FORMS OF POLITICAL PARTICIPATION

Prior to Independence there were few opportunities for ordinary people to participate

Nobles could compete for political position

Some people could vie to be village heads

A wider circle of villagers could be included in local consultation

People could become clients, and/or seek out patrons to increase their influence

FORMS OF POLITICAL PARTICIPATION WITH INDEPENDENCE

Independence brought new opportunities to gain political influence, through: the Single party (PPN/RDA) the Agricultural Extension network-

as farmer-demonstrators the community development

network as “animateurs” corporatist associations, like the

Youth Association (Samariya), Women’s Organization, or Religious leader association

FORMS OF POLITICAL PARTICIPATION WITH INDEPENDENCE

the “Development Society” under the military regime

the various political parties under multi-party “democracy”

and as “voters” in elections

IMPACT OF POST COLONIAL POLITICS ON HAUSA POLITICAL STRUCTURE

Single Party Regime-- Reinforced patronage

structures Created new titles at

various levels of the party Encouraged lower status

princes to compete Use Association of Chiefs to

bolster Party (PPN) legitimacy

IMPACT OF POST COLONIAL POLITICS ON HAUSA POLITICAL STRUCTURE

Animation Rurale network- Tried to bypass power of

chiefs with parallel structure

Intensified struggle between chiefs and administrators

Created new titles that competed with nobility

IMPACT OF MILITARY REGIME ON HAUSA POLITICAL STRUCTURE

Reincorporated chiefs through the Council of Traditional Chiefs in the Development Society

Use chiefs to mobilized people for planned actions.

THE MEANING OF ELECTIONS IN HAUSA VILLAGES

In the 1950s, traditional authorities decided the outcome, and at the village level elections were meaningless.

THE MEANING OF ELECTIONS IN HAUSA VILLAGES

Under the Single party regime of Hamani Diori and the PPN elections were irrelevant.

The text on the October 1970 presidential election makes this clear

ELECTIONS IN THE SINGLE PARTY REGIME

Villagers knew nothing about elections and cared less. They meant nothing.

“When news of the upcoming election (August 1970) would be broadcast on Radio Niger we would tune to a station in neighboring Nigeria to listen to Hausa music. PPN-RDA party officials and administrators in the town of Matameye announced on national radio that “in the name of themselves and the people of Matameye county they were happy that the Politburo of the PNN had named El Hadji Hamani Diori as its candidate for President.”

ELECTIONS IN THE SINGLE PARTY REGIME

“On September 9, 1970 PPN officials distributed electoral cards for the upcoming election. The cards were distributed by the traditional sector chief for region, the Kaoura, an official in the court of Kantche, accompanied by three traditional policeman- the dogari. One card was given to each head of household and one to each of his wives. In the course of passing out these cards, the Kaoura announced that everyone had to vote on October 1, and that they would vote for Diori. People were told that if they failed to vote on October 1 things would go badly for them. They might even be put in prison. The elected local committee representatives of the PPN were also instructed that it was their duty to see that no one left the village that day, and that everyone voted. Threats of prison were made against the committeemen as well.”

ELECTIONS IN THE SINGLE PARTY REGIME

“On the day of the vote, one village was designated as the polling place for six villages. Village people were called village by village to the voting booth. They presented their electoral cards and received an envelop with an elephant on it (symbol of the PPN-RDA), and a blue card with an elephant drawn on it and the name of El Hadji Diori on it. People then took the card and put it in the envelop. They put the envelop in a ballot box and that is how they voted. Many people knew that they were engaging in a election, but a large number still did not know for whom they had voted or why.”

THE MEANING OF ELECTIONS IN HAUSA VILLAGES

“If an outsider visited, people would not even pass by the place where he was staying for fear of being thrashed, or having something taken away, or being forced to do some very hard work. If fact, no political conversations could take place for fear that what was said would be heard by or repeated to an RDA informant.” (W. Miles, Hausaland Divided, 1994)

ELECTIONS IN KOUNTCHE ERA

There were no elections during the Kountche period and no legal political parties.

Villagers were generally happy because the government in Niamey let them alone

They feared politics and elections based on what they saw happening in Nigeria.

THE MEANING OF ELECTIONS IN HAUSA VILLAGES

Under the regime of General Kountche (1974- 1987) people felt less afraid but still had not sense of participating in politics outside the village.

“ (the people of the village of Yekuwa) are happier because they have in general been left alone by government and its agents, because they have not been confronted with siyasa (politics) as they have known it in the past. The notion of siyasa arouses a degree of wariness and suspicion, not only for what it has meant in Yekuwas past but for what it is seen to represent across the border (in Nigeria): chaos, lawlessness, and mass violence.”

POLITICS IN THE POST KOUNTCHE ERA

Ali Saibou succeeded Kountche, and tried to accommodate growing pressure for democracy and parties.

He put forward a quasi-constitution- the National Charter and

Created the MNSD- Movement for the Development Society as the only legal party

POLITICS IN THE POST KOUNTCHE ERA

The MNSD was a party of the supporters of the military regime– the El Hazai, the Canton Chefs, and some of the government workers.

It was not strictly an ethnic or regional party, but it had not reality at the village level

POLITICS IN THE POST KOUNTCHE ERA

During this period two major regional/ ethnic parties emerged as “cultural movements” AMACA/ CDS- a Hausa

party based in the the East- Zinder area with some strong support in Maradi

Zamini Lafiya—an eessentially Zarma party based in the West.

PARTY POLITICS IN NIGER AND IN HAUSA VILLAGERS

The National Conference (1991) established the idea that the next government of Niger had to be democratic and represent the Hausa. “Trois fois zero, ca suffit”

It also established the basis of both regional (ethnic) parties, and tiny personal parties

ELECTIONS IN THE MULTIPARTY “DEMOCRACY”

When party politics returned in 1991 villagers were skeptical about elections and democracy.

But party politics brought the search for many new titles and opened up competition for them

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS IN DADIN KOWA

Party officials came and promised money to the people. They were skeptical, but some accepted.

Some reported that they voted for the party of the military (The MNSD) because they expected it to win anyway

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS IN DADIN KOWA

There were seven parties in the tiny village of Dadin Kowa

The people who headed the local party were both from the family of the chief (maigari) and from families that never had any title

ELECTIONS IN THE MULTIPARTY “DEMOCRACY”

When the CDS coalition surprisingly won the 1993 presidential election the government got highly politicized from top to bottom.

At the village level this meant that in CDS areas, CDS party officials and CDS appointed Prefets and Sous-prefets had alot of power

They vied for power with former ruling MNSD officials, and tried to shut them out of any power and patronage.

THE MEANING OF ELECTIONS IN HAUSA VILLAGES

Now with the multiparty system in Niger, villagers continue to be skeptical about this new system for defining power and authority.

...even if some people in Yekuwa are attracted to the idea of democracy, they are less confident that they possess the requisite tools.

THE MEANING OF ELECTIONS IN HAUSA VILLAGES

... One man from Yekuwa, an occasional laborer in Nigeria, said:

“Democracy can’t work in Niger-- people have neither the sense nor the learning for it. Neither the soldiers nor the village chiefs have gone to school. How can you expect a democratic system to work here? And politics also means spending money, millions and millions. “

“...Ordinary folk (talakawa) have no brains. if you don’t hit them,. they won’t understand authority or governance.”