Morning all,
Firstly a bit on the state of the nation as it were;
The military leadership in Niger has formed a new transitional government of 20 ministers, including five soldiers and five women.
According to state radio, the defence, sport and environment ministries, went to three generals close to the former President, Mamadou Tandja.
On Monday, the new military leader, Major Salou Djibo, promised to return Niger to democracy but set no date.
President Tandja was ousted last month, after he changed the constitution.
He had sought to remain in power beyond the end of his second term in office.
After the coup, the constitution was suspended and the cabinet dissolved.
Economic progress
Major Djibo, who heads the Supreme Council for Restoration of Democracy (CSRD), says elections will be held after a transitional period of unspecified duration.
"The Council commits itself to restoring the constitutional order that will be proposed by the consultative council" set up to advise on the country's future, he said.
"Our only goal is to accompany the return to democracy in our dear homeland," Major Djibo added.
Last week, Mahamadou Danda, who served as communications minister in an earlier government, was appointed interim prime minister.
Niger has experienced long periods of military rule since independence from France in 1960.
But Mr Tandja's supporters argue that his decade in power has brought a measure of economic stability to the poor West African nation.
Under his tenure, the French energy firm Areva began work on the world's second-biggest uranium mine - ploughing an estimated $1.5bn (£970m) into the project.
China National Petroleum Corporation signed a $5bn deal in 2008 to pump oil within three years.
Work progresses at a pace slower than we need. Following the latest warning given to our contractor last week about poor performance, I’ve now given notice to him that his last day on site will be 8th March, regardless of whether or not he has finished.
I suspect he won’t be anywhere near completed but would love to be proved wrong...
The 8th was chosen as its the revised date he gave us for completion following the last heated discussion.
The original completion date was 28th February but in a moment of generosity (and, with hindsight, extreme optimism) I allowed him another week.
After he has gone, we will finish off on our own using the best of his staff, assuming they want to work for us of course.
We’ve put the word around that the good guys will still have work here if they want it of course and If they don’t, we will have no trouble finding good keen labour to take their place.
We’ll also continue to stockpile materials- laterite as you know is well advanced and we will commence on the screened gravel and the sand once the contractor is out of here.
Hopefully by the end of this week I’ll have the cement sorted as well.
Monday and yesterday, again, we couldn’t do the large pad as we had insufficient screened gravel. The contractor was convinced that he should start the pour because he had 2 truck loads on the way but as we know, anything can happen here and there’s a fair chance the delivery truck would have broken down.
Not only that but even after the gravel arrives, it has to be screened which also takes a fair bit of time.
As it happens, the first one arrived at 11:45 and the second at around 2pm yesterday.
We poured about 1.5m3 yesterday to tidy up some abattoir pads and today we have finally had another go at the big pad and completed it this afternoon.
Only 6 days after we were told it was going to be done.
The boys have done very well with it though, and once they got started, they got it finished in about 3 hours. See photo 2580 for a shot taken half way through the 17 or so m3.
I made a promise a while back to kill a sheep and do a barbeque once the big pad was done, and have just been reminded of this.
We’ll organise it for Friday lunchtime, before prayers.
It’ll be a thank you to the guys from contractor and might help us get the good ones to come back.
The problem with them coming to work for us is that we’re only here for a few months whereas the contractor is here for much longer so they may not want to upset the apple cart for a few months of higher wages, good work, fantastic employers etc to be told they’ll never work again once we bugger off.
We’ll see what happens but i’d like to think we’ll get most of the guys we want back again.
The water test on pipe line 1 was successful overnight Monday, no surprise there, and we now have water being held in line 2 since yesterday to check this one for leaks too.
The night shift did well - see photo 2573 of the first lot of lines being dug for the ventilation ducts under the freezers.
I was sent this table which gives a brief snapshot of how things are over here.
The numbers obviously only tell part of the story, the reality makes it more apparent.
Population: 13.26 Millions
Human Development Index Rank: 32
GDP per capita (US$): 244
GDP per capita (PPP US$): 781
Population living below $1 a day: 60.6%
Population living below $2 a day: 85.8%
Population undernourished: 32%
Life expectancy at birth: 45.8 Years
Under-five mortality rate (per 1,000 live births): 148
Net primary enrolment rate: 40%
Adult literacy rate (% aged 15 and older): 28.7
Population using an improved water source: 46%
Puts things in to perspective really doesnt it?
86% of the population living on less than US$2 a day, and it’s not that cheap a country to live in.
Thats all for now,
Me
