Niger: Suspension of constitutional court - full text
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President Mamadou Tandja suspended the constitutional court on June 29, after announcing on June 26 that he would henceforth rule by decree. The court had refused to rescind its decision to invalidate the constitutional referendum the president has been advocating.
On May 7 Tandja, in office since 1999, announced his intention to hold a referendum to allow him to extend his mandate by a third term. As many as 30,000 people took to the streets of Niamey (the capital) on May 9 to protest at President Tandja's move to extend his rule. The Constitutional Court on May 25 issued a non-binding ruling against President Tandja's bid to amend the constitution. The ruling was made in response to a call by opposition members of the National Assembly (the unicameral legislature) for the court's opinion on the planned constitutional referendum.
President Tandja responded on May 26 by issuing a decree dissolving the National Assembly. In an address to the nation broadcast on May 29, President Tandja announced that the new constitution he was proposing would include a three-year "transitional provision", during which elections would not take place.
Immediate Context
As in most Francophone West African countries, the Nigerien constitution stipulated a maximum of two consecutive five-year terms in office for the president. However, since his re-election in December 2004, President Tandja had sought to amend the constitution, to permit him to seek a third term in office. This had brought him into conflict with both the National Assembly and judiciary, which opposed his attempts. Together with a number of internal issues, including escalating food prices, a famine (in 2005) news of which broke internationally, with cruel irony, just after the "Live8" concerts had brought some of Africa's problems to the attention of the world audience--and the launch of a new rebellion by the nomadic, pastoral Tuaregs in 2007, President Tandja's efforts to retain power placed his government under intense pressure. It quickly became apparent that the Tuareg rebels had set their sights on the lucrative uranium mining operations in Arlit of the French conglomerate, Areva, as well as Chinese prospecting companies. A Chinese national was captured and briefly held in July 2007. During the previous month internal political struggles had led to the fall of the cabinet under Prime Minister Hama Amadou through a National Assembly motion on corruption charges. Amadou was replaced by Seyni Oumarou.
The French state-owned Areva expected its Imouraren mine in the troubled north of Niger, being built at a cost of US$1.5 billion, would be the biggest in Africa, and make Niger one of the world's top suppliers of Uranium. Signing the contract with President Tandja in 2006, Areva chief executive officer Anne Lauvergeon said the project was part of a "win-win" partnership. Somewhat inevitably then, Tandja has made every effort to end the Tuareg northern insurgency, which has destabilised large parts of the Sahara where al-Qaida has also increased its presence in recent years.
In the run-up to the December 2009 elections, Tandja, who was of mixed Fula and Kanuri ancestry and was therefore the first president who was not ethnically Hausa or Djerma, campaigned using the slogan Tazartche, a Hausa word meaning "continuity". In early May 2009, when questioned by the press on his visit to the north to launch a fresh round of peace talks with Tuareg rebels, the president announced that "the people have demanded I remain". Tandja subsequently outlined a plan in which a referendum could be held, not to amend the 1999 constitution but to do away with it and begin work on a constitution of the sixth republic, which would contain no term limits for the president, and create a fully presidential republic. In an exclusive interview with the French state-funded public broadcaster Radio France Internationale on June 4, Tandja justified his plans, arguing that the present "semi-presidential system" did not allow the president "to do anything", because "real power" rested with the prime minister and the National Assembly. The current constitution, he argued, "may mean we are the best or the most inferior in the democratic world".
Reaction and Outlook
President Tandja's move to amend the constitution and extend his mandate was the latest in a recent African trend to abolish term limits, although not without opposition. In Cameroon, President Paul Biya, in power since 1982, enacted constitutional amendments in April 2008 allowing him to seek another term in 2011; the move was not popular and was preceded by serious rioting. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria won a third consecutive five-year term in April 2009 after revising the constitution, on this occasion with little opposition.
Internally, President Tandja's move, though not unexpected, was greeted with a great deal of hostility. Soon after news of the planned referendum was released, the main opposition party, the Niger Party for Democracy and Socialism--Tarayya (PNDS), called its supporters onto the streets of Niamey. As many as 30,000 people marched through the city, chanting slogans hostile to Tandja. Once the National Assembly--which had been on the verge of objecting to Tandja's plans--had been dissolved in late May, Mohamed Bazoum, the vice chairman of the PNDS, denounced the proposals as a "coup d'état" and said that the opposition would hold marches, rallies, and strikes. Bazoum called on the international community to "express their indignation". Another leading figure in the PNDS, Hassoumi Massaoudou, was quoted as saying: "Right from the minute Tandja says he was calling a referendum, he ... loses his legitimacy as he'll have proclaimed a coup. We will treat him as a mere putschist". Further anti-referendum demonstrations were held in June after the cabinet had set Aug. 4 as the date for voting to take place. Tandja belonged to the military class, being a former colonel, but that was not a guarantee the military would not move against him if the anti-referendum protests escalated.
