The governance and achievements of President Bazoum in two years.
Interview Iyya info / June 2023
Salim Mokaddem is associate professor of philosophy at the Faculty of Education of the University of Montpellier. A founding member of the PNDS-Tarayya, he taught philosophy, notably with President Bazoum, at the Dan Baskoré General High School in Maradi. He is currently Special Adviser, Head of the education unit at the Presidency of Niger and gives us, here, a uncompromising analysis of the performance of the President of the Republic Mohamed Bazoum of the last two years of governance.
Two years ago, Mohamed Bazoum was sworn in as President of the Republic of Niger. The speech he made on April 2, 2021 was well received by almost all Nigeriens. Through this speech, President Bazoum unveiled the main challenges he intends to tackle during his first term. These include, among others, the challenges of governance, insecurity (of course physical insecurity and food insecurity), education, demography and youth employment. In your capacity as Special Adviser, Head of the Education unit at the Presidency of the Republic, what could you tell us about what has been concretely done in the education sector?
In the education sector, many things have been done, which have already been said and recalled by the members of the Government and the ministers in charge of Renaissance 4 actions in the education and training sector in the broad sense. As a reminder, the teacher training program has been revised; the curricula of schoolchildren, college students, high school students as well; the hut classrooms are being replaced by buildings more suited to the requirements of SDG 4 and compliance with the CIDE (International Convention on the Rights of the Child) recalled by President Bazoum's sectoral program; the controlled continuation of the construction of girls' boarding schools is on track; the qualitative and quantitative recruitment of teachers and contract workers is proceeding as planned; the verification and control of budgets and the monitoring of expenditure at the level of the ministries and technical services concerned are carried out by the appropriate services; verifications of titles, diplomas, examinations in order to meet standardized academic and scientific criteria have been carried out; the pedagogical and didactic upgrades of the personnel in charge of educating the students are in progress; the redefinition and framing of the administrative and accounting steering of educational establishments are currently under study at an advanced stage; the focus is maintained on Niger's human capital needs through a specific focus on establishments of excellence and scientific and technical training in particular; the increase in budgetary and technical aid, and that of scholarships in higher education is positive; taking into account the social, economic and cultural difficulties of dropout students and populations of working age (trade unions, COGES, civil society actors, TFPs, national and international humanitarian associations, private foundations, etc.). I am not going, moreover, to repeat to you in figures and statistics what everyone knows, namely, in the programming of the 2023 budget, the actual increase in the funds devoted to the construction of schools in order to meet the enormous needs of the Niger, given its GDP, its birth and fertility rate, disaster and emergency situations in the sectors of internal security, national defense, water crises, climate shock, border conflicts and the ongoing war in Europe, which are impacting, after Covid 19, the limited and generalized economy of the World and especially schooling in rural areas is ensured by the local actions of the DRENs, among others, and of the MEN; the sustained attention to the informal, private, religious sector in the educational act is only increasing (even if it still remains inchoative); the increase in the inclusive educational span is well underway to integrate, adapt, include, those excluded from the school system; the dialogue is constant and open with the partners of the Niger School. Note, however, that the economic growth rate of 11.5% for 2022, announced by the Prime Minister, is remarkable in view of this rapid panorama and in this more than difficult context. Niger remains a stable country, in development and which attracts productive investments because of its economic health and the realistic rationality of its political program and government. To answer your question briefly, I would say that it now remains to ensure that teachers, professors and trainers in Niger become practical and organic intellectuals capable of mastering basic knowledge (reading, writing, counting, to think critically) in order to ensure that students can be able to work, as soon as possible, independently and that they can continue their learning in a continuous and assiduous manner, whatever the social, geographical, culture that is theirs. For that, like all the countries in the world which are experiencing an education crisis and shortcomings in terms of recruitment and training in the educational world, it is necessary to restore letters of nobility to a profession and a function which pertaining to the institution of Humanity and which require competent women and men who are aware of their task. Ethics - which is, in my opinion, the meeting in the sensible of the intelligible - and deontology are therefore essential in the fields of training in order to make teachers activists of knowledge and active human torches of the Republic of Niger under construction. We can notice the success rates compared to the increase in the Brevet and Baccalaureate exams, as we can also point to the quantitative improvements in the rates of stabilization and increase in school populations and the concomitant drop in the dropout rates; INNS keeps precise accounts of these coefficients and here we must salute the remarkable work of the sectoral technical teams, often made invisible by the effects of announcements, which bring up the basic data in an applied and meticulous way, thus allowing the actors and executives of the school system to better steer the educational machine in Niger. I am not insisting on international events of great importance such as the GPE in July 2021, the UN summit in September 2022, and the multiple and effective actions of the main donors in the sector. I will only recall that Niger finances up to 85%, on its own funds, Niger's national education system and that Niger has decided to increase the sectoral budget by more than 30% in order to keep the electoral promises made to the people, but, above all, in order to give them a critical, technical, professional and general, essential for its growth, its development, its well-being and its material and moral wealth. I will not, here too, repeat clichés; without education, wealth is doomed to disappear in pure unproductive consumption, and without consumption linked to autonomous technical production (development of primary satisfactions and proto-economic needs anchored in an autonomous agro-industrial sector), we will not be able to make Niger a relatively sovereign and independent country.
