INTERVIEW. Philosopher, traveling companion and special advisor to the President of Niger, Salim Mokaddem returns for “Le Point Afrique” to the crisis that Niger is going through.
Comments collected by our correspondent in Algiers, Adlène Meddi
You have known President Mohamed Bazoum for a long time, you taught philosophy with him at high school in Maradi: how do you think he is experiencing this situation? Did he have any intuitions about what was going to happen?
Salim Moaddem: President Bazoum is experiencing the current situation with great courage, serenity and responsibility; in fact, elected by the sovereign people of Niger, he has not deserved his elective mandate, and at mid-term, he is fully acclaimed by all the Chancelleries, the Technical and Financial Partners (PTF), the vast majority of Nigeriens and the defense and security forces (FDS). This sequestration, in the difficult conditions he lives in, with his wife Khadidja and his son Salem, with water, food, social, medical restrictions, and a lack of comfort, unworthy of his rank and his person, are not respectful of the political and diplomatic recognitions that the international community positively shows him due to his status as democratically elected President and especially since the economic, social and political achievements of his political program. Confident of being in the law, guarantor of the Constitution, he is the legitimate President of Niger, and he has absolute confidence in the future because he is fully aware of his task and his historical and political responsibilities. He has always demonstrated a humanism and an ethical style of speaking the truth and acting the truth which have made his reputation, his reputation, and which have allowed Niger to have a reputation other than that of poverty, violence and insecurity. All sectors of the economy are on the rise, and, and opposing the desire of President Bazoum to fight against the corruption of certain elements of the Presidential Guard, there was a political adventurism linked to the petty political calculations of men in the shadows forgetting that Bazoum is a humanist homo politicus and seriously in the service of his program and the Nigerien people, and, in this sense, he absolutely cannot sign a resignation that he never wanted, and even less under the pressure of infra-political blackmail resulting from calculations devious tactics leading the agents of this sequestration into political impasse. Everything is known and known about these twists and turns, both by the direct and indirect actors, and also by the Chancelleries which, perplexed, nonetheless remain determined not to allow anti-democratic, ethnic, anti-constitutional violence , take precedence over the republican construction of Niger. President Bazoum is very aware of his functions and duties as Head of State; moreover, he has a modesty and an absence of ego and cult of personality which contrasts with the importance of his program and the scope of his actions carried out mid-term: of his function), as well shown by the Polish historian, Ersnt Kantorowicz in his master book: The Two Bodies of the King, he knows that he has a profane body and a sacred political body which belongs to the Sovereign People.
He knew that the Presidential Guards, the military, in the broad sense - especially in Niger where there is almost a political tradition of the coup d'état - were elements likely to overthrow him; the information services regularly alerted him to plots, guard movements, promotions, bundles of information that made sense to him and the inner circle. Presidential guards, close security agents, intelligence agents, ministers, friends, technical advisors, informed him: he knew he was in danger (the Presidents, always surrounded by armed people for this reason, are all under close surveillance) and since the attempted coup aimed at preventing his inauguration, in April 2021, he was aware that part of the GP, structurally, for racist, political, mafia reasons, took a very dim view of his probity, his fight against corruption, nepotism, and his humanist, social policy as well as the commitments he made to civil society, the FDS, rural and urban populations, manifested by visible and tangible improvements in the socio-economic climate in Niger. We can also wonder if it is not for these reasons that there was this sequestration. President Bazoum, no offense to some, is very popular, even in Niamey, which is not his electoral stronghold. His style, his good nature, his very rationalist approach to things in life and his political philosophy appeal to all segments of society, except those who prefer darkness to light, cynical corruptions to real historical construction, personal shenanigans to republican sovereignty and the nobility of democratic virtues. We had informed him of the suspicious comings and goings of a few individuals; the elements of his close security and his presidential security also warned him of the malicious intentions being hatched by the people responsible for his protection. The treachery was undoubtedly predictable; not the political exploitation of the corporatist demands of the putschists. He took the risk of the position he occupies, without naivety or incompetence: he gambled on intelligence in politics. Unfortunately, stupidity exists and the tricks of reason are such that those who have recovered, adventurers in political matters, the situation can no longer act to govern as they wish because they have misestimated the political will of the President, his virtue, on the one hand, and the oppositions and conflicts of interest between the generals themselves. We are witnessing today what Machiavelli called the uncertain politics of virtú, of opportunity, of opportune moment: the opportunists have met their mirror reflection because those who have felt empowered to seize the opportunity do not have only reproduced the logic of those who had commissioned them for their dirty works. I will not talk about the singular reasons (retirement of generals, request for clarity of accounts by the President regarding embezzlement in the GP, “political” pressure for political appointments, role of future oil revenue in the root causes of this political tumult) because they are now known to all the actors, and that this would only reinforce what everyone agrees to recognize today: the desire to President Bazoum's fight against corruption is at the origin of his sequestration. This is why we must always ask ourselves who benefits from the crime in such circumstances.
