Retired Law Professor Kais Saied Elected Tunisia’s 6th President

Kais Saied won more than 70% of votes in the Tunisian
presidential election, beating out his opponent Nabil Karoui by
more than 40 points.

Saied is the second freely-elected president of Tunisia after
Beji Caid Essebsi, who became president in 2014.

The retired law professor, nicknamed “Robocop” for his austere
manner, has no political experience nor party affiliation. In
contrast to his multimillionaire opponent, Saied had to borrow
money to register as a candidate and barely campaigned at all.

Saied’s divergence from Tunisia’s political norm, however, is
what made him so appealing to such a large majority of voters.

Saied is calling for constitutional reform and a complete
overhaul of the country’s political system in favor of a
decentralized democratic model. He promises to fight the flaws of
the old system: corruption, clientelism, opacity, and nepotism.

Saied’s platform also prioritizes improving healthcare and
education, uprooting poverty, combating the country’s rising
consumer prices, and reducing unemployment.

In terms of foreign policy, the new president is a pan-Arabist
and denounces any normalization with Israel.

His conservative social views include favoring the death
penalty, criminalizing homosexuality, and opposing equal
inheritance for men and women.

Saied earned the support of both far-left groups and Islamists,
most notably the “Muslim democratic” Ennahda Party.

He is also very popular among Tunisian youth. The polling
institute Sigma Council estimates that about 90% of 18- to
25-year-olds voted for Saied.

The election’s voter turnout reached nearly 60%, according to
the same source.

Robocop vs. Corleone

Saied’s opponent, a wealthy businessman and TV station owner,
campaigned from prison after being booked on suspicion of tax
evasion and money laundering.

Nicknamed “Corleone” after the main protagonist in the 1972 film
the Godfather, Karoui is suave, charismatic, and allegedly
corrupt.

The former presidential candidate earned millions from various
business ventures such as Karoui & Karoui World, a leading
advertising company in the Maghreb, and the private Tunisian TV
station “Nessma.”

In addition to running a poverty-fighting charity, Karoui also
has a popular show in which he gives out domestic appliances to
needy families. The liberal populist was nicknamed “Nabil
Makrouna,” which translates to “Nabil Pasta” in the Tunisian
dialect, after he handed out bags of pasta to the poor.

Tunisian authorities arrested Karoui in August after a
three-year investigation. However, his supporters have denounced
the charges as a conspiracy against his candidacy. Released just
days ago, Karoui may attempt to challenge the election results.

A new era of Tunisian politics

Saied is set to hold office for a five-year term, during which
he will have control over the country’s defense, foreign policy,
and national security.

His main challenge, however, will be reducing the 15.4%
unemployment rate.

The election results come less than three months after former
president Essebsi’s death on July 25, 2019.

Essebsi was the first democratically-elected president of
Tunisia after the 2011 Arab Uprisings swept through the region.

Essebsi was a long-time player in Tunisian politics, having
served under the post-independence leader Habib Bourguiba and the
deposed president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Essebsi is credited with maintaining stability in Tunisia during
his presidency. However, he faced criticism for being too
authoritarian regarding matters of security. Some opponents accused
him of seeking to restore Ben Ali’s rulership.

Saied’s victory demonstrates Tunisian voters’ unquestionable
rejection of the ruling elite who have held power since the 2011
uprisings.

Groups Condemn Forceful Abduction, Conversion of
Northern Children to Christianity in the South

The Coalition of Northern Groups is deeply touched by the report
of nine innocent children forcefully separated from their parents
and moved to Eastern Nigerian towns.

We are profoundly agitated to learn that the children were also
baptized with new names and forcefully converted to a religion
other than the one their parents practice.

We are also moved that all the players on both removing and
receiving points belong to a certain Nigerian tribe whose members
are deeply entrenched in every town, city and village in northern
Nigeria.

We are particularly saddened that days after the discovery of
this heinous crime, no federal, state or local government,
cultural, traditional, or religious group, NGO, or international
organization has spoken on the matter.