What is human capital? And why develop it?
The notion of human capital was developed in the 1960s by the Chicago School, and in particular by Gary Becker and Theodor Schultz. Human Capital is, in short, the idea that education, health and economic growth are directly correlated; the educated, cared for, polished, standardized human mass, according to criteria making it possible to invest in it a certain number of processes to make it productive in a liberal and capitalist regime, modifies the economic product of the country per inhabitant. The concept of human capital therefore assumes all the capacities, structures, infrastructures, superstructures necessary to make a human being able to produce wealth and goods in a standardized and defined economic perspective, once again, for make it short, within the framework of a historical and civilizational vision specific to entrepreneurial liberalism and the market economy in a system of more or less controlled exchanges of goods and services. It is more than necessary to develop it because, without human capital, you cannot operate a machine, a company, a modernized, industrialized, highly technical society. The process of taking human capital into account does not date from Burton, as is claimed a little too ingenuously. The owner of the forces of production knows well that the most sophisticated productive forces will always require actors, specialized, qualified workers, executives, engineers, managers, able to orient practices, production processes, technical actions, skills, as we like to say today, in order to connect the economy to training without wasting time on diplomacy; Since the Bologna Process (1998) and the current recessions, the harmonization of education systems and the crises of the social systems of distribution of income from Capital put the questions of education and training at the very heart of the processes of production and investment of financial income from production. I am working on this for an upcoming symposium between experienced economists on the effects of the virtualization of the economy on the scale of globalization; the classical theories of value are still current and relevant in the analysis of wealth. The filter and signal theories of Kenneth Arrow and Michael Pence (Spence MA Market Signaling; informational; transfer in hiring and related screening process. Harvard University Press. 1974; KJ Arrow. “Higher Education as Filter” in Journals of Public Economics, 2, 1973) no longer holds water today to think about the always necessary development of human capital, particularly in the field of training and education. Investments in the areas of health, training, education, thus allow significant returns on investment; in fact, whether it is the State or the private owner, investing in the citizen or the worker is always a way of programming their economic and social development and of promoting well-being because the skills developed by the trained actors are invested directly in the professional, social and economic fabric. From a systemic point of view, it is therefore an intelligent way of calculating that adds value and facilitates productivity processes due to the values added by the actors in the economic and social field. When we therefore relate the expenditure made to “produce” qualified human beings and the development of the GDP, the ratios observed reveal the importance of initial training for poor countries and of continuing and higher education for rich countries. In any case, and since the birth of agriculture and the polished stone industry, each know-how is conducive to technological and technical development allowing the growth of powers through knowledge, know-how and know-how ; these last factors produce more and better. This is explained by the logical effects of circular causality of the phenomena of exponentiation of goods and services due to the continuous formation of added value in the economic circle of the commodity. The economist Joseph Stiglitz thus thinks that “Human capital today represents between 2/3 and 3/4 of total capital” (in Principles of Modern Economics, 2007). The introduction of algorithmic culture, together with that of industrial mechanization, produces efficient citizens who become direct actors in public and private enrichment. The economist Joseph Stiglitz thus thinks that “Human capital today represents between 2/3 and 3/4 of total capital” (in Principles of Modern Economics, 2007). The introduction of algorithmic culture, together with that of industrial mechanization, produces efficient citizens who become direct actors in public and private enrichment. The economist Joseph Stiglitz thus thinks that “Human capital today represents between 2/3 and 3/4 of total capital” (in Principles of Modern Economics, 2007). The introduction of algorithmic culture, together with that of industrial mechanization, produces efficient citizens who become direct actors in public and private enrichment.
The Welfare State could not have existed without basic, middle and higher education in Western countries. And despite the lingering criticisms more or less referenced to reason in the history of agriculture, we produce more and better, for example, in the primary sector by passing from the human yoke to the animal yoke, then, from the tractor to the machine -computerized multifunctional tool. This is why, it should be said in passing, that the notions of primary and secondary sector no longer have any meaning when industrialization makes a qualitative leap towards its overcoming by the measured and controlled robotization of agricultural tasks. The limits of human capital are quickly perceptible as soon as we see the effects in industrialized Western societies forced to outsource Labor at the same time as Capital due to the saturation of services by the cost of labor. and technical managers; Marx had already predicted these crises and one even reads among certain contemporary ideologues the idea that it would therefore be necessary to make societies less scholarly in order to preserve the margins of surplus value obtained during the Glorious Thirties. This would partly explain the civilizational decline and the current recession at all levels of post-industrial societies where entertainment, in the sense of Pascal and the Total Market, takes the place of viaticum and general policy of sensitivity and doxa. .
