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Niger soldiers on state TV confirm coup
Africa » Group kidnaps president; gunfire rocks capital.
The Associated Press

Updated: 02/18/2010 09:51:56 PM MST

Niamey, Niger » Renegade soldiers in armored vehicles stormed Niger's presidential palace with a hail of gunfire in broad daylight Thursday, kidnapping the country's strongman president and then appearing on state television to declare they staged a successful coup.

The soldiers also said on state TV that the country's constitution had been suspended and all its institutions dissolved. The spokesman for the soldiers said the country is now being led by the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy. He asked citizens and the international community to have faith in their ideals which "could turn Niger into an example of democracy and of good governance."

Smoke rose from the white-hued multistory palace complex and the echo of machine-gunfire for at least two hours sent frightened residents running for cover, emptying the desert country's downtown boulevards at midday.

Traore Amadou, a local journalist who was in the presidency when the shooting began, said President Mamadou Tandja was kidnapped by mutinous troops.

French radio station Radio France Internationale reported that the soldiers burst in and neutralized the presidential guard before entering the room where Tandja was holding a Cabinet meeting. They politely escorted him outside to a waiting car which drove him toward a military camp on the outskirts of the capital. His whereabouts remained unknown hours later when the soldiers

Coups in Africa proved time after time that they are the solution for Africa.
African countries need more coup attempts to over throw their lame duck
governments and install a military government.

Fock is this schit? The 60's?

No retrograde place on earth exists more than Africa. They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting the same results. The last coup was in Guinea and the idiot Lansana was rewarded with a bullet and now a civilian is prime minister. Africa, time and time again, has shown the legacy of coups don't last no matter how productive they are (Somalia). At the end of the day nothing is better than a constitutional SYSTEM in which men come under an everlasting system that is above mere personalities.

Democracy works for western countries, communism for Asian countries, absolute monarchy for some Middle Eastern countries and dictatorship for African countries.

You are my in adeer but I will not shy from saying you are an absolute idiot. End of story. No further response.

Aaah, waan gartay oo fahmay, bal aflagaadada intaa meel inoo yara dhigtid waxaa iga dhaadhicisaa sababta Afrika uga dambeyso dunida inteeda kale?

Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the other ones.

The thing about dictatorships, whether military or ideological (communist etc) is they lack accountability. Once a government stops being accountable to its people it begins being a government for it's own sake.

Dictatorships are incompetent, because they promote based on personal loyalty to the leader rather than competence. Business, free enterprise, free speech and political rights and freedoms are all a threat to them, so they stifle virtually every aspect of finance, business, science, education and development, and swamp what remains in corruption and nepotism.

The strength of a nation comes from finance, business, science education and development, so dictatorships are feeble entities which sap the strength of a nation the longer they are in place.

James Dahl wrote:Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the other ones.

The thing about dictatorships, whether military or ideological (communist etc) is they lack accountability. Once a government stops being accountable to its people it begins being a government for it's own sake.

Dictatorships are incompetent, because they promote based on personal loyalty to the leader rather than competence. Business, free enterprise, free speech and political rights and freedoms are all a threat to them, so they stifle virtually every aspect of finance, business, science, education and development, and swamp what remains in corruption and nepotism.

The strength of a nation comes from finance, business, science education and development, so dictatorships are feeble entities which sap the strength of a nation the longer they are in place.

chines system proves wrong your theory,
china is communist and their wealth comes from where?

The main point am trying to make is that people around the globe have different ways of governing. If a system of governance works for group A it does not necessarily mean it would work for group B, so therefore one should not impose their ways of governing on other (each to his own way).

Africans never learn. 2010 and Africans are still breaking the law and forcing their way into power. The sad thing is that they are all removed by the same gun that brought them to power after driving their countries down a path of no-return (Somalia). I am thinking we should mummify Idi Amin, MSB and all the other failed dictators and preserve them in museums as as lesson to future coup leader.

What? Africans waa xoolo wale!!

The president is another Xoolo.

Tandja was elected president in 1999 after an era of coups and rebellions in the landlocked desert country in West Africa. But instead of stepping down in December at the end of his second term, as mandated by law, he triggered a political crisis by pushing through a new constitution last summer that removed term limits and gave him near-totalitarian powers.

James Dahl wrote:Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the other ones.

The thing about dictatorships, whether military or ideological (communist etc) is they lack accountability. Once a government stops being accountable to its people it begins being a government for it's own sake.

Dictatorships are incompetent, because they promote based on personal loyalty to the leader rather than competence. Business, free enterprise, free speech and political rights and freedoms are all a threat to them, so they stifle virtually every aspect of finance, business, science, education and development, and swamp what remains in corruption and nepotism.

The strength of a nation comes from finance, business, science education and development, so dictatorships are feeble entities which sap the strength of a nation the longer they are in place.

That's why an Islamic government headed by competent intellectuals (Not the abu alqaedas or sheikh incompetent) is the solution for our country. They have the advantage of being accountable to the people (read about the caliphs umar ibn al khattab {RA} and umar ibn abd al aziz {RA}) and also providing a steady form of authority that can't be undermined. The rulers should have an exellent educational background and good experience and qualifications. There should also be a referendum every now and then to ask the people for any grieviences and cases of incompetence. Ultimately, it should be scholars who decide whether a leader stays or goes.

how can dialogue exist when people dont respect each others opinion and throw around personal insults ?

first i would like to congratulate zingi for putting a finger on a new way of thinking, the triteness of these types of topics was really annoying.

i agree with you to some extent, acknowledging the fact that "democracy" is not suitable to all nation, this is absolutely true. African needs a form of governance that does not exist in the world today, the closest thing to this form of governance is China. its really important to be able to adopt techniques of governance compatible with current environment of the particular country and its region, one must understand that governance is a variable and should be able to change according certain situations. therefore i think Africa needs some sort of bold action to deal with its contemporary issues preminilary to it embracing a longer term of transparent civil governance appreciated by its people.

But what ever the type of governance, it has to be lead by people with those obvious requirements.

Its seem alot of coup are happening in this part of africa.

God Bless

China, was the most advanced, wealthy and sophisticated nation on the planet for a thousand years, from about 700 to about 1700.

Even with the massive advances in technology, production and finance in Europe, they only caught up to China in terms of their economic strength, their advantage lay in military power alone.

It was the collapse of the Qing empire and the descent into civil war in China in the early 1900s that seriously harmed this, and Communist China under Mao savagely destroyed a thousand years of development.

Under Mao, China became a poorer, less educated and generally worse off nation than it was under the imperial government. The only government that actually moved China forward was the national government under Sun Yat Sen, and the post-Mao Chinese government under Deng Xiao Ping.

Both of these governments had the advantage of being progressive and accountable governments, not dictatorships.

Even then though, China is not a free country, and it is that that holds it back.