November 22, 2021

THE Sudanese military announced on Sunday that it would reinstate Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok who was removed by a coup in October.

Following persistent public protests by the Sudanese people, army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said he would hold a meeting with Hamdok for him to return to lead a transitional government.

The soldiers said they would also release political prisoners.

Hamdok, a former Deputy Executive Secretary and Chief Economist at the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), was called to lead Sudan when President Omar al-Bashir was overthrown in 2019 after 30 years in power.

Hamdok took on the position of Prime Minister with what many viewed as impeccable credentials to lead the troubled nation.

But his removal from power in October did not give him enough time to make the necessary changes needed to put the country on a proper footing.

In December 2020, the US removed Sudan from the list of “state sponsors of terrorism” and also lifted trade sanctions against Khartoum.

In 2016, when Hamdok was interviewed for the ALC Radio programme, Talking Africa, by Desmond Davies, he said that leadership was a key factor in Africa’s development.

“We need in Africa, leadership that is committed; visionary leadership that has a project for society, where it takes development as a key leading parameter.”

Hamdok said that development should “become hegemonic in the sense that the society at large takes it and runs with it”, thus transcending an individual”.

“So, once you lay the foundation for this, and the nation takes off, then it becomes a society project.

“There is no fear of it.

“But to start it, you need that leadership, which is visionary and committed,” Hamdok added.

On the issue of democracy, he told Talking Africa that it was taking root on the continent and that there had been an improvement in governance.

“If you look back 30 years ago, more than half or probably 60 to 70 percent of this continent was ruled by military dictatorships,” Hamdok said.

“Today, election is the name of the game, and no coup can survive.

“It is far from perfect.

“But I think when discounting time, we are moving in the right direction.

“And I would like to believe that risk, which prevailed some 30 or 40 years ago, to a large degree, it is no longer there,” Hamdok added.

With the soldiers backtracking over his removal from power, Hamdok has a second chance to put things right in Sudan.  

Hits: 0