Human Capital says nothing more than this: an individual becomes an active subject and producer of wealth if he is trained, educated, cared for and supported by a society that recognizes him as such in organic links of interest.
Well-understood reciprocal thus allowing the social and economic repercussions of his skills in exercise in the world which produces him as an economic agent. Human Capital is therefore neither more nor less than a way of rewriting the social contract in the era of globalized Enlightenment by globalized industry and the world of cognitive digital technology.
It is a truism to say that Niger is surrounded by several centers of tension. Unlike some of its neighbours, Niger remains standing and is unable to ensure the security of its borders and the social tranquility of its citizens. What explains the security performance of our country?
What explains Niger's security performance stems both from historical data specific to the State of Niger, from structural circumstances linked to the international context, and from strategic and political choices made by the President of the Republic, Chief of the Armed Forces, with the support of military and police officials, and of a large part of civil society. It must be understood that Niger has always been able to avoid racist or racialist traps of a binary type: the north-south or east-west oppositions in which some political adventurers wanted to take it do not correspond exactly to social and daily realities. experienced by local populations and actors in the field. Regardless of the proponents of caste naturalism or the essentialists of a history stopped at the Sun of Independence (there is something to be said about this expression in the form of an oxymoron), Niger is a multi-ethnic country with multiple sovereignties; but, above all, Niger has gradually acquired, through the pain and tears of history, a central state and an organized administration, a disciplined army, an efficient police force and a wise and expert justice. Each of the actors of this sovereignty, being aware of a national destiny and of complex hybridizations between languages, regions, families, ethnic groups, and histories, builds, more or less, a singularity and a specificity of the Nigerian state. The people of Niger are a peaceful and hard-working spiritual people who know the price of bloodshed, vain polemics and unproductive and sterile war for its future. Also, there is a regional balance of appointments, promotions, skills and political tact is to deal with ethnic sensitivities and private powers in civil society.
In other words, despite the expanse of the territory, the uneven distribution of population density, the state of road infrastructure, the slowness of budgetary transfers (which are improving day by day due to the improvement services, the network of technology and communication techniques), the Nigerien is a citizen of a country, a state, a history, where identifications are never made in a substantial or identity-based way. The election of President Bazoum is the proof and the very example of this.
Moreover, the political tensions and the coups d'etat which followed these dissensions in Mali, Benin, Burkina Faso, and in Chad, to speak only of the bordering sub-region, marked by contrast the solidity of Niger's democratic power. and the republican desire for national security supported by an army aware of the advantages of a society of law and the risks incurred by a continuous instability of permanent contestation of sovereign legitimate power by factions or Falangist fractions of society. In addition, the Barkhane military force has withdrawn and deployed in Niger, a central place of resistance to fundamentalist, criminal and fanatical terrorism in the Sahel, due to its strategic importance and the capacity of the President, supported by his general staff. , to deal technically and operationally with within its means, to the problems of insecurity it has been confronted with since the collapse of Libya, the wars in Syria, and, more recently, in the Horn of Africa. International military cooperation (in particular with Algeria, Germany, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, Nigeria, Turkey, the USA) is very active in Niger for reasons that are both tactical (Niger is a gateway to Europe), strategic (control and intelligence hub of all kinds), economic (the trans-Saharan route will change south-south dynamics, as will uranium and gold reserves, between others, can modify debt service and miscellaneous investments), migratory (Agadez and the border with Algeria remain neuralgic points of human trafficking at the origin of all the other markets of infamy) and commercial (security at a cost and a whole economy of the military thing is called upon to guarantee security at the borders and throughout the territory). The confidence that TFPs have in Niger comes from the solidity of its army, in terms of military culture, and its loyalty to President Bazoum and the institutions he represents. Moreover, the funds allocated to the FDS and the triple strategy of local recruitment, technical training and the policy of purchasing logistical equipment adapted to the types of conflicts in force, seem to be bearing fruit. I recommend that you carefully analyze what is happening in Mali and Burkina Faso to understand both the strategies that worked and those that failed, on the one hand with Wagner, and on the other hand without Wagner. War is a skill as much as a balance of power; today, military intelligence (but not only) and the ability to anticipate and move matrices of multifactorial events are crucial to winning conflicts. Each failure in the field is a technical apprenticeship; each tactical conquest is an anticipation of the conflicts to come. Niger appears stable relative to the territories in permanent conflict that are the other Sahelian countries mentioned above; however, the JNIM and the ISS are getting closer and have inclinations for territorial administration. What these actors are sorely lacking is a political vision in the strong sense of the term. Religious fundamentalism is an ideology that does not hold when civilian populations experience massacres, theft of cattle and property, slavery, rape and unjustifiable cruelty in their daily lives. Similarly, a country cannot defend itself if it lacks patriotic fiber and a sense of community. What we are currently witnessing in the Sahel is a fragmentation of peoples (in order to foment