Guinea: Mamady Doumbouya sets up a "shadow government"

The president of the Guinean transition Mamady Doumbouya and his Prime Minister Mohamed Béavogui no longer get along. To reduce the power of the latter, Doumbouya has set up a "Presidential Priorities Monitoring Office".

According to several observers, the heavy sanctions imposed by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Mali were intended, in particular, to discourage the military authorities in Guinea from any attempt to extend their mandate.

Mamady Doumbouya, current president of the transition, had decided in December that it would take him two years to arrive at elections. Conakry has just convened the political parties, which have been invited to participate in a "meeting on the transition". Talks which would have lasted only three hours, at the end of which political leaders emerged happy - the party leader of the overthrown President Alpha Condé in particular - and others much less, namely the opposition parties.

However, the National Rally Committee for Development (CNRD), a conglomerate of military officers supporting the coup of Mamady Doumbouya, had received real support from the civil political opposition, just after the coup d'état in Guinea.

What could have changed in the meantime?

The end of the honeymoon between Doumbouya and Béavogui

The day after the Cedao summit on December 12, the first tensions appeared between Mamady Doumbouya and his Prime Minister, civilian, Mohamed Béavogui. The announcement, during the famous summit, of the extension of the transition by two years angered the optimists who had offered a certain legitimacy to the seizure of power by Doumbouya. Among these former supporters, civilians in the government, in particular Béavogui and Foreign Minister Morissanda Kouyaté.

On December 13, the CNRD announced that it was "solely responsible for setting up the organs of the transition". In particular the appointment of 81 members of the National Transitional Council (CNT), which will organize the next elections.

A few days later, reports Jeune Afrique, Mohamed Béavogui said he was dismayed by the decision to rename the airport Conakry-Gbessia, now called Ahmed Sékou Touré. An uncle of Béavogui had died in detention under the Sékou Touré regime in 1977.

A series of unilateral decisions which go against the image that Mamady Doumbouya seeks to project. The latter, seeking to take advantage of the Malian context - President Assimi Goïta is very popular in Mali - tried to follow in the latter's footsteps to consolidate his hold over Guinea.

But Doumbouya is not Goïta. The Guinean president is seen as more brutal and less consensual. And where Goïta is criticized internationally, he is gradually losing the support of civilians in his own country.

Mr Camara, Madame Soumah did not disrespect Colonel Doumbouya, rather it is he who tramples and humiliates his ministers, starting with the first Mr. Beavogui.
The latest acts of the leader of the junta are reckless and guided by populism.

- Jean Kamano (@KamanoJean) -

The BSPP, a government in place of the government

And it is not his last decision that will restore his popularity. In a presidential decree published on the evening of Monday January 10, Mamady Doumboya set up a “Presidential Priorities Monitoring Office (BSPP)”. "It is neither more nor less than a shadow government, endowed with extensive powers," sums up a specialist in Guinea. This group will be appointed directly by Doumbouya and will have control over the government's budget. It will also oversee “the execution of priority programs”. One way for Mamady Doumbouya to announce, without saying it, that he is putting his government in line.

#Decree

PROVIDING RESPONSIBILITIES, ORGANIZATION AND OPERATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PRIORITIES MONITORING BUREAU (BSPP)#DecretGuineePRG pic.twitter.com/evLrz2QuTT

- Guinea Presidency (@Presidence_gn) -

It is difficult not to make the connection between these surprising decisions of Mamady Doumbouya, and his recent rapprochement with Colonel Amara Camara, Minister Secretary General of the Presidency. Grandson of Diarra Camara, the former chief of staff of Lansana Conté, and spokesperson for the CNRD, Camara was parachuted into the Guinean political landscape and he has recently woven his web.

Amara Camara was also at the center of the dispute between the CNRD and the government over the departure of Justice Minister Fatoumata Soumah.

So many events that show that the Guinean junta seeks to cling to power at all costs, while it had an unexpected chance to make history after the fall of Alpha Condé, by redressing a disastrous political situation in Guinea.