Hamani Diori

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Ron Kroon : Hamani Diori, 1968

Hamani Diori (born June 6, 1916 in Soudouré , † April 23, 1989 in Rabat ) was a Nigerien politician and teacher. He was Niger's first President from 1960 to 1974.

Politician

Diori belonged to the Zarma ethnic group and came from the west of the country. After attending school, he went to the École normal William Ponty near Dakar and became a teacher. In this profession he worked in Niger from 1936 to 1938 and later worked as a language teacher in Paris. In 1945 he married Aïssa Diori . The couple had six children, including Abdoulaye Hamani Diori .

In 1946 he went into politics and was a co-founder of the Nigerien Progressive Party (PPN), which belonged to the Rassemblement Démocratique Africain (RDA) collection movement . From November 10, 1946, he represented Niger in the French National Assembly . He was a member of parliament until April 1951. From January 2, 1956, he was a second time member of the National Assembly and became one of the deputy presidents of parliament. In his capacity as a French MP, he was also a Member of the European Parliament . In contrast to his political rival and relative Djibo Bakary , he supported Charles de Gaulle's draft constitution for the V Republic in the 1958 referendum and spoke out against immediate independence. While still in association with France, he put together the Niger government on December 14, 1958.

president

After independence from France on August 3, 1960, he became the country's first president on November 10; the National Assembly had elected him head of state two days earlier. As in most other former French possessions, a one-party state was established with the PPN-RDA as the only legal party. An attempted coup against him was ended in 1963 with the help of French soldiers stationed in the capital Niamey . He was re-elected twice during his tenure. In the elections on September 30, 1965 and in the elections on October 1, 1970 , he received 100% of the votes with only a few invalid ballot papers. In addition to the office of president, he also held the office of foreign minister until 1963 and from 1965 to 1967 .

In foreign policy he relied on close ties to France and was a supporter of the Francophonie . Since the late 1950s, the country played an important role for France as a uranium supplier for the establishment of the Force de frappe . In addition, he acted several times as a mediator in intra-African conflicts. With the heads of state from Upper Volta , Dahomey and the Ivory Coast , he founded the Conseil de l'Entente to strengthen regional cooperation. Domestically, he ruled authoritarian and the government was considered corrupt . As a result of the famine in the Sahel , which also affected Niger at the beginning of the 1970s, his government came under increasing pressure because of the inadequate further distribution of international aid. The Army Chief of Staff , Seyni Kountché , ended Diori's presidency in a coup on April 15, 1974 and ruled until his death in 1987.

Last years

Diori remained in custody until 1980 and was under house arrest until 1987 . After Kountché's death he was allowed to leave the country and went into exile in Morocco , where he died.

swell

  • Wolf-Rüdiger Baumann, Gustav Fochler-Hauke: Fischer World Almanac - Biographies on Contemporary History since 1945. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 1985, ISBN 978-3-596-24553-6 .

Web links

Commons : Hamani Diori  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ André Salifou : Biographie politique de Diori Hamani, premier président de la république du Niger . With a foreword by Omar Bongo Ondimba . Karthala, Paris 2010, ISBN 978-2-8111-0202-9 , pp. 29 .
  2. ↑ Abdourahmane Idrissa, Samuel Decalo: Historical Dictionary of Niger . 4th edition. Scarecrow, Plymouth 2012, ISBN 978-0-8108-6094-0 , pp. 181 .
personal data
SURNAME Diori, Hamani
BRIEF DESCRIPTION first president of Niger (1960–1974)
DATE OF BIRTH June 6, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Soudouré
DATE OF DEATH April 23, 1989
Place of death Rabat