Some say that Malian Prime Minister Choguel Maïga is still very ill, others that he is better. Some claim that he was evacuated to Turkey, others to Morocco… Beyond all these conjectures on the state of health of the head of government, a very well-informed Malian source responds to RFI with humor: “ You know it well, in Bamako, without the rumor, the street dies ».
This August 24, 2022, Choguel Maiga was still at the Pasteur private clinic of Bamako, one of the finest medical facilities in the sub-region. He occupies there, according to our information, one of the two VIP rooms. The room in which the Prime Minister has been since August 10 has a three-digit numbering.
But she received before him two other famous Malian politicians. First the former Prime Minister Soumeylou Boubéye Maïga, prosecuted and who died in the Pasteur clinic on March 21, 2022. And before him, the former Malian president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita (IBK), was transferred to the same bed, shortly after the coup that overthrew him on August 18, 2020. According to our information, in addition to the bed, the room has a small living room and a small kitchen . Since his arrival on the scene, the best Malian doctors take turns at his bedside 24 hours a day.
What is Choguel Maïga suffering from?
The only brief official press release published on the Primature’s Facebook page since his hospitalization is titled: ” Prime Minister placed on enforced rest “. According to the text, ” After 14 months of tireless work, the Prime Minister, Head of Government, Choguel Kokalla Maïga, was put on forced rest by his doctor. “Too confident, its author ends:” Il [Le Premier ministre Choguel Maïga ; Ndlr] will resume operations next week. Insha’Allah. »
Not only did the latter not resume his duties, but on August 21, the president of the Malian transition, Colonel Assimi Goïta appointed another colonel, Abdoulaye Maiga, to fill the interim. ” Colonel Abdoulaye Maïga, Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralization, has been appointed to take over from Mr. Choguel Kokalla Maïga, Prime Minister, Head of Government “, specifies the decree.
This appointment has revived rumors about the real state of health of the head of government. According to our information, Choguel Maïga is suffering from an ischemic cerebrovascular accident (CVA). According to a medical source, ischemic stroke usually occurs when a cerebral artery becomes blocked ».
Two sources at the heart of the case interviewed separately by us comment on the evolution of his condition: “ Medical secrecy must be respected. What I can say is confirm the ischemic stroke. But I want to add that he is at the current stage on the way to recovery. “According to the second source, ” for the moment, we can say that the evolution is favourable. Overall it’s fine. To this day, he articulates, but he walks a little with difficulty. »
The two sources quoted separately insist however: even if the private Pasteur clinic in Bamako in which Choguel Maïga is hospitalized is equipped to deal with the situation, its evacuation to the outside will be necessary for more advanced care. “ Former IBK President [décédé en janvier dernier ; Ndlr] had almost the same problem. Hospitalized here in Pasteur, we ended up evacuating him despite the high level of the technical platform », Completes to convince one of the two interlocutors quoted above.
Will Choguel Maïga be able to return to the political game? ?
Officially, the Prime Minister is temporarily relieved of his duties and should therefore, in principle, return to his chair once his health has recovered. “ It depends on several factors, and the master of the clocks remains President Assimi Goïta “, agrees to say a retired Malian diplomat, who rather has his way into the workings of the Malian state.
Choguel Maïga’s return to the scene will first depend on his full recovery. “ Can he still work 14 hours a day ? For now, I doubt it. You have to have strong backs to hold the office of Prime Minister. If his recovery should take several months, it will be difficult to see him again at the Primature. time does not wait », Analyzes a former head of government who is still active in the local political backwater. More philosophical and mischievous, a Malian administrator known for his long professional experience confides: “ Heraclitus said that you never bathe twice in the same river. »
According to a close relative of Choguel Maïga, “ the main concern at the moment is not at all the return to the political scene, but to heal. Between his health and politics, we prefer his health. »
The man falls ill at a time when there is more and more talk of reshuffling the political cards, of opening the doors of government to other political formations, with several options. The first, with his retention at the head of the government, the second, with his departure. The appointment of an interim is considered politically by some as his first step towards the swan song.
A Prime Minister losing support
It is true that politically, for a few months, Choguel Maïga left the highway, for a local, a narrow path. He has lost several of his supporters and the circle of his adversaries has grown. Unpopular within a section of the National Transitional Council (the transitional parliament), this engineer, holder of a doctorate in telecommunications, has also lost a large number of his allies within the M5-RFP, a heterogeneous movement which has contributed to the fall of former president IBK.
Created on June 5, 2020 and composed of political parties and movements, the Rally of Patriotic Forces had designated Choguel Maïga as its ” Chairman of the Strategy Committee “. Today, the M5-RFP has two branches: one pro-Choguel, and one anti.
Temporarily removed from the management of state affairs at the highest level, the 64-year-old man could also find it difficult to recover politically for another reason. His party, the Patriotic Movement for Renewal (MPR) remains a small party on the political spectrum, and has not really been able to establish itself on the national territory. Since his illness, his followers have also been much less active on social media. An additional lack of visibility.
Another question has come up since his hospitalization: will the military miss him? Of public notoriety, the man before his stroke was no longer unanimous among the colonels responsible for two coups. ” It was in any case more tolerated than accepted by some », Analyzes a local observer. His illness would be, as said above, an opportunity for “ unplug him politically ».
“As long as a politician is alive, anything can happen”
However, the supporters of the bedridden Prime Minister, who still appear, recall his ” tenacity “. The man is indeed tenacious: minister twice, in 2002, for a few years (he then holds the portfolio of Industry and Trade), then in 2015, when he returns to the government, more precisely to the Ministry of l ‘Digital Economy and Communication…
And to achieve his ends, he can repeatedly eat a piece of his hat. He, for example, who demanded a civilian president for the Transition, will finally work with Colonel Assimi Goïta, before becoming his virulent spokesperson against the former partner, France. He also ate his hat on what is somewhat the Grail of his political career: the Algiers peace agreement, signed between the ex-rebels of the North and the government. He always believed that this agreement would inevitably lead to the partition of Mali. Follower of a touchy nationalism, he is nevertheless today ready to apply the agreement “ intelligently ».
Choguel Maïga has now abandoned another of his demands: the dissolution of the National Transitional Council (CNT), the legislative body of the Transition. On behalf of the M5-RFP which he headed at the time, he had even asked the courts to declare ” illegal this organ. Will he be able to bounce back? Mamadou Cissé, Malian sociologist and teacher, recalls a well-known formula: “ As long as a politician is alive, anything can happen. »