Background
He was born in 1924, in a Hausa family at Tessoua, Maradi district, near the Nigerian border, where many of his kinsmen live.
He was born in 1924, in a Hausa family at Tessoua, Maradi district, near the Nigerian border, where many of his kinsmen live.
He was educated locally, then at the national school of Frederic Assomption in Katibougou, Mali, gaining a primary school teacher’s diploma.
In 1959 after the Niger Progressive Party came to power, Hamani Diori appointed him Minister of Agriculture, then, at the time of independence, Minister of Education until 1963, when he was shifted to the Ministry of Rural Affairs and Economy. Here he made little real progress in making agriculture less dependent on periodic droughts or on the traditional crops of groundnuts and cotton. When he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs development of the promising livestock sector had scarcely started.
As a Hausa, he was a keen champion of Diori’s official policy of supporting Federal Nigeria in the Biafran war. He was also keen on fostering relations with other western countries like West Germany, the United States and Canada, which made Niger less dependent on French aid.
His sudden demotion from the Foreign Ministry to Minister Delegate at the Presidency, on August 18, in the middle of the 1972 crisis in relations with France, may have been because the French demanded a sacrifice and because he had been pressing too hard for a new opening towards Nigeria and the Commonwealth African states. Shortly afterwards, in October, he was given the important Information Ministry.
During the Nigerian war, he was a strong supporter of the Federal government against Biafra and is now in favour of a detente from France and stronger ties with Nigeria.