Niger: President Tandja Wants A Permanent Grip On Power

Today, Niger is voting in a referendum on a new and very controversial constitutional change. If  approves, it would give President Mamadou Tandja the right to run for re-election indefinitely without any kind of term limits.

Last June, the 71 years old Tandja  dissolved both the country’s Parliament and its Constitutional Court (the equivalent of the US Supreme Court), one of the reason used by Tandja to do so was their vehement opposition to the referendum.

Since this quiet coup, Tandja has ruled like a dictator declaring a state of emergency and issuing decrees and executive orders.

The opposition leader Mahamadou Issoufou has made an appeal to the six million citizens eligible to vote to boycott what he calls an illegal referendum.

Tandja is a former Colonel. He has ruled Niger, with an ever increasing tight grip, since 1999. In the last few months he has increased his tight control on Niger’s media. Niger is one of the poorest country in Western Africa,  but is rich in one critical, and potentially dangerous  mineral resource:Uranium.

The EU, the African Union and the United Nations have all expressed strong opposition to the referendum. The EU’s aid to Niger has stopped because of  the grave violation of core democratic values, and principles of the rule of law.