Mamadou Tandja And Virtuous Cycles Of Niger's Democracy

Two cycles of political struggle exist in Niger today: that with Hamani Diori, Mohamane Ousmane, and Mamadou Tandja as the linking beads; the other with Seyni Kountché, Ali Saibou, Ibrahim Baré Mainassara, Daouda Malam Wanke, and Salou Djibo as the links. One is a constellation of "democratically elected" civilians; the other is made up of people we would refer to here in Cameroon as "les grands muets" [those that never speak] - soldiers!

Both cycles are intertwined, and work on the understanding that any historical continuum can be broken; that new beginnings are always possible. In other words, the beads on one chain alternate (regularly) with the beads on the other... These cycles have been interspersed by "the people" organising general strikes, sit-ins, civil disobedience and protest marches to fight for their sovereignty.

The people have been fighting to have their say in the changing process. Going by Lenin's rhetoric that the proletarian army is first recruited in the struggle, and Rosa Luxemburg's that the masses must learn to use power by using power, it can be said that in the process, the people have been learning how to use their power; they have been struggling to institute democracy in Niger.

Therefore, unlike in countries such as Cameroon where a vacuum was created by an anti-colonial war that ended in the defeat of nationalist forces, and the ensuing one-party rule with its sit-tight leaders, the intertwined cycles in Niger are generating a consciousness and an activism that is slowly expanding the domain of freedom, at the detriment of power.

True, the rule is that in republican government, the military is subordinated to civil power; the principle of absolute civilian control over the military is universally accepted. But such subordination should only be valid where the civil power is a derivative of the people's will, "expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures", as required by the universal declaration of human rights.

Unfortunately, in most African countries, the people are held hostage by a cabal that passes for the civil power. Further, in most democracies, soldiers finish off as congressmen, bank presidents, senators, manufacturers, judges, governors, diplomats and democratically elected presidents. Indeed, several of the 44 presidents of the US have been former soldiers.

Although none of the cycles in Niger has any single, concrete result that could mark its success, the unintended benefit to the people is laudable, barring the duplicity of the so-called international community that claims to prefer the civilian cycle; and the penchant of African organisations, dominated by sit-tight civilian leaders, to disrupt any attempt by soldiers to rock the tranquility of their exclusive club...

As the beads on the intertwined cycles in Niger change places, we continue to ponder the fate of democracy in our countries. Indeed, elections that are supposed to be the hallmark of democracy, mean one thing in the West, and completely another in African countries. In our Cameroon, they have come to represent a process through which the powerful give their stay in power a semblance of legitimacy, since they know that their "victories" do not derive from the people.

Invariably, following the fraud to render the consent of the people irrelevant, there are always condemnations, reports of international observers, the cutting of aid, and sometimes relations, all of which, sooner or later, convert the "winners-by-fraud" to "democratically elected" leaders! Then friendship is quickly re-established through juicy exploration, mining or other commercial bargains... Locked in their "new" friendship, they make similar noises about fighting "poverty", the greatest scorch of the same people the friendship made powerless.
It is always well known that those who win leadership through fraudulent elections do not have their people behind them.

It is also a well known fact in international relations that it is easier to deal with a leader that does not have his people behind him, than with one that has. This is why to Wangari Maathai's question why Africa is one of the richest continents on the planet, endowed with oil, precious stones, forests, water, wildlife, soil, land, agricultural products, and millions of women and men, and yet most of Africa's people remain impoverished, I can say here that it is because their illegitimate leaders cut bad deals to gain friendships that comfort their eternal, fraudulent stay in power.

The generation of the 60s that succeeded the White man in Africa following independence failed to use the momentum of the struggle for independence to completely free the continent from the dominance and influence of the West. The intertwined cycles in Niger, and the struggle they are inducing in the people, are creating a shared experience, a common sense that is preparing them for Niger's own revolution. After all, revolutions to create new beginnings of liberty and freedom are good for every people, in every society, including here in Africa. Let Niger's struggle continue