Ikhia Zodi

Ikhia Aboubekr Zodi (* 1919 in Winditane , † February 16, 1996 in Niamey ) was a Nigerien politician . He was a member of the French National Assembly from 1951 to 1955 and was a member of the Niger government from 1958 to 1963.

Life

Ikhia Zodi was born in the Tagazar village of Winditane. He came from an educated Tuareg family and was the son of a member of the Amenokalat of Tagazar. He attended primary schools in Niamey and graduated from the École normal William Ponty near Dakar . From 1941 Zodi worked as a teacher at primary schools and nomad schools of the colonial administration in French West Africa . He has served as a school principal several times, for example at the military school in Bingerville .

In 1946 Zodi became a member of the Nigerien Progressive Party (PPN-RDA), Niger's first political party founded in the same year. He was elected as a member of the Niger General Council for Tahoua . From 1948 to 1960 he was a member of the Niger Teachers' Syndicate . In 1949 he moved from the PPN-RDA to the party Union of Independent Nigerians and Sympathizers (UNIS). The two seats of the Niger overseas territory in the National Assembly of France were re-elected on June 17, 1951. Both went to UNIS: to the party chairman Georges Condat and to Ikhia Zodi, who at the time was the director of the nomad school in Azarori . Zodi was a member of the National Assembly until 1955. In addition, he was re-elected to the parliament of Niger in the elections for the Territorial Assembly on March 30, 1952 in the Filingué constituency. From 1952 to 1957 he was also a member of the Grand Council of French West Africa. In the French National Assembly, Zodi was from 1951 to 1952 and from 1954 to 1955 a member of the Commission for Education and from 1953 to 1954 a member of the Commission for Industrial Production. Until 1953 he belonged to the faction of the UDSR , then he joined the faction of the Indépendants d'Outre-mer . In the same year the previous UNIS chairman Condat left the party and Ikhia Zodi took over the party chairmanship. In the face of a famine that raged in Niger from 1953 to 1954, Zodi publicly criticized in the summer of 1954 the inadequate measures taken by the administration under the governor Jean Toby appointed by France . The administration then put pressure on UNIS to distance itself from Zodi. Other important functionaries left the party and in the end Zodi remained isolated with a few loyal followers. His re-election to the French National Assembly in 1956 clearly failed.

He dissolved the UNIS on February 24, 1957 and founded the Front démocratique nigérien (FDN) on March 6, 1957 as an insignificant successor party, which was affiliated as a Nigerien section of the interterritorial Convention Africaine . For the Convention Africaine he was editor-in-chief of its organ L'Unité until 1958 . He wrote numerous articles for it himself. As a successor to Boubou Hama , who was dismissed from this post in 1957 for political reasons, Ikhia Zodi also became director of the Institut Français d'Afrique Noire du Niger , which later became the Nigerien National Museum . The constitutional referendum of September 28, 1958 was intended to decide whether Niger would immediately become independent from France or remain an autonomous part of the colonial power. While the ruling party Sawaba in Niger agitated for independence, the opposition party PPN-RDA, in which Zodi's political career had started, was in favor of remaining with France. Zodi, who had enjoyed the confidence of the Sawaba government until then, decided after initial hesitation for the position of the PPN-RDA. Presumably because of this he lost his job as director of the Institut Français d'Afrique Noire du Niger . The referendum was in favor of the PPN-RDA, in favor of remaining with France. The PPN-RDA quickly took over government responsibility and established a one-party system in Niger.

Ikhia Zodi approached the PPN-RDA and in return was appointed to the government led by Hamani Diori on December 20, 1958 as Minister for Education, Youth and Sports. Because of this decision, Diori could be sure of the backing of part of the chefferie traditionnelle , the traditional rulers of the country, as Zodi came from this milieu. As Minister of Education, Zodi fought against transfers of teachers suspected by the opposition, which Interior Minister Yansambou Maïga Diamballa had ordered without his knowledge. Because of this attitude, Zodi was downgraded to State Secretary at the Presidential Chancellery for Defense in the government that was newly formed by Hamani Diori after Niger gained independence in 1960 . In the Afro-Madagascar Union , Zodi took over the role of President of the Defense Council. He received another ministerial office on June 25, 1963: until then the foreign policy agenda of Niger was with President Diori, now the offices of a minister for foreign affairs, with whom Adamou Mayaki was entrusted, and a minister for African affairs, the Ikhia Zodi has been transferred. The creation of a dedicated Africa department - exactly one month after the founding of the Organization for African Unity - signaled Niger's attachment to Pan-Africanism .

Zodi's political career ended abruptly on December 3, 1963. On that day, preparations for an attempted coup against President Diori, against which officer Hassan A. Diallo were charged, were put down. Zodi, in turn, was considered the protector of Diallo, and he and Diallo were accused of having contacts with the banned Sawaba party in connection with the attempted coup. Zodi was sentenced to death . This sentence was later commuted to a sentence that he served in the south of the country. Ikhia Zodi was released in February 1971. He died 25 years later in the capital Niamey.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Ikhia Aboubekr Zodi. In: Base de données des députés français depuis 1789. Assemblée nationale, accessed on December 31, 2015 (French). 
2. ^ ^{A b} Edmond Séré de Rivières: Histoire du Niger . Berger-Levrault, Paris 1965, p. 271 .
3. ↑ Mamoudou Djibo: Les enjeux politiques dans la colonie du Niger (1944 to 1960) . In: Autrepart . No. 27 , 2003, p. 46–47 ( PDF [accessed December 31, 2015]).
4. ^ Klaas van Walraven: The Yearning for Relief. A History of the Sawaba Movement in Niger . Brill, Leiden 2013, ISBN 978-90-04-24574-7 , pp. 139 .
5. ↑ Governments du Conseil nigérien. Présidence de la République du Niger, archived from the original on September 27, 2007 ; accessed on December 31, 2015 (French). 
6. ↑ Mamadou Dagra : La politique extérieure du Niger (1974-1987). Contribution à l'étude des structures diplomatiques et de la politique africaine d'un Etat sahélien . Thèse pour le Doctorat d'état. Université Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar 1987, p. 101 and 105 ( PDF [accessed December 31, 2015]). PDF ( Memento of the original from July 27, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
7. ↑ Abdourahmane Idrissa, Samuel Decalo: Historical Dictionary of Niger . 4th edition. Scarecrow, Plymouth 2012, ISBN 978-0-8108-6094-0 , pp. 147-148 and 178 .