Newly Sworn-In Guinea’s Prime Minister, Mamadou Oury Bah. Will he return Guinea to peaceful democratic transition?
Abubakar Hashim/Sierra Leone
Guinea’s former opposition leader and a renowned economist, Mamadou Oury Bah, was today appointed and sworn in as the new Prime Minister, by junta leader, Gen Mamadi Doumbouya, just a week after he dissolved his former cabinet. The new Prime Minister is expected to form a new government soon.
Bah, 65, locally known as Bah Oury, has immediately appealed for the ongoing violence and protests to be called off and return of calm and tranquillity to the West African country.
He has been in politics for over three decades, since the early 90’s.
In 1991, he formed the Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea UDFG but was later expelled due to his radicalism.
In 2007, he was appointed Minister of National Reconciliation in a consensus government.
He later went into exile in France in 2011, when he was accused of leading an attack on former President Alfa Conde’s residence. He later returned in 2016.
His appointment, today, will be a pointer to the preparation for a rapid return to democratic governance, with scheduled elections expected in December 2024, as mutually agreed by ECOWAS and the military junta.
Bah’s rich antecedents in politics and governance, many Guineans say, will fast-track the transition timeframe and will douse the tense atmosphere in Guinea.
He is a Fullah by tribe, who had never ruled Guinea, in its 67 years of independence from France, but is in full control of the economy.
It remains, however, whether Prime Minister Bah, will have the magic wand to douse the ongoing tense situation in Guinea, that has resulted in deaths and the destruction of properties.