How are Niger's middle class and elites reacting to this coup?
Salim Moaddem: I don't know what you call "Nigerian elites" because the notion is ambiguous: are they the traders, the big "Niameyzé" families, the academics, the senior administration executives, the rentiers, the high-profile politicians, men of influence, great marabouts, etc. ? All these social segments do not have the same interests and the same political logic. Let's say that the middle classes who are generally, in majority, for the republican order and civil security, social and economic stability, so that the business climate is serene, and that travel can be done without hindrance internationally and throughout the territory, are against the immobility, chance and uncertainty instituted by the junta. It is disorderly to see masses of children, adolescents, of adults wandering the streets of the Capital, and only there, at the risk of breakages of private and public property, theft and more or less violent acts of delinquency, and violent outbursts in the city. Furthermore, educated and informed, the middle classes are aware that this vacancy of legitimacy and these societal disorders benefit the advance of terrorists who actually take advantage of it to advance to the borders and raid villages; if this political anomie continues, there is also a risk of brain drain and disengagement of graduates and executives from political life. We thus see opportunists from civil society responding to requests from the Junta to occupy positions that must be allocated to people with real technical skills. However, we cannot say that it is currently the best who are assigned here and there in the technostructures and who spontaneously offer themselves to sovereign functions requiring authentic, highly developed technical skills and high levels of qualifications, often not logically compatible liberalization of civilian executives with the submission that a military hierarchy demands by the state, especially when it is based on opportunistic and private interests more or less linked to the logic of alliances and family interests. The working classes of Niamey, galvanized by the Junta and the ethnic feeling of belonging to the energy of the West based on a strong community identity, are rather opposed to the Nigerien middle classes in this respect: they want change in their lifestyle and standard of living, and they think that ethnic connections will then favor them in their demand for improvement in their material living conditions. The social and economic claims are antagonistic there. But it is true that illiterate and illiterate populations living on less than two dollars a day in urban and rural areas impoverished by insecurity, theft and looting by terrorist groups, do not see and do not experience the same relationship to real than the middle classes living in urban areas, being able to overcome water and electricity cuts through generators and motor pumps, and being able to take care of themselves, find shelter and eat decently. Fact,
The putschists put forward a series of reproaches to President Mohamed Bazoum for justify the coup. How do you feel about this trial against the president?
