Choguel Maïga, holder of the post, has been hospitalized in a clinic in Bamako for ten days, put in forced rest according to the Malian transitional authorities. The head of government would have had a stroke or a heart attack according to some sources. Colonel Abdoulaye Maïga, minister and spokesman for the government, is now assuming his interim. But the appointment that raises certain thoughts and questions about the sequence of events.
Colonel Abdoulaye Maïga is appointed interim Prime Minister, which implies that Choguel Maïga remains in office and is expected to resume his duties as soon as his health permits. However, in the texts, by virtue of a decree dating from July 2021, it is the Minister of Defense, Colonel Sadio Camara, first in order of appointment in the government after the Prime Minister, who should have exercised this interim . The choice of Colonel Maïga is therefore a real political choice, and not a simple automatism to fill the vacancy of the post.
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Long interim, or even sustainability?
Some observers believe, on condition of anonymity, that we must therefore expect a long interim – several weeks at least, such an appointment not seeming necessary for the rapid management of current affairs -, or even a perpetuation of the Colonel Maïga at the head of the government. A way to make a change of Prime Minister “gently”.
No calculation
A leading player in Malian political life thinks on the contrary that we should in no way see calculation in this appointment, made urgently to deal with the impediment of Choguel Maïga. According to this source, Colonel Sadio Camara does not like light or cameras, which is why the Minister of Defense, who is very influential and wishes to be so, would have declined the offer. And if it was Colonel Abdoulaye Maïga who was chosen, it would be, according to this source, because he responded to the urgent imperatives of the moment: he demonstrated his technical and oratory skills, his loyalty to the junta , and he has the support of his administration. Qualities that few ministers can claim to have.
A soldier after two civilians
Colonel Maïga is not a member of the junta which took power two years ago (the CNSP, now officially dissolved) but he is a soldier. However, since the beginning of the Transition, two civilians had succeeded each other in the post of Prime Minister. A noticeable change. Abdoulaye Maïga is reputed to be close to the transitional president, Colonel Assimi Goïta, and in recent months, as government spokesman, he has had very harsh words vis-à-vis France but also ECOWAS and of the United Nations, who could therefore, for all these reasons, take a dim view of the arrival of Colonel Abdoulaye Maïga as Prime Minister.
Contact person for political parties
An analysis that qualifies an attentive observer of Malian politics, who recalls that Colonel Maïga, already Minister of Territorial Administration, is in charge of preparing for future elections, a major issue for Malians as well as for their international partners. His appointment could therefore also be perceived as a sign of the importance given to this deadline.
In this context, Colonel Maïga has also become, on the government side, the first interlocutor of the Malian political parties. Interlocutor generally appreciated, according to personalities of various tendencies joined by RFI, who will try to console themselves in this way for having a head of government who is still not a civilian from their ranks.
Mixed reactions
There are few political reactions to this appointment. RFI collected that of a support of the junta and that of a member of the opposition. Sory Ibrahima Traoré, president of the Front for Emergence and Renewal in Mali (Fer-Mali), which supports the transitional authorities, expresses his great satisfaction.
“ We are delighted because Colonel Abdoulaye Maïga is someone who is highly appreciated by political circles. His appointment as interim will avoid the discontinuity between the political class and the government. Today, the most important and the most urgent are the political and institutional reforms in electoral matters, and the establishment of the body which must organize the future elections. He was the most suitable person to continue the work of Choguel Kokalla Maïga, temporarily unavailable. »
The reaction is more mixed on the side of the opposition, but nevertheless with a certain form of optimism. Ismaël Sacko is the president of the African Social Democratic Party (PSDA), a member of the Framework which brings together Mali’s opposition political parties.
” This appointment comes slightly late, we had hoped that the interim would be assured sooner, because we understood that the Prime Minister, for reasons of illness, was prevented. Colonel Abdoulaye Maïga managed to maintain the dialogue with the political class. The projects are quite enormous, in particular the constitutional revision and the elections to be organized in the future. The establishment of the independent electoral management body, scheduled for the end of July, is slightly behind schedule. We hope that at the end of this interim a new Prime Minister will be appointed, a neutral Prime Minister who will be the subject of consensus. »