ethnic conflicts to hide the desires for power and domination of certain armed groups far removed from any republican or even spiritual political vision! ) and an implosion of territories traditionally marked by the existence of the rule of law. We can think what we want of decolonization and the period of Glasnost of the National Conferences which took place in the 1990s (1991 for Niger): they nevertheless allowed the historical existence and manifestation of peoples united behind a vision of the State, civil society, development and republican politics in the ECOWAS countries and, particularly, in Niger where a real event, as much political as cathartic, allowed a sublimation of the colonial and dictatorial phenomenon to build and establish an authentic beginning of political sovereignty. Let us give thanks to these relatively peaceful events for having enabled Niger to enter the sure path of national dialogue, democratic consultation and the institutional contract thus authorizing a republican policy with legitimate parties, votes validated by institutions legitimately recognized and accepted as being the expression of a real desire to live together and to create a national destiny for Nigeriens and Nigerians. It is not nothing to attend the birth of a republican social pact and a political contract giving birth and rebirth to a nation. The whole policy of consolidating this Nation-State made by the PNDS, and particularly by Issoufou and Bazoum, is part of this pan-African and globalist visionary dynamic of peace, security, development, and dream of a world freed from useless and regressive conflicts such as the deadly conflicts we are currently experiencing in the Sahel and which are obscurantist acts of anti-State regression, as well as barbaric attempts to bring back Africa from the West in the Colonial Age. There would be something to say about what war is today, who makes it, how and according to what logics. We will develop this shortly in a series of high-level conferences with industry players. However, if you look at the maps, and you do a precise retrospective of the conflicts in Niger and in the area of the three borders since 2012 (since the coups in Mali and Burkina Faso), we can see that the war waged by Niger against the terrorist armed forces is similar on the one hand to what Colombia and Chile experienced in the 1960s, and on the other hand, to an attempt at terrorist destatization by the violent fragmentation of civil societies and the systematic looting of raw materials by non-politicized private actors in the republican sense of the term. Moreover, if you read, with moderation, the ACLED reports, which are authoritative on the subject, you will understand that the strategies of enlisting civilians to turn them into militias, or the call for seasoned mercenaries, without bad pun, to support the military, have limits which are those of the hierarchies of the standards and the costs in human losses which do not cease growing: if one makes the war or the shooting, it is either for a political cause, or to enrich oneself, or for both at the same time, but it is rarely a choice due to disinterested pleasure, except in a few rare and singular pathological cases. So to motivate the soldiers of the crime or the battle without a future, you need either a lot of means or living “carrots”: the conflicts can therefore only be more and more violent and more and more costly. Who has an interest in this now? And who has enough funds to invest them at a loss - for the moment - in a conflict with an uncertain outcome? Unless one of the goals of these intense heterotopic conflicts is to circulate money from dark economies to contravene classic investment games... but it is rarely a choice due to a disinterested pleasure, except in a few rare and singular pathological cases. So to motivate the soldiers of the crime or the battle without a future, you need either a lot of means or living “carrots”: the conflicts can therefore only be more and more violent and more and more costly. Who has an interest in this now? And who has enough funds to invest them at a loss - for the moment - in a conflict with an uncertain outcome? Unless one of the goals of these intense heterotopic conflicts is to circulate money from dark economies to contravene classic investment games... but it is rarely a choice due to a disinterested pleasure, except in a few rare and singular pathological cases. So to motivate the soldiers of the crime or the battle without a future, you need either a lot of means or living “carrots”: the conflicts can therefore only be more and more violent and more and more costly. Who has an interest in this now? And who has enough funds to invest them at a loss - for the moment - in a conflict with an uncertain outcome? Unless one of the goals of these intense heterotopic conflicts is to circulate money from dark economies to contravene classic investment games... So to motivate the soldiers of the crime or the battle without a future, you need either a lot of means or living “carrots”: the conflicts can therefore only be more and more violent and more and more costly. Who has an interest in this now? And who has enough funds to invest them at a loss - for the moment - in a conflict with an uncertain outcome? Unless one of the goals of these intense heterotopic conflicts is to circulate money from dark economies to contravene classic investment games... So to motivate the soldiers of the crime or the battle without a future, you need either a lot of means or living “carrots”: the conflicts can therefore only be more and more violent and more and more costly. Who has an interest in this now? And who has enough funds to invest them at a loss - for the moment - in a conflict with an uncertain outcome? Unless one of the goals of these intense heterotopic conflicts is to circulate money from dark economies to contravene classic investment games... Who has an interest in this now? And who has enough funds to invest them at a loss - for the moment - in a conflict with an uncertain outcome? Unless one of the goals of these intense heterotopic conflicts is to circulate money from dark economies to contravene classic investment games... Who has an interest in this now? And who has enough funds to invest them at a loss - for the moment - in a conflict with an uncertain outcome? Unless one of the goals of these intense heterotopic conflicts is to circulate money from dark economies to contravene classic investment games...
