Burkina Faso: President Damiba wears the coat of COST boss

Head of State Paul Henri Damiba issued a decree in which he named the members of the Transition Orientation and Monitoring Committee (COST). He is the chair of this committee. 

There are 40 of them, and they are made up of personalities from civil society, religious and customary authorities and the military. They are the ones who will monitor the Transition.

President Damiba is the boss of this orientation and follow-up committee of the Transition. Lieutenant-Colonel Daba Naon and Jean Baptiste Ilboudo hold the positions of first and second vice-president respectively.

Among the members of the committee are some well-known faces. There is Nestorine Sangaré, who was former Minister for the Promotion of Women and Gender from 2011 to 2014, in the last government of Luc Adolphe Tiao under former President Blaise Compaoré.

She is now the president of CRIGED, the Center for Research and Intervention in Gender and Development. She is also the coordinator of the Burkina 2050 Consortium.

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An organization which seeks at all costs to obtain the « pure and simple » cancellation of the management agreement for the Burkina-Côte d’Ivoire railway with the French multinational, Bolloré.

After her, Lookmane Sawadogo. Secretary general of the appeal of Manega, this journalist is also known on the question of national reconciliation which he makes his hobbyhorse.

Last July, the Manega Appeals Committee was delighted that the transitional authorities were working « to preserve a climate of cohesion » by summoning the former Burkinabè heads of state around a single table.

The best known of all is Mélégué Traoré. Former President of the National Assembly of Burkina Faso from 1997 to 2002, this 71-year-old man is a career diplomat and for five years was Minister in charge of Secondary and Higher Education and Scientific Research.

Mélégué Traoré is the president of the Pan-African Parliamentary Center (CPPA). He has several times given his opinion on this story of cooperation between Burkina Faso and the Russian Federation, in the context of the fight against terrorism.

It should be noted that it was in June 2022 that the members of the Transitional Legislative Assembly (ALT) met in plenary session to adopt the draft organic law on the powers, composition, organization and functioning of the Guidance and Transition Monitoring Council (COST).

Pascal Zaïda had even expressed reservations as to the merits of the committee in question. “I believe that we will have to go to the essentials. This law, it will not be able to advance Burkina Faso. It is rather a law to reward friends, buddies or comrades,” he said.

« The COST is a set of civil and military personalities who are placed around the Head of State in order to be able to allow the Head of State to have informed opinions in order to take decisions with regard to either the orientation or the the follow-up of the orientation taking into account the situation and the problems which are posed at a given moment.

It is an important body alongside the ALT and the government”, explained the Minister of Justice Me Barthélémy Kéré.
Yaovi AGBEGNIGAN