NIGER REPUBLIC TRIES AGAIN

The electoral commission’s statistics also showed that only half of the potential voters, 50.4% (or some 3.38m out of the 6.7m registered voters) actually turned out to vote in the race contested by no less than ten candidates; among them another former Prime Minister, Hama Amadou, who placed third with 19.82%, and a former President, […]

The electoral commission’s statistics also showed that only half of the potential voters, 50.4% (or some 3.38m out of the 6.7m registered voters) actually turned out to vote in the race contested by no less than ten candidates; among them another former Prime Minister, Hama Amadou, who placed third with 19.82%, and a former President, Mahamane Ousmane, who garnered 8.92% to emerge fourth.

So today’s second round election is a straight fight between Issoufou (born 1952) and Oumarou (born 1950). Both of them are seasoned and experienced politicians: Issoufou had been Prime Minister from 1993 to 1994 and President of the National Assembly from 1995 to 1996. He has stood as a candidate in each presidential election since 1993. Oumarou, on the other hand, has been Minister in subsequent Nigerien governments from 1999.

Oumarou was at first seen to be ineligible to contest as he was accused of embezzlement and arrested on 29 July last year by the country’s Commission to Fight Financial Crime (equivalent to Nigeria’s EFCC) on the allegation that he owed the state some 270 million CFA francs. Oumarou’s party, the MNSD, expressed outrage at the arrest and demanded his release; it said that the charge against him was politically motivated. On 2 August last year, Oumarou was released on bail and on 10 August he emerged as party’s presidential candidate at its congress.

When one hears tales of African politics and politicians, one hears eerily familiar tales. For example, going into the first round, the Nigerien presidential candidates vehemently refused to form any form of alliance. Each candidate apparently wanted to register his or her name as an also-ran. But in Niger Republic, they could afford to split the votes as they had done because they were not standing against any incumbent. The same scenario is unfolding to the south of Niger Republic, in Nigeria. Opposition parties are also going into elections which many fear may likely splinter the votes and favour the incumbent. And the opposition supporters are outraged.

Now that there is a second round in Niger Republic’s elections, the parties have consolidated. At the last count, 35 political parties have united behind leading contender Issoufou, while some others have pledged to support Oumarou. Much horse-trading was reported to have taken place but, it appears, from a well-attended campaign rally held by Issofou’s coalition a few days ago in Niamey, and the refusal of the other candidate – MNSD’s Oumarou – to participate in a presidential debate supposed to have taken place Thursday, indicate where the pendulum may swing.

And now this: “A President of a West African country, who has been a military man, and had been elected president of his country for two consecutive terms, wants to change his country’s constitution to be able to stand for a third term. The whole country is up in opposition.” Does this sound familiar to Nigerians? Ask any Nigerian to name that leader and, without a second thought, he would say “Olusegun Obasanjo.”

Eerily and interestingly, the exact same statement would perfectly fit former President of Niger Republic, Mamadou Tandja:”President of a West African country…former military man…two consecutive terms…wanting a third term…the whole country up in opposition…” Tandja it was who brought all this political upheaval to Niger Republic, because of his selfish desire to perpetuate himself in power. Same in Nigeria: Obasanjo brought this entire political calamity to Nigeria. And, by extension, those who brought Obasanjo upon us are to blame for all what is happening to Nigerians today.

The only difference between Tandja and Obasanjo was that the former nearly went away with it, but apparently went overboard. He sacked the cabinet, then sacked the National Assembly, then sacked even the country’s Constitutional (Supreme) Court, and proceeded to rewrite the constitution and had it ratified in a sham referendum which was not recognised by anyone.

Back in July 2009, we had predicted on this page (in a piece titled TANDJA’S ‘TAZARCE’ GAMBLE IN NIGER REPUBLIC) that what Tandja was dragging Niger Republic into was either chaos or military coup. And it came to pass: Tandja was ousted in a military coup in early 2010, and the new military junta enabled the opposition leaders to return to politics. Granted, Tandja may have done well in his ten years as president (their terms are five years each), but he tragically convinced himself that he was the only one that could continue the ‘good work’ he was doing; exactly as our own megalomaniac Third-Term wanna-have-been wanted to do.

For Nigeria, today’s second-round presidential election in Niger Republic is significant in many respects. Stability in that country is to the benefit of Nigeria, as chaos anywhere near us would spell trouble for us. For example, the instability (in the form of incessant civil wars) that afflicted neighbouring Chad Republic in the 1980s caused lots of crimes and brigandage in Nigeria’s north east, and we continue to suffer the consequences. Therefore a stable Niger Republic should be a desirable outcome for Big Brother Nigeria.

Another interesting lesson for Nigeria is that politics in Niger Republic, which used to take on some ethnic hues like in many other African countries, has apparently matured; the political discourse does not seem to veer the way of the candidates’ ethnic groups (Issoufou is Hausa, the majority ethnic group, from the ‘east’ of the country, while Oumarou is Djerma, the second largest, from the ‘west’). Nigeria is today in the throes of a North-South political discourse, brought upon us by a discredited ruling party, and so much bad blood is being expended.

Similarly, the collapsing of the Niger Republic political parties into two blocs for this second round is a lesson for our own politics and politicians. Many Nigerians are hopeful that the country’s presidential elections may go into a second round and, whether the opposition parties like it or not, only one of them may contest against an apparently strong ruling party candidate. If that happens, it is expected that, willy-nilly, unity shall be imperative. In fact, for astute Nigerian voters, there would be no need to even announce a coalition; they would know where to go and what to do. But if the Nigerian ruling party were to win the elections in the first round, God help us! And God help those top three opposition candidates!