Salim Moaddem: It is enough to take stock of Bazoum's governance to answer this question: since he has been in power, insecurities have decreased against civilians and soldiers at the borders; boarding schools for girls make it possible to combat the demographic dividend and thus improve the fate of girls, adolescents and families, especially in rural areas; the recruitment of qualified teachers with the raising of the level of recruitment, the modification of curricula, the construction of modern schools with sustainable materials and architecture, the taking into account of national languages in school learning, the concern to develop professional training centers in all regions of the country, gave another face to the Nigerian school; roads and wells were built in remote areas for the comfort of the populations concerned; refugees return to their villages, following the peace established by military reforms and the new logic of strategies operated with the support of friendly countries of Niger, in previously dangerous areas (Diffa, Tillabéry, among others); donors, feeling confident, grant reasonable, enormous and substantial loans to carry out large-scale projects due to the rigorous and visionary ambitions of President Bazoum because these financial plans were granted to the Government on the basis of projects serious, rigorous and viable; oil exploitation has been accelerated by the construction of the largest pipeline in Africa (2400 km) due to deposits rich in gas and oil of very good quality in Agadem (and elsewhere in the north of the country) which must report to Niger approximately ten million dollars per day from February 2024 (120,000 barrels of oil per day); the largest hydroelectric dam in Niger was under construction in Kandadji (with Chinese support); the great trans-Saharan road which goes from Algiers to Johannesburg was nearing completion; the construction of large health centers and a large military reference hospital in Niamey with the support of German cooperation, will give the city of Niamey national and international influence in terms of health; the development of the banks of the Niger River will allow the improvement of socio-economic uses, and the maintenance and construction of paved roads by SATOM will give the city of Niamey a real urban dynamic. There are other projects in progress which have been stopped due to this totally indecent and incomprehensible putsch in political terms. It is enough to see the number of flagship international events which were then held in Niamey due to the influence of President Bazoum's policies to realize that he is recognized as a great head of state and that he has an influence which goes well beyond the borders of Niger. I do not know of any country at this time that did not find fault with economic and financial policy, social and prospective, of President Bazoum. He has charisma and moral and political authority recognized by all international and national actors. I can only refer you to the achievements of his mid-term career to realize that the criticisms made are unfounded. The recent G20 summit paid tribute to him. Let's take the junta's grievances: territorial security and the management of national budgets. Since Bazoum has been in charge of the state, security has never been so present in Niger. By strengthening aid measures for allies on the three borders, by insisting on the supply of ad hoc military equipment to the troops and by developing military training, while changing tactics on the ground, it made it possible to make the Nigerien army one of the most seasoned in the sub-region, to reduce terrorist acts against civilians and the military, to rationalize sectoral expenditure, and to reduce the unjustified expenditure of certain members of the Junta who sequestered him for personal reasons of refusing to support certain unjustifiable expenses. In terms of managing national budgets, the fight against corruption was one of his major objectives and he prided himself on being incorruptible: this is shown by the arrests of those involved in embezzlement of state funds, and the refusal to sign a resignation to leave the State in the hands of unscrupulous adventurers and without sovereignty objectives. I think these grievances turn against those who make them because they express their fact more than theirs. As the philosopher Spinoza writes, when Paul talks to me about Peter, I learn more about Paul than about Peter. And this is how the same people who have been in power for ten years balk when we start to look closely at their management of funds and when we reduce the scope of their comfort at the expense of the Public Treasury and the good of the people. Nigerien populations. Bad faith cannot sustain an argument for long when you are judge and party at the same time and when you denounce in others what you do yourself: we must not forget that the Junta is holding a family hostage and that she took power by force and without valid political reason. Bazoum's record indeed speaks for itself; and if ECOWAS, the AU, the EU, the USA, and all the UN countries, apart from the military-putschist axis, support President Bazoum and demand his release and the return to constitutional order, this is really no coincidence: it gives authentic guarantees of honesty and budgetary rigor to technical and financial partners. For the moment, the only country that wants to cooperate with Niger is China, which has no inclination to sell debt and cares very little about the question of private and public freedoms. The lawsuit against the President is therefore irrelevant and pointless; this is why the Junta is currently returning to the proven Nigerian nationality of President Bazoum while the Court has already ruled and decided because it has nothing to go on to blame him; as a reminder Bazoum was a Nigerien civil servant, professor of philosophy, minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of the Interior, deputy and finally President of the Republic. The xenophobic and racist allegations, in an outrageous and violent campaign that led to violent acts in April 2021 and an attempted takeover of power by force, were produced by the same negative energy that sequestered the President and his family and which suspended the legitimate and sovereign Constitution of the 7th Republic.
Algeria and ECOWAS have each proposed solutions including a transition period. What would be the chances of these two initiatives?
