Ali Saibou

Ali Saibou (born 1940) was the President of Niger from 1987 to 1993, succeeding the deceased Seyni Kountché.

A member of the Djerma people, he was born in Dingajibanda, a village of Ouallam arrondissement. (Although from Kountché's home village, Saibou is not a cousin.) He was early interested in a military career, and attended the Saint-Louis preparatory school in Senegal from 1954, then joined the First Senegalese Tirailleurs Regiment. He saw action in Cameroon in 1960, and was wounded there.

Upon Niger's independence in 1960, Saibou was transferred to the new Niger Army as a sergeant. He attended officers' school, and in 1969 was put in command of a unit at N'Guigmi, then in 1973 at Agadez, where he reached captain. Saibou threw in his lot with Kountché in the coup of April 1974, and brought his troops from Agadez to Niamey. As a reward he was promoted to major, appointed to the cabinet as minister of rural economy and the environment, and on 20 November 1974, made chief of staff.

However, Kountché was suspicious of Saibou; in June 1975 he dismissed Saibou from the cabinet and asked him to relinquish his command of the armed forces. Saibou countered by asking to be retired from the service altogether, an act which apparently allayed Kountché's fears, and Saibou remained loyal until Kountché's death, which occurred on 10 November 1987.

Saibou then secured his nomination by the Supreme Military Council as Kountché's successor, subsequently sending military rivals overseas with diplomatic tasks, and establishing the National Movement for the Development of Society (MNSD) as the sole political party in Niger. In 1989 he had a new constitution approved, and ran as the sole presidential candidate in December.

In the early part of 1990, unrest by students and a Tuareg assault on Tchin Tabaraden led to a National Conference of 1991 that ultimately dismantled military rule, leaving Saibou mostly ineffective. At an MNSD party congress in March 1991, Saibou was able to retain his position as party leader, particularly benefiting from the support of the army, but later in the year the National Conference barred Saibou from running in the planned presidential election, and at another MNSD congress in November 1991 he was replaced as party leader by Tandja Mamadou. [Myriam Gervais, "Niger: Regime Change, Economic Crisis, and Perpetuation of Privilege", in "Political Reform in Francophone Africa" (1997), ed. John F. Clark and David E. Gardinier, page 100.] After the election of Mahamane Ousmane as president in March 1993, Saibou left office on April 16 and retired to his home village.

ee also

*Tuareg Rebellion: The Tuareg based insurgencies in Mali and Niger of the 1990s.

References

* Samuel Decalo, "Historical Dictionary of Niger", 3rd ed. (Scarecrow Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8108-3136-8) pp. 265-266