Mahamadou Issoufou

Mahamadou Issoufou (born January 1, 1952, Dan Daji, Niger) was a Nigerien politician who served as president of Niger from 2011 to 2021.

Education, career, and political activity

During the late 1970s Issoufou studied in France and became a mining engineer; he returned to Niger in 1979 to work for the Société des Mines de l’Aïr (SOMAÏR), a French-controlled mining company. In 1990 he helped found the Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism–Tarayya (Parti Nigérien pour la Démocratie et le Socialisme–Tarayya; PNDS), and two years later he left SOMAÏR to pursue politics full-time. In 1993—when Niger held its first multiparty elections—he ran unsuccessfully for the presidency, but he served (April 1993 to September 1994) as prime minister under newly elected Pres. Mahamane Ousmane until the PNDS withdrew from the ruling coalition. Issoufou waged three additional unsuccessful presidential campaigns in 1996, 1999, and 2004, finishing second to Mamadou Tandja in the latter two elections.

As head of the PNDS, Issoufou emerged as the leading opposition figure during Tandja’s rule. In 2009, as Tandja schemed to remain in power beyond the scheduled end of his second term, Issoufou marshaled protest demonstrations, calling on opposition parties to unite against the president, and was briefly detained at the end of June after urging the military to disobey Tandja’s orders. On February 18, 2010, Tandja was deposed in a coup, and the military junta that assumed control pledged that presidential and legislative elections would be held in January 2011. Issoufou was once again the PNDS’s candidate for president.

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In the first round of balloting, held on January 31, 2011, Issoufou won the most votes, although no candidates received an outright majority. Four other opposition candidates then cast their support to Issoufou, setting the stage for him to prevail in the runoff over Seyni Oumarou, who represented Tandja’s party. On March 12, 2011, Issoufou earned a decisive victory, garnering nearly 58 percent of the vote to defeat Oumarou, who received 42 percent. Issoufou’s inauguration on April 7 returned Niger to civilian rule a little more than a year after the military coup had ousted the government of Tandja.

Presidency

Issoufou vowed to honor all peace agreements that had been signed with Tuareg rebels in northern Niger and immediately after his inauguration appointed a Tuareg, Brigi Rafini, as his prime minister. Issoufou also promised to continue efforts to counter the threat posed by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghrib, an Algeria-based Islamic militant group that was active in North Africa and the Sahel region. As his term progressed, he faced a larger threat from a different Islamic militant group, Boko Haram, which was based in neighboring Nigeria and had begun launching attacks in Niger and other nearby countries. In 2015 Niger agreed to be part of an African Union-approved multinational force to combat the militant group.

In the next presidential election, held on February 21, 2016, Issoufou faced 14 challengers. He won slightly more than 48 percent of the vote. He and his nearest challenger, former prime minister Hama Amadou, who won about 17 percent, advanced to a runoff election scheduled to be held the next month. The opposition boycotted the March 20, 2016, election, however, which led to a landslide victory for Issoufou, who won about 92 percent of the vote.

The threat from Islamic militant groups continued in Issoufou’s second term. To that end, Niger joined Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, and Mauritania in 2017 to form a regional anti-terrorism force, the G5 Sahel Joint Force. Attacks continued, however, largely due to insecurity along Niger’s border areas. Against this backdrop of ongoing unrest, Issoufou was still able to enact policies during his two terms that strengthened the economy. Issoufou was also active in regional affairs, serving as chairperson of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in 2019–20 and leading the multiyear effort to bring to fruition the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), a pan-African trade bloc that commenced trading in January 2021.

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The next presidential election was held in December 2020. Issoufou had repeatedly said that he would abide by the limit of two terms as mandated by the constitution, and he adhered to that promise. Mohamed Bazoum of Issoufou’s PNDS was elected after a second round of voting held in February 2021. Issoufou stepped down and handed power to Bazoum on April 2, 2021; it was the country’s first transfer of power from one democratically elected leader to another.

Ibrahim Prize

In March 2021 Issoufou was named the recipient of the 2020 Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership. His strong leadership at the national and regional level and his resolve to respect the constitution and step down from the presidency after two terms were among the reasons cited for his selection to receive the award. The prize provided $5 million, disbursed over 10 years.