Niger hopes to make history on Sunday when elections set it on course for its first-ever peaceful transition of power despite a raging Islamist insurgency and economic woes.
The world’s poorest country by a key UN benchmark, the Sahel nation has never had two elected leaders hand over power since independence from France 60 years ago — the last coup was only a decade ago.
The man who has been in charge since then, Nigerien President Mahamadou Issoufou, has gained high marks for announcing that he would hand the baton to his elected successor.
Photo: AFP
Two other nations in West Africa, Guinea and Ivory Coast, have been rocked by violence this year after their heads of state pushed through changes to the constitution.
They declared their counter on presidential limits had been reset to zero, enabling them to bid for a third spell in office — a move that triggered bloody protests.
“My most burning desire is to hand over power in 2021 to a democratically elected successor,” Issoufou said.
“This will be my finest achievement — it will be a first in the history of our country,” he added.
French President Emmanuel Macron has heaped praise on Issoufou, describing him as an “example for democracy,” while French Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian said that “the quality of the [Sunday] elections will be a benchmark for all of Africa.”
Others have sounded a more skeptical tone, pointing to the dominant role played by the army, which in 2010 forced out highly popular former Nigerien president Mamadou Tandja, who had his eyes on a third term.
Issoufou “isn’t bidding for a third term because he doesn’t want it, but because he doesn’t have the choice,” said Bounty Diallo, a former soldier and professor at Abdou Moumouni University.
Another flaw in the rosy picture is the absence of a prominent opposition candidate.
Former Nigerien prime minister Hama Amadou, 70, was last month barred from contesting the vote on the grounds that in 2017 he was handed a 12-month prison term for alleged baby trafficking — a charge he says was bogus. In March, he was given a presidential pardon as he was seeing out his sentence.
Mohamed Bazoum, 60, a former minister of the interior and minister of foreign affairs who is Issoufou’s designated successor, is the front-runner on Sunday, after a campaign dominated by the issue of security.
Niger is being hammered by militants from neighboring Mali and from Nigeria, the cradle of the decade-old insurgency launched by Boko Haram, and by armed gangs.
Last year, more than 250 people died and there were more than 250 kidnappings, UN data showed.
Militant attacks have displaced hundreds of thousands of people and have come closer to the capital, Niamey.
In August, six French tourists and their two Nigerien guides were slaughtered in the Koure National Park, just 60km from the city.
On Dec. 12, 34 people were massacred in a Boko Haram attack in the southeastern region of Diffa on the eve of repeatedly delayed municipal and regional elections.
“Our country is huge and surrounded by areas of insecurity,” Bazoum told the French radio station RFI last month.
“This calls for more means, especially more troops ... but without causing us to sacrifice what is necessary, which is the education and well-being of our people,” he added.
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
VENEZUELAN ACTION: Marco Rubio said that previous US interdiction efforts have not stemmed the flow of illicit drugs into the US and that ‘blowing them up’ would US President Donald Trump on Wednesday justified a lethal military strike that his administration said was carried out a day earlier against a Venezuelan gang as a necessary effort by the US to send a message to Latin American cartels. Asked why the military did not instead interdict the vessel and capture those on board, Trump said that the operation would cause drug smugglers to think twice about trying to move drugs into the US. “There was massive amounts of drugs coming into our country to kill a lot of people and everybody fully understands that,” Trump said while hosting Polish President
Japan yesterday heralded the coming-of-age of Japanese Prince Hisahito with an elaborate ceremony at the Imperial Palace, where a succession crisis is brewing. The nephew of Japanese Emperor Naruhito, Hisahito received a black silk-and-lacquer crown at the ceremony, which marks the beginning of his royal adult life. “Thank you very much for bestowing the crown today at the coming-of-age ceremony,” Hisahito said. “I will fulfill my duties, being aware of my responsibilities as an adult member of the imperial family.” Although the emperor has a daughter — Princess Aiko — the 23-year-old has been sidelined by the royal family’s male-only
A French couple kept Louise, a playful black panther, in an apartment in northern France, triggering panic when she was spotted roaming nearby rooftops. The pair were were handed suspended jail sentences on Thursday for illegally keeping a wild animal, despite protesting that they saw Louise as their baby. The ruling follows a September 2019 incident when the months-old feline was seen roaming a rooftop in Armentieres after slipping out of the couple’s window. Authorities captured the panther by sedating her with anesthetic darts after she entered a home. No injuries were reported during the animal’s time on the loose. The court in the
RSS