Niger is a relatively strong state which has an orderly administration, disciplined and loyal defense and security forces, and at the head of which a responsible President knows the problems of the borders and the interior, as well as the underlying contexts. regional and supraregional; let's not forget that President Bazoum is the son of a nomad, that he was Minister of the Interior and Minister of Foreign Affairs, and that he has a solid doctrine of military matters shared with the most powerful international actors in the world.
Responding to a topical question before national deputies in the National Assembly, Prime Minister Ouhoumoudou suggested that Niger experienced a growth rate of 11.55% in 2022, outperforming the WAMU countries. What are the reforms and actions that have made it possible to obtain this double-digit growth rate in an unfavorable global economic environment?
The growth rate of 11.5% which is announced by Prime Minister Ouhoumoudou for the year 2022 is the result of several concomitant actions of the Bazoum governance which continues in this the beginning of an economic, social, cultural, educational, health, judicial, in short, who embodies in a determined way the policy announced in his investiture speech and in that of general policy of the Prime Minister. First of all, the choice of men and technical teams is fundamental to understanding the good results of the policy pursued by the Prime Minister: Niger has
ministers, deputies, directors general, administrative executives,
competent citizens in all areas. The choice of men and women is therefore more than important to carry out President Bazoum's Renaissance 3 policy. Ouhoumoudou is a rigorous, wise, cautious, moderate Prime Minister, a fine analyst who has a thoughtful vision of possible and impossible actions to carry out and who shows remarkable patience. When we know the man, his culture, his rigor, we understand why he holds his ministers and knows how to advocate for Niger wherever he passes. He has a slow fake style, and he knows the terrain, the files, the people very well. Working with him is always learning; he has the art of asking the right little question which, ironically, will show the weaknesses of a reasoning, of a system, or force you to review your copy. He has an almost Asian art of diplomacy and an American-style pragmatism which makes him a very relevant and judicious political intellectual: thus, he knows how to steer his boat where he wants without procrastinating and getting lost in futile polemics. He's a real politician, shrewd, skilful, and who doesn't waste his time in quibbles: I noticed in him the art of the Zen archery. He does not look at his target but he always reaches it, nonchalant and efficient, like the knight of kyudo, skilful in negotiations with his target and quick in decisions to shoot his arrows in his center. He knows how to be dilatory when necessary, and always realistic in complex analyses. Also, I've never seen him humiliate anyone or show inappropriate emotions. He is the man of moderation, equanimity, diligent stoicism, and false bonhomie. Moreover, what explains these good economic results and this double-digit growth rate is the impetus given by President Bazoum in the fields of education, health, justice, defense and security: there is trust between Niger and TFPs, donors, the IMF and the World Bank. Also, the investments are productive and concrete (roads, schools, military training, defense equipment, etc.), salaries and pensions are paid more or less in arrears, executives are assigned to a performance logic and guided by rigorous roadmaps. In addition, President Bazoum has initiated regular and continuous meetings with leaders and both private and public actors in government policies: the Councils of Ministers are moments of consultation on the actions of the Government; meetings with professionals, economic and social players, civil society players, trade unions and partners, make it possible to take stock and progress reports on the achievements made or in progress, the reports to be made, the remediation and corrections to be made in governance. executives are assigned to a performance logic and guided by rigorous roadmaps. In addition, President Bazoum has initiated regular and continuous meetings with leaders and both private and public actors in government policies: the Councils of Ministers are moments of consultation on the actions of the Government; meetings with professionals, economic and social players, civil society players, trade unions and partners, make it possible to take stock and progress reports on the achievements made or in progress, the reports to be made, the remediation and corrections to be made in governance. executives are assigned to a performance logic and guided by rigorous roadmaps. In addition, President Bazoum has initiated regular and continuous meetings with leaders and both private and public actors in government policies: the Councils of Ministers are moments of consultation on the actions of the Government; meetings with professionals, economic and social players, civil society players, trade unions and partners, make it possible to take stock and progress reports on the achievements made or in progress, the reports to be made, the remediation and corrections to be made in governance. President Bazoum has initiated regular and continuous meetings with leaders and actors, both private and public, of government policies: the Councils of Ministers are moments of consultation on the actions of the Government; meetings with professionals, economic and social players, civil society players, trade unions and partners, make it possible to take stock and progress reports on the achievements made or in progress, the reports to be made, the remediation and corrections to be made in governance. President Bazoum has initiated regular and continuous meetings with leaders and actors, both private and public, of government policies: the Councils of Ministers are moments of consultation on the actions of the Government; meetings with professionals, economic and social players, civil society players, trade unions and partners, make it possible to take stock and progress reports on the achievements made or in progress, the reports to be made, the remediation and corrections to be made in governance.
