"We have to be clear about one thing. Cote d’Ivoire, like many African countries, is not yet a democratic state. We are a democratizing state. We experienced thirty years of single-party regime from 1960 to 1990. We experienced ten years of fairly chaotic democratization, which culminated in ten months of military regime. These are the negative factors. On the positive side, we truly have a population that is thirsting for liberty, democratization and transparency. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the cabinet that I have assembled to carry on the democratization work and to complete the process. That’s our primary mission."
January 1, 1970
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Laurent_Gbagbo