ECOWAS has never asked for anything other, with the support of the AU, the EU, France, and Algeria, than the constitutional return to republican order, the release of President Bazoum always sequestered at this time, and his return to his post as President of the Republic of Niger in order to duly complete his elective mandate. If Algeria has initiated mediation and proposed a transition period, it is certainly not to sideline President Bazoum. However, she begins to understand that neutrality is no longer appropriate when the conflict is internationalized to this point. France has taken a legitimate and legitimist position. Algeria has positions that are easily understood because it has more than 1000 km of borders with this friendly country, and has gained experience from the dislocation of Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, and does not want to have an endless and dangerous war on its borders. On the other hand, Algeria has economic and close relations with the populations of Northern Niger; she has never denied President Bazoum his legitimacy. The Algerian policy of non-interference does not mean that it does not authorize itself to act covertly to facilitate mediations and negotiations for regional peace. Don't forget that the migration issue is fundamental to understanding Algeria's position vis-à-vis Niger; it is directly exposed to the flow of possible wild migrations in the event of conflict on Nigerien territory. The Algerian Minister of Foreign Affairs knows President Bazoum well; and I do not think that President Tebboune appreciates the way in which the military is currently sequestering his Nigerien counterpart. In other words, no one has any interest in a transition which would be a way of transforming a de facto situation into a de juro situation: which would be legal and institutional nonsense and above all a dangerous textbook case for potential adventurers. The military issue is very sensitive in Algeria... You have to read and listen to what is being said at ECOWAS and elsewhere: the consensus is for the return of the elected President of Niger to his functions. Time is on his side and the putschists and their allies know it. Everyone has an interest in peace; except those who confuse war and politics. I refer you on this subject to what I said recently in the Grand Continent. There is no question of transition, or of suspending a rule of law which exists and which the Junta would like to forget. I remind you that President Bazoum did not resign and that he is currently sequestered; therefore there is a Republic in Niger, a constitution, a legitimate government and the uniformed gesticulations of a few adventurers cannot deceive national and international public opinion. The transgression of the fundamental and organic laws of the Republic cannot contradictorily authorize itself of the law or make the law without risking undermining the international legal order of legitimacy at the foundation of the States of law.
Is France being targeted directly or is the junta's anti-French attitude serving as populist fuel?
Salim Moaddem: France is an alibi to mask the illegitimacy of this tragicomic takeover. We are in the comedy of repetition dear to Bergson: we mime what happened in Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, using the same antiphons and the same anti-colonialist and pan-Africanist song with inappropriate Sankarist accents because it is not is no longer the same era, the same issues, the same circumstances, the same actors. President Bazoum is closer to Sankara than the generals who sequester him; I mean that he read (and understood) the authors of decolonization, the theorists of natural and positive law, the texts of N'Krumah, Sylvanus Olympio, Modibo Keita, Bourguiba, Fanon, and that he practiced the authors who wrote critical works during the Sun of independence and that he is therefore more able to talk about the fight against oppression than the putschists who are more, in terms of ideological references, on the side of Kountché and the regional Junta as well as Rousseau, Mandela, Nasser or Frantz Fanon. He made it his honey during his years of study and trade unionism and he quickly understood that ideological struggles or commitments had to take the measure of the new political situation, namely the collapse of the Berlin Wall, globalization, La Baule conference, the opening to new economic partners and the end of the great metaphysical narratives on the purposes and meaning of history. It would also be very interesting to dialogue with the Junta to know its ideological references and thus understand, if there is one, its logic of political action. Invectives, incantatory communiqués, comminatory litanies cannot take the place of a political program. It turns out that France colonized Africa in the 19th century and was for a long time in denial of the suffering of the colonized populations; it is enough to see how Algeria, which has really suffered very severely from the French presence on its territory, is wary of French policy in Africa: it took more than half a century for France to qualify and be able to name precisely the Algerian war, which it previously summoned under the signifiers of events, of pacification. The denial of history produces psychological and social monsters; Niger, like other French-speaking West African countries, does not escape the return of historical repression. However, it should be noted, so as not to be in systematic bad faith, that more than 13 million Nigeriens are under 15 years old, and that the putschists never knew the era of