Niger Presidential Election Results: Yet another Victory for Muamar Gaddafi

[The North Africa Journal | By Arezki Daoud] While Muamar Gaddafi has been working hard to regain the momentum in his country’s eastern provinces, he has clearly made political gains elsewhere. First was the inability of the G8 nations to agree on how to stop him and his killing machine. Then it was the presidential elections in Niger, where he financed an opposition leader to gain further influence in the Sahel/Sahara region. When one wonders how he has the ability to buy foreign mercenaries, consider the way he influences many African nations and their future, including Niger.

This week came the victory of Mahamadou Issoufou. He was elected as the President of Niger beating Seyni Oumarou, the candidate of the party that used to control power there. Unlike most Arab countries, the elections results in Niger showed a certain level of decency with Issoufou winning less than 58%. In countries like Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia, the presidents there “grab” results in the 80% to 90% of the votes, figures that are obviously questionable given the latest popular uprisings that we see across the region. Seyni Oumarou for his part won 42%.

At the release of the election results, the new president will replace in early April army General Salou Djibo who was in charge of government on the interim basis after toppling the regime of former President Tandja Mamadou. But as some 200 observers say the elections went without significant problems and many commentators praised the smooth transition to a civil administration, how much should we worry about the influence of Muamar Gaddafi in Niger and West Africa in general?

How Libya is Meddling into Niger’s Affairs

For a long time, Muamar Gaddafi has had a grandiose dream of Pan Africanism. Essentially this came as a result of the collapse of his previous Pan Arabism ideas, and then as an effort to play a growing role in managing the political landscape in Africa, in particular in its Sahara/Sahel section. Gaddafi’s influence reaches nations like Liberia, Mali, Chad, Sudan, Somalia and the Central African Republican. These nations have at least two things in common: they are very poor and highly destabilized on the political front. And Libya happens to be there. Libya also contributes to the African Union by covering 15% of its budget.

Niger is also one of the nations in which Libya seems to have a direct involvement in domestic politics. Libya’s recent action has been to meddle in that country’s presidential elections and now the outcome is in Gaddafi’s favor. In this context, the Libyan town of Syrte and Ghaddafi’s own tent have played host to a number of key actors in the Niger elections. After similar meetings in Abuja and Ouagadougou, Ghaddafi held talks with Niger’s opposition figure Issoufou Mahamadou, now president elect of that country. Strangely, among those who took part to the talks were Mohamadou’s competitor Hama Amadou, who received 19.82% of the votes. Niger’s General Salou Djibo was also seen in Libya on a short visit, essentially summoned by Colonel Gaddafi.

According to African media and observers, secrete talks have been taking place between Issoufou and Hama Amadou essentially to form a coalition to beat Seyni Oumara with Gaddafi’s money coming to the rescue. The two men flew to Abuja on a private jet where they met with wealthy businessman Tahiru Mangal and Army General Abubacar Salami. Based in Nigeria, commodity trader Tahiru Mangal and Abubacar Salami have apparently volunteered to pull resources together to manage a rapprochement between the two competing figures, and former enemies, so they would form a block against their challenger of the MNSD party Seyni Oumarou who won 23.24% of the votes. Upon their return to Niamey, the two were summoned by Muamar Ghaddafi who chartered a special jet for a visit to Tripoli. On board was a third contender to the presidential seat, Moussa Djermakoye, head of the ANDP-Zamala party and winner of 3.95% of the votes in the first round. In the Libyan talks, sources say that Ghaddafi pressured his guests to partner and pledged to finance their campaign. Immediately following the visit, General Salou Djibo also flew to Libya in an apparent effort to seal the deal and support the Ghaddafi imitative. His trip to Libya coincided with the death in jail of El-Haji Sido, a former member of the Tanja regime. Sido is said to have been ill.

In Niger, apparently many endorsed what they saw as the formation of an alliance that was meant to bring to power the historical opponent Issoufou Mahamadou against a toppled regime that was unpopular. And to do so, Muammar Gaddafi’s money to fund the campaign was necessary.

This victory of Issoufou may not bode well in the long run given the dangerous influence from Tripoli. Laws in advanced countries exist that seek to prevent the influence of foreign money in domestic politics and that is for good reasons. Foreign influence can derail the core democratic values of a nation. As we reported in our latest issue (click here), Muamar Gaddafi has largely retained his grip on power by using foreign forces, with many coming from the Sahel/Sahara region. Despite disliking him, many in the region feel indebted to him and have been supplying him with men to discipline the Libyan people.

Local media and politicians in the Sahel have been talking about how Gaddafi recruited people to fight for him. In the already troubled Kidal region in northern Mali for instance, elected officials there say a great number of Touareg men from Mali and Niger have been recruited to fight in Libya. A spokesman of the Libyan Rights League says some 25,000 men came from Chad, Niger, Mali, Zimbabwe and Liberia to defend Gaddafi, a figure we could not confirm but which is indicative of an influx of foreign troops from neighboring countries where Gaddafi bought influence. Although the number is impossible to verify at this stage, the governments of the countries of origin worry that they could be facing a dangerous environment once these fighters return. Although President Deby of Chad denied any involvement of mercenaries from his country, many say Chad and its president have been under the control of Gaddafi. Abdusalam Ag Assalat, a political leader in Kidal was quoted in many press articles saying Chad is providing air capabilities to bring Touareg fighters into Libya.

Recruiting manpower in Africa is not so difficult for Gaddafi. In addition to funding political campaigns and economic activity, his money was also used generously to support several rebellions on the continent. For example he poured money and provided resources to support the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) of Foday Sankoh and Sam Bockari in Sierra Leone, which led to genocide in that country in the 1990s. Gaddafi has been a destabilizing factor in Mali and Niger, supporting groups against others. In this context, many in the region feel they owe him a debt and are willing to help him now, when he needs it the most.

Also in this context, many Touaregs feel they are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Touareg leaders are currently eager to see the end of the Gaddafi era. The expression used by one of them is “the end of Gaddafi would be like removing a thorn from our foot.” Indeed Gaddafi has always targeted the Touaregs and harassed and pressure them to form a Saharan Touareg nation. By doing so, Gaddafi would force the Touaregs in Algeria, Chad, Mali and Niger to demand territorial concessions from their respective governments to form a separate nation. And by doing so, these countries would weaken. Pressure came in form of money, and acts of destabilization and manipulation. Gaddafi succeeded to some extent when he created a split between the various Touareg tribes in Mali and Niger, in particular by pitting one faction against another. And that’s how he managed to create loyal followers.

This latest event in Niger, although seemingly sealing the return of a “civilian” government in power, means that Gaddafi still have many nations in his pocket and he will use them whenever necessary. As the Libyan people continue to suffer from decades of oppression and the UN struggles to bring a response to the crisis, Muamar Gaddafi and his sons remain focused on staying in power and on their goal to influence as many nations as they can in Africa.