Hama Amadou

Hama Amadou (born 1950) is a Nigerien politician who was Prime Minister of Niger from 1995 to 1996 and again from 2000 to 2007. He was also Secretary-General of the National Movement for the Development of Society (MNSD-Nassara) from 1991 to 2001 and President of the MNSD-Nassara from 2001 to 2009. Amadou is from the Kurtey, a Fula sub-group, and was raised in the Tillaberi Region, in the Niger River valley, north of Niamey. As a result of corruption allegations against his government, he was removed from office as Prime Minister through a 2007 no-confidence vote in the National Assembly. In 2008 he became the target of a corruption investigation which saw him arrested to face criminal charges at the Nigerien High Court of Justice and removed from his post as MNSD President. From 2011 to 2014, Amadou was President of the National Assembly of Niger. He was elected to that post as an ally of President Mahamadou Issoufou, but in 2013 he went into opposition. He fled Niger in August 2014 to escape arrest on charges related to a baby-trafficking investigation. Upon those charges, Amadou was sentenced to one year in prison, in March 2017, by the Niamey Court of Appeals. Amadou was tried in absentia, since he was exiled in France. Under Kountché and Saibou During the regime of Seyni Kountché, Amadou was Director-General of the Office of Radio Broadcasting and Television of Niger (ORTN) from 1983 to 1985 and became Director of the Cabinet in 1985. Following Kountché's death, Amadou was named Minister of Information under his successor, Ali Saibou, on 15 July 1988, serving until 20 December 1989.