French colonization. There is therefore a fraudulent use of history for the purposes of mass manipulation to produce a utilitarian and national-chauvinist patriotism quite close to a populism dangerous for freedoms in Africa. Fascism is not about melanin or geography; it consists of masking the violence of impulses under a veneer of patriotic virtue. I inform you that the new national anthem of Niger, less paternalistic and subject to the archetypes of colonization, was rewritten and composed at the request of President Bazoum. The anti-French alibi therefore does a very poor job of hiding the resentment and lack of vision for the future of these viral juntas. It is true, however, that France has not been able to dialogue with civil societies, to propose cooperation other than that of financial and technical assistance, and that the Chinese, or the Turks, more discreet but very effective, United Arab Emirates, free from any incestuous relationship with African Governments, quickly built infrastructures facilitating the daily life of populations (bridges, road interchanges, dams, stadiums, hospitals) and exported everyday consumer products (fans, batteries, lamps , air conditioning, matches, mattresses, blankets, household objects and household appliances, etc.) which are visible and appreciated by populations. Informational warfare, as I call it, and social uses of the Internet did the rest. Troll farms based in Mali and Russian propaganda which proceeds in an industrial manner by bombarding the web with continuous false fake news and targeted false information (in order to produce affects of hatred, anger, fear, and revenge) reinforce the idea that France is the cause of all Nigerien misfortunes. This is exaggerated and somewhat disproportionate. This lack of lucidity and these hyperbolic distortions of reality prove that we are not in a logic of political emancipation but of arousing racialized hatred in order to produce a mass assent from the Junta worth a clear check for its errors. I call this attitude the Othello complex. It is understandable that the population, in a context of NATO-Russia war, falls into the scapegoat trap because Niger, to speak only of itself, obtained its independence in 1960, and still has to carry out historical work. and critical-reflective on his period of collaboration with the colon and with his auxiliaries. In this sense, an in-depth study of the political role of the armies in the Sahel remains to be done to show that today the juntas are no longer revolutionary vanguards aiming to liberate the people from enemies and tyrants impoverishing them and now in poverty, but they are rather opportunistic segments of society mimetically reproducing the Othello complex to do on people what the colonist of the 19th and 20th centuries did. Anti-French sentiment comes largely from unfinished middle-class resentments and repetitions of popular memories truncated and rewritten for the purposes of chauvinistic patriotism and adulterated identity. This in no way diminishes the colonial fact and the painful history of Africa which has been historically despoiled by slavery, forced labor, military mobilizations, exploitation of its resources, its division regulated by complex games of assisted and adjustable economies according to the needs of the countries of the North. France must take into account all this history of the negative, and the real suffering of the people, and, perhaps, promote, for itself and for Niger, a real development of the material and human potential of the country.
With nearly two billion inhabitants, it is time for Africa to emerge from political anonymity, particularly at the level of major international decision-making bodies and the UN Security group, on the one hand, and for us to on the other hand, do not reduce it to "elites" who are often "white masks", to use Fanon's expression, not reflecting the realities of daily African and Nigerien life in particular. For this, it is clear that Africans need developed societies, roads, hospitals, schools, universities, good governance and stable and respected constitutional and legal frameworks. There is no reason why the Continent should not play a major role in global governance if it scales up to its aspirations, its needs, and its real potential.
How could Niger, a country already suffering from poverty, cope with the international sanctions imposed after the coup?
Salim Moaddem: This pertinent question must be asked of the putschists; I don't see how Niger, whose economy now depends more than 60% on external aid, can develop on its own funds. Furthermore, if a rich, developed, benevolent country can help Niger, it will do so with the approval of international organizations and with a view to trade and commercial affairs which will have to put Niger further into debt in view of the closures of the current land and air borders. I think the Chinese and Russian governments may be interested in helping Niger develop; all Chinese projects that currently exist were signed under Bazoum governance. I don't see what the Junta can do other than continue in this dynamic by holding a speech that is schizophrenic in relation to the reality of the economy and finance. Reality cannot be circumvented or denied without it returning in a more or less unavoidable form: a country has outstandings, assets, debts, credits, investments, projects, investments, growth models and developments. I do not know that the Junta has proposed navigation maps and economic subsistence plans for the populations in this sense. It is in this sense that the situation is