Amadou Cheiffou

Amadou Cheiffou (born December 1, 1942 in Kornaka ; also Amadou Cheffou ) is a Nigerien politician and aeronautical engineer. After working for international aviation authorities, he was Prime Minister Niger, Defense Minister Niger and Commander in Chief of the Nigerien Armed Forces from 1991 to 1993 . Since it was founded in 2004, he has been party leader of the Social Democratic Alliance (RSD-Gaskiya).

Life

Amadou Cheiffou belongs to the Fulbe ethnic group . He is the younger brother of a Fulbe village chief in Korahane . Cheiffou attended elementary school in Dakoro and the Lycée National in Niamey , where he passed the Baccalauréat in 1961 . He studied at Dakar University in Senegal from 1961 to 1966 . During this time he was politically active in the Senegalese Parti Africain pour l'Indépendance (PAI), was chairman of the Dakar section of the Nigerien student union Union des Scolaires Nigériens (USN) and executive secretary of the West African student association Union Générale des Etudiants de l'Afriqueidentale ( Occasional UGEAO). Cheiffou graduated from Dakar with a degree in science. He then studied in France , where he made a natural science maîtrise at the University of Toulouse in 1967 and in 1969 received an engineering degree in civil aviation from the École nationale de l'aviation civile .

Cheiffou worked for the African aviation authority Agence pour la sécurité de la navigation aérienne en Afrique et à Madagascar (ASECNA) from 1969 to 1985 . Initially, he was deployed as the deputy commander of Douala Airport in Cameroon . From 1970 to 1975 he was a representative of ASECNA in Niger. He took over the management of Niamey Airport in October 1970 and was Chairman of the Board of Directors of Air Afrique and Air Niger from 1973 to 1974 . In 1975 he moved to the ASECNA headquarters in Dakar, where he was the agency's deputy general director until 1985. Cheiffou then worked for the International Civil Aviation Organization in Dakar. He was initially their deputy representative, from 1989 their representative for West and Central Africa.

In Niger, after decades of one-party and military rule, there was a democratic upheaval in the early 1990s. A national conference, which met from July to September 1991 and was attended by various representatives of civil society, took power in the state in order to prepare for the transition to a free, multi-party democracy. Amadou Cheiffou was a member of the National Conference as a substitute for the delegates of the Nigerien abroad. On October 26, 1991, the National Conference elected him prime minister of a transitional government until the parliamentary elections of 1993 and commander in chief of the Nigerien armed forces. Cheiffou prevailed clearly against Oumarou Sidikou , the favorite of the government camp , and five other candidates. The decisive factor for his choice was his political impartiality, as he was in no way connected to the previous regime under Seyni Kountché and Ali Saibou . One of his central tasks as head of government was to prepare the parliamentary and presidential elections of 1993 . He was not allowed to run for the latter because the previous heads of state and government were prohibited from participating. His term as Prime Minister ended on April 17, 1993, when Mahamadou Issoufou was named Prime Minister after the elections .

Amadou Cheiffou returned to Dakar in April 1993 to the management of the International Civil Aviation Organization. In Niger he became a member of the Democratic and Social Assembly (CDS-Rahama), the party of President Mahamane Ousmane . When the CDS-Rahama elected their candidate for the presidential election of 1996 , Cheiffou let himself stand up as an opponent to Ousmane and had to admit defeat to him. He then worked as Ousmanes campaign manager. The presidential elections, considered rigged, were won by Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara . At the party congress of the CDS-Rahama in August 1999 Cheiffou tried unsuccessfully against Ousmane as a candidate for the presidential election of 1999 , but was elected deputy party chairman.

In 2003 the conflict with party chairman Ousmane escalated. Amadou Cheiffou left the party. He founded the Social Democratic Alliance (RSD-Gaskiya) with himself as party leader, which achieved a surprise success in the local elections in July 2004. Cheiffou ran for the RSD gaskiya in the 2004 presidential election and finished fourth out of six candidates with 6.35% of the vote. In the subsequent parliamentary elections in 2004 , he moved to the National Assembly as a member of the Maradi constituency . In 2006, President Mamadou Tandja ( MNSD-Nassara ) appointed him President of the Nigerien Economic, Social and Cultural Council (CESOC). When Tandja tried to get a third term as president, not provided for in the constitution, in 2009, Cheiffou was one of his supporters. The RSD-Gaskiya was one of the few opposition parties that did not boycott the 2009 parliamentary elections. Cheiffou, still president of the CESOC, remained a member of parliament and also won a seat on the municipal council of his birthplace Kornaka. When President Tandja was overthrown in February 2010, Cheiffou also lost all public offices. Cheiffou ran in the 2011 presidential election and was fifth out of ten candidates with 4.08% of the vote. The newly elected President Mahamadou Issoufou appointed him Médiateur de la République in August 2011, despite his past as a supporter of Mamadou Tandjas . In this office, which corresponds to that of a state ombudsman , he succeeded Mamane Oumarou . Cheiffou was Médiateur de la République until 2015 . He was succeeded by Ali Sirfi . Cheiffou again entered the race for the RSD-Gaskiya in the 2016 presidential election and finished eighth of fifteen candidates with 1.68% of the vote.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Myriam Gervais: Niger: Regime Change, Economic Crisis, and Perpetuation of Privilege . In: John F. Clark, David E. Gardinier (Eds.): Political Reform in Francophone Africa . Westview Press, Boulder 1997, ISBN 0-8133-2785-7 , pp. 96 and 107 .
2. ↑ Abdoulaye Mohamadou: Décentralisation et pouvoir local au Niger . International Institute for Environment and Development, London 2009, ISBN 978-1-84369-726-8 , pp. 10 .
3. ↑ ^{a b} Chaïbou Maman: Répertoire biographique des personnalités de la classe politique et des leaders d'opinion du Niger de 1945 à nos jours . Volume II. Démocratie 2000, Niamey 2003, p. 238-240 .
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Abdourahmane Idrissa, Samuel Decalo: Historical Dictionary of Niger . 4th edition. Scarecrow, Plymouth 2012, ISBN 978-0-8108-6094-0 , pp. 119 .
5. ↑ Cherif Ouazani: Six candidats pour un fauteuil. In: Jeuneafrique.com. November 8, 2004, accessed October 22, 2013 (French). 
6. ^ Elections in Niger. In: African Elections Database. October 30, 2011, accessed February 13, 2016 . 
7. ^ Médiateur de la République: Attributions et fonctionnement. PlaneteAfrique.com, September 9, 2011, accessed October 22, 2013 (French). 
8. ↑ Historique de l'Institution du Médiateur de la République. (No longer available online.) Cabinet du Médiateur de la République du Niger, archived from the original on September 22, 2016 ; Retrieved September 22, 2016 (French). 
9. ↑ Résultats globaux provisoires ( Memento from February 23, 2016 in the Internet Archive )