We are further disturbed that even the national and
international media except just a few appear to want to downplay
this matter.

OBSERVATIONS
1. The fact that according to the revelation, this act of merciless
crime against children who by definition require the guardianship
and protection of adults, had been going on for more than five
years undetected and undetected, raises concerns over the existence
of several more similar operation locations in many other parts of
northern Nigeria.

2. The fact that the cheft, movement are forceful conversion
target mainly minors who are among the most vulnerable and innocent
class of any society suggests a much wider agenda for the ultimate
crippling of northern viability by debasing its human resource
capital base.

3. The fact that the presidency which is always quick to condemn
less grievous actions when they occur in the South is now silent in
the face of more oppressive, obnoxious and heinous crime of
physically and emotionally harming the most vulnerable people in
northern society suggests that the North in the present context has
been unjustly and unfairly abandoned and exposed with no official
cover or protection.

4. The fact that a large section of the media, reporters,
analysts and commentators appear to be uninterested in this matter,
indicate a much wider coverup conspiracy whenever the northern
interest is fundamentally breached.

OUR STAND
1. CNG calls on all northern societies to first and foremost refuse
to accept any attempt to treat this particular case and similar
others that may be uncovered as mere child trafficking considering
the ages of the victims and the ritual of their renaming and forced
conversion to Christianity.

2. The North must insist that in addition to child theft,
molestation and forced separation from parents, this particular
case and subsequent others that may be digged up, be appropriately
dealt with as proselytism which is the act or fact of religious
conversion, or attempts at conversion by ‘unjust means that violate
the conscience of the human person’.

3. We therefore demand an Act by the Kano state government to
amend the Criminal Code so that the minimum sentence for offences
involving trafficking of persons under the age of eighteen years
are treated as felony with lifetime sentences or death for severer
offences such as this one.

a. We demand that all northern states governments also enact
similar laws to protect our children from further abuse, torment,
and mental or physical exploitation.

4. We demand further enactments by all northern states
governments to compel parents, relatives, caretakers, and others
who are charged with child care and guidance, media, school
officials, physicians, police officers, and other such authority
figures to report any signs of abuse or exploitation against a
child anywhere in the North.

5. We demand that the federal and Kano state governments set up
credible independent commissions of enquiry to holistically look
into the depth of the crime including motive, spread and extent of
individual and group involvement in the at least the last 10
years.

6. We demand that all northern states governments initiate
comprehensive investigations into the possibility of similar crimes
carried out, going on, or planned to be carried out in any part of
the North.

7. We call on all northern lawyers and all categories of legal
practitioners of northern extraction to mobilize and insist on
thorough investigation, prompt and diligent prosecution,
appropriate conviction and sentence of individuals, groups and
interests directly or remotely connected to the current case and
similar others that may be unearthed.

8. We demand all northern states governments to order the
immediate relocation of luxurious bus stations from the outskirts
to approved mainstream motor parks in view of the fact that most
cases of trafficking in drugs, arms and humans are carried out
using these buses.

9. We alert the entire northern public especially those in
neighbourhoods populated by elements of this identified notorious
ethnicity to be extra vigilante with their children and wards.

a. They are advised to begin a vigorous watch your neighbour
initiative with a view to reporting every suspicious movements,
actions and conduct relating to drug circulation, concealment of
dangerous items and other crimes to the authorities and insist that
such person or persons relocate from their midst.

10. Finally, we call on the northern public to immediately
commence the compilation of lists of all missing children and
persons in the last 20 years for transmission to the authorities
and copied to the CNG.

CONCLUSION
We conclude by giving notice that failure of the authorities to act
satisfactorily in the circumstances outlined above and in the event
of the slightest perception of attempts at unfair misappropriation
of justice or coverup in this case, the CNG would be left with no
option that to call out the northern public to a mass protest to
press for justice for these innocent children and others suffering
or likely to suffer similar fates.

SIGNED
Abdul-Azeez Suleiman
CNG Spokesperson