternal Guinean promise of a decent life for all.