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Sierra Leone: All is Not Well in Conakry!
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Concord Times (Freetown)
22 May 2008
Posted to the web 22 May 2008
Tanu Jalloh
Guinea's aging president has announced through a presidential decree the abrupt dismissal of his prime minister apparently after an uneasy 15-month power-sharing agreement.
General Lansana Conte was said to have chosen Lansana Kouyate as prime minister in February last year only after a sustained pressure to pick from a list of five potential premiers approved by the country's unions.
The unions had led weeks of deadly demonstrations resulting in the death of 130 civilians who were calling for the president to step down. The appointment marked the first time Conte had loosened his grip on power since grabbing the reins of the country in a 1984 coup.
The decree, read on national TV late Tuesday night, stated that Kouyate would be replaced by Ahmed Tidiane Souare, a former minister of mines and a confidant of Conte.
Soon after, people took to the streets of Conakry, the capital, and Kouroussa, the hometown of the fired prime minister, shouting and setting tires on fire. By Wednesday, however, both cities were calm and there were no reports of injuries.
A Guinean businessman who was on a short trip to Freetown feared his business might not be safe and said he was travelling back to Conakry.
Identified only as Alhaji, for fear of reprisal, the apprehensive looking importer of electrical appliances with shops in Freetown and Bo recalled the huge losses he incurred and setback his business suffered after a similar situation in February 2007.
Meanwhile, markets remained closed up until late yesterday amidst speculations of a possible uprising by a brooding few who described the action of the president as draconian.
Rabiatou Serah Diallo, the head of one of the unions that spearheaded last year's protests told the Associated Press that she was waiting to see the makeup of the new government.
"We are awaiting the formation of the new government," said Diallo. "I don't have anything to say until then." Kouyate's appointment last year had been hailed not only by the unions but also by the international community, which saw him as an outsider willing to fight the country's endemic corruption.
The US news agency reported that his relationship with Conte was bumpy from the start. According to the power-sharing deal, it was Kouyate and not the president who had the right to appoint key government officials, but in January Conte fired the country's information minister without Kouyate's consent.
The action enraged the unions, who began preparing another strike. They called it off after government negotiators intervened.
Souare, the new premier, tried to allay fears at a news conference at his house Wednesday, saying he did not plan to derail the changes started under Kouyate's administration.
"I am planning to continue these changes as well as bring reconciliation to Guineans," he promised.
But he also added that he planned "to restore authority to the state because we're in a state of disarray." Guinea, neighboring Sierra Leone and Liberia in the Mano River Union basin, is the world's largest producer of bauxite, the raw material used to make aluminum. Albeit its deteriorating economic condition, the country's rich soil also produces diamonds, gold and timber and several of the region's largest rivers run through it.
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Kouyaté is the third prime minister in the last several years to be sacked or resign after a relatively brief time due to what many believe is the refusal of the clan surrounding Conté to cede any power to a reformist leader.
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