BAMAKO: Mali’s first post-war prime minister began yesterday the task of forming a government expected to deliver on promises by the president to reunite a deeply divided nation and crack down on corruption.
Career technocrat Oumar Tatam Ly, made head of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita’s government on Thursday, took over from interim premier Diango Cissoko at a ceremony in the capital Bamako before turning to the job of picking his team of ministers.
“I am ready to meet the challenges and tasks that have been assigned to me by the president,” he said in a brief statement.
Ly has spent most of the last two decades as a central bank functionary and is expected to rely on advisers with more political know-how while he chooses colleagues in a cabinet charged with returning stability to a country upended by a military coup and Islamist insurgency last year.
He began consultations with potential ministers immediately after being appointed on Thursday, his aides said, although none would reveal who was in consideration for the big portfolios. One member of Ly’s inner circle who has known the new premier for 20 years described him as a “reserved” and “exacting” man who disliked “amateurism”. “I believe that the way the government operates could change. There will be accountability for results for all members of the government,” the aide said.
“Good governance will be the basis of every action of the new prime minister.”
Ly’s appointment has been met with cautious approval in the mainstream media, with daily newspaper Le Soir describing the 49-year-old as “a choice in line with the wishes of Malians”. The reaction on social networks was mixed, with some taking to Twitter to express doubts over the appointment of “an apolitical prime minister in a very political period”, as one critic wrote, while others were more generous.
“The nomination of this man who has had a career first will be a model for the youth of Mali and bodes well for a well-governed Mali...” World Bank economist and Malian politician Madani Tall tweeted. AFP