anomic: leading a country requires collaboration, contractualization, exchanges, openings to the social and economic world outside and within its borders. Improvisation cannot be improvised, in jazz as in politics. There is still time for the Junta to get out of this impasse if it is truly patriotic and concerned about the public good. President Bazoum will not resign because he is guarantor of the Constitution and he has sworn before the people, and God, to protect the Nigerien people and the legal, constitutional, and economic law frameworks which protect them from the law of the jungle. The facts prove him right: President Bazoum has protected the Nigerien people and secured the territory under his mandate more than the Junta has done so far. Niger has suffered, since the sequestration of legitimate power, more terrorist attacks than during the mid-term of the legitimate President of the Republic of Niger. Real Politik requires that we draw conclusions to know who protects the people of Niger the most and best. To answer your question, it is urgent that Niger returns to the bosom of the AU, ECOWAS and UEMOA, and that it finds peaceful economic and social activities, far from any hazardous adventure which does not find of political outlets than in the rhetoric of war, conflict, witch hunts, the logic of the scapegoat and in the demonization of the other, of the different. Carl Schmitt's theory concerning friend and enemy in politics is totalitarian in essence: in politics, controversy, criticism, contradiction, welcoming the words of others, listening, patience , and recognition of divergent thinking, are necessary. Sclerosing, unifying, homogenizing thoughts, are often not conducive to opening up to the complexity of the world and understanding the fine and multiple richness of reality. This requires dialectical attention to otherness and the articulation of the simple and the complex, the one and the multiple, in economics, as in war tactics. Dogmatism often leads individuals and groups to fall into fatal traps. This is why it is essential to know how to come back from one's positions and recognize one's mistakes in order to better move forward and improve. By definition, dialogue is the invention which makes it possible to put an end to the controversy whose etymology is polemos, war. This is why the Junta has the means to put an end to ECOWAS sanctions: releasing President Bazoum and returning to constitutional order would be a gesture that would move towards peace and reconciliation of the country with itself. The putschists now have the ball in their court: will they seize it to pacify the country and civil society? Or will they remain stuck to their position at the known risk of impoverishing the country and freezing Niger in its growth logic? In negotiation, autism is always toxic and harmful. I dare to hope that the situation will be resolved very quickly internally. Because consensus does not completely exist in the Junta as revealed by certain facts very symptomatic of the panic of the Leaders. The masks are falling as to the deep desire for change that was behind these demands from the Palace. The putschists now have the ball in their court: will they seize it to pacify the country and civil society? Or will they remain stuck to their position at the known risk of impoverishing the country and freezing Niger in its growth logic? In negotiation, autism is always toxic and harmful. I dare to hope that the situation will be resolved very quickly internally. Because consensus does not completely exist in the Junta as revealed by certain facts very symptomatic of the panic of the Leaders. The masks are falling as to the deep desire for change that was behind these demands from the Palace. The putschists now have the ball in their court: will they seize it to pacify the country and civil society? Or will they remain stuck to their position at the known risk of impoverishing the country and freezing Niger in its growth logic? In negotiation, autism is always toxic and harmful. I dare to hope that the situation will be resolved very quickly internally. Because consensus does not completely exist in the Junta as revealed by certain facts very symptomatic of the panic of the Leaders. The masks are falling as to the deep desire for change that was behind these demands from the Palace. will they seize it to pacify the country and civil society? Or will they remain stuck to their position at the known risk of impoverishing the country and freezing Niger in its growth logic? In negotiation, autism is always toxic and harmful. I dare to hope that the situation will be resolved very quickly internally. Because consensus does not completely exist in the Junta as revealed by certain facts very symptomatic of the panic of the Leaders. The masks are falling as to the deep desire for change that was behind these demands from the Palace. will they seize it to pacify the country and civil society? Or will they remain stuck to their position at the known risk of impoverishing the country and freezing Niger in its growth logic? In negotiation, autism is always toxic and harmful. I dare to hope that the situation will be resolved very quickly internally. Because consensus does not completely exist in the Junta as revealed by certain facts very symptomatic of the panic of the Leaders. The masks are falling as to the deep desire for change that was behind these demands from the Palace.
While the junta is bunkering Niamey by creating calls for terrorist groups in the rest of the territory, how do you see the evolution of the security situation?
