Towards stability in Chad

LAST month, Republic of Chad’s president, Idriss Déby, died in battle. The sad event happened just a day after provisional election results handed him a sixth term of office. The results following the Aprill 11 election had given him an unassailable lead of 80 per cent. Déby, one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders, died of injuries sustained during clashes with rebels in the north of the country, according to a statement issued by the military. As was his wont, Deby had reportedly headed to the front lines several hundreds of kilometres north of the capital, N’Djamena, to visit troops battling the Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT), a rebel group founded in 2016 by disillusioned former army officers. Alas, he “breathed his last defending the sovereign nation on the battlefield.”

Following the incident, the military dissolved the government and the parliament, imposed a curfew, and shut the country’s borders. Déby, 68, spent some 31 years in office, having come to power in 1990 through an armed uprising. He was immediately replaced by his son, General Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, in a provisional capacity. The Mahamat-led  military council is expected to lead the country for the next 18 months, following which “free and democratic” elections will ostensibly be held. Mahamat, 37, has since issued a statement naming the 14 other generals who will make up the new governing body. This looks dangerously like a hereditary pseudo-monarchy.

To be sure, the late Deby was a highly consequential president. A trained pilot, Deby remained a field officer even while inhabiting the presidential palace. For him, it seemed, the pull of battle was simply irresistible, which explains why he was involved in some of the continent’s most protracted conflicts in Nigeria, Libya, Mali and the Central African Republic. Particularly because of the campaigns he personally led against Boko Haram terrorists, Deby is a man for whom many Nigerians would have fond memories.  Of a truth, Deby proved his mettle on the battlefield and earned the right to be recognised for his heroism. But the situation in Chad, helped in large part by his negative proclivities, is not worth forgetting.

As the Nigerian government has noted already, although without moral authority on its part, it is crucially important to have stability in Chad. There is palpable instability in Chad with sustained rebel advance to N’Djamena and the African Union (AU) has a bounden duty to keep an eye on the country. The fact must be recognised that the rebels are Chadians, not Libyans or Malians, and ought to be productively engaged at the negotiating table. Truth be told, Deby ran an ethnically insensitive government, dispensing with the dictum that you cannot run society without accommodating diverse interests.

Himself a former rebel, the late president habitually imposed himself on the people. Indeed, shorn of state propaganda, the April 11 election was an establishment show in which the opposition did not participate. You cannot use force to keep people together, but that precisely is what the Chadian government under Deby did, and now under Mahamat, purports to do. We notice the same pattern in Rwanda, where President Paul Kagame continues to defy the lessons of history by running an ethnically insensitive administration. The pattern is of course the same in Nigeria where, hemmed in by ethnic prejudice, the Muhammadu Buhari administration has continually brewed and fostered divisive tendencies, embracing thought patterns and actions that emasculate the Nigerian state.

Chad apparently needs a national dialogue. In this regard, it is important for the governments of France and the United States to recognise that for years, they have not helped the situation in the country. Deby was a long-time ally of France and other Western powers in the battle against jihadist groups in the Sahel region. They propped him up even while he was oppressing his own people. The United Nations Human Development Index ranks Chad as the seventh poorest country in the world, with 80 per cent of the population living below the poverty line. Deby’s management of Chad’s oil resources was clearly suspect.

Reacting to Deby’s demise, the French presidency described him as a “brave friend” and affirmed its attachment to the stability of Chad. We think that ‘stability’ should go beyond deploying fighter jets to keep Chadian rebels in check. There is much to gain from productive dialogue. There must be demonstrable commitment by the General Mahamat government to the creation of a more egalitarian order in Chad. We urge the international community, including the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), to work on the dialogue option and promote stability in Chad.

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