Niger’s President Mahamadou Issoufou has been in power since 2011, but was involved in the country’s politics — largely as an opposition figure — for more than two decades. Niger’s first civilian leader since its last coup in 2010, Issoufou faced his fair share of issues as president, but has enjoyed a largely peaceful period since his election. Here are 12 things you didn’t know about Niger’s Mahamadou Issoufou.
Sources: AlJazeera.com, Britannica.com, DW.de, MyAfrica.AllAfrica.com, WorldDiplomacy.org, BBC.co.uk
Issoufou was born in 1952 in the town of Dandaji in the Tahoua Department. He is an ethnic Hausa, and has been faced with long-standing ethnic tensions with Tuaregs and other ethnic groups in Niger throughout his presidency.
As is somewhat common in Niger tradition, Issoufou has two spouses. He first wed Aïssata Issoufou, a trained chemist and mining specialist, and later married Dr. Malika Issoufou Mahamadou, who has a background in tropical medicine.
After training in France in engineering during the late 1970s, Issoufou returned to Niger in 1979 to serve as director of mines, a post he held from 1980 to 1985. Following this, he became the secretary general of the French-controlled Mining Company of Niger (or Société des Mines de l’Aïr/SOMAIR), where he stayed until his foray into fulltime politics in 1993.
In 1990, Issoufou helped to found the Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism-Tarayya (Parti Nigérien pour la Démocratie et le Socialisme-Tarayya/PNDS). The party won 13 seats in Niger’s first multiparty legislative and presidential elections in 1993, at which point Issoufou gained a seat as a PNDS candidate in the Tahoua constituency.
In April 1993, Issoufou was elected prime minister when the PNDS and its coalition won the parliamentary majority. A year later, however, President Ousmane passed a decree that weakened the power of the prime minister. The PNDS drew out of the coalition, causing it to lose its majority. New parliamentary elections were held in January 1995.
At the time of the coup, Issoufou was serving in his new role as the president of the National Assembly. Political deadlock and resentment between parliamentary members and President Ousmane grew, and Issoufou called for Ousmane’s removal from office for “incapacity to govern.” The next day, Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara successfully took over the government in a military coup, arresting Issoufou, Ousmane, and then-Prime Minister Hama Amadou and placing them under house arrest.
Source: MyAfrica.AllAfrica.com
For four elections in a row – 1993, 1996, 1999, and 2004 – Issoufou ran unsuccessfully for the presidency. He finished second to Mamadou Tandja in the latter two elections.
During the decade-long rule of President Mamadou Tandja, Issoufou was the main opposition leader, often referring to Tandja’s attempts to retain power as a coup d’état. In September 2009, Issoufou was charged with misappropriation of funds and released on bail, a charge he claims was drawn up for political reasons. Issoufou left the country following his release, but returned in October after international warrants for his arrest were issued.
President Tandja was deposed in a military coup conducted in February 2010, and a military transitional government was put in place for one year. Issoufou was named as the PNDS’s candidate in the January 2011 election, which he won in a March 2011 runoff election with 58 percent of the vote.
Immediately after his inauguration, Issoufou appointed Brigi Rafini as prime minister. This was in accordance with the peace agreements that had been signed with Tuareg rebels in Northern Niger, which Issoufou pledged throughout his campaign to honor.
In July 2011, a planned assassination plot against Issoufou was thwarted. Army officials had planned to assassinate the president at a press conference to mark 100 days in power, leaving the office of the presidency open to another military coup. Members of the Nigerien military, including a major, a lieutenant, and three soldiers were arrested.
In the first major rally since his election, Nigeriens took to the streets in December 2013 to protest food insecurity, media censorship, and overall government corruption. The organizers of the rally, a coalition of opposition parties known as the Alliance for the Republic, Democracy and Reconciliation in Niger (ARDR), said 30,000 people attended the rally. Police put the figure at closer to 2,000. The ARDR was formed from 15 opposition parties in October 2013 as a response to Issoufou’s creation of a national unity government.
Source: DW.de