Salim Moaddem: I am very worried about the security situation at the borders and outside Niger because attacks by armed terrorist groups (GAT) are increasingly occurring; In Mali, in recent days we have witnessed terrible attacks against the FAMA and civilian populations. The weapons of the irredentist groups and the GAT are, as President Bazoum said at the time, very powerful and modern. The Junta has accelerated insecurity at the borders because it recalled combat units to the capital Niamey, to secure itself, to the detriment of the security of the territory and the populations. This is a very serious and very anti-republican situation due to the abandonment of the population protection missions of the Nigerien armed forces (FAN). Which is all the more comical since the Junta justified its action of taking power by claiming that it wanted to bring security to Niger. However, it has only weakened it and demoralized the various army corps which are beginning to doubt the sincerity of the putschists' declarations and especially the capacity to protect Nigerien territory from terrorist incursions. Mali and Burkina Faso are there to show it: the military has its prerogatives eroded every day by united, mobile, well-armed and seasoned groups. It is time for the security and defense forces to do what they are tasked with and release President Bazoum. it has only weakened it and demoralized the various army corps which are beginning to doubt the sincerity of the putschists' declarations and especially the capacity to protect the Nigerien territory from terrorist incursions. Mali and Burkina Faso are there to show it: the military has its prerogatives eroded every day by united, mobile, well-armed and seasoned groups. It is time for the security and defense forces to do what they are tasked with and release President Bazoum. it has only weakened it and demoralized the various army corps which are beginning to doubt the sincerity of the putschists' declarations and especially the capacity to protect the Nigerien territory from terrorist incursions. Mali and Burkina Faso are there to show it: the military has its prerogatives eroded every day by united, mobile, well-armed and seasoned groups. It is time for the security and defense forces to do what they are tasked with and release President Bazoum.
With this succession of putsches in the region, should we see this as inevitable for the African continent, or at least in French-speaking countries?
Salim Moaddem: I do not think that it is in the DNA of French-speaking countries to carry out repeated putsches and coups d'état in Africa; recent virality is the fruit of certain inadequacies in governmentality practices in Africa. In particular, the role of mass education and citizen education is important. There is a whole invention of everyday life to be remade through the change of education programs, the detailed analysis of religious dogmatisms, of social practices linked to the absence of industries and civil societies organized around concrete development projects. , the revival of youth employment and the creation of historical horizons allowing populations to be part of a coherent and viable national destiny. Unemployment is endemic and it is very dangerous in young societies with high demographics (more than 6.7 children per woman in Niger which has a birth rate of 3.5) not to educate the populations. Survival takes all the time of life in Africa for the majority of the population; how can we envisage a future other than exile, delinquency, terrorism, when we have no general, technical, professional training, income, employment, or future? It is not inevitable for Africa to remain in this violence and misery; if you transform the living conditions of Africans, they will aspire, like Westerners, to peace, security, a radiant future for their children, culture, leisure and to envisage a future which is not made only expedients and emergencies to be dealt with. The fatality would be to believe that there is no way out, and thus to essentialize the difficulties encountered by Africans by insidiously assuming that they are totally responsible for their misfortune. To a large extent, Africa can decide to change its paradigms and refuse the spiral of violence and coups; only, we need viable and desirable alternatives for the people. Societies based on a consensus of law and security, with employment for all, quality education throughout life; Growth indices measuring concrete improvements in living conditions for populations are necessary so that the fatality disappears through the combined action of governments, citizens, and external partners. Finally freed from the constraints of the climate, violent dispossessions and daily corruption, Africa will emerge from the tragedy of Fatum and will make its development needs the grammar of its growth and the horizon of its real alienation from logics which de facto exclude from the wealth of the world. This requires ethics, a style of governance, a relationship with public affairs, a sense of values, a political program, humanism and real courage in doing and saying which the man Mohamed Bazoum precisely embodies.
What outcome do you see from this crisis?