On May 14, in response to their parties' opposition to the proposed referendum, a number of ministers were dismissed and replaced with Tandja loyalists. The Constitutional Court, made up of appointed judges and with a merely "advisory" role, on May 25 issued a ruling that any referendum to create a new constitution would be unconstitutional and would also constitute a violation of the oath the president had taken on the Koran, an extremely serious matter in an overwhelmingly Muslim country and with al-Qaida militants operating to the west, in Mali, and to the north in Algeria. On May 26, within hours of the Constitutional Court's statement, President Tandja dissolved the National Assembly. Under the 1999 constitution he was permitted to so act once every two years, on condition that he held legislative elections with three months. This would mean that elections would be held in September, two months early.
President Tandja had served as chairman of the main regional body, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), from 2005 to 2007. A communiqu issued by the community on May 18 warned him against making any amendment to Niger's constitution. In early June, Gen. Abdulsalam Abubakar, who led a short military transition government in neighbouring Nigeria following the death of Gen. Sani Abacha in 1998, visited Niger at the head of an ECOWAS delegation to deliver a "special message" to President Tandja. This message "expressed concern" about the recent political developments in Niger, which could "threaten the significant gains made in that country in the area of constitutional democratic governance". Furthermore, Abubakar appealed to the authorities of Niger "to engage in dialogue and consensus-building with all stakeholders to avoid a constitutional crisis in the country".
The USA also expressed concern about the developments in Niger, which despite being a major uranium producer was also one of the world's poorest countries. Answering a question on the planned referendum, US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said: "We believe this risks undercutting Niger's hard won social, political, and economic gains of the past decade, and would be a set-back for democracy, based on the regular, peaceful transition of political power and faithful adherence to constitutional due-process". However, Libyan leader and current African Union (AU) head Moamer al-Kadhafi, was more understanding of Tandja's position. "If the people decide the president deserves to be re-elected, they can choose him once, three times or even 10 times," he said at a regional summit meeting in late May.
Historical Context
Archaeological remains and cave etchings indicate settlements in present-day Niger dating from Neolithic times. In the medieval period some parts of the area belonged to Sudanese states, and the western and south-western regions belonged to the Songhai empire with its capital in Gao (in present-day Mali). In the mid-18th century regions along the Niger river came under the power of nomadic Tuareg peoples: and in the 19th century the southern regions were part of the Fulani Empire.
The first European explorer of the area, Scotsman Mungo Park, disappeared on the river Niger in 1806. France established military posts in Niger in the late 19th century, and extended this conquest, marked by violent incidents such as the 1898 Zinder massacre, until in 1901 Niger was constituted as a French territory. In 1904, the territory was incorporated in the colony of Upper Sngal-Niger, which was part of French West Africa. Niger became a separate administrative unit of French West Africa in 1922.
Niger obtained independence from France in 1960 under the leadership of President Hamani Diori's Nigerien Progressive Party (Parti Progressiste Nigrien, PPN-RDA) Following a coup d'etat in 1974, the military took control and set up a Supreme Military Council, under Lt-Col Seyni Kountche, which ruled the country for the next 15 years. After Kountche's death in 1987, the Council appointed Ali Saibou as his successor. In May 1989 Saibou was named as head of the country's new ruling body, a joint military-civilian Higher Council for National Orientation, which superseded the Supreme Military Council. A national conference held between July and November 1991 under the presidency of Andre Salifou suspended the constitution and took over executive authority from Saibou.
Power struggles within the government culminated in a coup d'tat in January 1996 by Col Ibrahim Mainassare Barre, who, after the adoption of a new constitution and the lifting of a ban on political parties, was himself elected as president in July 1996. These elections were widely declared fraudulent. In April 1999 Barre was assassinated by his presidential guard and the head of guard, Maj. Daouda Mallam Wanke, assumed power as head of the National Reconciliation Council. In July 1999 a new constitution introducing a balance of powers between the president, Prime Minister and legislature was approved by popular referendum, and promulgated shortly thereafter. Multiparty legislative and presidential elections held in October and November 1999 were won by the Movement of the Development Society Nassara (MNSD) and Mamadou Tandja. Tandja had taken part in the 1974 coup that toppled the country's first civilian president, Diori Hamani, and was a pillar of the military regime that had governed Niger until the advent of multiparty politics in 1991. In mid-2002, Tandja was confronted with an army mutiny over arrears in pay and living conditions in the garrison of Diffa which he declared a rebellion against the state and which was subsequently suppressed by loyal units.
Presidential elections were held in two rounds in November and December 2004. The first round left Mahamadou Issoufou and Mamadou Tandja as remaining candidates, the latter winning the second round with 65 per cent of expressed votes. Tandja's MNSD also won the major share of seats in the National Assembly, but not an absolute majority.
