Souley Abdoulaye is a Niger

Niger

Niger , officially named the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east...

ien politician. He served as the Prime Minister of Niger

Heads of government of Niger

-List of Heads of Government of Niger:-Affiliations:-See also:*Niger*List of colonial heads of Niger*Heads of State of Niger*Lists of Incumbents-References:*...

 from 28 September 1994 to 8 February 1995. He later served in the government under President Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara

Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara

Colonel Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara was a military officer in the West African country of Niger who seized power in a January 1996 coup d'état and ruled the country until his assassination during the military coup of April 1999....

 as Minister of Transport from 1996 to 1997 and then as Minister of the Interior, in charge of police and internal security, from 1997 to 1999.

Minister of Trade, Transport, and Tourism

A member of the Democratic and Social Convention-Rahama (CDS), Abdoulaye was named Minister of Trade, Transport, and Tourism on 23 April 1993, part of the government of the Alliance of the Forces of Change (AFC), a coalition of parties that included the CDS, under Prime Minister Mahamadou Issoufou

Mahamadou Issoufou

Mahamadou Issoufou is a Nigerien politician who has been President of Niger since 7 April 2011. Previously he was Prime Minister of Niger from 1993 to 1994 and President of the National Assembly from 1995 to 1996, and he has stood as a candidate in each presidential election since 1993.Issoufou...

. This followed the victory of Mahamane Ousmane

Mahamane Ousmane

Mahamane Ousmane is a Nigerien politician. He was the first democratically elected and fourth President of Niger, serving from 16 April 1993 until his ouster in a military coup d'état on 27 January 1996. He has continued to run for President in each election since his ouster, and he was President...

, the CDS leader, in the second round of the presidential election in March. Abdoulaye was considered close to Ousmane, serving as his campaign manager and as the treasurer of the CDS.

As Minister of Trade, Transport, and Tourism, Abdoulaye participated in negotiations with Nigeria

Nigeria

Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...

n hijackers who had diverted a plane from Nigeria to Niamey

Niamey

-Population:While Niamey's population has grown steadily since independence, the droughts of the early 1970s and 1980s, along with the economic crisis of the early 1980s, have propelled an exodus of rural inhabitants to Niger's largest city...

 in October 1993. Most of the passengers were released following negotiations, and the remainder were freed during a commando raid after Abdoulaye and fellow negotiators engaged in onboard negotiations and were able to assess the plane's interior.

Prime minister

Ousmane appointed Abdoulaye as Prime Minister following the resignation of Issoufou in September 1994 amid charges by Issoufou that Ousmane had taken overly broad presidential powers. Issoufou's party, the Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism

Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism

The Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism is a political party in Niger. It is a broadly left-wing party, part of the Socialist International; since 2011 it has been in power following the election of its long-time leader, Mahamadou Issoufou, as President of Niger. Mohamed Bazoum is Acting...

, also quit the AFC coalition, leaving it without a parliamentary majority. Abdoulaye's government was named on 5 October, but, lacking a parliamentary majority, on 16 October it was defeated in a no-confidence vote, with 46 deputies (out of 82 present) against it, and resigned. Abdoulaye was promptly reappointed as Prime Minister by Ousmane on 17 October, but as a result of the no-confidence vote, Ousmane had to call a new parliamentary election, which was held in January 1995.

Under Maïnassara

Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara

Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara

Colonel Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara was a military officer in the West African country of Niger who seized power in a January 1996 coup d'état and ruled the country until his assassination during the military coup of April 1999....

 seized power in a military coup in January 1996, ousting Ousmane. On August 23, 1996, Abdoulaye was named Minister of Transport in a government headed by Prime Minister Boukary Adji

Boukary Adji

Boukary Adji is a Nigerien politician. He served as Niger's Prime Minister from 30 January 1996 to 21 December 1996.Adji was born in Tanout in Zinder Department. He studied in Poland on a scholarship he received in 1963, then at the University of Abidjan and at the Center for Financial and Banking...

 and appointed by President Maïnassara. In joining the government under Maïnassara, Abdoulaye split from the CDS. After over a year as Minister of Transport, he was moved to the post of Minister of the Interior in the government of Prime Minister Ibrahim Hassane Mayaki

Ibrahim Hassane Mayaki

Ibrahim Hassane Mayaki was Prime Minister of Niger from November 27, 1997, to January 3, 2000.-Fourth Republic:Under President Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara, who seized power in a January 1996 coup, Mayaki was named Deputy Minister for Cooperation, under the Minister of Foreign Affairs, André Salifou,...

 on 1 December 1997.

As Interior Minister, Abdoulaye was the public face of the security forces. He was widely criticized when, on 20 August 1998, he had Bory Seyni, the editor of Le Democrate independent paper, arrested, following the paper's accusation that the Interior Minister had benefited from the sale of government wheat supplies. According to Seyni and observers in the government offices, the journalist was brought handcuffed to Abdoulaye, where the minister beat him severely with a leather crop. According to Seyni, it was only the physical intervention of several Ministry employees which stopped the beating. At the same time, Abdoulaye ordered increasingly severe measures against opposition parties, culminating in the arrest of four senior party leaders in April 1998, including former Prime Minister Hama Amadou

Hama Amadou

Hama Amadou 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 from 1991 to 2001 and President of the MNSD-Nassara from 2001 to 2009...

, following a series of protests in Zinder

Zinder

Zinder is the second largest city in Niger, with a population of 170,574 by 2005 was estimated to be over 200,000...

. He had also previously garnered international attention by accusing the governments of the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 and Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 of plotting with opposition parties.

After Maïnassara

When Maïnassara was assassinated by the army on 9 April 1999, Souley Abdoulaye lost his position in the government and found himself in the political wilderness. All of Maïnassara's ministers, Abdoulaye included, were banned from leaving Niamey, and were to be investigated for crimes under the previous regime. Abdoulaye was briefly arrested in May 1999, but released without charge. A member of the Rally for Democracy and Progress

Rally for Democracy and Progress (Niger)

The Rally for Democracy and Progress is a political party in Niger. It was established as the ruling party during the presidency of Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara.-Under second military regime and Fourth Republic:...

 (RDP-Jama'a), which had been established as the ruling party under Maïnassara, Abdoulaye was arrested again in August 1999 and questioned by the government about purported vote vote rigging in the February 1999 local elections in the town of Tahoua

Tahoua

Tahoua is a city in Niger and the administrative center of the Department of Tahoua and the larger Tahoua Region. It has a population of 99,900 . The city is primarily a market town for the surrounding agricultural area, and a meeting place for the Tuareg people from the north and the Fulani people...

. He was again released without charge, but did not return to the National Assembly in the 1999 or 2004 elections.