Salim Moaddem: There is only one viable, reasonable, legitimate, coherent and peaceful outcome for the national and international community: the return to constitutional order and the release of the Head of State. The soldiers must return to where they have a major role to play, in the barracks and on the war field, and where the President of the Republic of Niger had assigned them. Imagine that, not wanting to retire or be assigned wherever your hierarchy sends you, you take up arms to forcefully impose your wishes on your hierarchical superior; how would you characterize this state of affairs if not by insubordination coupled with sequestration with abusive and illicit use of armed force, and in this case, coupled with an offense of endangering the Nation, the life of others, and taking a family hostage. I think that any first-year law student is capable of finding out what is going on in this scenario. Reason and law dictate, with fairness and justice, that President Bazoum be released, with his family, as soon as possible, that the institutions and the legitimate Government resume their sovereign mission, that the people and the entire sub-region are not no longer held hostage by a tragicomic imbroglio which is harming Niger and making the peace of Nations fragile in Africa. I know that many soldiers have republican values and are aware of their mission and of the impasse of a singular crisis which is taking on aporetic proportions and which now calls for republican and constitutional normalization for the public good and economic and social security of Niger. This crisis will be good in that it will allow us to know how republican freedom, order and security are not vain and formal values. Without this, anomie, socio-economic regression and the specter of social and political disintegration risk dragging Niger into a regressive spiral of dropout and impoverishment with no return. The outcome therefore lies in the return to constitutional order and the release of President Bazoum who will not resign. And the cards are in the hands of those who shuffled them and thus laid them out on the table; We must now be careful that this game is not the trap into which the protagonists put themselves. That there are requests to satisfy for the people, that there are functions and missions to review, that there are frameworks to establish and political mistakes to avoid so as not to be in a similar crisis situation again, we understand this well. We now know that the only way out of war is respect for the sovereign wishes of the people and the loyalty of the great bodies of the State to the commitments of respect for the law and the oaths taken to serve the people and their elected representative. Otherwise, civil society will be a jungle and the law of the strongest will create instability and permanent dissension which will make it hell for everyone, with the risks of contagion that we know throughout West Africa. to the Gulf of Guinea. If we want peace, we must therefore avoid anomies, legal irregularities and denials of the law leading to the most uncertain and disruptive impasses. The law is an anthropological invention to prevent conflicts and disruptions from being perpetuated exponentially and continuously in political societies; as things stand, whatever the societies and cultures, it remains the least worst way of living together and creating social and political bonds in the history of human societies. Finally, the Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism, its active base and its active and authorized executives, notably the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Nigeriens abroad, HE Massaoudou Hassoumi, and the Prime Minister in office, HE Ouhoumoudou Mamadou , as well as all regional and national executives have just reiterated yesterday, through an official declaration, the active support of the PNDS to President Bazoum, while demanding his release as soon as possible, the return to constitutional order, and his return to his functions to the great dismay of a group of non-representative leaders who obscurely wanted to make a takeover bid on the Presidential Party and have a motion voted on recognition of the Junta in power, against the advice of the Party base and outside of any valid and legitimate procedure. As a reminder, the Junta is recognized by the AU, the EU, the USA, ECOWAS and UEMOA, Russia, Algeria, as being totally illegal and outside legal and constitutional norms. This bodes well for the foreseeable future and the imminent return of republican order, despite the false information and fake news bombarded in Niger and elsewhere by disinformation and propaganda troll farms. and his return to his functions to the great displeasure of a group of non-representative leaders who obscurely wanted to make a takeover bid on the Presidential Party and pass a motion to recognize the Junta in power, against the opinion of the base of the Party and outside of any valid and legitimate procedure. As a reminder, the Junta is recognized by the AU, the EU, the USA, ECOWAS and UEMOA, Russia, Algeria, as being totally illegal and outside legal and constitutional standards. This bodes well for the foreseeable future and the imminent return of republican order, despite the false information and fake news bombarded in Niger and elsewhere by disinformation and propaganda troll farms. and his return to his functions to the great displeasure of a group of non-representative leaders who obscurely wanted to make a takeover bid on the Presidential Party and pass a motion to recognize the Junta in power, against the opinion of the base of the Party and outside of any valid and legitimate procedure. As a reminder, the Junta is recognized by the AU, the EU, the USA, ECOWAS and UEMOA, Russia, Algeria, as being totally illegal and outside legal and constitutional standards. This bodes well for the foreseeable future and the imminent return of republican order, despite the false information and fake news bombarded in Niger and elsewhere by disinformation and propaganda troll farms. the USA, ECOWAS and UEMOA, Russia, Algeria, as being totally illegal and outside legal and constitutional norms. This bodes well for the foreseeable future and the imminent return of republican order, despite the false information and fake news bombarded in Niger and elsewhere by disinformation and propaganda troll farms. the USA, ECOWAS and UEMOA, Russia, Algeria, as being totally illegal and outside legal and constitutional norms. This bodes well for the foreseeable future and the imminent return of republican order, despite the false information and fake news bombarded in Niger and elsewhere by disinformation and propaganda troll farms.
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