{"id":941,"date":"2010-03-12T10:19:07","date_gmt":"2010-03-12T15:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/delicious.com\/url\/33571c37bcac7329bbae6b4ab01eb4d3#tomathon"},"modified":"2013-10-16T20:23:26","modified_gmt":"2013-10-17T01:23:26","slug":"niger-a-notorious-baron-tries-to-woo-the-junta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2010\/03\/niger-a-notorious-baron-tries-to-woo-the-junta\/","title":{"rendered":"Niger: A notorious baron tries to woo the junta"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Zakou Djibo, or &quot;Zaka\u00ef&quot; as he is known, reappeared this week like a bad penny.  Zaka\u00ef, a Zarma businessman and political funder, was at the center of the 2006 &quot;MEBA Affair&quot; that brought down PM Hama Amadou, along with the equally shady Himadou Hamani of &quot;Sirign\u00e9r\u00e9&quot;. Zaka\u00ef had been a powerful force under the later Bar\u00e9 Ma\u00efnassara 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 &quot;Tazartch\u00e9&quot; supporter of the Tandja power grab.  <\/p>\n<p>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 &quot;offering&quot; of several 4x4s to the new CSRD junta returned, with the suggestion he sell them to pay the back taxes he owes.  <\/p>\n<p>While a class maneuvre by the Army, one can&#039;t but think that power always corrupts in Nigerien politics, and when it does, Zaka\u00ef will be back!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Zakou Djibo, or &quot;Zaka\u00ef&quot; as he is known, reappeared this week like a bad penny.  Zaka\u00ef, a Zarma businessman and political funder, was at the center of the 2006 &quot;MEBA Affair&quot; that brought down PM Hama Amadou, along with the equally shady Himadou Hamani of &quot;Sirign\u00e9r\u00e9&quot;. Zaka\u00ef had been a powerful force under the later Bar\u00e9 Ma\u00efnassara 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 &quot;Tazartch\u00e9&quot; supporter of the Tandja power grab.  <\/p>\n<p>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 &quot;offering&quot; of several 4x4s to the new CSRD junta returned, with the suggestion he sell them to pay the back taxes he owes.  <\/p>\n<p>While a class maneuvre by the Army, one can&#39;t but think that power always corrupts in Nigerien politics, and when it does, Zaka\u00ef will be back!<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-p\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2010\/03\/niger-a-notorious-baron-tries-to-woo-the-junta\/\">Read more &rarr;<\/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":[75,107,66],"tags":[249,262,288,325,359,569,360,358],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":217,"url":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2009\/06\/tazartche-update\/","url_meta":{"origin":941,"position":0},"title":"Tazartch\u00e9 update","date":"June 26, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Just when you'd like to put it to bed, the constitutional crisis in Niger continues, weaving like a distracted taxi driver: from sigh to scream and back again. I'll focus a bit on three events of importance.\u00a0 After Tandja sent out a letter lecturing the Constiutional Court on their decision\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Featured&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":878,"url":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2010\/03\/niger-council-of-ministers-names-former-pms-offical-secretary-general\/","url_meta":{"origin":941,"position":1},"title":"Niger: Council of Ministers names former PM&#8217;s offical Secretary General","date":"March 4, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Niger's state paper reports a preliminary meeting of Ministers were given instruction by the Junta Head of State Cmdt. Salou Djibo on Wednesday (3 March). A \"Secretary General\" of the Council was named: Mrs. Adama Saliah Gazibo. The report describes her as a Judge, which she is. But she was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blog&quot;","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":941,"position":2},"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 &quot;Afrique&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":186,"url":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2009\/06\/tazarce-death-throes\/","url_meta":{"origin":941,"position":3},"title":"Tazartch\u00e9 Death Throes","date":"June 19, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"It seems every time the Nigerien political crisis nears some resolution, it swerves wildly in the other direction. The inevitable end seems to be preordained against President Tandja, barring a true coup d'etat.\u00a0 But his cadre of supporters, comfortable in their offices can't face it, and are thrashing around looking\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Featured&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"Parties and Civil Society: \"Enough! To hell with Tazarch\u00c3\u00a9! Long live democracy and onward to change!\"   Tandja: \"You there! Dan Duba\u00c3\u00af! They're all turning on us!\"    Dan Duba\u00c3\u00af: \"Papa continuity!! The People are with us!\"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/dessintandja4.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1182,"url":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2011\/02\/nigers-elections-underway\/","url_meta":{"origin":941,"position":4},"title":"Niger&#8217;s Presidential Elections are Underway","date":"February 1, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The 31st of January saw Niger's Legislative elections, combined with the first round of the Presidential elections. Results are not yet known, and the top two in the Presidential race will re-run on 14 March. Here's some tools to follow it. The best immediate updates on the polls and count\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blog&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/Issoufou_Niamey_siege.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1254,"url":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2011\/03\/niger-lucky-seven-can-a-new-president-signal-more-responsive-politics-in-niamey\/","url_meta":{"origin":941,"position":5},"title":"Niger: Lucky Seven.  Can a New President Signal More Responsive Politics in Niamey?","date":"March 11, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Saturday the 12th of March will see second round voting in Niger's Presidential elections, marking a return to civilian rule and the beginning of the Seventh Republic.\u00a0 It seems certain that front runner and PNDS-Tarayya candidate Mahamadou Issoufou will become the first President of the new republic on 8 April\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Afrique&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/0000000000000000ListeDefinitif.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1mYFK-fb","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941"}],"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=941"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2021,"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941\/revisions\/2021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}