AFRICA/NIGER - "God as guarantor of the future": Democracy Day in Niger

Saturday, 28 July 2018

Internet

Niamey (Agenzia Fides) - "Our democracy is celebrated on Sunday 29th July. In our own little way it is already something", says to Fides Fr. Mauro Armanino, missionary of the Society of African Missions, on the occasion of Democracy Day in Niger.
"Declared 20 years after the celebration of the Sovereign National Conference, on July 29, 2011, the day celebrates the advent of multipartism after the years of the military junta. Since then, every year, on that date, we remember that democracy is a building site that works as and when it can. So as not to give rise to suspicions, after three months in jail, three leaders of civil society were freed. The crime of demonstrating without authorization was the pretext to discourage the decree on State finances. After 15 years of military regime, one lives the presidential regime which makes the democracy of Niger an invention at the service of the West. The Conference ended on November 3, 1991 in Niamey. About 1200 delegates of the 'living forces' of the nation with the transition until the 1993 elections", explained Father Mauro, present in the country since 2011.
"Your democracy is as liquid as society. From that of sand to that of the sea there is the complicity assured by the Mediterranean. An aquatic democracy that, believing to redeem itself, relies on the waves of politics, the nationalist reflux that impose the past on the present. The democracy you propose is as strong as the metal mesh that protects, as in Ceuta, the entrance to the sacred chalk banks of the continent.
It has been attacked and climbed over by at least 600 migrants with a fistful of sand in their pockets. A protected democracy, surrounded by barbed wire, by permanent transit camps and tailored to the interests of the powerful. A democracy of paper and precarious statements because they are not believed and professed by anyone in particular. Your democracy is liquid like the money that circulates without limits of space and time that has contaminated you like an incurable disease. The democracy that you export has the color of the armed forces and banks. At least our democracy is sandy", continues the priest.
"It sometimes functions like the light in the capital. Travels on second-hand taxis. Eats depending on the days and does not take itself seriously. It uses bodies to govern, supervises and punishes. Pushes pedestrians forward and has fun building unnecessary glass buildings. It uses God as the guarantor of the future. Democracy Day in Niger falls this year on the last Sunday of July and is celebrated with nonchalance. Learn from us and add a day of sand to your calendar". (MA) (Agenzia Fides, 28/7/2018)


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