Finally, the projects and programs for reducing mass unemployment through major investments in the primary and secondary sectors, budgetary transparencies and commitments kept in the areas of debt control and structural payments, inflation and public expenditure, attract sovereign and international funds because the State of Niger gives pledges of confidence and demonstrates rigor in its accounting public. What remains problematic is the price of money in Niger and the cost of credit for individuals and small businesses; the State therefore still has its role to play in enabling public-private investment and in order to control monetary flows in order to maintain inflation at a bearable rate (through a social policy of budgetary support and assistance to households for purchases base of basic necessities for consumption). Niger's growth is linked to an investment policy which does not leave aside the social character of the republican State, and which at the same time knows how to make Niger's physical, mining, energy and geological capital bear fruit. Uranium, oil, coal, gold, no less than Niger's geographical position at the crossroads of Africa (West, East, North, South, Center), are significant assets, especially if the workforce is qualitatively trained and the standards of good governance are respected. The confidence of the partners and the rigorous work of the Government thus explain the good results of the Nigerien economy, even if all is not perfect and that there is still work to be done to make the country happy and give it a future. comfortable. Getting out of the vices of debt and misery, war and endemic poverty, malnutrition and insecurity, this is the horizon of action of the Prime Minister and the Government. And the indicators are rather positive due to the rigor and ethics of the men and women chosen by the President and his Prime Minister. The reforms and actions that have especially if the workforce is qualitatively trained and the standards of good governance are respected. The confidence of the partners and the rigorous work of the Government thus explain the good results of the Nigerien economy, even if all is not perfect and that there is still work to be done to make the country happy and give it a future. comfortable. Getting out of the vices of debt and misery, war and endemic poverty, malnutrition and insecurity, this is the horizon of action of the Prime Minister and the Government. And the indicators are rather positive due to the rigor and ethics of the men and women chosen by the President and his Prime Minister. The reforms and actions that have especially if the workforce is qualitatively trained and the standards of good governance are respected. The confidence of the partners and the rigorous work of the Government thus explain the good results of the Nigerien economy, even if all is not perfect and that there is still work to be done to make the country happy and give it a future. comfortable. Getting out of the vices of debt and misery, war and endemic poverty, malnutrition and insecurity, this is the horizon of action of the Prime Minister and the Government. And the indicators are rather positive due to the rigor and ethics of the men and women chosen by the President and his Prime Minister. The reforms and actions that have The confidence of the partners and the rigorous work of the Government thus explain the good results of the Nigerien economy, even if all is not perfect and that there is still work to be done to make the country happy and give it a future. comfortable. Getting out of the vices of debt and misery, war and endemic poverty, malnutrition and insecurity, this is the horizon of action of the Prime Minister and the Government. And the indicators are rather positive due to the rigor and ethics of the men and women chosen by the President and his Prime Minister. The reforms and actions that have The confidence of the partners and the rigorous work of the Government thus explain the good results of the Nigerien economy, even if all is not perfect and that there is still work to be done to make the country happy and give it a future. comfortable. Getting out of the vices of debt and misery, war and endemic poverty, malnutrition and insecurity, this is the horizon of action of the Prime Minister and the Government. And the indicators are rather positive due to the rigor and ethics of the men and women chosen by the President and his Prime Minister. The reforms and actions that have even if all is not perfect and there is still work to be done to make the country happy and give it a comfortable future. Getting out of the vices of debt and misery, war and endemic poverty, malnutrition and insecurity, this is the horizon of action of the Prime Minister and the Government. And the indicators are rather positive due to the rigor and ethics of the men and women chosen by the President and his Prime Minister. The reforms and actions that have even if all is not perfect and there is still work to be done to make the country happy and give it a comfortable future. Getting out of the vices of debt and misery, war and endemic poverty, malnutrition and insecurity, this is the horizon of action of the Prime Minister and the Government. And the indicators are rather positive due to the rigor and ethics of the men and women chosen by the President and his Prime Minister. The reforms and actions that have And the indicators are rather positive due to the rigor and ethics of the men and women chosen by the President and his Prime Minister. The reforms and actions that have And the indicators are rather positive due to the rigor and ethics of the men and women chosen by the President and his Prime Minister. The reforms and actions that have
This good health of the Nigerien economic system is based on the rigorous management of public accounts and on the fact of putting competent and ethically irreproachable people in the most sensitive positions in areas of State sovereignty. We don't live in a ideal and perfect world; but the idea which directs the action of the Government has given the results which you know. One can always mention hiccups, slowness, negative actions, mismanagement in human resources and lack of judgment in job assignments, but, overall, the ship is moving on and the caravan is moving forward despite the real obstacles and border circumstances and structural emergencies that you know. However, some uncertainties currently remain, related to outstanding debt service and the global “tilt” we are witnessing in the world of currencies and globalized economies. Words are important: we are living a war between Empires for the economic and monetary domination of the Globe. There will necessarily be impacts on regional economies in Africa, and on the areas linked to these titanic conflicts. Moreover, the world is going through a crisis of civilization and of the democratic model which can impact the speculative possibilities of central banks and inhibit the growth investment horizons of historical development aid partners.
President Bazoum has always expressed his commitment to fighting corruption and impunity. Where are we two years after his accession to the presidency of the Republic?
