About the inauguration of the president and the appointment of the prime minister

The inauguration of the President and in his speech:
We have finished the legal debate about the appointment of the president and the possibility of swearing in. In the first week, the president met with all the political forces, and this is to his credit. This is what we have been wishing for since time immemorial: inclusiveness, and perhaps President Asimi Guetta will lay the cornerstone for a unified financial dream for all its children.
In his speech, the President promised to give 1.8 billion for the benefit of rural areas and to provide safe drinking water.
The main challenges facing the president:
1- Preserving the unity of the army: it derives its strength from the military institution, and any internal conflict will lead to instability and even another military coup.
2- Strengthening the security and defense sector and continuing the offensive: it would have a disgrace if the groups were able to expand further in the south or if it were to be repeated like the Frapago incident. He has to show that the state is ruled by a military, and people should not feel that they are living in the era of former President Ipka.
3- Cleaning his associates: The media outreach to his relatives, especially his legal advisor, was not successful, and if he did not change his advisors, his work would be very difficult. Those who advise him to go against the national forces, because he is the strongest man, are the first to leave him in difficult days.
◀️ On the appointment of Shugel Mega as Prime Minister:
The appointment of the prime minister was delayed until some thought that the military would betray the June 5 movement, as happened before, when Mokhtar Wan was appointed in agreement with a wing of the movement. According to the news, the delay was due to the position of the Supreme Court, which saw the necessity of the president taking the oath and the question on which legal document the president was assigned and signed the decision to appoint the government secretary, while this is not in the duties of the president but rather the prime minister. Indeed, we face a big problem in respecting the texts in Mali.
◀️Who is Shugel Mega:
He received a doctorate in communications in the Soviet Union, a former student leader who headed the Union of Malian Students in the Soviet Union and a member of the one-party youth movement, and is considered the political heir of former President General Musa Trouri,. In 1997 he established his political party (MPR), which became an extension of the one-party UDPM during the rule of General Musa Trouri.
He participated in the government twice as Minister of Industry and Trade during the first five years (2002 to 2007) to former President Amadou Toumani Toure, and from 2008 to 2013 he headed the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority in Mali (AMRTP), then returned again in the government as Minister of Communications, the official spokesman for the government from 2015 to 2016, and from 2018, he returned to the opposition alongside the late Sumaila Cisse, and continued with him after the elections in the FSD Alliance, where he held the position of Vice President, and after Sumaila was kidnapped by terrorist groups, he held the presidency of the alliance, and during the movement his star rose in the arena as the second man and the official spokesman for The movement, after Imam Mahmoud Deko left the political arena, became the first man in the June 5 movement until now.
He is known for his daring. He raised his voice in defense of the general at a time when not many would dare even mention the name of President Moussa Trorie for fear of the Democrats’ attack.
• Challenges facing:
1- A split within the June 5 Movement: If some parties in the movement are not satisfied with the way seats are distributed, and the signs of a split have appeared since the last government formation, as the main party in the movement, the urd party, had participated in the government without the movement’s success, and when choosing a candidate The movement for the position of prime minister, as the Emk movement (one of the founding movements of Movement 5) wanted to nominate its president: the former minister Sheikh Omar Sesoko. In his statement to the latter on the day of his inauguration, he denied what the leaders of the movement said in their previous media outings that the disease prevented him from participating.
2- Inclusiveness in the government formation: At this time, every political party is keen to obtain ministerial seats as a means of financing its upcoming electoral campaigns, especially that the upcoming elections are dual elections, i.e. presidential and parliamentary, and this requires large funding. Therefore, since the coup, we see the re-formation of alliances and political balances, especially from the parties that are not in the coalition or the June 5 movement, and exclusion will generate a new opposition, which threatens the stability of the country, and in addition to the parties, civil society must be satisfied (unions, clerics and the financial community abroad).
3- Judicial investigation of those who died during the movement: The Prime Minister will have a great responsibility before history if the officials in this case are not tried, and if Imam Mahmoud Deko is considered the first responsible before history, Shogel is also responsible, and if this is done without trial, this means the events of heresy New and giving the green light for the upcoming regimes to kill demonstrators.
• About the Algiers Agreement:
Many of the brothers believed that Shugel would not accept the implementation of the agreement because of his position on the agreement and his book that he wrote on the Azawad issue, but Shugel’s political career tells us the opposite: President ATT supported in 2002, although the latter was the one who turned against his political leader, General Musa Trouri, and he The Algiers and Shogel agreement was signed in the government of President Ipka, but he was its official spokesman, and he did not submit his resignation in protest, but continued in the government until he was relieved, and during the movement as the head of the movement, he met the Azawad Liberation Movement, so it appears to us that he is a man accustomed to concession, in addition to The issue is deeper and larger than a personal issue.
Dr. Shugel Mega is an expert in financial policy and knows the extent of the problem. He left his fingerprints in the places it went through. If he had a good intention, he would succeed in changing some things.
The next government and its form:

As I mentioned before, the new government must be a true national unity government, and its members should be 25 in implementation of the outcomes of the comprehensive national dialogue. Of course, the military will maintain defense and internal security, but decentralization must be given to a neutral technocrat to ensure the organization of transparent elections, as well as health, finance and foreign affairs. These three sectors suffer Real problems, financial diplomacy is dormant, while we need an active person in this critical stage. As for health, its problems are clear to everyone, and despite the impossibility of solving them during this short period, finding a good minister will improve things, and in an economy we need a minister who can provide quick solutions instead of relying on debt.
As for the other ministries, they can be distributed based on political balances.
The priorities of the next government: 8 months are too few to change, so I think that we should focus on the basic matters only, which are three in my opinion:,
1- Organizing fair elections: the state does not need a new post-electoral crisis, as we have seen its repercussions from the 2018 elections and the legislative elections in 2019, and the repetition of the same mistakes leads to the same results. As I said earlier, organizing free elections is the only key to political stability in Mali.
2- Amending or drafting a new constitution: The need for a new constitution is urgent, and I think that the transitional period is the appropriate stage for it, because if it is left to the new president, the constitution will be drafted according to his interests: either setting the election age to exclude a competitor or giving himself two-thirds of the Senate, or taking advantage of the opportunity and continuing in the mission The third. While at the present time a new constitution will be drafted with the consent of all parties. But this does not mean, of course, the addition of articles that threaten the unity of the financial territory, as this will be considered high treason, and of course people will not accept such a constitution easily.
As for Article 118 of the Constitution, which prevents changing the constitution if the government does not control the entire national territory, I think this article can be violated as we have been accustomed to, since more than an hour ago we became accustomed to violating the constitution: starting with the postponement of the legislative elections through the dissolution of the Constitutional Court and the appointment of members of the Transitional Council to The inauguration of Guetta as president of the transitional period, so let this be the last violation of the constitution, and then going to a new republic with a constitution that reflects our reality.
3- Signing an agreement with the unions: All sectors in the country face problems and all unions have demands. If the authorities do not anticipate signing an agreement with them, another strike will be repeated, whether it is from untm or other unions. The strike cost the state billions of francs.
◀️ The thing that the president and the prime minister should avoid is fighting corruption: At a time when we are optimistic about the unity of the word, I think that the president and the head of government should leave the anti-corruption file to the new elected president, because this will lead to a new opposition and they will have to confront the cadres of the former regime and the former majority parties. And preparing for an endless series of strikes, as it is difficult to find a Malian politician of the 1991 generation who does not have a corruption file, so it will be difficult to fight corruption, unless they discriminate in the process, the priority now is to preserve the unity of Mali and obtain political stability, and corruption will be fought if he chooses The people are an honest person in the upcoming elections.
◀️ Millions have gathered more than ever before. This is good news. We hope that it will be the end of the era of wandering and the beginning of the financial renaissance.
God save the people and the country.

Abdul Rahman Sebi
Researcher and writer from the Republic of Mali