Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen
I am honored and delighted to participate with you in this Summit for Democracy. Thank you very much for this invitation.
At all times, human societies have adopted the forms of governance most likely to ensure their cohesion, security and sustainability. At the heart of each person is a desire for freedom, a sine qua non of integrity. Philosophers, statesmen and citizens have invested themselves throughout history to find the best form of government.
For us, engaged in the concrete, the philosophical and moral debate has been settled by experience: democracy is the best form of government and Winston Churchill was right to say cynically that it was the worst, except for all the others that have been tried. It is our irrevocable and assumed choice, within the framework of which we reflect in action on the modalities of the exercise of democracy according to the specific contexts of each country and the contingent circumstances. These modalities, insofar as they aim at the absolute, nevertheless remain relative, precisely.
In my country Niger, for about thirty years, an irrepressible wave, the sum of the energies of activists and committed citizens, moved by an inflexible will, has formally imposed democracy. Our young democracy has just succeeded in 2021 in a first alternation by the ballot box, reflecting the maturity of the people and the wisdom of the leaders.
Democracy, matrix of dignity and freedom, is based on the ability of citizens to make serene and informed choices. This is why Niger makes good governance, a condition for the stability of state institutions and education, especially the education of young girls, a priority. Because we are convinced that for democracy to prosper we need educated citizens, capable of assuming their rights and their duties. Democracy is an ideal that is lived and practiced, it cannot be endured. She deserves it. It is fragile and we must always keep human dignity and freedom as our compass to navigate through the tumult of ongoing global and multidimensional crises.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
In these historical moments of rupture of models and paradigmatic upheavals, forces denigrate and threaten democracy by presenting it as a concept specific to a certain culture. In this regard, they are waging a fight whose purpose is to put models of authoritarian power back in the saddle, at odds with the evolution of humanity.
Democracy is our common good, let us support each other and make it live with the most rigorous requirement, because the other danger to which democracy is exposed is endogenous; resulting from the decline in democratic requirements.
Thank you for your attention