Two years after President Bazoum's inaugural speeches and after the one addressed on the occasion of New Year's greetings to the great bodies of the State and to the Government, Halcia, the State Inspectorate, the relevant departments of the Ministry of Finance, have never been so efficient and important in their action because of the ethical commitments of the President to institute a healthy policy in the service of the people, within the framework of the public service missions and general interest of the State . The Bagri affair proves this enough, as well as the treatment of certain cases that have made the headlines and that have been sufficiently publicized in the way that you know as a press organ not to return to them here. Corruption, which is not only a Nigerien practice, comes under the training of resources and human capital. Right men at the right places. I think human nature is complex, weak and multiverse; in this area, morality or subjective will are not enough to sanitize the real political and economic world. There is no tolerable or tolerated impunity; only, there is a logical temporality of justice, another of the social world, and yet another of the world of ideas. Taking into account the logics of these worlds, being able to think about them in a synthetic way in the unity of a judgment requires a skill of critical lucidity and vision rare and difficult to find in today's world. What I can tell you, without revealing state secrets or playing the Grand Inquisitor, is that any power is more informed than those Right men at the right places. I think human nature is complex, weak and multiverse; in this area, morality or subjective will are not enough to sanitize the real political and economic world. There is no tolerable or tolerated impunity; only, there is a logical temporality of justice, another of the social world, and yet another of the world of ideas. Taking into account the logics of these worlds, being able to think about them in a synthetic way in the unity of a judgment requires a skill of critical lucidity and vision rare and difficult to find in today's world. What I can tell you, without revealing state secrets or playing the Grand Inquisitor, is that any power is more informed than those Right men at the right places. I think human nature is complex, weak and multiverse; in this area, morality or subjective will are not enough to sanitize the real political and economic world. There is no tolerable or tolerated impunity; only, there is a logical temporality of justice, another of the social world, and yet another of the world of ideas. Taking into account the logics of these worlds, being able to think about them in a synthetic way in the unity of a judgment requires a skill of critical lucidity and vision rare and difficult to find in today's world. What I can tell you, without revealing state secrets or playing the Grand Inquisitor, is that any power is more informed than those in this area, morality or subjective will are not enough to sanitize the real political and economic world. There is no tolerable or tolerated impunity; only, there is a logical temporality of justice, another of the social world, and yet another of the world of ideas. Taking into account the logics of these worlds, being able to think about them in a synthetic way in the unity of a judgment requires a skill of critical lucidity and vision rare and difficult to find in today's world. What I can tell you, without revealing state secrets or playing the Grand Inquisitor, is that any power is more informed than those in this area, morality or subjective will are not enough to sanitize the real political and economic world. There is no tolerable or tolerated impunity; only, there is a logical temporality of justice, another of the social world, and yet another of the world of ideas. Taking into account the logics of these worlds, being able to think about them in a synthetic way in the unity of a judgment requires a skill of critical lucidity and vision rare and difficult to find in today's world. What I can tell you, without revealing state secrets or playing the Grand Inquisitor, is that any power is more informed than those there is a logical temporality of justice, another of the social world, and yet another of the world of ideas. Taking into account the logics of these worlds, being able to think about them in a synthetic way in the unity of a judgment requires a skill of critical lucidity and vision rare and difficult to find in today's world. What I can tell you, without revealing state secrets or playing the Grand Inquisitor, is that any power is more informed than those there is a logical temporality of justice, another of the social world, and yet another of the world of ideas. Taking into account the logics of these worlds, being able to think about them in a synthetic way in the unity of a judgment requires a skill of critical lucidity and vision rare and difficult to find in today's world. What I can tell you, without revealing state secrets or playing the Grand Inquisitor, is that any power is more informed than those and those who want to make fun of him and trick him. And that impunity or the fight against corruption come under state, para-state, supra-state structures which have a completely unique temporality and logic of action. Hegel wrote in 1821 that the state was like God on Earth; I doubt whether in a profane theodicy one can escape his gaze. Even if he was discreet, not very talkative, and commensurate with his ambition.
To change the mores of Humanity is a great task; to fight against diabolical temptations, to remain within theological metaphors, therefore requires time, patience, intelligence and a great deal of humility. President Bazoum is betting on intelligence and ethics; and his bet is proving to be as bold as it is winning.
When you make this bet, you are no longer in the posture of the beautiful soul or in the temptation of the demagogic practice of immediate justice for
enthusiastic passions. To be a responsible Head of State is at this price: to live
in the stoicism of continuous passions to keep his judgment away from irrational affects and useless compromises. A certain utilitarianism
morality, as John Stuart Mill knew, is beneficial to the life of the democratic community for the general and particular interest.
Some media criticize the President of the Republic Mohamed Bazoum for not having presented the results of two years of his management. Is he required to do so?
