In Niger, the presidential election is in two weeks, on December 27. In accordance with the Primary Legislation, President Mahamadou Issoufou shouldn’t be getting into a 3rd time period. Its candidate is Mohamed Bazoum, the previous Minister of the Inside. Within the opposition, Hama Amadou is excluded from the race as a result of resolution of the Constitutional Courtroom. However there are different heavyweights. Amongst them is former President Mahamane Ousmane, who completed fourth in 2016 with 6% of the vote. He solutions questions from RFI.
RFI: You criticize President Mahamadou Issoufou’s file, however does he not have the advantage of leaving on the finish of his second time period with out in search of a 3rd time period??
Mahamane Ousmane: It is just like the glass half full for optimists and the glass half empty for pessimists. We will think about that this can be a advantage, it’s true after we evaluate with the state of affairs in the identical nation just a few years in the past, and after we additionally evaluate with the state of affairs in different international locations. However I don’t suppose that is such an ideal advantage, as a result of the Structure, which is the fundamental regulation of the nation, exactly stipulates that nobody can in any case go additional than the second interval in a row.
So that is the glass half empty and half full. Financially, President Issoufou Mahamadou doesn’t have a very good automobile? Has he not succeeded in growing Niger?
I’ve the schooling, career and expertise of a monetary statistician. As for the Human Improvement Index, which is an artificial index for measuring governance, you will notice that in the course of the ten years of President Issoufou Mahamadou’s management, Niger, our pricey nation, occurs to be the final nation on the planet by way of human growth index. However whenever you take Nigerian residents, their appreciation will probably be worse, as a result of there’s uncertainty, lack of schooling, lack of employment. There you have got it, my evaluation of its steadiness sheet.
So precisely in the case of insecurity, has Niger nonetheless failed to withstand jihadist teams higher than its two western neighbors, Mali and Burkina Faso??
It’s proper. However I believe if the dealing with of the safety difficulty had been totally different than it has been right here in Niger for the final ten years, the outcomes would have been even higher.
What are you able to do higher?
Initially, the primary precedence of my program is to handle and largely deal with the water difficulty, on this Sahelian Niger desert, locked in, to handle the problems of agriculture, livestock, meals and the battle in opposition to rural emigration and emigration, this primary level is essential . Then the query of schooling. Make sure that our younger folks, slightly than being free and really receptive to jihadists and different folks’s sirens, are in work constructions both on the state stage or on the personal stage or within the fields, so they’re busy.
The financial development charge is interrupted by inhabitants development. Niger doesn’t endure from the supernatural?
It’s secure, however there’s additionally an answer to this. If a big proportion of public, and even personal, funding funds are invested in schooling, mentalities will evolve and alter or modify conduct.
The candidate of the ruling Nigerian Celebration for Democracy and Socialism (PNDS), Mohamed Bazoum, is taken into account the favourite within the vote. Does he not have a very good likelihood of profitable this yr with the PNDS report??
First, if it is the PNDS report, [Mohamed] Bazoum is overwhelmed even earlier than “competing”. If these are free, inclusive, clear, sincere, non-obligatory selections, sir [Mohamed] Bazoum has completely no likelihood of profitable. You see, the primary elections, which enabled Mr Mahamadou Issoufou to be elected President of the Republic, had been rigged elections. So now, if ever on this nation the occasions that occurred earlier than are re-edited, I don’t need to be a prophet, however I can guarantee you that there could also be difficulties in coping with the implications. Everybody expects a peaceable democratic transition. The folks of this nation attempt for peace. However amongst these answerable for its administration as we speak, there’s a categorical refusal, a complete refusal of political dialogue, a refusal to appropriate sure shortcomings which might be apparent. It is vitally harmful to go to a ballot in these circumstances and to consider that by doing the identical manipulations because the final two occasions, folks will nonetheless be affected.
Many remorse that the candidate Hama Amadou cannot stand. Nevertheless, he was not sentenced by justice to 1 yr in jail in instances of human trafficking?
That was proper, he was convicted and he was not the one one. All that is true. However I believe that the perform of our authorized system deserves to be reviewed in order that the judges themselves are extra neutral and extra unbiased.
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