Former Prime Minister Pahimi Padacket Albert speaks for the first time on the political situation in Niger. He calls for support for the leadership of ECOWAS to free Bazoum and restore democracy.
Since the coup d'Etat in Niger on July 26, 2023, Pahimi Padacket Albert has found Africa to be a great tragedy "with the hostage-taking of a democratically elected President in Niger, there is only two years, on the occasion of a peaceful alternation, as rarely seen in Africa".
For the former Prime Minister, it is a surprise and Africa seems upset, stammering and hesitant. “It is true that African democracy is experiencing a deep crisis, punctuated by untimely constitutional revisions which violate the limitation of mandates in a general complicit indifference. In this context, military coups are often felt by our populations as remedies for failing democratic governance and misguided institutions. In reality, the medicine always turns out to be more harmful than the disease,” adds Pahimi Padacket Albert.
For him, the coup in Niger is certainly part of this general context of a devalued democracy on our continent. But, he believes, “it’s not one more blow. It's too much."
According to Pahimi Padacket Albert, “any procrastination or weakness in the face of the Nigerian junta would bring Africa back into a dangerous regression, that of the 1970s with the waltz of coups; it would mortgage peace and development on the continent for a long time”. The president of Rndt-Le Réveil, stresses that it is obvious that this coup d'Etat too many would never have taken place if ECOWAS had shown the same firmness with the first coups d'Etat in West Africa. "Let's not throw the water with the baby though, and it's never too late to do the right thing. This tragedy must serve as an electric shock to us,” he adds.
Faced with this situation, the politician makes two proposals. “Strongly support the leadership of ECOWAS to free Bazoum and restore democracy; From now on, show the same determination in the face of any constitutional revision intended to distort the rules for limiting the duration of power as a constitutional coup d'Etat,” proposes Pahimi Padacket Albert.
For the former Chadian Prime Minister, the true independence of Africa also and above all depends on the respected right of peoples to freely choose their leaders, and on the righteousness of the armies to serve under the orders of the civil power issued from the ballot box, to which they have a sacred duty of submission. “What is currently at stake in Niger is not only the future of a country or a man, but that of democracy in Africa. Let’s avoid any amalgamation, it is not about the future of any foreign power whatsoever, it is about the fate of Africa and Africans,“ says Pahimi Padacket Albert.
By Nadjita Namlengar
Source: http://www.lepaystchad.com/
Le Pays (TCHAD)
