A crusading publisher pushes Niger's limits
Maman Abou's anti-corruption scoops are profitable, but dangerous to report.
from the April 17, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 4
It's not just the criticism that makes the government wary of Abou, it's the fact that Le Républicain is scrupulous about accuracy, says Jean-Dominique Petel, a former professor of philosophy at Niamey's Abdou Moumouni University. "His paper's very well informed. They don't attack people without cause."
But government spokesperson Omar Ben Mohamed disagrees. In an interview in his ministry of planning office, he criticizes Le Républicain for only printing articles that portray the government and its ministers in a negative light and insists that Abou has political aspirations. "He does what he calls 'investigative reporting' in quotation marks, but we know that Maman Abou's a politician," Mr. Ben Mohamed says. "He's an active member of the opposition party."
Indeed, Abou admits that he founded Le Républicain in 1991 "to take part in the political debate." But, he declares, "I have no political ambition. If, by chance, events drove me to play a role in leading the country, I wouldn't say no, but it's not my first motivation. My main motivation is the citizens of Niger."
***
The first time I met Abou was last November when he was in jail in the small town of Téra, four hours from Niamey along a bumpy one-lane highway and over the Niger River in a barge loaded with buses, people, and livestock.
He didn't look like a man taking imprisonment badly. Wearing khaki pants, a nicely ironed pinstriped shirt, and flip-flops, he juggled two constantly ringing cellphones and talked cheerfully, explaining that his wife had rented a house nearby and brought him food every day. Half a dozen visitors, among them a university professor, a government minister, and a businessman, sat with him under a makeshift lean-to outside the prison.
He said that the government had sent negotiators to offer an exchange: freedom, if he'd stop writing about the education ministry scandal.
Abou refused. "These are people who have absolutely no vision of the future of this country."
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