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E-book Crude Moves : Political Power in Oil-Age Niger

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Penilaian

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auguration, on 28 November 2011, I received this text message2 calling on the people to make Zinder a “ghost town”. The message was one of several circulated prior to the inauguration which named oil-related grievances, attacked the incumbent govern-ment of new President Mahamadou Issoufou (since March 2011), and called on the population to resist and fight.When Papa arrived and we got into the car to drive to the festival site, he covered his face with a tagelmust3, leaving only his eyes visible. I was puzzled, as one normally wraps a tagelmust around the face either as a marker of identity or to protect against wind-born sand. Without having to be asked, Papa explained that he was conceal-ing his face to avoid being recognized, as others may think he was going against the declared boycott of the political opposition and was eager to welcome President Is-soufou. Indeed, he claimed that no one in Zinder supported Issoufou or his political party, the Parti Nigérien pour la Démocratie et le Socialisme (PNDS-Tarayya). Rather, he stressed, Zinder was the stronghold of the political opposition, especially of the Convention Démocratique et Sociale (CDS-Rahama) led by Mahamane Ousmane. Papa explained that the Zindérois also supported former President and leader of the Mouvement National pour une Société de Développement (MNSD-Nassara) Ma-madou Tandja (1999–2010). Through his political decision to build the oil refinery in Zinder region, Tandja was represented (and widely received) as ending the eastern region’s historical and political marginalization by the capital Niamey situated in the far west.Along the route to the inauguration, people lined the roadside, waving in support of the cars heading to the inauguration. After Papa had just asserted that no one in Zinder supported the new government, I was surprised to see so many people on the streets. The people, he claimed, were “villagers” who the governor had brought into Zinder on trucks to stage public support for the president, as no Zindérois would dare to do so. Quite the contrary, he said, he had already received the information that a large group of youth had tried to disturb the president’s official arrival at the airport this morning by throwing stones and insulting him. Also, youths had built and set alight tire barricades on the streets around the main bus station and had viol-ently clashed with security forces. As the presidential procession passed through the city, people had worn t-shirts of Tandja and shouted his name, torn up pictures of Issoufou, performed insulting gestures, and thrown stones. Finally, he stressed that the crowd along the streets was small in comparison to the foundation stone ceremony three years earlier. According to Papa, the Zindérois had turned out in their thou-sands to support then President Tandja and his campaign to change the constitution, Tazartché4. That day three years ago in 2008, wealthy Zinder businessman Dan Dubai had mobilized the Zinder crowd to demand that Tandja, in the name of the Nigerien population, to change the constitution and remain in office in order to complete the “great construction sites” that he had initiated, especially those that had made Niger an oil producer.

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Ketersediaan

Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

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No. Panggil

301.669 SCH c

Penerbit

Germany : Universitätsverlag Göttingen., 2024

Deskripsi Fisik

193 hlm

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

9783863956318

Klasifikasi

301.669

Tipe Isi

text

Tipe Media

computer

Tipe Pembawa

online resource

Edisi

-

Subjek

Sociology and Anthropology, Society in Nigeria

Info Detail Spesifik

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Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

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Versi lain/terkait

Lampiran Berkas

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