{"id":854,"date":"2010-03-02T13:57:06","date_gmt":"2010-03-02T18:57:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/delicious.com\/url\/6b2d5f434914092db5046edaa8ebb2ab#tomathon"},"modified":"2010-03-02T13:57:06","modified_gmt":"2010-03-02T18:57:06","slug":"niger-junta-appeals-to-authority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2010\/03\/niger-junta-appeals-to-authority\/","title":{"rendered":"Niger: Junta appeals to authority"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like many nations, Nigeriens make a distinction between "political" figures and "National" figures. Of course this distinction is artificial and changeable: deposed President Tandja tried to position himself as "above" politics, as a justification for taking dictatorial powers, and see where that got him. But one of the most interesting re-appearances of the last few weeks is former President-G\u00e9n\u00e9ral (1987-1991\/3) Ali Saibou. At the time he was the weak consensus candidate after the death of Seyni Kountch\u00e9, hard man of the 1974-1991 military Junta. He vacillated about democracy, oversaw a brief bloody crackdown on dissent, and then gave up meekly to a citizens council and stayed on as a figurehead for two years. Living in obscurity, he has been visited by both the coup leaders and the PM in recent days, who hold him up as "a chief of state who loved Niger". With the other living ex-heads of state (Ousmane and Tandja) still active politically, Saibou seems sainted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like many nations, Nigeriens make a distinction between "political" figures and "National" figures. Of course this distinction is artificial and changeable: deposed President Tandja tried to position himself as "above" politics, as a justification for taking dictatorial powers, and see where that got him. But one of the most interesting re-appearances of the last few weeks is former President-G\u00e9n\u00e9ral (1987-1991\/3) Ali Saibou. At the time he was the weak consensus candidate after the death of Seyni Kountch\u00e9, hard man of the 1974-1991 military Junta. He vacillated about democracy, oversaw a brief bloody crackdown on dissent, and then gave up meekly to a citizens council and stayed on as a figurehead for two years. Living in obscurity, he has been visited by both the coup leaders and the PM in recent days, who hold him up as "a chief of state who loved Niger". With the other living ex-heads of state (Ousmane and Tandja) still active politically, Saibou seems sainted.<\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[107,66],"tags":[297,249,298,83],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1334,"url":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2010\/03\/niger-junta-arrest-former-tandja-offical-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":854,"position":0},"title":"Niger: Junta arrest former Tandja offical","date":"March 16, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Kassoum Moctar, a Tandja loyalist plucked from obscurity to become Minister of Communications and spokesman during 2009's 6th Republic, was arrested in Niamey today. Apparently he is being held in connection with his continuing public demands tha...","rel":"","context":"In "Afrique"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":856,"url":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2010\/03\/niger-more-tandja-loyalists-freed\/","url_meta":{"origin":854,"position":1},"title":"Niger: More Tandja loyalists freed","date":"March 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Lib\u00e9ration-Niger reports that three security heads were freed from custody: Col. Hamidou Ma\u00efgari, head of the 600 man Presidential Guard under Tandja was freed along with a Captain of the same unit. Both were held at Camp Bagagi Iya, best known for the football stadium where the FNIS and Army\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":853,"url":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2010\/03\/niger-other-appointments-for-military-titans\/","url_meta":{"origin":854,"position":2},"title":"Niger: Other appointments for military titans","date":"March 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I've argued that continuity and inclusiveness is the watchword of the new CSRD junta in Niger. Some additional appointments announced today underscore this. Disgraced Tandja Military chief and co-conspirator General Moumouni Boure\u00efma's aide Col Abdou Sidikou Issa is one of the main field commanders to rise from the 99 coup.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1002,"url":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2010\/04\/niger-interior-minister-climbs-down\/","url_meta":{"origin":854,"position":3},"title":"Niger: Interior Minister climbs down","date":"April 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Following court complaints lodged by lawyers for the 17 Tandja Ministers and loyalists Friday morning, Junta Interior Minister Ousmane Ciss\u00e9 has climbed down, stating that 14 of them \"will be released\" \"for the sake of social peace.\" Tandja...","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":935,"url":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2010\/03\/niger-did-the-coup-sink-the-areva-deal-no\/","url_meta":{"origin":854,"position":4},"title":"Niger: Did the coup sink the AREVA deal? No.","date":"March 11, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I.S. Gaoh of LE TEMOIN argues that the just announced scaling back of Areva's Imouraren mine schedule shows that backers of the coup (Hama Amadou?) were part of an agreement that AREVA would get a better uranium deal if Tandja was overthrown. This is built on the false assumption that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Afrique"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":855,"url":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2010\/03\/niger-junta-names-new-military-joint-chiefs\/","url_meta":{"origin":854,"position":5},"title":"Niger: Junta names new military joint chiefs","date":"March 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"While Monday's announcement kicked three long standing generals up to provisional ministers, the junta in Niger has named the new joint chiefs, with continuity to the fore (again). Those how moved up to ministerial positions were replaced by their adjutants. Air Corps General Souleymane (Seyni) Salou, one of the four\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1mYFK-dM","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}