Tag Archive for corruption

Niger: A notorious baron tries to woo the junta

Zakou Djibo, or "Zakaï" as he is known, reappeared this week like a bad penny. Zakaï, a Zarma businessman and political funder, was at the center of the 2006 "MEBA Affair" that brought down PM Hama Amadou, along with the equally shady Himadou Hamani of "Sirignéré". Zakaï had been a powerful force under the later Baré Maïnassara regime, but reoriented after the 1999 coup, returning to earlier support he had given to Hama and the MNSD. He reappeared again last year as an influential "Tazartché" supporter of the Tandja power grab.

This week he was identified as under investigation, following an arms shipment coming into the country under his name (probably from before the coup). Now are reports he had a "offering" of several 4x4s to the new CSRD junta returned, with the suggestion he sell them to pay the back taxes he owes.

While a class maneuvre by the Army, one can't but think that power always corrupts in Nigerien politics, and when it does, Zakaï will be back!

Niger: Tandja’s spymaster’s wasted funds

"Norbert" in Niamey's "Le Courrier" paper has interesting piece on the ineffectiveness of Tandja's Interior Minister Abouba Albadé. Albadé, a Tandja-ist of the first water served briefly as PM and importantly headed up the police and internal paramiltary (FNIS) services. He was one of the men most associated with Tandja's power grab. While the author refers to Albadé's well funded "Gestapo", the fall of the President suggests those funds may have gone somewhere other than for intelligence. Le Courrier repeats rumors that Albadé was getting 120,000 Euros a year directly from Tandja. When PM Ali Gamatie (on whom the writer hangs the Hausa slur "Bak'in Bature" : essentially "an Uncle Tom") tried to cut the funds, Albadé went over his head to keep them. The piece ends with a bizarrely obscure Diderot quote from his 1769 harangue against Frederick II ("Pages contre un tyran"), saying that when power praise "truth" while lying, people may only yearn for truth even more. True?