President Bazoum has the humility to let his technical services make this assessment and to explain the management of his finances to the general public: can we blame him to have confidence in his first circle and to step aside in front of the actors techniques of his policy? I do not think so. However, President Bazoum demonstrates mediological finesse in his way of communicating
; there have been too many sleeve effects and sweeping statements in the media and communication services. A reform of the modalities of communication is underway, and it bodes well, given the sobriety and effectiveness it produces in the fickle, sophisticated world of communicational rhetoric. Indeed, concerning the links he has with the people and the governed, President Bazoum has always taken care to say what he was doing, and to do what he announced, and therefore to dialogue with the people of Niger and the Nigeriens, as well as with the friends (and even with the enemies) of Niger urbi et orbi: it is addressed in a timely and practical manner to whom it may concern, when and where it is necessary. Too much communication kills communication and, avid reader,
social networks, communication and information. The latter is a material as rare as it is strategic; it does not benefit from being disclosed without prior reflection on the relevance of its occurrence. The opportune moment, the kairos, of political discourse, of its address, of its emission, of its form, of its place of enunciation, of its ritual, of its own order, is determined by a type of urgency relating to the political analysis. "The tiger does not affirm its tigritude", wrote Sole Woyenka, and, often, the actions work the spirits better than the solemn repetitions of hollow and vain words. One could say in a synthetic way that certain words must give way to actions or concrete things. Magana a cikin aiki gaba aikin magana. There are moments to say what should be and what is and others to act and do concretely in the silence of the work in progress; performative speech is that which produces, even by its silence, the act it designates. The performative use of presidential speech is President Bazoum's singular style. No one can deny him his thoughtful discursive economy and his art of timely intervention which manifest a deep sense of the responsibilities of public speech and true discourse. The ethics of politics advocated by President Bazoum pass through this truth-telling and the use of non-rhetorical discourse aimed at putting words and things in harmony, as much as possible, with the sovereign power that characterizes and the knowledge that it mobilizes to act in the best possible way within the framework of its mandate. “To think and to say are the same”, for the philosopher, writes Heraclitus of Ephesus, known as the Obscure. For politicians, telling the truth and acting well are the minimum ethic. In this sense, speaking well sometimes consists in knowing when and with whom to speak so as not to derogate from this ethic.
Fetishism and the ritual of speech should not make us forget the Real that is in the making and the technical actions to be carried out in order to be able to speak at best of oneself and of one's political management. This prudence is not a restraint: it is the word that suits free men, emancipated from opinion and frivolous, noisy, evanescent, vain and inconstant entertainment, which often makes the life of paper tigers and the atmosphere change of plumitives. For the politician and the philosopher, speech is golden and silence silver. And gold is a rare and rot-proof material. Also, the thoughtful use of speech is a matter of political wisdom that must be appreciated and delegated. Of which act.
Your last word
Our era is experiencing great civilizational, material and spiritual upheavals; globalization is currently complete and the globalization of conflicts and moments of peace raises the question of the model of society in which we want to live. Niger is caught in the turmoil, the war between the great powers, the more or less healthy and perverse games of communications toxic (troll farms, fake news, tabloidization of the written press, ideologies conspiracies, facile dogmatisms, etc.). The material solutions to the problem of poverty and crises in Niger have been known for a very long time. The challenges of education and culture, training and skilled work have been well analyzed by President Bazoum; the essential remains to be accomplished. Namely the conversion of minds towards reflective work and thought in action. It is necessary, for Niger, for Africa, for the World and its destiny, that the rights of critical thought, Informed, erudite, open and universal in the authentic sense of the term, assert themselves elsewhere than in the clandestinity of scientific laboratories or in the midst of a few selected cabinets.
We have the ambition to put at the service of Humanity the work of thought to give our lives a horizon other than that of the repetition of the Death drive in a continued thanatopolitics because of this absence of thought, thought nevertheless necessary for truly human life, bearer of unconditional ethical values. To get out of the nihilism that the era promises us and actually promotes, or, to put an end to the gargling of self-satisfaction by reciting uncreative ideological mantras, to speak a language other than that of systemic wooden tongues, and thus to avoid the destruction of oneself, of the collective, I call for a Renaissance of the life of the spirit and intelligence, everywhere in Niger, where this is possible, on the part of intellectuals or actors of life citizen, whether by status and duty or not, mandated to think about the world. In order to affirm the values of peace and dignity as well as respect for oneself, for others, for the world and its rich diversity, we call on all actors in Nigerien society to dare to think about their future and to have the courage to to invent, by risking the difficult and courageous exercise of caring about this life for life and not waiting for the forces of death to destroy any possibility of inventing and living the life which is ours this day. Let's not let self-hatred become hatred of others, and ease corrupt our judgment. Let us have the courage and the will to think about the world that is ours in order to avoid its pitfalls and easy diversions. Because it is today that this is possible; when war and peace clash, everyone must decide within themselves what they want for the present and for tomorrow. So let's bet on intelligence and peace built, protected, affirmed. Education and culture are the surest and most universal path.
Interview by
Tahirou Garka
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